Our original electrical panel was in pretty bad shape. It may have been just barely adequate when the boat was new.
No Worries was not built with many 12V luxuries, only lights. All the AC was wired for for 220V so it was all undersized. Now that we want to add more toys and gadgets it was apparent that the old panel and boat wiring needed to go.
At first, I thought I could save the back panel and just enlarge the hole for the new panel. After ripping off the old frame, I decided this wasn't practical.
The panel was glued onto a wooden frame so it had to be cut out and chiseled off. I wasn't sure how much of the old framing I could use for the new back panel so I didn't want to just start cutting away.
Finally, with a big enough hammer, the old back panel was off. I did need to cut off a portion of the old frame after all. This meant that I would need to put up something stronger than the thin paneling I'd just removed.
I taped up the old back panel and used it for a template to cut out a new back panel from 1/2" marine plywood.
I glued a square of plywood onto the hull to attach bus blocks to.
The back panel was cut and sanded. Finally everything fit into place.
After several coats of paint, the new back panel was screwed onto the old wall. No glue this time just in case it ever has to come back off.
The panel was screwed onto the hinged door and it was ready to wire up. I used an internal magnetic latch for the door, really cool. You can only open the door using a magnet.
Looks a bit messy here but I'll clean up all the wiring once I have all the wires hooked up.
The panel is up and running and everything works great. No smoke. No fires. Not even any sparks.
New outlets, both 110V and 12V.
New outlets and wiring.
Completed.