This is something I should have done years ago. It has since come to my attention that some of the canard gurus say that lots of cold gets in from the nose wheel box which is right between my legs. Everywhere else in the cockpit, except the windows and canopy has a good half inch or more insulating foam in the structure. The nose box has a couple of plies of glass and thats it!

Given I have just done the heat shields in the wing roots I had plenty of this hi-tech ceramic insulation left over. The distributor said it was also good for cold insulation, which makes sense.

A long time was spent on how to do this and what material. This Zircoflex II is only .5mm thick with a sticky 3M backing. I did sand off the paint I had previously put on. Nothing is final!

It came out quite neatly.

I wanted thin material because every time I get in the plane there would be the potential of snagging a corner with my feet. I mixed a little micro and  transitioned the edges. Of course peel ply as pictured helps further.

Peel ply off and a light sand and I was ready for the primer undercoat. Being silver foil it took a number of coats with a brush to get a solid covering.

Next was a mammoth job of masking so I could spray the top coats. I didn’t want any textured paint on my nice new white exterior!

It looks gold in the pic but it isn’t. We have texture. A day later, clear semigloss top coat.

After it dried for a couple more days I just used scotchbrite for a matching surface with the rest of the interior. Job done, move on.