Panel Re-Surface

So you might have noticed that I have been pretty quiet about my panel over the last few months.   Well, turns out the clear coat ended up getting all fogged up and basically made it look horrible.   So I have been postponing the inevitable and finally found the right time to go back and fix the issue.  Doing some research I figured out that I ended up with "dry spray".   Meaning the clear-coat dried before it hit the surface and left a sandy rough foggy texture.   I am going to blame it on cheap clear-coat because I changed my product and now it looks great.   I hate backtracking like this but in this case it was unavoidable.  At this point my newly painted panel is looking good, so if it maintains its good looks, I will be bragging about it for the foreseeable future.   ;-)

 

It took about 1.5 hours to remove all the switches and avionics to get to the point where I could pull the panel.  The toughest part was the cabin heat and parking break because for these items to be removed you have to remove the entire cable all the way up to the firewall.  Anyway, got it done and took the panel home and got to work.  Sanded it for an hour or so, then used some high build primer and some flat black paint.   Different color, but goes much better with my interior, which is another reason why I wanted to make this change.

So at this point I am pretty excited about how the labels came out for the second time, and am looking forward to getting this back in the plane for good !

Oh, and after the pain of working and reworking the panel, I will make sure that everyone knows..  NEVER TOUCH THE PANEL..  I really don’t want this thing scratched or finger printed up etc.. 

Below is a link to the old panel posts.   Can you tell the differences..
  "Old Panel"