This morning I fitted the required hinges to the new seats:
Really astute observers may notice that the hinge arrangement with the Classic Aero Aviator seats is different from the stock Van's seat backs. These seats are actually interchangeable between left and right, where the stock seats will only fit onto the floor hinges one way. Don't worry, I measured multiple times and this really is how it's supposed to go in order to center the seats on the control sticks.
Then I drove out to the other side of the KC metro to go to the Grain Valley (3GV) fly-in. Here's a photo of RV-9A builders John and Martha checking out a possible paint job:
