Mid cabin vs express dash panel

[BobCT]

I was going to update my other thread but thought it would be good as a separate post. I got Natchamps old dash panel from his Express last year. The only difference (I hope) is that the Express panel has the single gas gauge in the center vs two side by side for the mid cabin.

I actually like that setup, I'm installing my rudder indicator in the Express "fuel spot" and added two holes/mid panel for my gas gauges. The other big hole in the center is my Sychnronizer which is where you can see the yellow repair area. I basically have to turn a rectangular cutout into a circle. Now that I'm about 4 hours into this conversion, I'm stumped as to how they managed to fit TWO gas gauges in the mid cabin version without anything else appearing to move. I have an 8x10 printout which I marked up with all of the changes.

I don't really need to reverse engineer it but just wanted to make sure the overall dimensions weren't changed. I'll head to my boat later but wondering else has done the same. For the repair, I'm using G-Flex (west systems) which apparently has great adhesion to plastic including ABS. Really impressed, this stuff is incredibly strong from what I can tell so far. It even sticks to the plastic mixing cup where west systems expoxy just pops off.

Bob

[RWS]

FWIW here's a link to an ancient thread:

http://www.trojanboats.net/wforum/viewt ... t=rws+dash

I took some 3/16 or 1/4 clear plexiglass (hurricane shutter material) bolted it to the dash and painted the whole thing with black textured paint.

Still looks great now in 2016, ten years after I first did it - except today I would have gone to LED indicator lights for the dash AND the bilge indicator lamps as well.

RWS

[BobCT]

Here's an in progress pic. Repair is done and finish completed. I used all SEM products, Adhesion promoter, Flex primer, Texture and then Color Coat. You can't tell where the repair was so don't be afraid to completely update/repair these old dash panels.

Bob

[RWS]

Damn it Bob......... that looks awesome!

RWS

[WayWeGo]

Very nice job!!!

[yorklyn]

Very nice work Bob! It looks awesome!