Picking away at my dash rebuild

[Lt.Mike]

With the holidays behind us I can now go beyond window shopping and day dreaming about what to do with the helms function and cosmetic rough spots.
Now I can actually get started.
Below is an idea of what I'm dealing with.

The helm area of my little Grady is looking worn and dated.

The dash itself is a mix of gauges, Suzuki, Faria, and a volt meter that looks to be off a lawn mower.
...and why did the PO put a 12v outlet in the middle of the panel?

Pulling the gauges out and plugging them back into the correct wires was not as simple as I would have imagined. The Suzuki gauges have about a dozen leads per gauge. Way more than I have ever seen on any gauge panel auto or boat. It didn't help that there were wires hanging for the fuel sender, bilge pump, and more that were apparently abandoned and replaced but not removed. What was left and appeared to be original wiring was overly complicated and just a spaghetti mess.
All the fuse holders were held by rusted hardware. Despite being as gentle as I could be, a lot of the fuse holders and switches fell apart when removed. This needed to be done and it became clear why some switches weren't working as they should.

Now I've been measuring and giving thought to gauge placement, what will look nice and still fit into the space below.
This is something that the marina that mounted the Suzuki didn't seem to be too worried about when they rigged the panel.
Don't fit?
Hey, No Problem!
I've got a grinder! :shock:

You'll see a few tie-wraps bundling wires for each circuit. That was done one at a time as removed from the old panel. This should make it easier to make the transition to the Blue sea fuse panel. Their panel wiring is a bit of wiring headache too but it should work without to much stress. Wait, there only appears to be one lead off so I will probably be eliminating a lot of what is there now. Yep looks like one pos wire, one neg and I'm in business. :wink:

I'm about 45 minutes away from where my boat is being stored so its going to take time to get this done. I have the panel plate home so I will start fabricating the new panel out of starboard. I expect this to take a few weeks to finish with all the running back and forth but I'll post the results when finished.
As I said on another post I wish I could go with white faced gauges as I've seen others use and it does look sherp but the Suzuki gauges are black so it is what it is. I'm sure it'll still be an improvement over what was there.
wish me luck.
Mike.

 

[Parthery]

That lawn mower voltmeter is vintage OMC. You can probably sell it on eBay. As far as voltage is concerned I have it set up as an overlay on my GPS and you may be able to do the same.

I'd look at someone like New Wire Marine that can build you a switch panel, and with a CNC router they can cut the holes for the existing gauges that you want to reuse.

Not sure if Suzuki makes a tach with a trim gauge built in like Yamaha does but if they do you can combine the two and eliminate a gauge.

Finally, the cigarette lighter may come on handy to run a spotlight or charge your phone.

 

[Lt.Mike]

Vintage OMC? Ok then it will go on ebay with the Faria fuel gauge. Not new to electrical work and I'll be doing this one soup to nuts. Never really liked farming work out.
It'll take time but I'm comfortable it'll come out nice. I plan to mount the 12v outlet into the box above the dash high and dry or better yet just inside the cabin. Where it was mounted in the panel the plug would prevent the lexan panel from closing. I'll be replacing the two odd gauges with VDO marine vision black which is almost an exact match to the Suzuki gauge style.

 

[suzukidave]

my 85 tournament has a 12 volt cigar lighter outlet just like that in the the dash. I always assumed it was added later.

is that pro-air switch for a blower? if so, was the boat originally i/o?

 

[Lt.Mike]

No this probably came with a 150 Yamaha OB hanging on the transom. The prior owner installed the 12v outlet and Parthery hit on it when he mentioned charging a cell phone. I'll mount the outlet just inside the cabin door to prevent spray on the phone. I can also charge my phone with the stereo as it is I-pod compatible.

The pro-air is something I put in. Its a bubbler air pump I had it in my Bayliner from some 20 years back. It runs on 12v. I have a rule bilge pump in the bait tank recirculating water through a sprayer bar. I believe thats a Grady installed item. That worked ok with mullet or killies but not if I had peanut bunker in the tank. The bunker will lose scales which would clog the pump and they'd die off. The air bubbler provides air through an air stone and doesn't clog. I also have it rigged to provide air to the starboard fishbox to use as a bait tank for big bunker. Works well.
I'm sure the factory placed the original gauges nicely but when the second owner re-powered the marina squeezed in the Suzuki gauges. That job should have been thought out better so that a grinder wouldn't be needed to carve the well. Doing what I am now, replacing the panel should have been done then.
Incidentally as the throttle control decal was rough and the folks that I had do up a new capacity plate did suck a nice job I sent them photos and they whipped up a new decal for that too.