The International Cessna 170 Association

Those are the clips. Thanks. I'll order some.

The forward plates were just under the carpet as you can lay the carpet back after taking the heel plates up. the rear plates in my plane have their own carpet glued to them with a coresponding hole cut in the main carpet that they fit into. Seems like it would be a pain to remove the whole carpet each annual but maybe not.

Aryana wrote:Ah, I get it now. The carpet lays on top of all the inspection plates in my setup. You do have to take the carpet out in order to get access to all of them.

So the original Cessna carpet was cut to fit around each inspection hole with a corresponding cover which was carpeted?

I believe Bill's airplane was modified "in the field" in that regard.

This shows 2 round and 1 rectangular inspection plate with it's own fitted carpet. I had always assumed they were original. Perhaps not as dad purchased the plane in 1956 when it was less than a year old. It was white with green trim but people swear white was not available in 1955.

closeup. the main carpet is cut out so that the plate drops down into a recess in the carpet. the round carpet is glued to the plate.

The rectangular plate in front of the rear seat right in the middle.

there is a rectangular plate that surrounds the flap handle as well.

The control column has a metal cover plate where it comes up from the tunnel. It is not carpeted like yours.

A shot of my heel plates. Of note, the carpet only goes forward from the back edge of the heel plate about an inch. The heel plate holds the carpet down in front along with some very small screws with tapered washers. the front carpet covers a number of round inspection plates rather than being cut out like the ones in the rear.

Closeup showing the tiny screws where the carpet is missing.

A shot of the cover for the motion picture camera port which was installed in 1963. Maybe all the carpet was replaced then. I was only 12 and probably not paying very close attention. Carpet is glued to this fairly large cover. That hole comes in really handy during the annual inspection.

Last clue. this photo shows matching gray carpet on the "legs" of the rear seat. Is that stock? If not it might support the theory that this is not stock carpet at all.

Well, ok just one more photo showing the construction of the carpet where the pile is separating from the backing. Notice how thin it is.

Here are the carpet samples I have collected.

The smaller squares are Airtex. It is fairly thick cut pile nylon carpet.

The larger rectangular piece on the left is from Douglas Interior Products. I like it the best as it is relatively thin and not cut pile. It fells tough. However it doesn't come pre-cut.

The 2 rounds and 1 square in the middle are form SCS Interiors. The 2 rounds are nylon cut pile The colors could be better. The one they call Gray is kind of greenish. The square piece is loop pile Wool. Looks good but is fairly thick.

Douglas is a good aviation materials supplier.,..and if you like their product, Airtex will cut it to their patterns and serge it for you. (Model T club owners can also provide original horsehair and wool type carpet materials which is what Cessna used.)

OK, I give up. While I would love to have my interior redone in materials that match the original, Vinyl yes, anything else, no go. Apparently rust is not in fashion anymore. I even visited wholesale upholstery supplier KeystoneBros in San Francisco yesterday. As close as they could come from a color perspective was kind of orange. Texture wise they could match one of AirTex fabrics in biscuit which is kind of close. Guess I will pick something that doesn't clash with the gold tone metal trim and go with it.

If anyone has discovered a stash of these fabrics without moth holes in it, let me know.