Reproduction Acrylic for 75ish Nautique

I know this isn't a real big deal but I'm having a local plastics place in Orlando cut exact replicas of the plastic that the 2 speedo's mount to. They gave me a ball park price of around $30 each. Mine is spider webbed pretty bad. I was thinking of having maybe 5 or so made so if anybody is interested ill ship you one for cost plus shipping from 32757. They will be ready for SJRR FYI.

I wish I had a better reason but my ignorance went in to the shop with only a picture of the "plastic" installed as I did not plan on going there yet it was just a pipe dream. I told the lady, secretary as she was the only one there that I needed this roughly 12x12 "plastic" duplicated, several holes drilled, one about 3.5". She says a piece of acrylic like that cut and drilled would be roughly $30. Didn't sound bad to me, never thought anything else of it.

Then you asked why acrylic and not polycarbonate and I thought " what the heck s the difference?" Maybe I'm making a mistake? So I did a lil bit of research on acrylic vs polycarbonate to get an idea. Seems to me in this application acrylic will be suffice especially bc of the low cost. I read the poly will yellow in the sun and the yellow is throughout, not a surface yellow that could polish. The poly is of course way stronger but if I need that kind of strength then I'm doing something wrong. The acrylic will chip easiercwhencdrilked near the edge but as I'm having them drill to the dimensions of my old one this isn't a concern of mine with the exception possible switching to black face Airguide as Trbenj pointed to my attention today I guess the pick up tubes are in diff locations but that still isn't near the edge. I guess the acrylic will spider web and not the poly, when the "guy" is there next time I'll ask acrylic vs polycarbonate. But if its only $3~ and 10 screws, if I get 4 years out of the acrylic I'm happy. My searches on poly vs acrylic also turned up a sailing forum that had this debate and overall acrylic won out over polycarbonate.

Is there another way to see this, am I missing something? I appreciate bringing this up as I never gave it a bit of thought at first, she could've said acrylic, polycarbonate or myoplastifusedbicarbonate treated with a flux capacitor and I wouldn't have thought much of it. If anybody has any input chime in.

Hard I go wrong for $30 if you need a new one, even if it doesn't last...

Were the originals clear or tinted dark (black)? I know my 78 Tique had a black speedo mount, could have sworn the SN used the same.

Todd, you get my email?

On the white dash '73, '74, '75 They were a greenish tint plexi.
On the black dash, I seem to remember a real dark tint.
And yes, finishing the edges gets a bit labor intensive.

I file the cut edge, then wet sand and polish.

I've seen some CC's with the smoked. I'm thinking late 70's. Our two are clear but now that it was mentioned I seem to remember a greenish hue years ago.

Whew, sitting at Al's at Wooten park right now and it's warming up.

For anyone not knowing how to modify a standard drill bit for a zero degree cutting angle :drilling plastic especially acrylic

I decided to go with the Smoked. Mine is clear/clearish. I looked at my dads 75 this weekend and his smoked so I don't know where I got the idea of a green hue from. When I took the old one off it took part of the black paint (well I guess it's paint) in a small area around a screw so that was part of the determining factor for the smoked plus I'm refacing my Airguides with the white decals so that should look real good. I'm picking the plastics up tomorrow morning. Hope they match up good.

Al, any luck getting the mph version of that face made up?

Orlando76 wrote: Has anybody played with restoring the MK27 tach

Yes ask away not cheap,and it takes a l o n g time. I had one redone but the face needs to be done yet and Steve had his done 1st and seems happy with the job. They will both be at SJRR

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