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Engine Control Panel

Here is the original panel. Picture taken while standing in front of the wheel

This is the mold of the new panel. It is made of wood, wood filler and paint.

Here is the panel after removal from the mold and with instrument cutouts

Panel with door closed. Leather handle is so that lines will not get caught on it. Having problems with plastic on right side being too thin. I'll have to remake that.

From top left to right then down: Generator switch, alarm buzzer, ignition switch, preheat button, starter button, and engine cutoff T handle.

Finally, from behind the helm the panel looks like this. I can see enough of the needles to know that the engine is running at nominal. The oil pressure looks like a little white tick mark on the picture, but it is really pretty easy to see. If it falls low, it is very easy to see. The biggest problem that I encountered was that I made the mold on a perfectly flat board. In fact the side of the cockpit is not flat. It caused me a great deal of work to try and get the flat panel to fair in with the cockpit. If I had to do it over I would make a mold of the side of the cockpit and add the wood pieces to that to make the mold for the panel.