I removed the old panels and replaced them with teak louvered panels and replaced and extended the wiring by 15-20 feet.
There was an existing access hole to run wiring under the stove. I took the new wiring, ran it under the stove and then up vertically behind the stove through the hole where the original alcohol pressure tank used to live (I converted to a CNG stove when I bought the boat).

Old location of the original breaker panels

I brought the wiring up from behind the stove and then ran it aft behind the trim which covers the rough edge of the headliner. Basically I ran the wiring up under the deck where you can access the toe rail bolts. Its kind of hard to describe but you can see the teak trim on the upper left corner of the photo. If you stick your hand up behind that trim youll see (and feel) what Im
talking about.

wiring run from behind the stove

Trying to snake wiring between the forward cockpit bulkhead and the back of the cabin liner is extemely difficult and time consuming. Its easy from the exit hole (next photo) to the access port and I made the port large enough to get my full hand up in there. By adding the port I cut the time to snake something from 1/2 hour down to 2 or 3 minutes.

Access port to help snake the wiring

I drilled a 4 hole in the inner liner below where my 3 instruments were already mounted. I built a teak box with a hinged face plate to remount the breaker panels and I made it large enough to cover the backs of the instruments.

exit/access port for wiring

I like the look of the box (9 coats of varnish) and I think it looks like it belogs there. Now I dont have to get down on my hands and knees to flip breakers on/off. I also added red LED lights to each breaker so sailing at night, for example, its easy to tell which breakers are on or off.The nicest thing about this project is that now, everything is at eye level.

The finished project