Patrol Floor Panels

[noema]

I am 100h into the Patrol build and working on the floor panels. This part seems to be fairly straight forward but also full of little details that might matter later. If any of you have some recommendations and things to look out for I would be happy to hear them.

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Some questions that I ran into:

​​​​How should the panels overlap? This determines which panels are easiest to remove. I was thinking if I have the panel under the front stick and under the rear seat on top for easy removability.

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What are the the threads under the rear seat in the fuselage frame for? Seat belt attachment points?

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What is this relieve for?

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I would probably not even have noticed it if it wasn't for the arrow.

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Finally the panels have old tape on the front and old protective foil on the back. Never seen something so hard to remove. I have tried anything from acetone, IPA, WD40, plastic scraper, to angle grinder. Anybody knows something that's working well to clean up the surface?

[Rollie]

Not sure if there is a preference for how they overlap, I think I tried to figure out which ones are most likely to need to be removed and make it the least complicated for that to happen.

Yes, those are for mounting the seat belt, I don't remember having that relief on mine.

The protective film on some of my sheet metal was awful too. The floorboards and the cowl parts. I probably have 20-30 hours in removing it. What finally worked for me was heavy rubber gloves (like dishwashing gloves) a homemade scraper made from thick plexiglass from an old windshield, scotchbrite pads and MEK or lacquer thinner. I tried everything in my shop from acetone, alcohol, kerosene, av gas, paint thinner, lacquer thinner and anything else I thought might work. It was a very messy process. It wouldn't peel off and the little pieces that did come off left all kinds of sticky residue. The solvents didn't loosen it up so much as help break it down while I went at it with the plastic scraper and the scotchbrite pad, I would end up with a mess of really sticky goo that I would scrape off and then have to scrape it off the scraper. Definitely my least favorite part of the entire build. I went through gallons of lacquer thinner. And lots of scotchbrite pads and lots of paper towels. I guess the bright side is that whatever that crap was, it wasn't on the wings. The film on the wings peeled off nicely. Good luck

[Nev]

Might be quicker to make another one ?

[noema]

Heat is a good tip. The foil releases enough to get it off without too much ripping. Then I found IPA with a plastic scraper removes 90% of the residual glue. The remaining glue can be rubbed off with IPA and paper towels.

Good, this is probably faster than making another set of panels

[Rollie]

Oh yeah, I forgot, I tried heat too. Didn't help.

[jaredyates]

I suppose the specifics may vary depending on the product used, but I had good luck with spray can carb cleaner removing the residue.

[Bcone1381]

I want these things to be a cinch to remove so I split three of them (1,2,&3) on a shear and fabricated a seam with nut plates to join them together. My fuel selector knob (Anderson Brass Fuel selector Valve) gets removed to take out #2.

[dutchmaster36]

You might try 3M General Adhesive Remover available from Amazon.

[dutchmaster36]

And in case you don’t have thick plexiglass from an old windshield, ;-} I’d recommend the set of 4 Pittsburg non-marring scrapers from Harbor Freight - $12.99. The front of our motorhome was “protected” by a vinyl DuraShield that didn’t work. Used the 3M and scrapers to get it off after several other attempts failed. You’ll want to “dress” the edges using 150, 220, 320 sandpaper off and on to keep the edges sharp and smooth.

[spinningwrench]

I actually only retained the metal floor underneath the passenger seat and in the luggage compartment. When I test flew the Patrol the one thing I did not like was the oil canning of the floor when weight is put on it so I installed 1/4" Baltic Birch floors with no overlap which worked great and allows simple removal. Not sure what the slight cutout you have is for on the right, I didn't have that. Weight penalty was about 1.5 lbs.

[noema]

I was wondering about that too. Initially I wanted to do carbon floor panels but right now I am more in the get it flying quickly mood and do improvements later. I also think a lot about the feel if the aluminum floor can be changed by selectively placing rubber/pu seals in areas where it might drum.

[davzLSA]

Nice job on the floor boards. MEK is the way to go removing anything I think. Also if you are thinking about ever hauling anything in your plane you may want to consider some cargo tie down points in the rear seat and baggage area. I welded some 3/8 tubes in the corners and threaded them for such a contingency.Good Luck on your build.