The International Cessna 170 Association

Hi Guys/Gals, I just purchased my first 170B. Now I'd like to spiff it up. I'm not a fan of a fabric headliner for a camping rig. I'm looking for ideas to make the roof look clean yet avoid fabric. It would be great to hear from any of you with ideas for the baggage area too! I want the interior to look sharp, but weight is my foe with my 0300.

Thank you in advance for ideas!
Terri

There are quite a few 170s around without headliners that have glued up closed cell foam in sections.

I plan to go a step further and laminate a layer of felt to the foam before installing.

Thanks David. I appreciate the response. I think the closed foam sections would look great. Maybe someone that has already done that will respond with their experiences.

Terri

I did it in my last 170. The worst part is what you find when you pull your old headliner down.
It was a few weeks of scrubbing before I could prime and paint.
The closed cell foam is 1/4" thick. Aircraft Spruce sells it and will provide burn certs as well.

First 170B?

bagarre wrote:I plan to go a step further and laminate a layer of felt to the foam before installing.

I'm sure you've seen the thread, but there is a guy on BCP that did that to his 180. I saved the pictures. It looked outstanding!

I did the same thing as David. 1/4" foam but mine had foil backing. I got the foam from Airtex. If you took your time and made nice clean cuts for each section, I think it could look pretty good. I am covering mine with a headliner though.

Looks nice. It can be a problem inspecting for corrosion however. And it can be heavy as that stuff adds up.
Mine has some soundproofing, foil-backed foam installed and I don't think it does anything for noise. (The best thing for noise is good door-seals and noise-cancelling headsets.)

With a properly cleaned, primed and painted surface, corrosion shouldn't be an issue for the next 100 or so years.

I wish I could say the same for the last 30 years or whenever it was the previous owner sprayed glue on the bare aluminum to hold up the fiberglass insulation. If it wasn't for that glue, I wouldn't have needed to replace the roof and boot cowl.

I am trimming the foam back from the rivet lines to be able to inspect there.

The foam and felt is quite light. I havent put anything on a scale but the material still in the shipping box seems to weigh less than the vinyl headliner I pulled out. An original wool liner is still the lightest solution but the foam comes in at about 5 pounds.

I dont expect the foam to do anything other than look nice and I don't expect to notice a difference thru my noise canceling headset.

Thank you for the continued comments. I truly appreciate it! I like the idea of painting prior to adding the insulation. I think it is a good look.