New Member 2003 262 8.1l GXi From NE Texas

[jasonm]

Hey all,

I have been checking out the chat and have made a few posts for the past week. Well, today was the day that I got take the boat bought on a water test and ended up bringing it home.

Here are some pictures of the boat.

IMG_5685-1.jpeg

IMG_5677-2.jpeg

IMG_5675-1.jpeg

[Big Block Power]

Welcome from Wisconsin. You should love the mellow yellow.
If you hold your phone in landscape mode it will post the pictures correctly.

[Bobo87]

Howdy from SE TX! Gorgeous boat! Love the color.

[AsLan7]

.
Hey JasonM. Welcome to the Cobalt chat forum. So glad you found us!

Btw, I like Lyin’ Around or Bow Wow in reference to your dogs.

.....and you are going to LOVE the 260 series Cobalt. Phenomenal machine. Great to see you got the rare stainless arch combined with the extended swim platform and largest HP Volvo engine. . Were you able to score the rare transom filler cushions as well? I see they originally came with your 262.

First upgrade— stainless cup holders.
Looking forward to more pics.

And again, welcome aboard mate!
.

[Cobalt262]

Hey jasonm

Welcome from Massachusetts!

[Islander208]

Welcome aboard from San Antonio and a fellow yellow Cobalt owner. Great looking boat.

[tgrace98]

Welcome from St Louis/Table Rock Lake! Nice clean 262 you have there! You are going to love it! I look forward to seeing more pictures

[jasonm]

.
Hey JasonM. Welcome to the Cobalt chat forum. So glad you found us!

Btw, I like Lyin’ Around or Bow Wow in reference to your dogs.

.....and you are going to LOVE the 260 series Cobalt. Phenomenal machine. Great to see you got the rare stainless arch combined with the extended swim platform and largest HP Volvo engine. . Were you able to score the rare transom filler cushions as well? I see they originally came with your 262.

First upgrade— stainless cup holders.
Looking forward to more pics.

And again, welcome aboard mate!
.

Thanks everyone for the warm welcome. My wife and I grew up with the Lake of the Ozarks and boats. I had moved away for years with the military and never got a boat. We had our daughter almost 10 years ago and we have sort of been waiting for her to get into the lake scene before we made the move to get a boat again. This summer we took her to our childhood lake and she loves the coving out and being pulled in a Big Mabel (at about 7mph- barely fast enough for it to plane out) so the 8.1 will just be at about idle speed, I guess good on gas mileage, lol.

It also has the cabin heater and I do believe it has the cushions. There are some cushions in the storage bin in front of the helm (I need to get my nautical terms brushed off) steering wheel area. I got home late last night and will investigate further this morning. Last night I wanted to try and get the bimini top up. I ordered a few more pins for the top and some new straps. I got a new covered ordered from Bald Mike. I also got the sony stereo ordered too. I hope it wont be too hard to wire in. My daughter's only request is she could play her Dove Cameron songs...easier to install a BT stereo than try and make mp3 CDs from computers with CD drives. I am also thinking with BT it would be easier to add new songs with Apple Music.

I am thinking battery charger/tender, retractable rear tie down straps, install of stereo head unit. It might be a little while before I add and amp and speakers. I will see if the stock ones meet our needs. I am thinking I might get the entire boat ceramic coated. The guy who did my car was awesome and said he can do the whole boat (down to the porta potty) . There is about a half dollar size chunk of paint missing. Can anyone direct me to a forum thread for repairing that? I want to fix that before ceramic coating.

I am looking forward to many fun memories out on the water!

Thanks in advance to everyone!
Jason

[Ytmsn]

Welcome from Oklahoma! Welcome both to the forum ANd the 260 series! You will be a standout with the only yellow 262 on the site, and you are going to love that boat.

[tgrace98]

.
Hey JasonM. Welcome to the Cobalt chat forum. So glad you found us!

Btw, I like Lyin’ Around or Bow Wow in reference to your dogs.

.....and you are going to LOVE the 260 series Cobalt. Phenomenal machine. Great to see you got the rare stainless arch combined with the extended swim platform and largest HP Volvo engine. . Were you able to score the rare transom filler cushions as well? I see they originally came with your 262.

First upgrade— stainless cup holders.
Looking forward to more pics.

And again, welcome aboard mate!
.

Thanks everyone for the warm welcome. My wife and I grew up with the Lake of the Ozarks and boats. I had moved away for years with the military and never got a boat. We had our daughter almost 10 years ago and we have sort of been waiting for her to get into the lake scene before we made the move to get a boat again. This summer we took her to our childhood lake and she loves the coving out and being pulled in a Big Mabel (at about 7mph- barely fast enough for it to plane out) so the 8.1 will just be at about idle speed, I guess good on gas mileage, lol.

It also has the cabin heater and I do believe it has the cushions. There are some cushions in the storage bin in front of the helm (I need to get my nautical terms brushed off) steering wheel area. I got home late last night and will investigate further this morning. Last night I wanted to try and get the bimini top up. I ordered a few more pins for the top and some new straps. I got a new covered ordered from Bald Mike. I also got the sony stereo ordered too. I hope it wont be too hard to wire in. My daughter's only request is she could play her Dove Cameron songs...easier to install a BT stereo than try and make mp3 CDs from computers with CD drives. I am also thinking with BT it would be easier to add new songs with Apple Music.

I am thinking battery charger/tender, retractable rear tie down straps, install of stereo head unit. It might be a little while before I add and amp and speakers. I will see if the stock ones meet our needs. I am thinking I might get the entire boat ceramic coated. The guy who did my car was awesome and said he can do the whole boat (down to the porta potty) . There is about a half dollar size chunk of paint missing. Can anyone direct me to a forum thread for repairing that? I want to fix that before ceramic coating.

I am looking forward to many fun memories out on the water!

Thanks in advance to everyone!
Jason

Sounds like you have quite the plan charted out. I looked into ceramic coating my 262 but the guy in my area that does it wanted around 2500 bucks to coat the exterior and all of the interior. That was to much for my budget.

As far as stereo goes. The stock Sony speakers are crap. I’ve made mine last most of this season but it’s been tough. This fall/winter I’m doing a stereo upgrade for sure. Looking at doing 6 speakers with an amp. Then a small sub and possibly tower speakers.

[cmattj]

Welcome from California! Glad you snagged that one up as it’s got all the bells..

Let’s here your captains report soon as those hulls run fast as you should have great cruise speed plus touch 62 when ever you want.

[jasonm]

Tgrace98,
What sort of speakers are you looking into? Who was going to ceramic coat your boat for only $2500? I was quoted $4600 for a lifetime warranty. Basically every year the guy will almost recoat it if needed. That was for everything...bow to stern.

I did run it out on the water. It is fast. I had 4 decent sized adults out on Lake Hamilton. It is hard not to get into those 420 ponies. At about 4000rpm it was running 45ish mph. It handled great. With the extra extended swim platform and the Captains call open it sounded great. With it off, it was super quiet. I wanted to try it WOT, but at 45 it already felt like we were screaming on the water passing people left and right. It wants to run. No rattles or anything. Super happy with it.

I got into the boat today and located the back cushions. I wiped everything down with Aerospace 303 protectant. It will be a couple months before I got my covered car port for it, so I wanted to also get the covers on.

IMG_5709.jpeg

Any recommendations on products to get the "mold" type stains out of the fabric on the seat cushions?

IMG_5702.jpeg

I already added some retractable straps to the trailer.

IMG_5699.jpeg

[NautiGirl]

You will LOCE LOVE LOCE those boat buckles... Best thing ever!

[tgrace98]

Tgrace98,
What sort of speakers are you looking into? Who was going to ceramic coat your boat for only $2500? I was quoted $4600 for a lifetime warranty. Basically every year the guy will almost recoat it if needed. That was for everything...bow to stern.

I did run it out on the water. It is fast. I had 4 decent sized adults out on Lake Hamilton. It is hard not to get into those 420 ponies. At about 4000rpm it was running 45ish mph. It handled great. With the extra extended swim platform and the Captains call open it sounded great. With it off, it was super quiet. I wanted to try it WOT, but at 45 it already felt like we were screaming on the water passing people left and right. It wants to run. No rattles or anything. Super happy with it.

I got into the boat today and located the back cushions. I wiped everything down with Aerospace 303 protectant. It will be a couple months before I got my covered car port for it, so I wanted to also get the covers on.
IMG_5709.jpeg

Any recommendations on products to get the "mold" type stains out of the fabric on the seat cushions?
IMG_5702.jpeg

I already added some retractable straps to the trailer.
IMG_5699.jpeg

Yeah the 2500 was for 1 application then I would ha e to pay to have another treatment every couple years. So it would add up to that and then some.

I’ve always had great luck with JL marine audio so that is probably the route I will go. I’m meeting my installer next weekend to go over what I want.

As far as getting the mold off those seats. I’ve had really good luck with Vinyl sauce. It might take a couple applications but I absolutely love it. I wipe down my whole interior with it every weekend and my seats besides a few cracks here and there look brand new.

[jasonm]

Let me know what you go with and what the installer says. I am have not torn into anything yet, but where is the amp or where would you place it