This is what the panel looked like when I got back to Ramona after a week. Here is the old circuit breaker panel underneath the instrument panel.  These are unreachable by the pilot in flight, and are not labelled correctly, and you cannot pull them out to disable different systems. Here is the hole the old radios were in.
This is the kidney panel which covers the hole in the firewall.  There are a bunch of old screws and brackets from previous installations I needed to remove. This is the hole in the firewall which gives access to the back of the instrument panel. The back of the left of the instrument panel (looking through the kidney panel)
The back of the right of the instrument panel.  You can see the black case of the EDM-800 with the three connectors. The back of the center of the instrument panel. The back of the bottom left of the panel.  This is a good view of the trim wheel and yoke mechanism.
The back of the engine with the alternator and air/oil separator. The old avionics which were taken out. Close up of the old HSI, Audio Panel, Intercom panel, and some trays.
Close up of the old autopilot/turn coordinator, the navcom, nav, com, DME, and transponder. The interior of the plane which I took out and put in this cargo container attached to the hangar. The inside of the cockpit with the interior removed.
Inside the left wall of the cabin.  The black cables are new antennae cables I had just installed.   The armrest was left in to have somewhere comfortable to sit while working inside.  I realized later (too late) that it would get abused and dirty being left in. The inside of the left wall of the cabin.  The gray box is the second spar. Looking into the empenage.  You can see the strobe amp on the left of the plane (right of picture), and the control cables going up  the center.
The new avionics trays. The new trays fit in place.  I was really relieved to find they all fit. One night I was working late, and I looked outside to see this beautiful sunset.  It turned out the next day we had pretty severe thunder and lightning storms.
Ramona is also an air-attack base (for fire-bombers).  Just about every day they were flying all day.  I remarked that it sounded like we were in a war.  They had a big 4 engined DC-4 (the tail you can see in this picture), 2 turbo-prop powered S-2s, and an OV-10 Bronco for the forward air controller. Another shot a couple of minutes later. This is all the old circuit breakers unmounted and labelled according to what I thought they might be.  It turned out that many of them used to be connected to something, but were no longer being used.  What a mess!
Another shot of the old breakers. My first new instrument!  This is a King KI-209A CDI.  The mounting bracket was in the plane before, but I refinished it and it looks brand new now.  I found out later that you can barely see it now that it's installed, but at least I know it looks good. Here it the new breaker panel I just made. 
Another shot of the new breaker panel This is in Mormon Rocks National Park in San Bernardino on the way to my cousin Daniel's place in Phelan, CA. I thought these looked really cool, but didn't want to pull over, so I tried taking them from inside my moving car.  I guess they didn't turn out as bad as they could have...
This is my Grandma Debs.  I went to visit her on my weekend off (from working on the Bonanza). Me and Grandma Debs. Here is the new breaker panel painted flat black, and a cardboard copy I used to fill in while the metal one was being silk-screened.
This was taken at the end of the first day of working on the wiring harness.  I started with the Sandel because it connects to everything else and has the most wires coming out the back. Close up of the back of the Sandel tray. The end of the second day of working on the wiring harness.  I now have the SL-70 transponder and SL-30 NavCom connectors wired in.
The end of the third day working on the wiring harness.  It was basically finished at this point (as far as bench work goes).  Now the GPS, Audio panel, and cables for the autopilot are all connected. I wanted to see if the wiring harness would fit in the plane, and after Jason and I got it in place, he started Zip-tying it all in.  I hadn't realized that I was done, but now it's part of the plane. This is the new avionics faceplate Jason made.  It looks really nice.  Much better than what was there before.  This also shows all the patches I was making to the extra holes in the panel.  I filled them with JB Weld.
Here is the stand-in breaker panel mostly wired in.  The bundle of wires coming out the glove-box hole will be connected to the breakers. On Friday afternoon I drove an hour to Temecula to pick up the newly screen-printed breaker panel.  The stand-in panel is all wired up and hanging down behind the new one. Another shot.
Here is the autopilot tray that Jason made.  It looks very professional.  I just have to wait until about December 2000 for the autopilot. BUMMER! Here is the new breaker panel all wired up. Another shot.
Since I was having all the avionics replaced, I decided to refinish the instrument panel so it would look a little nicer.  This is the in-cockpit spray-booth. Here is the panel in primer Another shot.
A little bit of Almond and clear satin Krylon, and... Voila!  The new panel! I have reinstalled the wood faceplates.
Here you can just barely see the radios installed for the first time on the left. This is from the back seat. Here is the first shot with the newly refinished over-panel light bar installed.
This is the first time I powered on the radio stack.  It works!  It didn't even blow up!  You can see the Com2 is not working.  Later we figured it was just because it hadn't been plugged all the way into the connectors in the back. Close up of the new radio stack. The Christmas Tree.  This is with the panel lights turned on.  It looks pretty nice.
Now the Com2 is working properly.  I am holding the TEST  button on the audio panel to see if all the lights work correctly. More to come...
This page has been accessed times since October 4, 2000.