1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Making a Custom Instrument Panel

So…I made an instrument panel for the helm dashboard.

I like the look of the original Chris Craft helm gauges, which is why I had them all restored to like-new condition. But I also bought some ISSPRO turbocator gauges, which display boost and exhaust temperature, one for each engine. These come highly recommended by Tony Athens over at Seaboard Marine. I had a grand plan to make housings for the turbocators similar to my original tachometer housings. But then I decided I wanted drive gear oil pressure gauges, too. So I had to come up with something that would look right on the boat and could house four new gauges.

What I finally came up with will probably seem absolutely nuts at first. But I think it turned out pretty nice.

So, there’s this big rectangular hole somebody cut in the boat’s dashboard

I have no idea what went there. Pictures of the helm from when we first started this refit don’t show this area in detail, but what pictures there are make it look like this was just an open hole. So covering this rectangular eyesore would be a good thing.

Step One for the new instrument panel: I cut a rectangular piece of 1/8″ aluminum plate I had laying around

Way back at the beginning of this refit, I went to the Dania, Florida, marine flea market and bought a bunch of stuff on the cheap, including three new aluminum fuel and holding tanks. I ended up installing one tank under the galley floor, and that’s my forward 125 gallon fuel tank. I use another 65 gallon tank to schlep off-road diesel back home for our boiler and also to fuel up the boat. The third tank was in my way and I was keen on learning how to TIG weld, so one day I took a Skilsaw to it and turned it back into flat plates. Even after I was done learnig the basics for how to TIG weld aluminum, I still had a lot of 1/8″ plate left over.

My plan is to turn some flat aluminum plates into a nifty little instrument cluster.

After squaring the plate up on the track saw, I split it in half on the table saw

The plate made it crystal clear that it didn’t appreciate being demoted from tank status

Back at the garage, I jury rigged a pipe bender into a plate bender

That’s a 1″ bronze TEE pipe fitting sitting on top of the hydraulic ram. I want nice, smooth curves on this plate.

This isn’t how this machine is supposed to be used, by the way

The plate is too wide to fit in the bender in the normal orientation, 90° off of how I did it.

It works!

I pumped the ram up until the bronze TEE put a bend in the plate, then backed it off and moved the plate forward a bit. Then repeat, repeat, and repeat.

You can see the curved plate on the far side of the bender

Once I got the curve done on one end of the plate, I flipped it around and put a curve on the other end.

Once that was done, I traced the curve on another plate

Which I then cut on my Harbor Freight 4×6 bandsaw

Nice!

Turbocator fits just inside this roll of tape

So I traced two circles with it

Stewart Warner gauges were also commonly found on Chris Crafts

SW 82136 has the range needed for the ZF gears that came with my Cummins 6CTAs. I traced two circles for the gear drive gauges, then drilled pilot holes and cut the circles with my jigsaw. I find with aluminum it’s best to use a 14 tooth hardwood blade than any of the finer toothed metal-cutting blades. The metal-cutting blades just load up with aluminum and stop cutting.

The face plate and top are close to being ready to weld

First, I sanded the face plate and hit it with the buffing wheel.

That holding tank scrap aluminum cleaned up nice!

Next, I fired up my AlphaTIG, turned on my new TIG torch liquid cooler, and did my best not to screw up the parts too badly while welding them.

My signature pile o’ dimes, nickels, and quarters TIG bead

In retrospect, I should have waited to cut the holes until after all the welding was done. Where the plate was narrowest between the edge and the holes, it was getting heat soaked really fast.

Test fit on the boat…I think that looks marvelous

But it’s a bit too upright. I want to remove some material so the top is at an angle similar to the tachometer housings.

The dashboard isn’t flat; the right side of the panel  was floating entirely free above the grey dashboard

I marked a line with a fine Sharpie and used a grinder with a 120 grit flap disk to slowly remove material

Nice!

Back at the garage, I traced and cut the back panel

That’ll do

I also cut two small panels that tie the face plate to the back panel. I drilled and tapped holes in them so I can firmly attach the instrument panel to the dashboard. After welding it all together, I got an idea.

The SW gear pressure gauge kit is excellent, but I’ll use red LEDs instead of incandescent bulbs

This Roamer came with red dash lighting. Chris Craft used incandescent bulbs coated with transparent red paint that flakes off over time. I like the red lighting effect but not the cumulative amps consumed by conventional bulbs. So I bought a bag of 20 BA9S red LEDs for $7 on ebay.

So there I was, with my instrument panel nearly done and a bag of LEDs…and I started thinking…

I’ve mentioned before that my first big boat was a 1967 Chris Craft Constellation 52, a big mahogany boat that I really enjoyed. One of the upgrades I did on that boat was to install bilge pump telltale lights, so I could see from the helm if pumps were coming on while we were under way. On a wooden boat, that’s very useful information to have. And even though this Roamer is a metal boat with zero chance of a seam or plank coming loose while cruising about, I have a preference for knowing.

I measured the LEDs

25/64″ drill bit will just about do it

That’s a perfect friction fit.

Drilling more holes in my pretty, new instrument panel

I LIKE IT!!!

Next, I soldered wires to the LED bases

Positive to the center pin, negative to the round base.

Then I applied several coats of Liquid Tape to insulate the bases

Four coats of Liquid Tape should suffice

Next, I sanded the housing with 400 grit wet sandpaper

A coarse buffing wheel with brown emery rouge brought out a shine

Fine buffing wheel with Diamond White rouge made it sparkle

Final assembly begins

I realized the housing is too tight for easy installation of gauges if it’s attached to the dashboard. So I decided to make it a plug & play component, with all of the wiring and boost tubing attached inside the housing, with a terminal block and boost tubing adapters under the dashboard to attach to.

Wiring labels are handy

All of the original Chris Craft wiring labels are falling off, so I came up with a method (as, it turns out, have many thousands of other people) for making labels more permanent.

After applying the label, cover it with clear, adhesive-backed shrink tubing

And hit it with a heat gun

That label will still be there in 50 years, guaranteed.

Gauges secured, wires labeled, and connections shrunk

Confirm lighting, bilge pump telltales, and electric gauges work

The Turbocators don’t require 12vdc because they get their power from the pyrometers that convert heat to electricity at the turbo outlets. I tested the boost gauges with compressed air. And the gear pressure gauges cycled properly when I applied 12vdc and ground/no ground to the sender wire.

Booyah.

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Installing the Custom Instrument Panel