My '96 Powerquest has all Faria gauges. I'd like to redo the dash this fall, and replace all the Farias with Livorsi or another quality brand. What is involved in a project like this?

Will I need to replace all of the senders back under the hatch, or can the new gauges use the same "back end" stuff (can you tell I do IT for a living? )?

Will I need to run new power to the dash or can I use what's there - I may need to do this anyway as the way PQ did their wiring back then is not optimal, at least from what I've heard.

Here's kind of what I'm thinking - the panels are currently this off-white color. Boat is predominately red, with touches of purple and green. Thinking of painting the panels red (or getting new ones made), using carbon fiber gauge faces, with polished stainless bezels. Red/stainless Dino wheel from Trick. The speedo will go and be replaced by a flush mounted GPS - it can display mph, why do I need a separate speedometer?

Any thoughts on what material to use for new dash panels, assuming I need them? Many thanks, I'll document the project when I get started, and I'm sure I'll be back for more advice!

Dock,
I am going to do a similar project once I get my dash painted. When you order your guages spec them for Mercury match senders (I am assuming you have Mercury power) that way you will not have to change any engine mounted senders. Some guages use push on disconnects and others user ring connectors at the dash so you may have to change those. Fred at Trick helped me a great deal with my guages so I would definately recommend sourcing them from him. Good luck with your project.

Well lets see.....First thing is while taking it all appart LABEL EVRYTHING!!! Last thing you want to be doing is tracing down wires you dont know what they go to!! Second thing is if you are going to change the layout in any way, make sure you have enough wire to reach to the new spot!!!
After you do those two things then just take your time and dont rush it.....try to think two steps ahead of what your doing now so you can plan for anything you may run into down the line. Heres a few pics of a dash i did for a friend a while back:

First thing i did was take the old dash and cover it with paper......i then cut out some paper circles the same size as the gauges i woudl be mounting and placed them in the spots i wanted. This makes things very easy to visualis how the dash will look when done. Do the same for any GPS or radio remotes etc you may want to mount. Unfortunatly i forgot to take pics at that point. In my case i sent the panel out to Team Marine in WI ad they did an AWESOME job.....even went as far as putting the black thunder logo and a cool poker run design in

One thing i forgot to mention is make sure to compensate for the steering wheel .......so it doesnt hide gauges or anything else when you put it back on!! And when placing items such as GPS or anything else make sure you have room behind the dash for it!!!! Nothing ruins a new dash faster then having a hole that you cant fit anything into it because its too shallow behind the area!!

Now the fun part begins of pre-wiring. You can actually just re-use everything of the original harness in the dash....in this case it was such a rats nest it was easier to just pre-wire befor the install....

when your ready you can take you assembly to the boat and start putting it all back together. If you labled everything in the begining it will save you TONS of time.......in my case, my buddy tried to help me and ripped everything out of the dash with no lables.....no order.....no nothing!!!!! And to make things worse the breakers didnt work on half the stuff so it took me a goo 90min extra of tracing wires down!

Now is also a good time to check over all the connections and remedy anything that will cause you problems in the future.....inthis case all the connections were cheap crimps ready to break loose as soon as i tried to remove them!!!

So just take you time, clean everything up, and think while you do it and you'll be fine....

Some suggestions for wiring..
Overkill on grounds is ok!I have ground wires coming from both sides of the dash gauges......these dont dim or twitch when hitting a button.
Leave youself a bit more then you think you need......cutting a wire is alot easier then extending it later...and any extention is a joint that could fail you in the future.
Go and invest a little bit of money in the all in one heat shrink connectors. When you heat them, they have a glue inside that seals the connection up and is moisture proof.
Dont over tighten the gauges.......you can break the seal on them and they will fog up on you later...they only need a few inch pound of torque.

Hope some of this helps

Wally that is awesome information!!! And great job on the dash as well!

Here's what mine looks like right now...

The nice thing abot doing adash yourself is thats its like working with a blank slate....you can do what ever you want to make it your way...Now's also the best time to have the GPS flush mounted if you were thinking about that.......or atleast maybe leave some room in the dash if that was an idea for the future....
And if you want to get realy wild you can go and have somehthing totaly one of a kind done. This is the dash from my 22 Chris Craft Stinger.....i custom built this over the winter and just painted it a few weeks ago....now just waiting for some time to bring the boat home so i can keep working on it

Doc,
I've ton a bunch of these for other members here. I can supply you with a custom panel, guages, wiring, etc. EVERYTHING ready to go and drop in. It looks like a bigger job than it is. My advice is to replace everything, switches, breakers, wires the hole lot.

Fionn
O'Neill Offshore Marine
[email protected]
925.952.4240
510.541.8124

just finished mine with S&S gauges its a big job....