1999 Cobalt 232 restoration

[akorcovelos]

Yep, can’t wait to see it all done.

[Big Block Power]

Just scroll down a few. Lol

Eh? I don’t see any finished pics?

You mean a the rest of the wooden panels? I didn't get to do those yet. I ordered a new gen2 Mercruiser Quicksilver throttle/shifter. And new LED bulbs to replace all the bulbs in the dash, interior, and navigation lights. When those come in I'll do the remaining wood panels at the same time

So far here is the before and after.

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Hopefully you're guages and dash lights work after you change them to led. Mine messed up the guages due to the grd loop wiring. I had to change them back. Just a fyi.

[baktasht]

Hopefully you're guages and dash lights work after you change them to led. Mine messed up the guages due to the grd loop wiring. I had to change them back. Just a fyi.

Oh, interesting. I've never run into that before. Was it due to the bulb type you used?

[Big Block Power]

Hopefully you're guages and dash lights work after you change them to led. Mine messed up the guages due to the grd loop wiring. I had to change them back. Just a fyi.

Oh, interesting. I've never run into that before. Was it due to the bulb type you used?

Well it could have been. It was about 5 years ago. But most leds work the same.

[baktasht]

Stainless steel flange came in. Proper sized 1 1/8" for the new high flow pump. Got it all installed along with 3M 5200 and new flex hose. Tested it out and holy moly it flows a lot. Great upgrade.

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[baktasht]

New xTreme Side Mount controller arrived today. Will try to install it this weekend. At first glance, it is far superior to the gen1 and gen2 mercruiser/quicksilver controller. This thing is pretty darn nice. We'll see how it works out once it's installed:

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[baktasht]

For those asked if I ever got around to cleaning the bilge area, yes, I did. Just used soap and water and a scrub brush. Came out really clean. Going to go back over it with Star Brite Bilge cleaner in a couple weeks. Here's what it looks like so far, night and day difference from before. It's cleaned up pretty darn nice. Did the entire bilge area and also the ski locker.

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[baktasht]

And here's the ski locker.

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[baktasht]

Thee Swimplatforms.com extended swim platform. It added about 30 inches or so to the length of the boat. So if this boat was about 23.5 feet before, then it's around 26ft now. Here is the ladder on the new extended swim platform for those who asked.

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[baktasht]

And for those who asked about the dual battery switches, I mounted them side by side right where the factory one was. They are in the compartment under the rear sets. The one on the left turns on the 2x house batteries which I have wired to run the stereo, amps, gps/fishfinder. The one on the right when set to "1" connects the 1x engine battery, when set to "2" connects the 2x house batteries to the engine systems, and when set to "all" connects all batteries to the engine (so that you can charge all batteries). When driving around normally I set the left one to "on" and the right one to "all" so that all batteries are being charged. When anchoring and hanging out with the engine off, I set the left one to "on" and the right one to "off".

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[cmattj]

Looks great.
Are you considering leaving one battery direct for charging or cycling 1-2 so it won’t create such a large amp load on your alternator? Seems that charging 3 would be a work out.

[baktasht]

Looks great.
Are you considering leaving one battery direct for charging or cycling 1-2 so it won’t create such a large amp load on your alternator? Seems that charging 3 would be a work out.

If either bank of batteries is run really low then I would charge one bank at a time to avoid stressing the alternator. Otherwise under normal operation I've run all on at the same time for normal driving and it has done fine.

[cmattj]

Looks great.
Are you considering leaving one battery direct for charging or cycling 1-2 so it won’t create such a large amp load on your alternator? Seems that charging 3 would be a work out.

If either bank of batteries is run really low then I would charge one bank at a time to avoid stressing the alternator. Otherwise under normal operation I've run all on at the same time for normal driving and it has done fine.

Sounds good .
And the platform looks terrific!

[akorcovelos]

Clean! I hope mine comes out that good. Interested in the sea star controller, what made you go with it? Take lots of pics when you install it!

[baktasht]

Clean! I hope mine comes out that good. Interested in the sea star controller, what made you go with it? Take lots of pics when you install it!

Thanks!

A few things. 1) The Sea Star works with all different types of cables, where the Gen2 Quicksilver controller requires swapping from Gen1 to Gen2 cables. I checked my cables and they seem to be in good shape. 2) The newest Sea Star xTreme controllers just look so much darn nicer than the Quicksilver Gen2 controllers. 3) From the feedback I've read and asking a couple of marine technicians the opinion seems to be that the SS xTreme controller operates smoother than the Quicksilver Gen2.

We'll see how it goes. I'll give you guys my thoughts once I get it installed.