OEM Instrument Panel Plastic

Repair or modification of Boston Whaler boats, their engines, trailers, and gear
ivansfo
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OEM Instrument Panel Plastic

Postby ivansfo » Sat Nov 14, 2020 4:01 pm

What type of plastic [was used to make the instrument panel for a 2001 CONQUEST 23]? The finish in a matte black.

panel.jpg
Fig. 1. An instrument panel made by Boston Whaler for a 2001 CONQEST 23.
panel.jpg (24.58 KiB) Viewed 9449 times


TWO BACKSTORIES:

ACTIVITY ON FORUM: I was a long time member from the old [forum] here. It's been a while since I have participated because of kids and life in general. I never stopped boating. I'm slowly getting back into boating, now that my kids are old enough to be somewhat independent.

NEED FOR PANEL: I am in the process of re-powering my 2001 23 Conquest that came factory rigged with twin Mercury engines. I will re-power with twin Yamaha F150 engines, and that means all-new rigging and new digital gauges. The existing instrumentation panel has more holes than I need to fit the new gauges.

I have contacted Whaler seeking a brand new panel without pre-cut holes, but they tell me that part is discontinued. I am disappointed I can't get an OEM panel with the Boston Whaler logo and striping.

I thought of fabricating something like this from a local plastic shop but they don't stock the exact type of plastic. The guy at the plastic shop speculated this is some kid of ABS plastic. The alternative is to use KING StarBoard, but I really want maintain the look of the original.

jimh
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Re: OEM Instrument Panel Plastic

Postby jimh » Sat Nov 14, 2020 5:29 pm

To deduce the type of plastic from the image is very difficult or impossible. Generally I have seen that Boston Whaler instrument panels often are made with a plastic material that has a black surface and a white underlying material, and the lines, logos, and legends are engraved into the panel, with the engraving resulting in white letters on a black background. I do not believe it will be possible for you to duplicate an engraved panel. To duplicate a non-engraved panel will be much easier.

However, this panel just looks like it was made from black plastic, and the lines and legends are applied to it, and making a similar replacement will be much simpler.

I don't think there is great concern about the exact material for the black plastic. Almost any black plastic sheet of appropriate thickness ought to be workable.

Rather than using plastic, I recommend you use a sheet of aluminum of 6061T6 alloy to fabricate a panel. Aluminum sheet about 0.125-inch thick ought to be sufficiently strong. Aluminum is easy to work, to cut, to shape, and to prepare for paint. Drilling large diameter holes for gauges in a plastic sheet can be difficult. Drilling in aluminum will be easier, in my experience.

I would drill all holes needed before painting. Test fit all gauges into the panel and test fit the panel before painting. Be especially precise in locating the several holes for the screw fasteners that wii remain the panel to the dashboard.

I suggest painting the panel with KRYLON matte black paint using a spray can. You can also use a primer coat for better adhesion before applying the black top coat or coats.

Several years ago I published an article describing how I fabricated a replacement instrument panel. The most difficult part of the project was determining the layout of the panel and locating all the hole centers. It took many hours to develop the layout and to determine the precise dimensions of the hole centers in order to get a symmetrical and pleasant layout of the gauges. This was actually the most time-consuming part of the project.

See more details in my article at:

Conventional Gauge Rigging
http://continuouswave.com/whaler/refere ... gging.html

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Phil T
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Re: OEM Instrument Panel Plastic

Postby Phil T » Sat Nov 14, 2020 6:28 pm

Ivan -

Great to see you back, sorry for the reason why.

For post-classic parts:

Flounder Pounder Marine
255 Barnes Blvd. Rockledge, FL 32955
321-639-2951
https://www.fpmarine.com

Some of their panels https://www.fpmarine.com/category-s/2832.htm

The Marine Connection Liquidators
2970 North US Hwy #1, Fort Pierce FL 34946
Ask for Jake - 772-465-6460
http://www.themarineconnection.net/

Their inventories are immense so don't go by the websites. Take some measurements and give them a call.

I have used http://www.newwiremarine.com for custom panels.

Let us know how it goes.
1992 Outrage 17
2019 E-TEC 90
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ivansfo
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Re: OEM Instrument Panel Plastic

Postby ivansfo » Sun Nov 15, 2020 4:40 pm

Thank you Jim for the advice. I hadn't thought of using aluminum and sounds like it would look pretty clean if done right. I'm reluctant to try aluminum because I don't have any metal working tools. The stock panel has a slight bevel on the edge too which I should be able to replicate using a trim router if I stick with plastic. I will keep looking around. So far I've only checked Tap Plastics which is a local chain that specializes in plexiglass and common plastics.

Phil, appreciate those leads. I'll contact them to see if they might have the OEM panel from Whaler. I guess it's possible that Whaler just shipped off unsold inventory to these wholesalers after 10 years. Maybe I'll get lucky. Thank you.

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Phil T
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Re: OEM Instrument Panel Plastic

Postby Phil T » Sun Nov 15, 2020 6:00 pm

You can make the curved cut with a jigsaw and a fine tooth metal blade. Set up/fabricate a curved fence and use clamps. Its a fair amount of prep work but not expensive.

I made new rectangular panels for my boat this summer out of Starboard. I made cardboard templates, then made a set out of luan for dry fitting and placement. Final set out of plastic. $40 in materials.
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jimh
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Re: OEM Instrument Panel Plastic

Postby jimh » Mon Nov 16, 2020 1:17 pm

Working with thin plastic sheet and drilling large diameter holes for gauges, such as a 3.5-inch diameter hole, can be rather tricky. Plastic often deforms instead of sawing cleanly. Aluminum is easily cut, filed, and sanded. I would expect that if a plastic sheet is to be used, the thickness needed will be greater than if aluminum is used.

In either case, as I mentioned before, working out the exact dimensions of the hole layout will be the most difficult part. And locating all the hole with precision so they align horizontally and vertically will take some care.

At the price of some of those finished replacement panels at over $200, I would be making my own replacement.

Image
Fig. 2. An instrument panel fabricated from aluminum sheet with very simple overall shape using a minimum of tools.

The continuously curving top edge of the panel for the 23 CONQUEST boat under discussion will present a challenge to cut cleanly and create a uniform curve.

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Re: OEM Instrument Panel Plastic

Postby jimh » Mon Nov 16, 2020 1:25 pm

ivansfo wrote:The guy at the plastic shop speculated this is some kid of ABS plastic.


Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) is a thermoplastic that becomes liquid a 221 degrees Fahrenheit. You would have to be careful cutting it so as not to induce melting. I would be surprised if that is the material being used. I would expect that ABS plastics are used for making plastic components using some sort of mold process.

kwik_wurk
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Re: OEM Instrument Panel Plastic

Postby kwik_wurk » Sat Nov 21, 2020 1:38 am

I recently had to redo a few dash panels on one of my non-Boston Whaler boats. I used a 1/8-inch thick ABS plastic sheet material that had a faux black wood grain. The panel looks really good. I had a machine shop cut the perimeter and do the bevels and corners. Cutting ABS is tough especially on thin, long, and narrow sheets because clamping, chatter, and heat can be a problem for most household tools like a scroll saw and band saw.

greywoodPanel.jpg
Fig. 3. A replacement panel on a non-Boston Whaler boat made from a plastic material with a faux wood grain; the vendor calls this "greywood."
greywoodPanel.jpg (8.65 KiB) Viewed 8587 times

The faux wood grain panel was obtained from
https://shop.decorativeplasticsheets.com/Woodgrain-ABS-Sheet-for-Boat-Instrument-Panels-RV-dashes-woodgrain.htm

Jefecinco
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Re: OEM Instrument Panel Plastic

Postby Jefecinco » Sat Nov 21, 2020 9:37 am

Great job, looks OEM.
Butch

fno
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Re: OEM Instrument Panel Plastic

Postby fno » Sat Nov 21, 2020 6:19 pm

I have a suggestion. There is a company in Texas that does water jet, plasma and laser cutting and engraving. I found them when I needed some switch labels for a machine that I was working on. My stuff was stainless steel but they can cut and engrave everything from foam, sheet rubber, plastic and all metals with accuracy. The reason I mention them is that I noticed on their wall that they do quite a few airplane dashboards for upgraded electronics. It is a small family company as well and are very accommodating. My labels were made in half a day and the designer made me an Autocad file that was also used to make them on the automated machinery. I would suggest you pick a material first, send it to them along with the old panel for reference and they will get it done. As for the striping and Whaler logo, I would take the new panel to a pin stripe guy and have him paint the lines on.

The contact info is: WaterCut Services
P.O. Box 1876
Kilgore, TX, 75663

ask for Joe (903-988-2228)
joe@watercutservices.com

ivansfo
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Re: OEM Instrument Panel Plastic

Postby ivansfo » Sat Nov 28, 2020 1:33 pm

Thank you all for the feedback.

I contacted the suggested marine surplus shop to see if they might have surplus panels from Whaler. Unfortunately they don't have the exact panel for the 23 Conquest.

FP Marine said they can custom fabricate a panel for me that looks exactly the same. The process involves me shipping them my panel and they will turn it around to me in 3 days. Sounds good but the cost is $250 so that's a no-go for me.

After talking to a few of these custom panel shops, I realized the costs involved is just too high for my needs.



So I'm back to searching for ABS blanks where I can cut the exact shape I need. I have experience working with ABS plastics in car stereo panels. I feel comfortable with these relatively inexpensive plastic materials. The cuts can be made with good working tools, and a Dremel type rotary tool can make the rectangular holes I need.

kwik_wurk, --that panel you have there looks fantastic. That's the OEM look I'm after.

Locally there's a chain called Tap Plastics. They did not have the plastic stock I want but they tell me they can cut plastics if I bring my own material.

I have time to work on this because the new outboard won't be delivered intil Jan 2021. In the short term, I may just fill in the one-third of the circle left on the existing cutouts.

panel.jpg
Fig. 4. Another view of the OEM instrument panel with cardboard rectangles covering parts of the panel.
panel.jpg (16.81 KiB) Viewed 8813 times

kwik_wurk
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Re: OEM Instrument Panel Plastic

Postby kwik_wurk » Sun Nov 29, 2020 1:36 am

ivansfo wrote:FP Marine said they can custom fabricate a panel for me that looks exactly the same. The process involves me shipping them my panel and they will turn it around to me in 3 days. Sounds good but the cost is $250 so that's a no-go for me.

A cost of $250 is not bad for a machine shop price. My cost for three new panels was about $550. See one of them in Figure 3 above.

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Re: OEM Instrument Panel Plastic

Postby jimh » Sun Dec 06, 2020 10:17 am

ivansfo wrote:...that panel you have there looks fantastic. That's the OEM look I'm after....

The panel in Figure 3 has a faux wood grain, although that is not very visible in the photograph used for that illustration. The finish is also gloss.

Jefecinco wrote:Great job, looks OEM.

I think you are not able to see the faux wood grain in the panel in Figure 3, and that may be misleading.

I do not recall that Boston Whaler uses black panels with a faux wood grain. If you want to have the OEM Boston Whaler look, you would probably be better served by a plain black panel with a somewhat matte finish, as your original panel shows in illustrations Figure 1 and Figure 4. The Boston Whaler OEM look also generally has a white outline border on the matte black panel. That style goes back to the earliest days of electrical panels on Boston Whaler boats.

For making your own panel, some automobile pinstriping tape might be a workable substitute for the painted lines found on the OEM panels.

ivansfo
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Re: OEM Instrument Panel Plastic

Postby ivansfo » Mon Dec 07, 2020 11:47 pm

kwik_wurk--thank you for mentioning Decorative Plastics, The have exactly what I'm seeking: the OEM style black ABS panel in the matt black finish. They even have a picture of a Whaler dash which looks so similar to mine. I've already contacted them for a sample chip.

If the sample ends up matching, I'll order the sheet and work on fabricating the panel myself with basic tools like a table saw, jig saw, trim router, and files. I expect to be able to duplicate the panel except the white striping and Whaler logo. Those I can do without if I can keep this under $100. Eventually will look at auto pinstriping as suggested by Jim.

[Moderator's note: I replaced a screen capture of a web page with a hyperlink to the webpage. Providing a URL is a better method of giving information about a website's resources than providing an image of a screen capture of the website resources.]

jimh
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Re: OEM Instrument Panel Plastic

Postby jimh » Tue Dec 08, 2020 7:16 am

IVANSFO--you made a good decision to get the black matte finish sheet for the panel you will make. Using a material with a matte black finish will allow you to duplicate the Boston Whaler OEM look you are seeking. Take great care in cutting the thin ABS sheet.

ivansfo
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Re: OEM Instrument Panel Plastic

Postby ivansfo » Mon Feb 22, 2021 12:50 pm

I am happy to report my new panel is done. I ordered the plastic sheet from Decorative Plastics (as mentioned earlier in the thread by kwik_wurk).

https://shop.decorativeplasticsheets.com/main.sc

A sheet cost about $80, and the sheet is large enough to make four or five panels in the size I need--enough material for screw-ups.

Fortunately, I took my time and the first attempt came out nicey enough. The labor was quite intensive with basic shop tools, and now I can understand the charges by plastic fabrication shops.

Also I used the same plastic panel to mount new Yamaha switches in the old cutouts left by the Mercury key switches.

Thank you all for the tips, leads, and advice.

panel_1a.jpg
Fig. 5. New dash panel.
panel_1a.jpg (21.36 KiB) Viewed 7237 times


key_switch1a.jpg
Fig. 6. Holes from from old engine controls.
key_switch1a.jpg (10.01 KiB) Viewed 7237 times


key_switch2a.jpg
Fig. 7. New key switch panel covering old holes.
key_switch2a.jpg (38.52 KiB) Viewed 7237 times

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Phil T
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Re: OEM Instrument Panel Plastic

Postby Phil T » Mon Feb 22, 2021 1:36 pm

The panels look fantastic.

Can you detail the tools and techniques you used to produce the panels?
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ivansfo
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Re: OEM Instrument Panel Plastic

Postby ivansfo » Mon Feb 22, 2021 3:52 pm

Phil T wrote:Can you detail the tools and techniques you used to produce the panels?


  1. Traced out the new panel using the original panel as a template.
  2. Cut out a new panel using a table saw for the straight edges. For non-straight edges, used a jig saw. Equipping the saws with fine tooth blades seemed to help quite a bit.
  3. Again I used the original panel as a jig to drill out the matching screw holes.
  4. Used a palm router to chamfer the perimeter edge. Tiny detail but I wanted to match the original as much as I could.
  5. Used a jig saw and files to cut out the openings for the new gauges.

There was a lot of filing and sanding in between these steps. The most challenging part is not to make a mistake that was bad enough to warrant starting all over. So measuring twice or even three times before cutting is essential. There are imperfections in this first attempt but I'm going to leave it as-is for now. I currently don't have the patience to try making another. And as you can see in the following pictures, the job is messy.

panel1b.jpg
Fig. 8. Large sheet on a table saw.
panel1b.jpg (60.17 KiB) Viewed 7180 times


panel2a.jpg
Fig. 9. Old panel used as template for new.
panel2a.jpg (55.5 KiB) Viewed 7231 times


toolsFloor.jpg
Fig. 10. Some tools and the workshop floor.
toolsFloor.jpg (30.6 KiB) Viewed 7230 times


newOldPanels.jpg
Fig. 11. New and old panels stacked together.
newOldPanels.jpg (24.42 KiB) Viewed 7229 times

ivansfo
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Re: OEM Instrument Panel Plastic

Postby ivansfo » Wed Apr 21, 2021 12:32 am

ASIDE ON A DIFFERENT PANEL: as I was working on the circuit breaker panel over the weekend, adried up label dropped from the circuit breaker panel. The original vendor for the circuit breaker panel was identified as Ultra Panel Marine in Miami, Florida. If anyone needs a circuit breaker panel from [a 2001 CONQUEST 23], it may be worth the time to contact them.

manufacturerNameTag.jpg
Fig. 12. Manufacturer name tag.
manufacturerNameTag.jpg (26.01 KiB) Viewed 7235 times


[Moderator’s note: the OEM circuit breaker panel is NOT the panel being replaced that appears in the several illustrations in the thread.]

jimh
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Re: OEM Instrument Panel Plastic

Postby jimh » Wed Apr 21, 2021 8:12 am

What is the part number for the OEM circuit breaker panel? It is a bit hard to read the number from Figure 12.

jimh
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Re: OEM Instrument Panel Plastic

Postby jimh » Wed Apr 21, 2021 8:24 am

The thickness of the plastic sheet for the panels as seen in Figure 11 surprises me. What is that dimension?

Your cut for the curved upper edge of the panel looks good. Nice work with a jig saw. I suspect there was some sanding. I like the edge bevel on the panel.

Re the the white outlines on the panel and putting them on with some automobile pinstriping tape: you can hide the sharp bends at the corners under the fastener screw heads, just like Boston Whaler did as seen in Figure 11.

ivansfo
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Re: OEM Instrument Panel Plastic

Postby ivansfo » Thu Apr 22, 2021 12:25 am

jimh wrote:The thickness of the plastic sheet for the panels as seen in Figure 11 surprises me. What is that dimension?

Your cut for the curved upper edge of the panel looks good. Nice work with a jig saw. I suspect there was some sanding. I like the edge bevel on the panel.


Thanks Jim. The plastic sheet I purchased is 3/16" thickness. This is what Decorative Plastics recommended for boat instrument panels. The thickness is an exact match to the original Whaler panel.

After cutting with a jig saw, there was indeed a lot of sanding. I could have wet sanded to even a smoother finish but it's good enough.

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Re: OEM Instrument Panel Plastic

Postby jimh » Fri Apr 23, 2021 10:21 am

Thanks for the reply with information on the plastic sheet thickness. I agree with your choice to use 0.1875-inch thick plastic sheet as suggested by the vendor. The earlier mentioned panel fabricated from 0.125-inch-thick plastic sheet sounded too thin, to me, for plastic material. When Boston Whaler used aluminum panels, I believe they used 0.100-inch thick aluminum sheet.