I've been taking my time but now I'm finally finished (still have to tie off wires). When I got my boat from the dealer (2003...bought last month), it had the original wood grain panels that had discolored from the sunlight and lack of care. The front panel had the hole for the wire cover enlarged so it didn't fit in securely and I also installed a comfortroll and wired the power line out of sight so I had to fill that hole. I made a new panel out of lexan and covered it with a carbon fiber vinyl. Since I had the stuff and the main dash cluster had cracked near the screws and discolored, I made a new dash panel and covered it with the same carbon fiber wrap. I also covered the accessory panels to complete the look. The most labor intensive was the main dash cluster. As usual, once the screws are removed and installed a couple times in a hurry, the backing becomes enlarged and the screws no longer secure tightly. Then bigger screws are added and so on and so forth. For that one I used aluminum angle bar and pop rivited pieces as backing for each screw, thus dissipating the load from the mounting screws over a much larger surface. For a connection between the screws and the aluminum, I used those clips that are used on vehicles that slide over a larger hole and provide for a metal threaded connection...they don't usually ever strip out and put the load of the screw over the face of the clips (used on dash boards, front air dams, etc...). I ended up using stainless hex screws that I counter-sunk into the lexan and will color the heads black when I sit in it next, however the panel is extremely secured in place. Now all I have to do is fish in the boat...there's nothing else to fix or upgrade. Well, except for the engine cowling that needs to be repainted after glassing in a hole.
Here's some pics....
Dash - side
Dash - front
Front panel
Modified by big_b16 at 10:47 PM 2/26/2009
Modified by big_b16 at 10:48 PM 2/26/2009
Modified by big_b16 at 10:49 PM 2/26/2009
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