Hi All
I am about ready to cover my Highlander and wondered whether to cover the inside with fabric or not.
What are the advantages and disadvantages?
John
Wanaka NZ Ki #312
Moderator: scubarider2
JHR wrote:I intend to cover the inside with fabric and then glue light weight wall carpet like the factory do; is the fabric painted before sticking on the covering or just glued and heat shrunk?
John
New Zealand
john2 wrote:Hi John,
I did just the opposite of Ben. I started out with intentions of not covering the inside of mine but then decided to cover the inside of the cargo bay with superflite fabric and then from the rear spar bulkhead forward make foam inserts with fabric covering on them. They really look nice and are removable.
Back to the cargo bay, I originally had intentions of just gluing the interior fabric to the inside of the finished exterior Superflite fabric but then decided that I like the nice appearance the interior covering gives. I really like the way mine turned out and am glad I went to the extra trouble. I have attached a few pictures. The cargo bay picture is my project and the foam inserts are from a plane at the factory but I did mine the exact same way.
You might notice also that I moved my elevator push/pull rod to below the cargo bay. That was something that I had thought about doing and then someone else (sorry don't remember who) posted on the forum that they were doing this so I went ahead and did mine this way. I then got apprehensive about it and had a discussion with Troy. He has no problem with this and likes it that way. The reason for it being in the cargo bay is because of landing gear failures on the Highlander would wipe it out if set up this way but is not a problem on the SS because of extra structure for the gear legs.
As Ben said, worth what you paid for it.
KevinC wrote:I used Kydex to make sure cargo (like a bike handlebar or something) didn't go through fabric.
Dave Krall CFII SEL SES wrote:We used Kydex 1mm for interior for easy cleaning, just spray water and let dry or vacuum. A few Velcro small patches glued onto tubes for each panel to secure. The cargo bay Kydex panels were left natural color and cockpit ones were painted via rattle can, and two were used to make two cup holders in front of each occupant in between the stick mixer rack tube triangles.