Pics of my instrument panel rebuild with carbon fiber

[dma251]

I don't know if anyone is interested or not, but I am just wrapping up a project I started while I waited for my lower unit to be repaired. I guess I lost some time I could have been out on the water - but if you are like me then the project is half of the fun of owning one of these boats.

No disrespect to Wayne Tripp, but his gauge arrangement didn't work real well for me, so I set out to reconfigure the dash to something I was a little more familiar with. The Gaffrig twin pyro had stopped working, and the fuel level gauge on these is kind of a joke. I removed those two gauges, and added a water temp gauge. The pyro function was replaced with the Digatron unit, so I am really only losing the fuel level function- which is pretty easy to lift the hatch and look myself.

The first pic is how it was when I bought it. The rest show the progression over the last month or two.

Second pic is after removal of the stock gauges and fitting matching thickness cabinet-grade plywood that I holesaw cut to fit EXACTLY into the holes. It was glued in place and skim coated with latex sealant to bring it flush. I also sealed over the trim indicator cutout and all three switch holes.

[dma251]

I painted to backs of the wooden plugs to better match the back of the instrument panel, although now that is wired you can barely see them.

The second pic is after fitting the sheet of adhesive-backed .015 carbon fiber I got from Robotworks carbonfiber. This stuff is really REALLY nice quality. I actually bought some other stuff first, but it just wasn't nice enough for this "high-visibility" purpose. I bought more from Robotworks later for the swith panel.
NOTE- the protective plastic is still on the carbon fiber in this pic.

Making the pattern and final cut on this carbon was not easy or cheap. I ended up buying a bandsaw just for this purpose. It came out great, though. I probably have 5 hours into just making the paper and wooden patterns.

[dma251]

In these pics you can see the cardboard "gauge simulators" I made out of an old box and some glossy photo paper to allow me to made ABSOLUTELY sure I put the gauges where I wanted them the first cut. This way I could rearrange them to my liking before getting the holesaws out. The square piece represents the future home of the Digatron unit.


Holes cut!

[dma251]

This was the fun part - I love wiring! I can lay on my back for hours under there making things perfect.

[dma251]

This is pretty much the finished product. I am still waiting on the extensions and probes for the Digatron, but it is permanently mounted now, with a 5"x6" piece of black starboard backing it up from behind.

I decided a little late in the process that I was going to mount my trim indicator exposed under the Digatron bracket. It is shown in the last pic. It seems kind of funky being out there like that, but the cable tucks up nicely under the passenger dash, and I really don't want to tempt fate by cutting on this carbon fiber anymore. It is still virtually perfect without errors or scratches, and making the cut for the indicator looks like a pain. Besides, I really like the placement there. I will probably get a white face for it though.

[Hot Shot Merc]

Thats cool by me.I am like you.While what Wayne had in his dash was great for him,I dont think he will be offended.I too am real picky with my gauge cluster.If it aint exactly the way I want it then I would either not buy the boat or redo it like you.I have seen some hidious arangements in the past.I also like the gauges to be placed where I can see them the best.Not everyone thinks these things through when laying out the dash.Waynes original layout looked very nice by the way.

[Fish]

very nice dma251, i have been thinking about doing the same thing to my euro. BTW, what is that instrument on the floor between the seats?

[dma251]

The last shots are of the new switch panel I made to house the ignition and fuel pump switchs, lights, and room for a couple accessories. (there is a black flip up toggle missing, but it should arrive soon)

It is 1/8" Carbon fiber from Robotworks, and I LOVE working with this stuff. It is SUPER stiff and strong, and I was able to countersink the screw heads, and the edges sand really easily.

Well, what do you all think? Does it pass inspection? If anyone wants to know how I made the patterns, it was quite a process, which I will share if somebody cares, otherwise I'll spare you the boredom of the details.

[dma251]

Down on the floor is Wayne's old Lowrance GPS charpplotter. In it's day it did everything you could want. Unfortunately I had little use for any of it besides the GPS speedo. It was a really nice unit, and I sold it to a buddy for $200 which paid for the new GPS unit that is on the dash just to the right of the passenger grab handle, and is a very basic little unit that reads MAX speed and current speed in large block numerals. Very basic and very simple. It's more for the passengers entertainment anyway. Bragging rights and all.

[BRB]

What the number to robot works. Thanks in advance.

Brian.

[RBT]

www.robotcombat.com (http://www.robotcombat.com)

RT

[Riverman]

I have been thinking about building a shifter/switch/gauge mount for the Viper out of carbon fibre. I have a few small pieces of cloth and some west epoxy, and some leftover core. Mmmmmmm.....

[ProComp]

Lets here how you made the template. Your not boring us! :) Have a buddy who might do the same thing. Who knows, someone might want to change mine!

What size sheet did you order and did you get the sandwiched one or just the fiber sheet? Thanks

[blkmtrfan]

Looks great, definatly not boring either :cool:

Gald to see another Scream and Flyer out here, I grew up in the Marysville/Arlington area. Where do you usually boat?


We are talking about having another rally or two in these parts next year, you will have to make it.

[dma251]

Well, because the STV Euroski has a slightly radiused edge around the instrument panel instead of a distinct edge that you could use to guide a pencil or tool of some sort it is difficult to get a pattern that provides a consistent edge gap all the way around the curves of the panel. The ones I made first were all wavy and didn't follow the edge closely. No good for my obsessive perfectionist tendancies.....

What I did was I took a continuous sheet of paper that was on a roll and taped the straight bottom edge to the bottom of the instrument panel, as that was the only straight line on the panel. I then rubbed my fingernail into the base of the radius edge, leaving a mark on the paper, indenting it into the crease. Next I took a marking pen, and ran it around the crease in the paper to mark out the cut line. I then cut it out with a a swiveling-tip x-acto knife. I then repeated this process 7 times, until I had a paper pattern that was PERFECT without jagged edges or waves in the cut.

I then taped this paper pattern to a piece of 1/2" medium density fiberboard I had kicking around, and ran it through a bandsaw I picked up for that purpose. After that I cutting the MDF and carefully sanding the edges with a 360 grit sander, I now had a PERFECT wooden pattern of the shape of the instrument panel overlay, whatever it might be, metal, carbon fiber, whatever.

I used textbook laminating plastic (you get it from Office Depot, or OfficeMax) to apply a sheet of protective plastic to the face of the carbon fiber (that is my ONLY complaint about Robotcombat's product, they don't put a protective film on it) I applied the film with a large window squeegy to remove the air pockets.

I used 3M 2" wide double-sided masking tape to tape the sheet of carbon fiber to the MDF pattern, leaving about 2" of carbon fiber hanging out the edges.

This is what my experimenting discovered about cutting carbon fiber. Saws like bandsaws, scroll saws, table saws, and jigsaws do okay cutting it. The edge is slightly serrated, but not bad. You can sand it into shape pretty easily. BUT THE BEST WAY is with a router table. A router makes a finish-grade cut, the first time. This is why I went to the trouble to make the wooden pattern, I needed it to guide the router bit. Using just a regular flat router bit, I made a perfect cut, without roughness or frayed fiber, or any defects.

After that I just removed the 3M adhesive backing from the carbon fiber and lined up the bottom with the instrument panel and applied it to the dashboard, after wiping it down with alcohol first. I left the clear plastic on until I was finished drilling out my instrument holes, just in case of slips.

That's how I did it. I am sure that there are easier, better ways to do it, and a professional or someone that does this regularly will inform me of how I could do it better, but I looked at this as a one-shot type of deal, considering how much $ the carbon fiber cost. I wasn't taking any chances;)

What's this about a rally in the Washingotn area? That sounds great! I was beginning to think I was all alone out here. I've never seen another STV in this state :(

Damon

[blkmtrfan]

What's this about a rally in the Washingotn area? That sounds great! I was beginning to think I was all alone out here. I've never seen another STV in this state :(

Damon


Sorry you just missed the one this year:

http://forums.screamandfly.com/forums/showthread.php?t=75157&highlight=rally

http://forums.screamandfly.com/forums/showthread.php?t=91566&highlight=rally

And yes there are a few STV's around here.

So where do you usually go boating?

[dma251]

With my past boats most of my boating has been llimited to lakes local to me - Stevens, Goodwyn or Lake Curlew over near Republic. With this Euro I have found that Lake Cavanaugh is pretty close to my house and I can open it up pretty good there. I am always searching for lakes nearby that are appropriate for boats like this. There really aren't too many places around Western Washington that you can get a boat up to 100 mph without either running out of lake, or getting a fat ticket.

I spend most of the summer holidays over at Curlew, we rent cabins on the lake with docks, so it's super convenient, and cheap. The lake is plenty long and empty enough even on summer holiday weekends to have fun.

Where can you recommend in your area to go fast?

[stvhelm]

How about a big vinyl carbon fiber sticker:D I finished it with 1/4 inch black pinstripe for a perfect edge. I had to break up the red and I didnt want to ruin the original dash. I dont have a full pic but you get the idea

[dma251]

Believe me Helmut, your dash panel pics have been in my favorite photos file for several years. I used pics of your dash for reference when I arranged my gauges. I didn't really have much choice about saving the orignal panel arrangement unless I learned to deal with it the way it was. I might have gone the vinyl way if I had enough confidence that the surface was ABSOLUTELY flat, but because even with the latex sealant skimmed over it - it stillw asn't perfectly smooth. I needed the relative thickness of the carbon fiber to hide the surface irregularities from the wooden plugs.

[blkmtrfan]

There really aren't too many places around Western Washington that you can get a boat up to 100 mph without either running out of lake, or getting a fat ticket.

Or having 10,000 boat wakes to deal with

Very true :(

Locally, I usually go on Lake Whatcom with the Activator or out in the San Juans with our cruiser.

Would be fun to try some different places though

[150aintenuff]

rife lake in randal isnt that far south. well from arlington it is( 4 hrs or so) same with mayfield, any pool of the Columbia river is a good one. Crescent bar/vantage pool being the hot spot.. SOUTH sound is generally fairly calm. Priest lake is also a good OB lake boat lake.

there is LOTS of places ya can run.. and get in touch with 2scoops and inspectorlance.. both have STVs and are gunna attend the ralllys this year..

[150aintenuff]

there is also a few 21 skaters and 1 or 2 stokers, a OB cougar or 3 and enough other eliminators and such to generally keep ya on the lookout.. there s even a few faster bassboats that are near the 100 mph mark.. I just saw a newer bullet with a 300 on it today headin from the ramp at the columbia today.. so there is even a few fast fissin boats around to keep ya company when ya want to keep her "on the down low"