Theresamarie11
New Member
Hi all, not sure if this is the right place or not, but if not I'm sure it'll be moved to the right place.:smt001
I recently purchased a 300DA which had the very well featured Ray 230 radio installed in it. The radio, like many others of this vintage from Raymarine has a greenish cord which is rotting away and Raymarine has discontinued sourcing any replacement cords or handsets. The fix many seem to have gone towards is purchasing the new version of this radio (240), which is an expensive proposition when the 230 for most is still going strong and well featured.
So after trying a few things like wrapping the broken areas with electrical tape which was hideous, I tried this liquid plastic call plasti-dip. While not the original color (I only found black locally), the plasti-dip totally encases the old rotted cord, is still flexible, and at least for me does the job. The stuff is pretty tenacious so unless it rots away like the original cord, should give me some life on the radio. It's kind of a rubber tire black color now, so if you couldn't stand that then you shouldn't do it.
Process I used:
Before I used the plasti-dip I first cleaned the cord with spray 9, which is a real PITA and my cord was really dirty.. I bagged both the handset and the dash holder and two connectors that go to the radio). Then i used 2 kinds of plasti-dip (spray and dip). After cleaning I sprayed a few coats on the cord and saw that it adhered well but the bigger gaps in some of the breaks were not filling in that fast. So then I went to the dip, and one dip filled almost everything perfectly. I am going to selectively do another dip in a couple of places but that should do it. It's a real mess, and the stuff is nasty, so plan accordingly and do it somewhere with good ventilation and lots of news papers or cardboard around and have a way to hang it up to dry. Amazingly, the stuff adheres well and I only had a couple of drips which are easy to deal with. I would also hang it by both ends so there is no weight that stretches out the cord while the plasti-dip dries.
I recently purchased a 300DA which had the very well featured Ray 230 radio installed in it. The radio, like many others of this vintage from Raymarine has a greenish cord which is rotting away and Raymarine has discontinued sourcing any replacement cords or handsets. The fix many seem to have gone towards is purchasing the new version of this radio (240), which is an expensive proposition when the 230 for most is still going strong and well featured.
So after trying a few things like wrapping the broken areas with electrical tape which was hideous, I tried this liquid plastic call plasti-dip. While not the original color (I only found black locally), the plasti-dip totally encases the old rotted cord, is still flexible, and at least for me does the job. The stuff is pretty tenacious so unless it rots away like the original cord, should give me some life on the radio. It's kind of a rubber tire black color now, so if you couldn't stand that then you shouldn't do it.
Process I used:
Before I used the plasti-dip I first cleaned the cord with spray 9, which is a real PITA and my cord was really dirty.. I bagged both the handset and the dash holder and two connectors that go to the radio). Then i used 2 kinds of plasti-dip (spray and dip). After cleaning I sprayed a few coats on the cord and saw that it adhered well but the bigger gaps in some of the breaks were not filling in that fast. So then I went to the dip, and one dip filled almost everything perfectly. I am going to selectively do another dip in a couple of places but that should do it. It's a real mess, and the stuff is nasty, so plan accordingly and do it somewhere with good ventilation and lots of news papers or cardboard around and have a way to hang it up to dry. Amazingly, the stuff adheres well and I only had a couple of drips which are easy to deal with. I would also hang it by both ends so there is no weight that stretches out the cord while the plasti-dip dries.
