CaptainH
New Member
When I bought the boat it came with an instrament/switch panel put in by the previous owner. It was a plywood box covered in vinyl just sitting on top of a crude hole where the origional panel was. The wiring was a ball of spaggetti, piece-mealed together with everything from household wire to std. speaker wire with nothing but bare ends twisted together. The switch panel he put in was for a twin engine setup(?) and was redundant to the origional switches just below. What a mess, had to go!
I took everything out I could. I made a new instrament panel and installed all new gauges. Took the origional switch panel, replaced all switches, fuzes and installed new LED backlight. New fuze/terminal block installed. All wiring was replaced with marine tinned wire and used all heat shrink connections, wires orginized, tied and labeled.
So far only electrical problem I have is mast light is on when "anchor" switch activated but goes off when "navigate" switch is activated so I have a little trouble shooting to do yet. Did not have a schematic to go by but I was able to draw one by tracing out the circuits. Another problem is I made the instrament panel from 1/8" HDPE which expands to much and does not lay flat in full hot sun. I have a new piece of aluminum to replace it with this next winter, hopefully will solve the problem.
I also just installed my new bimini last week. Still have the piece from top to the windshield to finish up. I ended up sewing it myself after getting some fairly pricey estimates from a couple of canvas shops. I used an old Singer sewing machine, Sunbrella Plus fabric off e-bay and other accessories from Sailrite.com, probably had about $300 total invested in materials. This being my first attempt at sewing anything it was a real struggle at times and figuring out all the pieces and how to put them together was enough to make me call upon my assistant Jack Daniels a time or two. The people who do this for a living have a real talent!
Well on to the next project, replacing the fold out rear bench seat.
I took everything out I could. I made a new instrament panel and installed all new gauges. Took the origional switch panel, replaced all switches, fuzes and installed new LED backlight. New fuze/terminal block installed. All wiring was replaced with marine tinned wire and used all heat shrink connections, wires orginized, tied and labeled.
So far only electrical problem I have is mast light is on when "anchor" switch activated but goes off when "navigate" switch is activated so I have a little trouble shooting to do yet. Did not have a schematic to go by but I was able to draw one by tracing out the circuits. Another problem is I made the instrament panel from 1/8" HDPE which expands to much and does not lay flat in full hot sun. I have a new piece of aluminum to replace it with this next winter, hopefully will solve the problem.
I also just installed my new bimini last week. Still have the piece from top to the windshield to finish up. I ended up sewing it myself after getting some fairly pricey estimates from a couple of canvas shops. I used an old Singer sewing machine, Sunbrella Plus fabric off e-bay and other accessories from Sailrite.com, probably had about $300 total invested in materials. This being my first attempt at sewing anything it was a real struggle at times and figuring out all the pieces and how to put them together was enough to make me call upon my assistant Jack Daniels a time or two. The people who do this for a living have a real talent!
Well on to the next project, replacing the fold out rear bench seat.
