My panel is in need of sprucing up – currently it has something akin to black textured stickyback plastic over wood. It’s 1960s era and held up quite well but needs refreshing.
Any ideas about good durable materials I could use? At present I’m considering… Stickyback plastic, leatherette or possibly veneer. The panel is flat with a removable black-painted aluminium panel.
How about stripping, straightening & sanding it, then reinforce the mounting holes (they look a bit worn) and then powder coating it with an abrasion resistance coating?
Or a question for others – other than the legality of it, could one just get a new one made? Are there any services on the internet to which you simply send the specs and they make a new one for you? In which case I would go for black anodized.
Are you going to replace everything, or just the aluminum panel?
In any case, I would replace aluminium with aluminum and wood with wood. That is definitely the easiest and will look good. I wouldn’t have plastic on the wood though, or anywhere. Paint is better IMO. The wood can also be treated with transparent lacquer. The PU transparent lacquer used on boats would last for centuries on a panel. Easy to apply with brush, and can be polished. The aluminium you can paint black or gray or whatever.
You wouldn’t update your panel to more modern display while at it?
LeSving wrote:
You wouldn’t update your panel to more modern display while at it?
NOOOOO it’s a classic! I would rip out the awful modern altimeter and replace it with something that looks more like the ASI and VSI.
Next you will suggest to arrange the instruments in a more standard location? Blasphemy!
Cobalt wrote:
NOOOOO it’s a classic!
He he 
I was going to replace aluminium with aluminium and cover the wood with something. I’ve veneered stuff in walnut in the past but worry it might end up looking ‘posh’ and out of character.
The wooden panel is structural. The only instrument changes I’d been considering were a tacho with a more appropriate range and an aircraft clock to fill the hole in the panel.
Have also pondered a trig transponder and radio. There is no electrical system but sooner or later I fear that will have to change.
I’d build a new panel, leaving an extra 2-1/4 inch instrument hole (with a cover plate) in reserve for future installation of a Becker comm. Maybe paint it wrinkle black. I’d replace some of the instruments but keep the cool mag switch and Smiths chronometric revcounter.
My suggestion would remake the centre panel in ally which I’m guessing is mounted on anti-vibration mounts, put T&S bottom left, ALT top right, VSI bottom right and leave ASI where it is – this more or less follows the conventional ‘magic 6’. The centre hole I would see if could fit a remote 8.33 radio (Trig). For the rest of the panel either side of the centre remove all the instruments, carefully clean with MEK, mask up and respray with a ‘shake a can’. Personally, I like a light grey panel with the black instrument surrounds and black attachment screw. I believe your aircraft is possibly LAA certified, so should not pose any problems with making and modifying.
Your registration is but a few letters later than mine so it’ll be 1965 vintage, I guess.
Fully approve your choice to replace the aluminium panel with the same stuff, but tidier, though you might have to be careful box bending the edges. As to the black faux leather panel/bulkhead, whether you recover that or strip, clean and paint/protect might depend on the state of the underlying wood. Lots of old screw holes hidden behind the stuck on leatherette then you’ll want to hide that again, so what about gluing on a couple of pieces of thin aircraft grade plywood. 1mm thick would do just fine and even if you don’t have any I’m sure your local LAA members could probably help out. Alternatively this is not too far away from you.
Very thin aviation grade plywood is what I used for my own dashboard, but it is quite quite expensive. It looks great, to me, with a walnut dye, though a bit out of place in an otherwise minimalist aeroplane, much more modern than what we discuss here. But looking ‘posh’ is the least of my concerns, if only because the looks of my person are sufficiently contrary.
My main concern was and will be reflection: the panel should be dark and non-glossy. Matt anodised alu is great, but not cheap either. To keep things inexpensive yet effective, I’go for cheapo matt paint, ash grey or black, on some kind of not too rough surface, suitably primed.
@Silvaire: what’s wrong with the Trig radio T/S thinks of, that you suggest a Becker rather? If ever a radio gets installed, at all. That type of plane rather takes a handheld (Yaesu?) clipped in some lost corner. But if it must be panel mounted, the Trig is the one requiring least of the precious dashboard real estate.
