Are your 40+ year old Beechcraft curtains
falling apart? Gee, big surprise!
If you like the nostalgia of those curtains,
here's a contribution documented by A33 Bonanza owner Stan S. on how he replaced
his aging curtains with new seat material from
Airtex.
Stan's Replacement Curtains
"This is for those who have curtains in their airplanes. Our
curtains were so old they were falling apart. I couldn't find any suitable
fabric in any fabric shops, and there is the flammability issue. I asked the
Airtex people at Oshkosh if they had curtain fabric, they don't. But they do
sell fabric for seats. Turns out one of their seat fabrics looked just like our
existing curtain material, and after Oshkosh I arranged for them to send me a
sample.
My wife's 83 year old aunt from Decatur, Illinois was visiting
when the sample came in and she offered to sew up new curtains, thought it would
be suitable, although a little stiff. I had Airtex send her two yards (their
yards are 54 inches wide) of material and she made new curtains from the old
ones as samples, and they fit perfectly and, although a little stiff, do give
the pleated appearance when pushed to the sides of the windows and look just
like our old curtains.
Two yards was marginally enough, there was almost no fabric
left, suggest 2 1/2 yards of the 54 inch wide material if you are going to make
new curtains.
www.airtexinteriors.com
click on "Samples" to see their fabric.
Or download their pdf Fabric Selection
Catalog
HERE
We used Duraweave Premium DW-18
Vanilla, something like $29.00 a yard. The Airtex staff told me FAA in some
weird logic will not permit Airtex to provide a flammability certificate fabric
only sales, but will for a seat set. But it is the same fabric they use in their
certified flame proof products."
Way to go Stan! Thanks for the contribution.
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