This is the panel layout I finally chose and had laser cut for my F1:
During this process, my friend and fellow pilot John Watler had been working with me doing the "engineering design" on this panel. I was able to get a cad file of the stock original F1 instrument panel from Bob Japundza and sent it to John. He in turn has spec'ed out all the positions and the cut outs for the panel. We've gone through over 20 iterations trying to find the combination I thought would work. Those iterations included adding a little over an inch to the bottom of the panel in order to fit in extra switches on the right hand side under the avionics stack. In the end, I decided to remote mount the key (unless I can fit it in the right hand corner after I mount the panel) and keep the panel the stock length. After John makes changes, he emails me an Adobe PDF file of the new layout and I email back to him. He's done some really nice work, and I think when the panel is laser cut, it should be fabulous to work with. Here's what the PDF file from John looks like in JPEG format:
Click HERE for a PDF file of the actual layout and what the laser will cut. 1