As I’ve noted, the shell and liners were not a direct fit and modifications were necessary. One of the things that didn’t fit well were the handholds.

The handholds were bought from Conrads and they look great. I fashioned mounting brackets from standard L-brackets I bought at OBI (German hardware store). Once bent with a vice and hammer, then painted they worked great providing the proper offset to fit in the liner handhold grooves.

Very happy with the way these turned out!

I’ve since painted the mounting screws!

They look perfect folded away and support my weight to adjust the seat

Those that saw me at FSWeekend 2014 will remember that I was very impressed with FlybyCockpit’s new products. In particular, Vitor’s liners were exceptional. Knowing Vitor for many years, he made me a fantastic offer but we both agreed there was no way of knowing if his liners would fit my shell so I waved off.

Still, the bug had bitten me and I was on the hunt for liners. If you’ve patiently followed my build you probably remember I bought my shell from a builder in South Africa. After showing pictures it was very similar to the FDS shell, so I made the assumption that the measurements would be similar so the FDS liners would be ideal.

Armed with the will to buy and the understanding that I was taking a huge leap, not really knowing they would fit, I ordered the liners from Peter Cos at FDS and they were promptly delivered along with my MIP. This would be the beginning of a love/hate relationship with the liners that would last two weeks.

To begin, I quickly determined that my shell was about two inches shorter in height than the FDS shell the liners were made for. I was able to solve this problem by inserting 2 x 4’s under the lower lip of the shell all the way around.

I also determined that the shell was also about three inches shorter front to back. This was a more serious issue and was the result of all the time. It meant that I would need to actually trim the liners which is an irreversible commitment. It also meant that I would need to measure many times before cutting.

Through the course of installing the liners I ended up having to trim them for length, which came out much better than I thought.

I had to modify each of the panels to fit but the end result was much better than I thought. Still some tweaking to do as I put everything back in the shell but I am very happy with the result.

I’ve cut out the openings for the oxy panels, and I bought some DIN dash pockets for automobile dashes as side liner pockets and painted them. I also mounted my OC tiller.

The clipboards are two clipboards I bought from Officemax three years ago for this purpose. I cut them down to size and left them clear so I can put things under the plastic for reference.

I ended up fashioning brackets out of left over aluminum strips I had in order to mount the roof panels. I’ll mount those once I run the speaker wires.

Still working on this, so stay tuned!