Adding lights & speakers

[Trojan]

Anyone know if there is a wire tray or tube in the head liner in the hard top on a 1973 /43ft DC.? I would like to add flood lights on the stern top and rear speakers on the aft deck ceiling. I don't want to see junky old wires hanging down from the side walls or the top. Bill

 

[UNIQUE_NAME]

are you asking about the salon ceiling or the aft cabin ceiling?

 

[Trojan]

The AFT Deck roof, Fly bridge floor. Its a fiberglass sandwich. Bill

 

[Tom Ipock]

Can't say about your model, but on my boat, the wiring for the stern light which is on the top deck was wired with a wire embeded in the coring and under the glass. I tried to figure out how to snake wires back there and no go. I wound up running an exposed strip on the roof back to the area I needed power for the flood lights.
Tom

 

[Trojan]

There are wires feeding the three overhead dome lights. Maybe if I pull them down I can see a way to get to the back of the roof from there. I really don't want to run exposed wires. Bill

 

[UNIQUE_NAME]

i haven't had the aft headliner down but the salon has a lip at each seam which is folded up and stapled to the backside of a 1" x 4" wood cross beam. the salon ceiling wiring (lights, speaker wires) is run thru holes drilled in the wood. it is supported with wire ties about every 6". hope this helps.

 

[Will]

Bill,

There is a dome light in the center of the hardtop on my 1980 43' DC that I can't get to work. I've toned it down the centerline rib in the underside of the hardtop to the fiberglass area over the windshshield. From there it tones over to the stbd about a foot and a half then fades out. Plans show that that cable should terminate at the area of the window wiper terminal block accessed through one of the access panels in the salon overhead. Wires for the wipers run from that TB up the stbd side of the center windshield. However there is no tone there for the dome light. Unfortunately, I've not had a chance to really look into it.

In short, I suspect that there is a channel in the center line rib of the hardtop running fore and aft. The channel enters the fiberglass area at the forward end of the hardtop and wires could be run to the stbd side of the center windshield then down a windshield channel to the ceiling in the salon. From there, you could get into the cable runs for the steering station. You could start by checking out the center dome light in your hardtop, if you have one.

Let me know if you have any luck. Someday, I'd like to move my stern light up there from the transome (and get my dome light to work).

Will