Help with new gauges
 

I would like to update the dash and gauges on my 271, looks a little dated.
the gauges are backmounted, kind of flush to the panels, no bezels and dull colors, dash panels are painted grey and pretty blah.
see pics below

I was thinking of getting the panels done with a 3m carbon fiber look film, maybe a light grey, should be fairly easy but I don't know how durable the stuff is.

For the gauges, probably white face and red bezels.

One question is the wiring for the gauges, are they kind of standard connections.
signal, power, ground, light???
the plugins on the back of mine are flat blade conncectors,
is that a standard connection.
my gauges are vdo, but i've been searching for new vdo gauges and they don't seem to come in white faces.
is there another brand that will be plug and play on the back side

Most of the gauge kits are 5 units, with out speedo or trim.
I would need a speedo as well, will the water tube on my speedo attach to a new one.
will my senders[fuel, oil pressure] work with the new gauges.

what size are the formula gauges, 2 & 4 inch?




http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s...7/Steering.jpg

http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s...rmula090-1.jpg

you probably should go to a Gaffrig ..Livorsi ...or Autometer setup .... all make a 2" .... 2 5/8" and a 4 5/8" Gauge ... looks like you have plenty of room ....might think about adding oil temp and maybe water Pressure ... fuel pressure too .......

You can wire up the Panel out of the boat ... there will just one wire out of the wiring Harrness to each Gauge ..... Blue/oil Pressure tan/water temp grey/tach ..... Volts/purple ......

I noticed you have GPS .... you could really not even replace the speedo ... I didn't on mine ..but I had limits on room for all the Gauges ....m

i did find some vdo gauges in white
http://www.vdo.com/products_solution...ture-gauge.htm

so i'll probably try them, easier to change
you are correct, i should add some extra as well, lots of space

edit,
the pic with the gps is old from the previous owner and the gps has been removed.
i have a new raymarine which i could put in place of the speedo
thanx

The vinyl film is very durable I have wrapped both dash panels in both my boats with it! I also would think about leaving out the speedo and adding some other critical instruments!

they have 3m 2mm carbon fiber look film at my local
graphics shop, is 2 mm heavy enough?

You ask as if your going to be throwing the dash panels around. The vinyl is very durable once applied to the substrate. What you should be more concerned about is the UV exposure. Those dash panels are going to see a lot of sun. The carbon fiber I have has a 5 year outdoor life. Here are some pictures of my dash boards.

I have pictures os my Fastech 271 dash with monster gauges on seriousoffshore.com . Just go to the Formula forum and look at the "post pictures of your Formula link" It is near the end. All the name brand gauges wire up pretty much the same as Formula. The standard Formula sizes are 2-1/16 and 3-3/8. Jeff Wurl

I have replaced my vdo gauges with gafrig yes you have to change the sending units and you have to make short pigtails to go from a screw post on the back of gafrig gauges to the flat blade style not to hard to do just time consuming.:evilb:

thanx guys, all my questions answered.
if i need to change the senders, i'll probably go with vdo to
avoid that.
i'll post up some pics when i'm done.

You can also use a male spade to ring terminal, it justs snaps in the female and attach to the post.

The cost of changing the senders is minimal when considering the cost of gauges. Everyone has their personal preference on gauges, but there is also a reason that many change from the VDO's. I changed the VDO's out on my 292 for Gaffrig and will be doing the same on the 34. VDO's just aren't what they use to be.

i am changing mine just to freshen up the look, the dash is kind blah as you can see in the pics. vdo stuff all works fine.
you are right, after looking into it, senders are not a biggie.
it would be nice to find a ring to spade connector, good idea thanx


my local marina has Faria in stock, dress white.
very good price , not as high end as livorsi or gaffrig, but it's all i need
http://faria-instruments.com/marine/styles.php

i also have a Bennet trim tab indicator kit to put in the side panel and need to fiqure out where to put the gps, in dash or stand alone

Not quiet done with mine yet, but here is a pic.

sorry, don't see a pic but would like to...

my little project turned into a pita,
the actually size of the dash cutouts in my boat are 2" and 4"
I even emailed formula to ask the size, and they said 2 1/6 and 3 3/8.
anyway, had to dremel the small wholes larger and am waiting on a local shop to make me spacer ring for the tach and speedo.
I put a black/grey carbon fibre film on the dash panels and installed the new white small gauges , looks good.
i'll post some pics when it get the tach and speedo in.

No pics of this yet?

Where is a good place to buy carbon fiber film??

Your local sign shop probably has the stuff in stock! If not simply google search for vinyl graphics supplies

I got the vinyl from a local sign shop, as 502ss mentioned


http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s...07/dash002.jpg

Nice update. Is that step plate just resting there during the picture? Isn't that the top to your "glove box"?

It is actually heavy rubber and fugly.
The previous owner had a GPS mounted on the factory plate
and removed the gps and covered the holes in the plate with that.
I haven't tried to to look for a replacement plate.
That's not the glovebox, same plate though on the other side.

You see the origional set up in the first post of this thread.

Thanks for the picture, I think it looks good!.

why did you not do the other panels?

Like the trim button panel?

I am thinking, the whole gauge panel, with white gauges and red bezels, trim gauge panel, and have the outter bezel that trim gauges does in red too. all three switch panales, and the shifter pannel. and have the shifter, and any other metal like behind the key holes all powder coated in red too? boat is white with red graffics...

I put the vinyl on the panel above the glove box on the port side.

I didn't do the other stuff around the switches and throttles, mostly because I didn't know what to do about the lettering/labels.
I really just wanted to improve the look of the main dash, and I kinda did that.

If you go back to post #6 and look at the picture on the right that is a carbon pattern that I designed, I then in photoshop incorporated all the switch labels and had the whole piece printed. You can do the same working with a local sign shop. If you want you could also remove all the panels and send them to me and I can do them this winter. The carbon dash panel looks good but I have to agree you need to do the others to make it look awesome! :coolcowboy: