Newbie to boating

[Big Block Power]

If it is that faded I would by a orbital sander and lots of wet dry sand paper. 600-3000 grit. Then some compound. And polish.
On the carpet. Rip it out and put a seadek type material down and make it look like a current boat. The cracks sound like maybe it's not what they are cracked up to be.lol
Hopefully it doesn't go to the wood in the transom. Take the drain plug assembly out grind down the cracks and regel it.
Oh pictures.

[BIGGUSBLOCKUS]

Welcome from Iowa! Cobalt boats are something special. Give her love and she'll love you back.

[hoghead54]

Well HH at least it won’t be an extremely long wait. Should warm up early spring in Utah.

Is his boat guy a Cobalt dealer or local shop?

Carpet is snap-in I assume?

Speedo should work on pressure, might be cracked hose or disconnected. Might be the speedo itself is bad (just guessing).

The boat guy is a local shop..St.George.
Carpet glued with aluminum strips around the edges screwed down.
Speedo hose is disconnected but it looks like the part it connects to partially broke off, just a guess because I have no idea how boat speedos work.

[hoghead54]

If it is that faded I would by a orbital sander and lots of wet dry sand paper. 600-3000 grit. Then some compound. And polish.
On the carpet. Rip it out and put a seadek type material down and make it look like a current boat. The cracks sound like maybe it's not what they are cracked up to be.lol
Hopefully it doesn't go to the wood in the transom. Take the drain plug assembly out grind down the cracks and regel it.
Oh pictures.

I can rub the oxidation with my finger and it starts to clean up so it may not be too bad.
I'll check out the seadek.
I was giving some thought to grinding out the cracks a regeling it and seeing where it goes.

[hoghead54]

Welcome from Ooooooook lahoma where the so d comes sweeping down the plain!
Are you an Arkie? Just curious from that handle.

Our resident 190 owners are Liquid and Fosie. The latter is in the Netherlands and has a boat that runs like a stripedass ape. Nobody really knows how fast that is because nobody has been able to keep up. Liquid has one that is like new and just runs. Either of those guys start talking props you need to put your hand on your wallet.

NObody can spend your money like we can!

Glad you found us. Posting pics is easy and a requirement if you wanna hang. Especially this time of year!

No not a Okie but my Greatgrandparents did come form Enid. Hoghead is railroad slang for a engineer. I retired from Union Pacific after 38 years of being a Locomotive Engineer in Northeast Oregon and retired to Central Utah(Annabella)

[Big Block Power]

If it is that faded I would by a orbital sander and lots of wet dry sand paper. 600-3000 grit. Then some compound. And polish.
On the carpet. Rip it out and put a seadek type material down and make it look like a current boat. The cracks sound like maybe it's not what they are cracked up to be.lol
Hopefully it doesn't go to the wood in the transom. Take the drain plug assembly out grind down the cracks and regel it.
Oh pictures.

I can rub the oxidation with my finger and it starts to clean up so it may not be too bad.
I'll check out the seadek.
I was giving some thought to grinding out the cracks a regeling it and seeing where it goes.

Your going to want to sand it. Don't just buff it. Every time you pull it out from the water it will look bad again. Just do it right the first time. That will save you time in the end. Spectrum sells the gel coat just get a dremel and grind down the cracks. Hopefully the fiberglass isn't cracked.
Congrats on the RR. Thanks for making more wait hours on end At your crossings you have another member on here that is by you. Hopefully he will chime in. Or pm him. His name is Dale.

[Ytmsn]

Cool beans. I thought you might have been an Arkansas Razorback.

The gelcoat will come back to life with a little work. Actually it's slot of work but it'll will look amazing. You can probably find someone that will wet sand and buff it out if you ask around at some of the marinas or boat shops if you'd rather have it done.

There are a jillion videos on YouTube on how to restore, buff, polish, sand, and shine gelcoat.

To do it yourself get some 2000 grit sandpaper and wet sand the whole boat. Then coarse buff, fine buff, then polish. Use a variable speed buffer on low and you can use 3m or Maguire's products. It'll take at least 3 buffs to get it right, 4 for a very thourough job. Then be sure to wax it. I use Adams H2O polish and sealer but any wax will work. Just think of the people that pay lots of money to go to the gym and you're getting a good workout for free!

You can peel and scrape the old carpet up, and use acetone to get any residue up. Then fill in the screw holes. You can order a template from probably whoever your going to get your new flooring from. Seadek, Aquamarine and several other companies sell the soft spongy type stuff. It come with a sticky back and it's super easy to install. Or you could go with carpet or seagrass and put in new snaps to hold it down.

Thunder is getting a bigass crack repaired on his boat, and BB has fixed lots of them by grinding and regelling, but getting the right color will be tricky.

Your speedo line is like a piece of fuel line. The speedo is pressure activated from water coming up from a little finger looking thingy that hangs off the stern. Lots of time it will be broken, or the hose will be broken at either end. An easy fix either way.

These pictures are from a boat I did that you could write your name in. Cobalt gelcoat is notorious. The "legendary shine" will come back! It's just laying in there waiting for some love!

You should start a thread down in "Older boats" so we can follow along and help you $pend!

You have all winter, and be sure to take before and after shots. Have we told you we like pictures? Dale and Rose have an older Cobalt and its freaking beautiful. You'll have one too when you're done!

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[Driller]

Well HH at least it won’t be an extremely long wait. Should warm up early spring in Utah.

Is his boat guy a Cobalt dealer or local shop?

Carpet is snap-in I assume?

Speedo should work on pressure, might be cracked hose or disconnected. Might be the speedo itself is bad (just guessing).

The boat guy is a local shop..St.George.
Carpet glued with aluminum strips around the edges screwed down.
Speedo hose is disconnected but it looks like the part it connects to partially broke off, just a guess because I have no idea how boat speedos work.

There’s some info about the Speedo in this thread with photos:

viewtopic.php?f=47&t=752

[hoghead54]

Thanks for all the welcome's and all the help and ideas. I'll get some pictures on here soon. I've got another project in my shop that I need to get out of the way first then I can put the boat in and work on it some place warm,It's been in the single digits here at night and is supposed to start snowing in the next couple of days so....

[Big Block Power]

You should have a water pick up that looks like this and a plastic type hose that goes to your helm and your speedo. It connect to the back of it. It's pretty simple.

[hoghead54]

You should have a water pick up that looks like this and a plastic type hose that goes to your helm and your speedo. It connect to the back of it. It's pretty simple.

Mine doesn't have the part that the hose hooks up to like the one in the picture so I'll have to buy some "parts".....Thanks for the picture so I know what i'm looking for. There is another thing on the other side of the outdrive that hangs down just below the hull that has a wheel with notches on it like a old time grist mill??

[Big Block Power]

Did it look like this. What's it connected too? Someone may have put a garmin in it at one time.

[hoghead54]

Did it look like this. What's it connected too? Someone may have put a garmin in it at one time.

That is what it looks like. There is a Humminbird in the boat so it must be part of it. hopefully another mystery solved. Thanks

[Big Block Power]

Yep they used the speedo from the bird. Are there any holes on the other side from where they removed the speedo thing. Or maybe it was mounted where the wheel is? You can always buy a gps speedo if you don't want to use the bird.

[hoghead54]

The speedo and Hunninbird pickups are on opposite sides of the transom. That GPS speedo does look pretty cool though and probably more accurate than the original.