Last November I brought the 1985 Cobalt CM23 that I used to owed, and now own again, from Long Beach, CA up to Northern Cal. I originally bought in November of '89 with a partner. I stayed in the partnership for about 12 years and got out when the partnership began to wear a bit thin. My partner then spent a lot of money on the boat having it painted, reupholstered and a larger engine installed. He always wanted it to go faster so he had a 383 stroker motor built. At that time he had a closed cooling system installed When I bought the boat I knew it needed at least, a starter, and so the boat was not running at that time. Shorty after I got it up here it started raining and rained for a couple of months. About a month ago I was really able to start seeing what I had in front of me. I used this boat last July and it ran well. It was rough in several spots but it had been such a great boat I really wanted it back.
Here is a picture taken last July in Long Beach
This model was only made for 3 years with a total of 89 units made. In 1985 only 15 were made and the serial # on mine is 0015. So I have the last CM23 ever made.
The more I started taking things apart the more things started falling apart. This boat originally came with a 260 Mercruiser. The engine is mounted in the center (therefore the "CM" in the model name) of the boat and has a drive shaft back to, what was originally a pre-Alpha drive. It now has a SEI drive on it that's about 2 years old. As I was looking around I discovered some oil in the cooling system and suspected a blown head gasket.
Also, most of the wood bulkheads and cabinets had water damage to some degree. The cabinet below the helm as well as the wet bar cabinet opposite we made of plywood covered with a Formica-like product that was supposed to look like teak....it didn't. Also the carpet was trash. So I began rebuilding all of the cabinets and panels from marine plywood and decided to cover them with real teak veneer and finish them rather than go back to plastic laminate.
I have been working on the hull at my marina and the cabinetry here in my garage. This weekend I brought the boat to the house to do some work. The first was to pull out all the old carpet and then pressure wash everything.
Here she is behind my new (to me) '06 F250.
Here is a couple of shots before I started pulling carpet and old wires
At some point the boat had quite a bit of water inside along with oil leaking into the bilge. It left some black oily globs that I have been told were where algae formed on the oil. Anyway, it was all over everything and today I was able to get it all cleaned out.
Here is a before shot and a couple of shots after.
There was so much wiring that went nowhere so I started taking out everything that wasn't part of the original wiring. I have the original wiring diagram so I began labeling all that remains. Here is some of the wire I removed
I was also able to do a compression check and found every cylinder at 158 lbs except for one that's 100. Next week I will start to pull the heads and get them into the shop for a valve job.
The miraculous thing about this boat is it sat in salt water for the past 30 years. It spent very little time on a trailer and there is no soft wood on it anywhere. The floors and foredeck are rock solid. Really a testament to Cobalt and their build quality.
I will continue to document the restoration for myself and post the journey. I am really looking forward to getting this beauty back in the water.
Shawn
Here is a picture taken last July in Long Beach
This model was only made for 3 years with a total of 89 units made. In 1985 only 15 were made and the serial # on mine is 0015. So I have the last CM23 ever made.
The more I started taking things apart the more things started falling apart. This boat originally came with a 260 Mercruiser. The engine is mounted in the center (therefore the "CM" in the model name) of the boat and has a drive shaft back to, what was originally a pre-Alpha drive. It now has a SEI drive on it that's about 2 years old. As I was looking around I discovered some oil in the cooling system and suspected a blown head gasket.
Also, most of the wood bulkheads and cabinets had water damage to some degree. The cabinet below the helm as well as the wet bar cabinet opposite we made of plywood covered with a Formica-like product that was supposed to look like teak....it didn't. Also the carpet was trash. So I began rebuilding all of the cabinets and panels from marine plywood and decided to cover them with real teak veneer and finish them rather than go back to plastic laminate.
I have been working on the hull at my marina and the cabinetry here in my garage. This weekend I brought the boat to the house to do some work. The first was to pull out all the old carpet and then pressure wash everything.
Here she is behind my new (to me) '06 F250.
Here is a couple of shots before I started pulling carpet and old wires
At some point the boat had quite a bit of water inside along with oil leaking into the bilge. It left some black oily globs that I have been told were where algae formed on the oil. Anyway, it was all over everything and today I was able to get it all cleaned out.
Here is a before shot and a couple of shots after.
There was so much wiring that went nowhere so I started taking out everything that wasn't part of the original wiring. I have the original wiring diagram so I began labeling all that remains. Here is some of the wire I removed
I was also able to do a compression check and found every cylinder at 158 lbs except for one that's 100. Next week I will start to pull the heads and get them into the shop for a valve job.
The miraculous thing about this boat is it sat in salt water for the past 30 years. It spent very little time on a trailer and there is no soft wood on it anywhere. The floors and foredeck are rock solid. Really a testament to Cobalt and their build quality.
I will continue to document the restoration for myself and post the journey. I am really looking forward to getting this beauty back in the water.
Shawn
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But that is a good looking boat. Good luck with the renovation :thumbsup:
