Johnson Plastics has an array of different plastics you can choose from, colors, finishes, textures, thicknesses. I used their laser engravable brushed titanium 1/16" and engraved my switch labels, then glued them to a 3/16" black plexiglass with slots cut for back lighting. Pretty simple stuff to work with. Can order small batches and they are very helpful on the phone!

Cerakote might be an option instead of powdercoat? I had one of the whisper pickles done for one of my rifles and it's a "dry cure" cerakote they told me to hold up and resist the heat. I can tell you that although it does still get pretty warm, it is noticeably cooler to the touch than the non coated other cans I have. Just throwing suggestions out there....I'm sure there are other coatings that will resist the heat? I def see what you're saying about it getting hot in the sun.

Thanks for the compliment on mine! Was a pain but I think worth it especially considering what was there from the factory!

CDShack,

Yup. Found them. I may have to give them a call.



Looks like I don't need the laminated material, after all. The stripe appears painted, and the sheeting is white through-and-through.

Thanks. Brad.

Guys,

So, let's talk layout....




I'm thinking about separating the tach and speedo. My initial thought was to have the oil gages between the tach and speedo, and the depth readout and fuel below them. But the depth readout appears a bit smaller, so it would look kinda weird side-by-side with a slightly larger gage. Moving the fuel to the top center, the depth readout below it, then the two oil gages side-by-side beneath them makes for good symmetry. Water temp and voltage would move to the outside spots.

Thoughts?

Side note.... I think it's kinda cool how the TattleTale shows the recorded top speed when the power is off.

Thanks. Brad.

Brad, draw it up in CAD and send a dxf file to any guy that has a laser cutter or waterjet machine. Have them cut out out of aluminum...then either paint or powder it white and be done with it. you dont have any text in the dash anyway so it would be a simple thing to get done and you can re-arrange the gauges anyway you want....shift the depth gauge to the side and put the oil gauge next to it....

I used white acrylic and then laser cut all my holes and engraving.

I layed up some carbon, then clear coated it, let me lay out the gauges /gps’s however and was a fun project.

Seperating tach and speedo I don`t like ... I would replace the volt gauge with oil temp .
Id use a USB charger with voltage readout and put it below the depth gauge. Now you have a voltage gauge and a charger .

I use one to monitor battery levels when the engines are off.

^^^^^^^ Very cool. Haven't seen those before. Definitely the easiest way to accomplish the task at hand.

A bit off topic, but how is that GPS speedometer holding up? I want to put one in with the rest of my autometer gauges without paying $400+ for a GPS speedo - the cheapo one I put on my checkmate has it's stepper motor go out within 2 years