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Nice Finishing Touches & Details
There are a number of small things that you can do to a Challenger to really improve the look of the aircraft. I picked up some of these ideas from other builders and some I came up with on my own. I feel they really make the plane look professional and classy and less “home-built”. It has often been said that the you see quite a lot in just the little things and I feel that is true. You may think that some of these ideas are very small things, like painting the throttle and choke lever knobs gloss black and red, but check the photo gallery and I think you will agree that, though just a small thing, it makes a difference.
- Paint the Cockpit Interior.
 I like to paint the keel tube, the door frame, the control sticks, and the vertical structural tubes in the cockpit and the structural tubes around the instrument panel as well as the instrument panel itself. I think it looks better than bare aluminum even if the aluminum is sanded and shiny. First remove the ink marks with MEK. Then lightly sand the aluminum and prime it with galvanized metal primer. (it works on aluminum too.) Priming is very important when painting aluminum because, otherwise, your paint will flake off after a year or two and look very unsightly. Then spray it with a metal paint from the hardware store like Armorcoat or Tremclad. I use a flat finish paint to minimize glare.
- Paint the Knobs and Levers. I painted the throttle knobs a gloss black using Tremclad.
 The choke lever knob is bright glossy red. I think they look a lot neater. The same can be done with the Start switch button and any other electrical switch levers.
- Angle the Foot Pedal Heel Cups The heel cups on the foot pedals come from the factory mounted straight up and down. But this is not the way your feet naturally rest. Your feet point out slightly in a V. So simply un screw the heel cups and reposition them to let your feet point outward in a more natural stance.
- Round Off the Window Corners. When you cut the windshield out of the big sheet of lexan plastic, make the corners (both inside and outside corners) rounded. The factory pattern on the lexan will show sharp corners. Round corners look a lot nicer than sharp pointy corners. I just used a plastic pail as a template, so the radius of the corners should be about 6″ if you want to be fancy. Also round off the corners of the bottom of the doors for safety. Otherwise that pointy corner is gonna poke an eye out when you have the door held open! Keep the protective wrap on the lexan as long as possible so it does not get scratched. Put the black plastic door edging around your windshield and doors for appearance, to prevent chafing the paint, and to protect humans from the sharp edges. You can buy this from an Lake Aviation – go to the Accessories Page.
- Door Bungie Pulls The bungie cords that hold the doors closed will have a tendency to pinch your
 fingers. So take some 1/4″ nylon rope and loop it around the bungie so as to make a pull handle that will make locking the door bungies a lot easier and more pleasant. A picture of this can be seen on the Modifications page in the Locking Doors mod section.
The above little touches cost very little but go a long way to improve the appearance of a Challenger. For more comprehensive, expensive and time consuming ideas to improve a Challenger, go to the Modifications page.
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