I want to paint my dash and switch panels. I don't know how I'm gonna label the switches. I want to keep the cost down and do all the work myself. Sending it out for engraving is not an option. Whats the best way to do this?

West Marine sells a variety of different switch labels.http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs...atalogId=10001

Look under Panel Labels.

I want something a little more custom. I thinking I paint my color, transfer my labels on and then clear over that. I'm thinking some kind of tranfer thats burnished on. Maybe something similar to silk screening.

we can make custom ones, size, font, color and print them for you, fell free to give me a call Rob 540-786-8111

Nice! Right down the road too. I'm in Leesburg. Let me get my ideas a little more organized and I'll give you a call. Thanks

Laser engraving!

I'm getting it figured out now. I'm going to have my aluminum dash panels engraved by a trophy shop in town and then color fill the engraving. What type of paint should I use? I've got some zincchro primer that I assume would work. I'm looking for something relatively affordable and available. I've never color filled before. Any advice?

FWIW I did one of my old boats using decals. I first painted the dash, applied cut decals, and then used multiple coats of clear. Came out really nice. It can be hard to work with letters cut that small but you can get them any color/size/font and the results looked really nice.

Paint, dry transfer lettering, clear. The dry transfer lettering is inexpensive, comes in a variety of fonts and even colors.