Trojan Boat Forum

Hey guys looking to see some ideas of gauge and dash redos. The black plastic dash is pretty faded and all gauges are original. Steering indicator doesnt work and just looks out dated. Looking to redo this fall. Post some pics of yours for if you dont mind. Since I am new to the board added a few pics.

Thanks!

Welcome to the forum form another Hampton roads Trojan owner . Photos of my gauges won't help as I have a F boat

I did this over the winter including all new wiring. It's not for the faint of heart unless you just want to do a cosmetic refresh of what is there. I started from scratch, reconfigured the gauge and switch locations, all new wiring, all new gauges, added terminal blocks under the helm and also affixed to the helm panel itself. I switched to all red LED backlighting, added a dimmer for those lights and a separate dimmer for the indicator lights (which are way too bright otherwise). I reworked the back lighting for the switch labels and had those remade. Finally, I added a couple of red LEDS tied into the backlight switch which shine straight down. These light up area around the helm and are only there to look cool. I can post a pic of the final product, here is a partial pic for now.

The finish was primer, texture and then black bumper spray.

Here's a scary mid project pic:

Placeholder for finished helm, I'll update

Nice looking sedan!

Here is a shot of the whole thing. One add'l thing I did was replace all of the spade connections with ring terminals. I was swapping all of the switches anyway so that was an easy upgrade and makes for much more reliable connections. Part of the problem is the number of accessories running off of the ignition switches which are constantly being pulled downward. By adding separate terminal blocks specifically for switched power, I also solved this issue. The panel weighs a lot less now as a result of the wiring cleanup and makes for much less stress when I have it propped open for service.

And the icing in the cake was using small machine bolts/epoxied nuts for the panel fasteners instead of screws (which never hold up). Finally, I picked up an extra helm base and spend a lot of time making it precisely "fit" the panel nice and flush. This is why most of the helm panels are cracked in the outer corners near the screw holes. Those corners can't bear the weight directly.

All of the structral repairs were done with G-flex which is a much better choice than regular expoxy on this type of plastic. This was originally a 10m express panel which had only one hole for a single fuel tank, now my rudder indicator.

Wow, that looks great!

The only thing I can see wrong is that you have the boat upside down...

nicely done !!!!!!!!!!!

your boat looks GREAT !

RWS

wow, that's weird. The orientation is correct when I view it on my Ipad but upside down as I'm viewing it here on my laptop. Let me see if I can fix that. Also, the cupholder with the Corona is a chiller. It's one of the best upgrades I have made so far. Made by Dometic "Eskimo Cup" and around $160 it keeps drinks a lot colder than just a regular cupholder.

BobCT wrote:wow, that's weird. The orientation is correct when I view it on my Ipad but upside down as I'm viewing it here on my laptop. Let me see if I can fix that. Also, the cupholder with the Corona is a chiller. It's one of the best upgrades I have made so far. Made by Dometic "Eskimo Cup" and around $160 it keeps drinks a lot colder than just a regular cupholder.

Are you a leftie? [I mean left handed - not politically...] I have seen pictures show upside down on non-apple devices iPads / iPhones if you take a picture on the iPad / iPhone holding it in the orientation with the 'home' button to the left...