Helm control panel upgrade

Punisher6

New Member
Oct 29, 2015
3
Englewood, FL
Boat Info
300 Weekender
Engines
Twin 5.7 Mercruisers
Loose toggle switches and a short in the horns has spurred an upgrade to the electronics system in my 1993 Sea Ray 300 Weekender. All new switches and inset panels are well underway. I surfed a bit before I started but didn't find many good references so I registered to share.

i started with measurements of all of the available panel space. Be sure to measure the back side (openings in the helm fiberglass as well). In my case the panels were about an 1.5" larger than the cutouts. This extra area is for the fasteners. I decided to enlarge all of the panels to make room for larger screws. The existing screws were #4 fine thread which worked loose several times as evidenced by PO repairs.

I used AutoCAD (any drafting program will work) to transfer the panel measurements. Another trip to the helm to measure the gauges front and back. Unfortunately a gauge upgrade is not in the budget this time and all work anyway. I then selected the new switches and fuses and drew them as well. Amazon and ebay have these components far cheaper than local stores. Within the CAD programs you can set layer properties which becomes important later. All line work except the center marks for holes should be on a non printable layer (defpoints).

It helped a lot to take pictures of the dash area to reference while designing the new panels. Take a good inventory of existing components and think about what else you want to add in the future. Next step is to design the new panel.
 
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