TopShot25
Well-known member
I hope this works I'm copying it from another site
Been working on my new Parker, getting ready for the upcoming season. Actually just setting it up period and I’m finally making some real progress. This gets me to the point where I’m just adding things now and not really making any drastic changes that will keep me off the water.
As some of you may know this has been a dream of mine for like the last 15 years. I may seem a little anal about this, (and I am, sorry that’s just me) but this is how I pictured my dream machine and I may as well do it right. The reason I’m sharing my story and showing my pictures is that I’m amazed how awesome these things can work out with a little bit of work. With the help of this board and a few people you can custom fit your boat any way you want. It’s awesome!
First, here are my speaker panels from start to finish. Here is what I started with. There’s a little extra space not really big enough to do much with. So I used this space to house my speakers.
First I made a speaker box that I could mount without having to drill any extra holes. I just used the existing machine screws that were there. This let me keep the box off the deck also. Sprayed the inside of the box with undercoating to help the speaker.
Made the front cover out of ¼ inch plywood and coated it with resin and finished it with gel coat to match the boat. By the way, got the gel coat from Parker. I think it was like 12 bucks or something for a quart. No color matching, ready to use.
If anyone knows any secrets about spraying gel coat please let me know it would make my future projects much easier.
Anyway here is the finished kick panel all I need now is the almond colored silicone to seal it up and were done.
Now for project number two, I wanted a small control panel for my deck light switches. When I came up with my plan my neighbor talked me into adding a remote for my stereo. So I came up with a box that I could put above the doorway and under the rooftop. It’s also right on the other side of the doorway from all the electrical wiring coming down from my tower. Perfect place and it worked out great. Now this is my first real project with fiberglass. I mean total fabrication. I made the piece out of wood and made a mold from that. Had problems with the gel coat in the beginning but that’s a long story and I think I have it figured out now. Anyway made the piece out of fiberglass and then coated it with gel coat (hard way). All in all I learned a lot and it worked. This was actually just a test run to see if I could do it. The part I was really interested in is going to be the housing for my tachs. on my dash. Since I put the big Furuno chart plotter in the dash I did not have room for them and I had to move them up on top.
Now that I know I can do it, I will soon be replacing this temporary housing.
I ended up very happy with this as it looks like it came right from the Parker factory. That is one of my goals, to make everything look like it was made for the boat.
I just finished my biggest project on the boat, my new battery system. I must say thanks to Mark Wisch on this as it was his idea, and he took the time to show me his boat so I would know where to start. Let me just say this was a big undertaking, but worth it. I added four 6-volt batteries as my house bank. Although my wife thought I was freaking nuts cutting a hole in the floor of my new boat!
When I returned from looking over Mark’s boat I knew I could do it so I just started drilling and cutting. First I drilled a hole where I thought the center of the compartment would be. Then after checking to make sure I was in the right place. I started cutting the hole bigger and bigger while making sure I was centered on where I wanted the hatch to be.
When the hole was big enough to start clearing out the compartment, we found a shovel worked the best to remove the foam. That foam was a major pain in the a**. Here’s my neighbor Ritchie with the shovel.
After cleaning out all the foam we needed to create a floor to this compartment. This is the bottom of the hull so I had to shape some wood to match the angle of the hull and glass them in.
With the supports now in place I cut the bottom to fit. A little resin and some screws and the floor was firmly in place. The same with my hatch supports on the sides.
I made a battery tray out of plastic and here is my new battery compartment all wired up and ready to go.
Soon I will be installing the inverter and a microwave. Now the Horndog is ready for some serious time on the water. I hope this inspires someone to make a few things for their own boat. It sure gave me a lot of confidence and proved to me that it’s worth it.
Been working on my new Parker, getting ready for the upcoming season. Actually just setting it up period and I’m finally making some real progress. This gets me to the point where I’m just adding things now and not really making any drastic changes that will keep me off the water.
As some of you may know this has been a dream of mine for like the last 15 years. I may seem a little anal about this, (and I am, sorry that’s just me) but this is how I pictured my dream machine and I may as well do it right. The reason I’m sharing my story and showing my pictures is that I’m amazed how awesome these things can work out with a little bit of work. With the help of this board and a few people you can custom fit your boat any way you want. It’s awesome!
First, here are my speaker panels from start to finish. Here is what I started with. There’s a little extra space not really big enough to do much with. So I used this space to house my speakers.
First I made a speaker box that I could mount without having to drill any extra holes. I just used the existing machine screws that were there. This let me keep the box off the deck also. Sprayed the inside of the box with undercoating to help the speaker.
Made the front cover out of ¼ inch plywood and coated it with resin and finished it with gel coat to match the boat. By the way, got the gel coat from Parker. I think it was like 12 bucks or something for a quart. No color matching, ready to use.
If anyone knows any secrets about spraying gel coat please let me know it would make my future projects much easier.
Anyway here is the finished kick panel all I need now is the almond colored silicone to seal it up and were done.
Now for project number two, I wanted a small control panel for my deck light switches. When I came up with my plan my neighbor talked me into adding a remote for my stereo. So I came up with a box that I could put above the doorway and under the rooftop. It’s also right on the other side of the doorway from all the electrical wiring coming down from my tower. Perfect place and it worked out great. Now this is my first real project with fiberglass. I mean total fabrication. I made the piece out of wood and made a mold from that. Had problems with the gel coat in the beginning but that’s a long story and I think I have it figured out now. Anyway made the piece out of fiberglass and then coated it with gel coat (hard way). All in all I learned a lot and it worked. This was actually just a test run to see if I could do it. The part I was really interested in is going to be the housing for my tachs. on my dash. Since I put the big Furuno chart plotter in the dash I did not have room for them and I had to move them up on top.
Now that I know I can do it, I will soon be replacing this temporary housing.
I ended up very happy with this as it looks like it came right from the Parker factory. That is one of my goals, to make everything look like it was made for the boat.
I just finished my biggest project on the boat, my new battery system. I must say thanks to Mark Wisch on this as it was his idea, and he took the time to show me his boat so I would know where to start. Let me just say this was a big undertaking, but worth it. I added four 6-volt batteries as my house bank. Although my wife thought I was freaking nuts cutting a hole in the floor of my new boat!
When I returned from looking over Mark’s boat I knew I could do it so I just started drilling and cutting. First I drilled a hole where I thought the center of the compartment would be. Then after checking to make sure I was in the right place. I started cutting the hole bigger and bigger while making sure I was centered on where I wanted the hatch to be.
When the hole was big enough to start clearing out the compartment, we found a shovel worked the best to remove the foam. That foam was a major pain in the a**. Here’s my neighbor Ritchie with the shovel.
After cleaning out all the foam we needed to create a floor to this compartment. This is the bottom of the hull so I had to shape some wood to match the angle of the hull and glass them in.
With the supports now in place I cut the bottom to fit. A little resin and some screws and the floor was firmly in place. The same with my hatch supports on the sides.
I made a battery tray out of plastic and here is my new battery compartment all wired up and ready to go.
Soon I will be installing the inverter and a microwave. Now the Horndog is ready for some serious time on the water. I hope this inspires someone to make a few things for their own boat. It sure gave me a lot of confidence and proved to me that it’s worth it.
