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Once upon a time I took a weekend
course in upholstery from Alexander's. They used a thin plastic material as
backing- "Royalite" sticks in my mind. That's made by Spartech and comes in
aviation grade fire- rated (perhaps overkill in a plastic plane). The interior
panels used for my Navion were extruded plastic- an array of box sections-
strong, stiff and very light, about the thickness of cardboard for boxes. They
were used by a shop with FAA certification- the invoice just mentions "poly
board" and the cost was very reasonable- $30 for all the side
panels.
If you're gluing material directly to
the backing sheet any underlying flaws or texture will telegraph through,
especially with vinyl or leather. For that reason I'd suggest buying material
from an upholstery shop instead of making your own. OTOH you could put duct
tape on the console and layup a few BID to make a shell that you could then
upholster and reinstall. Maybe make it a bit oversize to allow for the
material wrapped around the edges. If necessary a thin layer of foam
rubber would mask any bumps. I'd say 2 or 3 BID might be enough to hold the
shape- the strength would come from the underlying structure and you could add
more layers if it initially was too weak. -Bill Wade
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, April 14, 2009 9:26
PM
Subject: [LML] Re: Upholstery Backing
Plates
Im not sure if you care to do this but the company that
upholstered my lancair used layered cardboard for areas that needed a backing.
Its pretty stiff once they glue a couple layers together. Then they wrap the
foam and leather over these parts.
On Tue, Apr 14, 2009 at 6:06 PM, <rwolf99@aol.com> wrote:
Guys -
There are some places in my airplane where I
want to take a sheet of fiberglass BID, have that upholstered, and
mechanically fasten that upholstered sheet to the airplane. This would
be in lieu of just gluing the leather to the interior.
How many BID
do I need to make a piece that is strong enough? 3-BID, 4-BID, or even
6-BID???
The places that come to mind are the sides of the console
(between the seats) and the top of the console. So some of the pieces
are tiny (postcard or business envelope sized) and some are medium sized (12
x 24 inches).
- Rob Wo
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