Hi Ron,
There are a couple of pictures on my site
http://www.europa.net.nz/363/index.html of my instrument panel. Try looking
under 2000, August & December. A few more can be found in Jan & May 2001
and Dec & June 2002. Unfortunately my site works best with Internet
Explorer, sorry about that.
You can see how I made and internal flange with captive nuts on the inside.
This allowed me to bolt the whole thing on with metal threads fixed through
the fire wall from the engine compartment.
You can also see the removable sub panels which allow me to pull either the
avionics or instrument stack separately. I have access panels in the fire
wall that I made from the same material as the firewall.
I used some 20 mm nylon spacers to move the panel assembly forward. I am
glad I did as most avionics take the full depth available.
The main issue I have with the Europa panel is that it is not deep enough
and there isn't much internal volume available for installing things that
don't need to be on the front of the panel. It also weighs a lot.
If I was to have my life over again.. gee don't we all say that.. I would do
something similar to Bob Jacobson and Cliff did, make a new one that was
deeper, went the full width of the airplane and incorporated the internal
cooling vents. I remember Bob telling me that his new panel even weighed
two pounds less.
In conclusion, although I have done things like add access through the fire
wall and removable sub panels, it still isn't an easy task when I need to do
work inside the panel.
Cheers, Paul.
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