Winter Upgrades

[Wakeman22]

Next up was another hole. This is the cutout for the switch panel. I was going to place it under the speed set but there was just not enough room especialy in the area behind the switchs. I will save this area for switches for the shower and heater. I used a dremel with a small cutoff wheel to cut with.

[Iwndr]

Looking good wakeman! Nice work

[Wakeman22]

Part of the wiring is the switch setup. This is the switch panel set up. 5 Switches in the snap together bezels. These should be considered as it lines them up well and leaves a little more working room around the switch when you do the cut out.

Part of the wiring of the swiches is the ground that conects to each switch for the indicator light. The other is for the B+ to each swith looped to each center lug. These will be conected to the circut breaked and to the ground bus.

[Wakeman22]

Next up will be the manifold and pump installation. More holes for the drain thru hulls and then the hose and connect up the wire harness.

When working with the 3M product be careful. It is a messy and sticky product. Have rags handy and do not lay them any where you do not want the clean up to get. It will. And it does not clean up too well. You have been warned.

It will take some time to cure so be patient not to move the thru hulls to much. I found that it is better to leave the tape on as you start to file down the edges of the gel coat. It will chip pieces off easier if the tape is removed first.

[chpthril]

Next up will be the manifold and pump installation. More holes for the drain thru hulls and then the hose and connect up the wire harness.

When working with the 3M product be careful. It is a messy and sticky product. Have rags handy and do not lay them any where you do not want the clean up to get. It will. And it does not clean up too well. You have been warned.

It will take some time to cure so be patient not to move the thru hulls to much. I found that it is better to leave the tape on as you start to file down the edges of the gel coat. It will chip pieces off easier if the tape is removed first.

Acetone (nail polish remover in a pinch) works well for clean up.

[Wakeman22]

What about a small spot on carpet?

[skippabcool]

Looks good Wake

[chpthril]

What about a small spot on carpet?

Goof-Off, but test in a small hidden area just to make sure it doesn't take out the coloring of the carpet. There's a professional grade product made by a company called KENT. Its called Acrysol. Ive used it on automotive carpet, upholstery and headliner material.

[duffymahoney]

Where are your 5 bags going?

[IDBoating]

Suggestion: Chamfer holes in fiberglass with ultra-fine sandpaper rather than a file. You'll get a nice beveled edge and no chipping at all.

Nice job on the soldering+heat shrink! Lots of people use crimped (mechanical) splices but your approach is overwhelmingly superior. BTW, it's possible to skip the electrical tape and use larger heat shrink to group the wires (i.e. heat shrink around the smaller heat shrink). It really gives the end product a factory finished look.

I too used the dremel + wheel approach for the switch cutouts. I didn't use the bezel, but now that I see yours I wish I had - it looks great.

Excellent work, love the thread. Keep us posted!

[Wakeman22]

Where are your 5 bags going?

I am going with the intergrated sack up front. I have one each on each side under the seats and one each jumbo surf sack in each locker. I did not go with the enzo sack do to the sloshing of the water if partialy filled for wakeboarding. The total for the two sacks is very close to that of the enzo.

[Wakeman22]

Thanks for the complements and also the suggestions. I should have gone with double heat shrink around the splices. I did not consider it. I did solder because my experience with crimp conectors has not been to good. In a wet inviroment they seem to corrode and fail. I am going to use a dielectric grease on the conectors to help prevent moisture and corrosion in them.

Today I got the manifold done and the pumps installed. I ran most of the wires to thier locations. Next up will be the hose and drain through hulls.

[Wakeman22]

Missing a step in the fill thru hull work was cutting the thru hulls down to get them and the valve closer to the bootom of the bilge. The 1 1/4" after it was cut had to be reworked as the elbow would only grab a few threads.

I put it on my lathe and turned it down some and cut new threads on it.

[Wakeman22]

Continuing on the ballast upgrade I got the wires ran to the swiches and the fill pumps. Wires are run to the drain pump locations. Below is a shot of the back of the switches before they were placed in the dash. There are 20 conection points on this switch panel. Also a shot of the switch panel installed.

[Wakeman22]

The fill pumps are in and the wire harness is conected to them. I ran 3 pumps on one manifold and 2 on the second. I set it up so that when filling the two sacks on the surf side they are filling from different manifolds so as not to loose any flow from competetion with each other. The manifolds are supported by a section of PVC pipe placed under the end of the manifold. This will help hole them in place during the hard bumps the boat is subjected too. Each manifold also has a shut off valve just in case the unfortunate happens. When running the hose and wires I used colored tape to help in keeping locations correct. Below are the picks of pumps, valves and wiring. Next up is the sack placement, drain pumps and drain thru hulls.

As a note. The hose needs to be heated up and expanded in order to fit over the nipples. I tried many techniques and found that a pair of electrical pliers inserted in the end after heating and pulled open worked the best.