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**partyofone** · 10-22-2010, 05:01

Re: What Wood?

My Dad once restored a 46 and added a walnut instrument panel. I have some pics of it I think. It was beautiful. Of course, the blue leather paneled seats didn't hurt either.

Erik

**mulwyk** · 10-22-2010, 06:29

Re: What Wood?

John:
IMHO: don't do it! Restore the old girl to original condition. You won't be sorry.

That said, if you must have a wood panel, weight is important. Look at traditional boatbuilding woods (boats, like little airplanes require strong, light weight, durable materials): cedar, mahogany, spruce. Mahogany would be good if you want a dark finish, and of course spruce is the most often used wood for airplane construction although some folks don't like the light color of spruce.

I used spruce for stringers, baltic birch plywood for the floorboards, and cut up old spars (doug fir?) for my door frames.

Finish? machine and sand your woods, then leave them bare for a few months if you can..they will oxidize and darken. Then give them a couple thin coats of traditional oil based spar varnish...the dark traditional varnish will soak into the wood, preserve it, and give you a beautiful grain pattern. Finally, apply two top coats of epoxy varnish (stits ev400 is excellant). Light sand and tack cloth between coats.

If you want a really striking interior do this: use spruce, varnish all your interior woods to high gloss (again, please, leave out the wood panel), don't install a headliner, and use untinted poly-brush on the fuselage fabric. The untinted polybrush will give you a white fabric interior (no matter what color is on the outside of the fabric) and a beautiful contrast with the varnished spruce.

**Hank Jarrett** · 10-22-2010, 07:03

Re: What Wood?

John,
Before you "Customize" the interior take a look at the original. I have just about finished my Taylorcraft and I think the 41 interior is is about the prettiest one ever done by Taylorcraft. I have all of the patterns from my rebuild and you can copy what I did if the owner likes it. The "wood" parts of my panel are Faux painted metal and MUCH lighter than the real wood panel that was in mine when I bought her.
I realized when I was going through the pictures that I haven't taken one of my panel in place yet so I put in one of the factory version. The other photos are of my cockpit.
I would try and convince him the value would be higher going back to original.
Hank

Attached Files

**Pilot78** · 10-22-2010, 07:18

Re: What Wood?

Hank,
Great job on the interior, what material is on your door panel? I like the look.

Brian
SLC-UT

**Pearson** · 10-22-2010, 09:20

Re: What Wood?

John,

I agree with those who suggest keeping it original. With that said, if you really want the wood look, I would suggest something like Hank did. If you must have real wood, I suggest using a dull oil type finish. I used to do many old car restorations. I can tell you that if you use a high gloss finish, you will be constantly wiping off smudges and finger prints. Also you will end up with minor nicks and dings that detract from the finish as it ages. With a rubbed oil type finish you don't get any glare, and you don't notice the minor, and inevitable, dings and scratches.

**FlyingMissDaisy** · 10-22-2010, 09:44

Re: What Wood?

Presently what I have is a flat 1/4 inch thick section of aluminum that I was told was the stock for the 41. It is about as non descript and heavy as it comes.

Hank I do not remeber the glove compartments or the centralized panel shown. I agree with you than the style shown is much nicer with a wood inset. The owner has chosen a brown mocha colored paint for the tubing and this would be accented by a lighter more orange tone wood to tie in the seats. The extended baggage had a section of OSB that was painted black. I was hoping to have the same wood as the front floor boards extend through and actually though of rear side panels as well. The fabric paint scheme will be a Stewarts white with an Orange edge and stripe. That is why I thought the wood brought it all together.
John

**Hank Jarrett** · 10-22-2010, 10:48

Re: What Wood?

An original 41 panel was what I copied to make mine. I hand tapped the panel, doors and insert from a flat sheet of aluminum. The glove box doors and center instrument cluster were originally Faux painted metal in 41 too. A lot of people have made real wood doors and inserts but the fake wood actually works better and is lighter (plus you can make it any type wood look you want to go with your colors).
The fabric in my cockpit is "Leatherette and Mohair" (just like original) from an antique car restoration upholsterer. We just went to the catalogs for the 41 Studebaker and selected the materials. Funny thing is when it arrived it was regular Naugahyde and upholstery fabric with fire retardant on it. Didn't cost any more than regular boating or antique fabric. My upholsterer still has the patterns and can make up all of the interior upholstery parts if anyone needs them.
The door panel upholstery is copied from an original that was really a mess. It fell apart but lasted long enough to copy. You will notice in one of the pictures the orange fabric at the lower rear area behind the door. I hadn't redone that area yet when the picture was taken. The nasty orange color was what the whole plane was painted in when I started.
Also, the gloss finish on the glove box doors and center panel DOES chip easy and gets finger prints. If I had it to do again I would use a less glossy clear finish over the Faux wood.
For John, you will find you can't run the floorboards back to the baggage compartment. The bungees are in between. Make sure you get that OSB OUT OF THE PLANE! The glues in many OSB products give off toxic gasses when they smolder! You can get pretty much the same strength from 3/16" ply with large holes cut in it for a LOT less weight anyway. How about a ply baggage box with a canvas bag and hat shelf that hangs in it? The weight wouldn't be THAT much more and by pulling the canvas snaps loose and removing the hat shelf you could have the big box available. With the sling and hat shelf in you could put things under it and no one would know they were there. Lets you use your ANR headset going to the fly-in and coming back! Come to think of it, I may just do that to mine!
Hank

**Ray36048** · 10-22-2010, 17:52

Re: What Wood?

Hank,

What goes into the bottom left and right large holes in the instrument cluster?

**Hank Jarrett** · 10-22-2010, 18:09

Re: What Wood?

The base version had ash trays. If you were going for an "IFR" Deluxe you got a ROC and a T&B as well as a compass at the tube apex of the windscreen.
Hank

Get this, a compass was NOT provided in the base model! In the picture the T&B and the compass were out for overhaul.

Attached Files

**Hank Jarrett** · 10-22-2010, 18:13

Re: What Wood?

Sorry, ROC was out and that isn't the ASI, tach or altimeter that are in there now either.
I put extra instruments (junk mostly) in to get everything fitted up. Notice the oil gauges don't fit in the right spots yet and there is no knob on that altimeter!
Hank

**jim cooper** · 10-23-2010, 17:46

Re: What Wood?

What Wood? Recently I looked inside a magnificent waco restoration. It had a beautiful wooden panel, (mahogany) with the instuments all redone and chrome frames around them.(satin finish) It was a knockout. My panel is very neat and done in flat black but Mahogany would be superb. One must remember that the T-craft was a depression child, built inexpensively to train people and so forth. I think its personal preference and if mine had had a professional wooden panel in it I would have really liked it.JC

**Ray36048** · 10-24-2010, 03:57

Re: What Wood?

What about those control wheels??

**Hank Jarrett** · 10-24-2010, 08:21

Re: What Wood?

There were 2 different wheels offered in 41. The Banjo was used on most of the planes but late in production they switched to a welded type like mine. The Banjo wheels were pretty expensive to make and the war pretty much ended any further changes.
I think a few really early 41s may have still had the round wheel and big tach but I don't know which plane was the last in that configuration. Taylor was pretty frugal and I doubt he would change models and not use all of the parts left from the previous production run. My 45 has a pre war fuselage and you can see where the mount for the "flipper" trim system was cut off. That means my 45 has a left over fuselage from about 1939! Must have been stuck WAY back in a corner somewhere.
Hank

**3Dreaming** · 10-24-2010, 08:52

Re: What Wood?

Hank, they offered both the B*-65 and B*12-65 in 1941. Both were being built side by side on the production line. My BL that I restored was built in April where dad's deluxe was built in January. Cheap airplanes for flight training, and nicer ones for the consumer market. Tom

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