yellowlab,
We ditched the cover because it was ugly. To be honest, I'm really not sure why it's there to begin with. It definitely didn't shield any sort of weather from the panel.
The switches and gauges used were waterproof, but not the fuse holders. This boat had the canvas up most of the time so the helm rarely got wet. It surely wasn't any worse than the factory panel. I did the very same setup on my old 204 center console and that panel held up great.
Now that I know a little more, my next panels will use sealed breakers instead of those fuse holders.
1985,
Then panel was made from a flat black Rowmark UV-stable engraving stock. I made all the cuts and had a local trophy/sign shop engrave the switch functions.
The only thing I salvaged from the original panel was the portion of the wiring harness that plugged into the boat's harness....I think. I know that is how I did my 204. It's been more than a few years though. I think the Tournament was done around 2002/2003.
Since I completely changed the orientation of the gauges and switches on both panels, I did custom wiring for everything using Ancor tinned wired, Ancor tinned terminal and Ancor adhesive lined heat shrink. I used to have pics of the back of one of the panels, but I don't know what I did with them. I kept everything nice and neat. No excess wire, everthing zip tied together so it wouldn't flop around.
If you look closely at the pictures, you'll see that there are two sets of gauges in the 190 panel. The black ones went in first. Those were Faria gauges I sourced off Ebay. I chose them because they were cheap.
The chrome/white gauges were installed not too long after when the boat was repowered from a 150 Evinrude to a 140 Suzuki. They are factory Suzuki gauges. I never did bother to look to see if the dealer butchered my nice wiring.