1995 Cobalt 252 consolidated revitalization and fix-up thread

[thunder550]

In the spirit of consolidating my multiple threads and making you all read more words and see more pictures, I'm starting a consolidated thread to track updates and fixes to my boat. Also yt told me I should do it, so if you don't like it blame him

My journey to Cobalt ownership started with an ad on boats.com. I had seen the ad a few times in my search results but kept passing over it because it looked like it was in pretty rough condition on the exterior, and was a few years older than I was originally looking for. It was listed for $14,500, bad pictures and no description at all in the ad. Really a terrible listing.

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[thunder550]

Once I spotted the 502 in the pictures I was intrigued, decided to email the dealer (it was on consignment) to find out more. Turns out it was a 2 owner boat, 387 hours on the clock, 502, Bravo One, Captain's Call, always in fresh water, upholstery looked to be in pretty good shape, and it still had carpets, which most boats I had seen did not. Full service records available back to 2000 when the dealership changed owners.

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One of the main problems I had is I'm in Phoenix, AZ, and the boat was in dry stack storage at Deep Creek Lake, MD. Two big hurdles...first it's 2100 miles away, and second there's no trailer included. I expressed my reservations to the sales guy. His reply was that the owners were extremely motivated and he had a yard trailer that he could sell me for $1500. Thought about the numbers, transport cost, how to get up to check it out, etc, and offered $11,000 for the boat and trailer together with a wet sand and buff, thinking I'd get laughed at....but they accepted!

[thunder550]

As I was planning my trip to MD to check out the boat, sales guy called and told me that they had a problem...the trailer he offered me had bad brakes, and they weren't willing to put the money into fixing it. I got mad and almost walked away, but decided I didn't want to lose a good deal over a set of trailer brakes. Looked on Google Maps and found a Napa near the lake with a big parking lot, and came up with a plan. Posted a uShip ad and immediately had a good bid at $1585 for transport. Made my hotel and flight reservations, ordered a complete disc brake kit from eTrailer and had it shipped to my hotel on the lake. Reserved a uHaul pickup so I could drag the trailer around while I was there, packed two bags with 48 lbs of tools each (bags fly free on Southwest!) and set off to check out the boat and repair the trailer in the Napa parking lot 2100 miles from home

The uHaul truck was a newer GMC Sierra with a V8. Base model but still pretty nice. Best part, it had AZ plates! Got to the hotel and all my parts were waiting for me.

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[AsLan7]

I like it, T550! Keep more of the story and pics comin'!

[thunder550]

Checked out the boat the next morning. I've never been to a dry stack storage place before, it was really cool seeing them forklift the boats around. The 252 looked much better in person than in the pics, other than needing some TLC it was in good shape. This was the beginning of September and it hadn't been used yet, so I had to wait while they de-winterized it. Then it would fire but die, so they had to replace the IAC valve. Finally got it on the water, it all checked out so we made the deal. There were a few minor things...bilge pump didn't work (they agreed to cover replacement), one of the Captain's Call solenoids didn't work, a few minor tears in the vinyl on the sun pad, etc. Overall though I was happy with the condition.

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[thunder550]

They got to work wet sanding the boat and I got started on the trailer. My work spot was literally a 20 foot walk to Napa. Worked out great! I had most of what I needed but ended up making a few trips over to Napa to get grease, towels, gloves, etc. Started on the trailer around noon and was finished by sunset. Next day I spent measuring and adjusting the trailer bunks (they had them set in narrow and high to fit the forklift forks under the boat), installing a new set of Boat Buckles, going over everything to make sure it was set for the 2000 mile journey home.

Even got to go home a day earlier than planned

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[thunder550]

Some pics of them getting started on the wet sanding, and I got started on the "Margie" decal...

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[thunder550]

The wait from when we closed the deal on Sept 3 to when the boat was finally delivered to me on Sept 14 seemed like it took forever! In the meantime I had started ordering stuff. First up was a full set of covers to keep the gelcoat from getting all chalky again, and a new stainless Bimini top since the boat did not come with one. Got the new Bimini installed same day the boat arrived.

Delivery day pics

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[thunder550]

I thought the boat sat too far forward on the trailer, there wasn't much room between the keel and the front crossmember on the trailer. Checked out some pics of other 252's sitting on trailers to see where the axle centerline lined up with the side windshields and decided to move the boat back 9" on the trailer. Also wanted to move it down a couple inches. Maiden voyage was also trailer adjustment time. I went alone to do a shakedown run, easier to troubleshoot stuff without company. Lots of fun solo...back the trailer in, hop in the boat, motor around to the dock and tie up, walk back to the car, pull the trailer halfway up the ramp and off to the side out of the way, break out the tools, adjust stuff, put the trailer back in the water, walk back to the boat, trailer the boat, pull it out of the water, check position (got it right on the first try yay!), relaunch the boat, motor around and dock it again, walk back to car, drive up to parking lot, walk back down the ramp, then finally head out on the water People probably thought I was nuts.

Much better clearance to the crossmember and it pulled better too. And before anyone mentions tongue weight, yes I understand and made an educated decision on how far back to move the boat

See last pic above for previous position on the trailer, and first pic below for new position on the trailer:

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Couple more pics from the first day out. Maiden voyage went well. Got some belt squeal on my first takeoff (replaced those before the next outing) and couldn't use the Captain's Call since I hadn't fixed the solenoid yet. Other than that, no issues at all!

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[thunder550]

Next up, tackled the Corsa solenoid. I have a first gen system, and apparently nobody makes replacement solenoids for these anymore. I ended up buying a third gen solenoid from another member on the Cobalt Boats FB page and made an adapter harness to make it work with the first gen system. Posted a write-up here:

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Also replaced the trailer bunks, trailer lighting & wiring, and fenders:

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[thunder550]

All wrapped up and protected from the AZ sun:

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[thunder550]

Got rid of the ugly galvanized trailer wheels and junk ST tires (have I mentioned before that I HATE trailer tires, with a passion?) Well, I HATE trailer tires with a passion. Upgraded to 15" wheels just to open up more options for tire sizes. Landed on Provider Entrada H/T P235/75R15 tires with a 108 load index, which is 2205 lbs per tire. (I know a lot of people say P tires are no good for trailer, but I did HOURS of research on this and decided they were ok. In case anyone is interested, DOT/NHTSA agree, and 49 CFR 571-110 allows for passenger car tires to be used on a trailer if you derate their load capacity by 10% by dividing the rating by 1.1) (2205/1.1)x4 = 8018 lbs of capacity, I'm guessing my boat and trailer are around 6000 combined.

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[thunder550]

The original depth and water/air temp gauges were in poor condition. Screens on both were cracked. Temp gauge was inop due to a broken wire at the temp probe, and the depth finder worked but had a couple of bad LCD segments. Replaced with a new Lowrance LST-3800 gauge, which does depth and water temp together. Since I had a second hole in the dash, decided to add a cheapo GPS speedometer.

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[thunder550]

Got a platform from swimplatforms.com installed a couple week ago. The factory is here in Phoenix and they charged me half price for an off-season installation, can't beat that!

At the factory:

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In use:

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One of my favorites:

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[thunder550]

Last big fix-up I just finished this past weekend was painting the drive. Did the upper and added some reproduction decals a couple weeks ago, and just finished the lower this past weekend. This was done using the Mercury OEM gray primer and phantom black rattle cans. Also added a Simrek drive shower.

Before:

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During:

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