Jim Sylvan
Cadet
- Joined
- Sep 27, 2013
- Messages
- 11
Hey everyone. I wanted to share my dash panel refinish. When I purchased this boat it had been sitting uncovered for some time. The boat was in decent shape under the circumstances but I felt it need some facelifts. Last fall I removed all the dash panels and refinished them over the winter. Here's a before and after:
I had to fabricate the stereo/ignition panel as it was in pretty bad shape.
I purchased a panel of 1/4" ABS plastic from flea bay to make this panel. All panels are plastic and were sanded down to 320 grit. I then sprayed them with Valspar Paint for Plastics. (No primer as per instructions on can) 
On the two side panels I printed new decals using ink-jet decal paper. (It is recommended to spray a few light coats of acrylic on the decal paper after printing to "set" the decals and prevent them from bleeding under the top coats of clear) After the color topcoats on the side panels dried I knocked the gloss of of these with some 400 grit paper. I then applied 5-6 coats of Valspar clear gloss, let them dry well, and then applied the decals. After the decals dried I sprayed an additional 15 coats of clear gloss to "bury" the decals to protect them. 
I ended up masking off the gauges rather than removing them. I chose not to apply any clear on the gauge panel as it looks pretty good with just the color coats. Finally, I replaced most of the switches and circuit breakers. I was also lucky enough to find a replacement steering wheel on flea bay as well. I can't make any claims about durability yet but the paint seemed to adhere really well. I will gladly try to answer questions about this project. Thanks.
I had to fabricate the stereo/ignition panel as it was in pretty bad shape.
I purchased a panel of 1/4" ABS plastic from flea bay to make this panel. All panels are plastic and were sanded down to 320 grit. I then sprayed them with Valspar Paint for Plastics. (No primer as per instructions on can) On the two side panels I printed new decals using ink-jet decal paper. (It is recommended to spray a few light coats of acrylic on the decal paper after printing to "set" the decals and prevent them from bleeding under the top coats of clear) After the color topcoats on the side panels dried I knocked the gloss of of these with some 400 grit paper. I then applied 5-6 coats of Valspar clear gloss, let them dry well, and then applied the decals. After the decals dried I sprayed an additional 15 coats of clear gloss to "bury" the decals to protect them. I ended up masking off the gauges rather than removing them. I chose not to apply any clear on the gauge panel as it looks pretty good with just the color coats. Finally, I replaced most of the switches and circuit breakers. I was also lucky enough to find a replacement steering wheel on flea bay as well. I can't make any claims about durability yet but the paint seemed to adhere really well. I will gladly try to answer questions about this project. Thanks.
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