New dash panels for an old DA

It appears that with your new panels, your cruising RPM has dropped significantly as well!!! :~). Just kidding.

That looks great!
 
Thanks, Jon. I've bookmarked that site. Just out of curiosity, is the strip in that link the exact ones you used? I only asked because the description says it has a green color. I'm just wondering if that green is not so much green, and maybe it's more of a yellow color?

Oh, it says "120v"... does it also work for 12v?

Yes that is exactly the same strip that I used. They are yellow until illuminated when they turn green. EL strips work on AC current not DC. Sea Ray uses a small inverter to power the strips, I think it puts out about 100V. When I was installing them on the back of the panels at home I just plugged them in to a 110V outlet to check out the wiring.
 
Yes that is exactly the same strip that I used. They are yellow until illuminated when they turn green. EL strips work on AC current not DC. Sea Ray uses a small inverter to power the strips, I think it puts out about 100V. When I was installing them on the back of the panels at home I just plugged them in to a 110V outlet to check out the wiring.

Thank you, Jon, for the clarification. It sounds simple enough to install.


Jon and Brian:

When I talked with Scott a few months back, he only mentioned EL strips - he never talked about backlighting with LED's...

Jon: Did he talk at all with you about LED's?

Brian: How long ago did you get yours done? Did Scott talk with you about EL's?
 
Panels look great. I have a 1987 340 sundancer with pathetic looking gauge panels. They desperately need replacing. Do you know if Scott can do panels that old? And if you don't mind, how expensive are they. Thanks, Rich.
 
First off they both look great....

Now, how many boat bucks do I need to start budgeting for this upgrade....???
 
Thank you, Jon, for the clarification. It sounds simple enough to install.


Jon and Brian:

When I talked with Scott a few months back, he only mentioned EL strips - he never talked about backlighting with LED's...

Jon: Did he talk at all with you about LED's?

Brian: How long ago did you get yours done? Did Scott talk with you about EL's?

I spoke to Scott at length about the entire project, including the LED's. I wanted to stick with the OEM look so I just went with all new EL strips and the orginal inverter and dimmer. I did work with him to customize some of the switch labels for the features I have added to the boat like the autopilot and depth sounder. I also made sure that the systems monitor layout matched my original. All in all between the panels, and EL stuff I probably have 500 to 600 bucks tied up in this project.
 
Ric & Mark,

The 450DA has 3 panels not 2. Figure $250/panel + $100 for the led lighting. The 450 panels mount on rubber bushings and closed cell rubber foam so add another $50 or so for those supplies. Scott now has the bushings. Figure 12-15 hours to change the 450 panels if you have B&G electronics.

Scott has my original OEM panels to make patterns from so his 450DA replacements will be exactly right.
 
Frank glad to know Scott now has the bushings, I looked every where for them with no luck so I ended up recycling my old ones. On my panels he only put the larger mounting holes for the bushings on the panel with the guages for vibration isolation. The other two panels have small holes and therefore no bushings. I did not replace the foam tape so I guess I could revisit that decision. I have to say that Sea Ray really went cheap on the orginals here and Scotts product is 1000% better.
 

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