Window-less and Like "Putting on Women's Jeans"

All the windows are out. Holes are drilled for all of them except the two front windshields and our next day at the hangar when we are both present, the windows will be going back in. The process has been tedious, but not unreasonably difficult. We've had to drill out many of the screws--no biggy--and it's often easier to drill when only one man present. We've also cleaned the old caulking off the aluminum.

We've stripped the aluminum seat frames of old fabric and foam with paint thinner and/or stripper as there was a lot of glue applied. We then primed and painted the frames to prevent corrosion. I got as far as reapplying the foam to the front seat backs and stretching the new skins over them. So far, the seat cushion set from Airtex Interiors have been great.

The vertical and horizontal aluminum strips attached to the windwhield were held tight with screws, nuts and caulking. We had to be careful not to bend the strips as we pulled them away.

The screws were drilled out of this horizontal strip and the screw and bolt would fall into the cockpit. I'm pretty sure I vacuumed them all up.

Note the pink caulk that sealed the windows. We'll go with clear Silicon II as our replacement.

All cleaned up and ready for install.

A front seat back, re-foamed with lots of 3M Spray Glue.

The process was a bit intimidating at first, but turned out well.

No offense ladies, but now I know what it must be like to put on women's jeans--an extremely tight fit.

A great finished product, but I can't pull the fabric around the bottom with the Velcro by myself--it's just too tight.