1997 Mirrocraft 18' aluminum fish n ski

[BWR1953]

The boy came over this afternoon for Father's Day and got the small gauges out for me.



Got 'em out okay.


But they don't look so good.

 

[BWR1953]

I found out how to bench test a tach by using a battery charger. The 33 year old tach from the donor boat showed about 2500rpm, but it should only be 600rpm, so it's no good.

 

[SHSU]

Nothing like working with your boys. If anything like mine, doubles the time needed but makes it far more enjoyable then doing it by myself.

SHSU

 

[BWR1953]

OK, if it ever truly gets in the way lmk...

I cut the grass again a few days ago. The next night it rained like crazy; we got 3.5 inches in one hour.
The following morning I walked out to the garage and stopped to take these pix. Plenty of storage room at my place.
But, shoot me a message. I have a couple questions.

Part of the back yard.


Part of the front yard.


Back yard behind the garage.

 

[BWR1953]

Been pretty busy lately. Health and weather problems slowed me down a bit too. As usual.

After several weeks and many, many hours of research, I finally ordered all new gauges. I settled on Faria-Beede; their Platinum Series. They start arriving today and will continue for the next week or so. I needed 7, but only had room for 5 gauges, so I had to compromise. I ordered a dual function tach/voltmeter combo and will have to do without a water pressure gauge. I'll rig up a water pressure loss horn/light on the dash instead.

Meanwhile, I've been preparing for the installation by getting some cosmetic stuff done. Took me a few days for the first part, so I'll break it down by separate posts.

7-7-25
I started by removing the glove box.


The plastic was all weathered and peeling.




The glove box bolts were totally rusted, so will be replaced with stainless hardware.

 

[BWR1953]

7-6-25

I sanded the glove box panel down and got all the uglies off of it.



Then I sprayed on the first coat of Krylon Fusion satin blue and hung it out to dry.


Nothing like sitting and watching paint dry.


The first coat went on fine.

 

[BWR1953]

And this morning I put on the final coats of paint, replaced the hardware and mocked everything into place.





I chose this blue because it's a pretty good complement to the other blues in the boat. And I chose satin instead of gloss because I didn't want the parts to look all "plasticky."

The consoles are actually a creamy white, not the tan in the pix. That's a lighting effect.






For the helm, I'm planning on using the satin blue, but instead of black accents, I'll paint those white to match the consoles. The gauges have black faces with chrome trim bezels, so they should look good.

 

[redneck joe]

Gonna look nice.

 

[BWR1953]

The trim gauge arrived this afternoon. Naturally, I had to go mock it into place for a looksee.

I tried it in the innermost hole, but I couldn't see the gauge because of the steering wheel. Moved it to the center and that was perfect. I'll put the fuel gauge in the innermost location and leave the outermost spot for the temperature gauge.

 

[BWR1953]

Getting there. Only one gauge still in the mail.

Gonna have to get my buddy to get the steering wheel off for me next.

 

[redneck joe]

Going to be a good looking helm.