Another painting job is the Aerosport interior panels.  Now that they are complete and I won’t need to take them in and out a bunch, I wanted to finish them up to put them in storage until I’m ready to fly.  With some good information from SEM, I set about prepping them which was very easy and much simpler than prepping aluminum or carbon.  I used Dawn and gave them a good soapy scrub first, allowing them to dry one full day.  I then used SEM Sand Free to do a final lint free cleaning before spraying on the Plastic Adhesion Promoter.  The first light coat of Color Coat is sprayed on while the promoter is still wet, which helps the color melt into the plastic.  Then, it’s just a matter of a few more even coats of Color Coat to finish the color.  The paint does a great job on plastics and the panels turned out really nice.  I did not use clear on these, as I just didn’t see the need to.  If they scratch, they’ll easily be filled or sanded and then touched up.

I painted two front panels, two rear seat panels, baggage area panels, screw button covers, door handle plates, and handle covers.  I also painted and cleared the two metal panels below the doors and installed the foot well lights that I previously fitted nutplates for and cut out the mounting holes.

Since the headset jacks won’t fit on the center console, I ordered some recessed mounts from ACS for the rear metal side panels.  I saw another build with these and really like the look and functionality.  The only downside is I had to cut and bend the mounting side since it didn’t allow the Bose plugs to go in.  The jack mounting surface is perpendicular to the flush mount surface instead of the angled wall so if you have long headset plugs, these won’t work out of the box.  I used flox to fill in the corners and added a bit of poly fill to smooth them out, even though they won’t be seen.  I touched up these two panels as well and then cleared them along with the other metal panels.

I let the paint cure with the heat on in the shop overnight and then set to work installing the webbed pockets up front.  I wound up using blind rivets instead of screws and nuts which should hold just fine for the checklists and little trinkets that will wind up in them.  I also put the cup holders in place, finishing up the front side panels.  Part of my upholstery order will be leather covered inserts for the front and rear panels to dress them up a bit more.

I’ve had the baggage door panel sitting collecting dust, so I brought that down and fitted it for install.  The plans have you velcro it to the door or something, I don’t know since I didn’t really read the instructions.  I decided to blind rivet it, so drilled the holes and clecoed it in place while positioning the strut that will keep it open.  I didn’t get it cleaned and prepped in time to spray, so I’ll have to paint it down the road.  I’m also waiting on Parish’s order of matching lock cams to his fuel caps, as I may swap out my door locks for a single key matching my fuel caps as well.  If so, I’ll need access to the baggage door cam lock.