Project Cobra

[jakew009]

Todays instalment... not a lot of progress as waiting for electric stuff to turn up, so continued with the deep clean.

First of all craned the console out:





Got my uncle to work with an electric scrubbing attachment. Any advice on the best stuff to use to clean vinyl?



Spent ages cleaning under the decks and flushing all the crap through. This is the cable duct.



The main boat is fairly clean now. Anyone know why Cobra put this inset channel with a couple of pieces of wood in it?

[charliee]

If you need to access the fuel tank you can cut in the ‘trench’ and so your repairs are below the wood fillers.

[Nos4r2]

This reminds me very much of my Ballistic when I first got it.
You may find this helpful:-

https://www.vehiclewiringproducts.co...ulticore-cable

[jakew009]

Originally Posted by charliee

The batteries are hardy in the bilge area, you have 2feet of space below the deck, that’s what I call the bilge. I have a twin battery setup and each are housed in battery boxes - port and starboard. It’s a very neat installation, with isolation switches all housed behind the rear seat, mounted up high.
What is the steering pump you refer to, is it not attached to the back of the steering wheel, something like a seastar unit?

Thanks for your help. I agree it’s not really ‘in the bilge’ but it’s more ‘on the deck’. I just think if I can squeeze the batteries into the console, it gives me loads more room in the rear locker for storing stuff like water skis, and the batteries and associated wiring stay completely dry.

The power steering pump is exactly that - an electric motor that drives a hydraulic pump that feeds the steering orbitrol. It used to on the port side by the tube, the engine battery was on the starboard side and the house battery was in the middle in front of the bilge pit.

[jakew009]

Originally Posted by Maximus

Plenty of fettleing to do but nothing structural by the looks of things...for me the Consul is defiantly the place for batteries ect (more protection ..less wiring...better weight distribution...more deck room) access my have to be improved but remote charger plug on the consul works well...eases charging (and testing) considerably.
No ...not all manufactures RIBs have seats and consuls are just screwed down,and seeing as you're doing a total strip down I'd give some serious thought to glassing them in....stronger.. neater..and dry storage!
The rest is step by step stuff...although that Consul is pretty "Swiss Cheesie" and it may well pay (depending how you want the new layout) to simply Bond and bolt in (with small SS dome heads ..looks good if done properly and very strong!) completely new piece of Decent Guage F.G in white over the whole Consul face and start again with new cut outs ect.
Either way enjoy the Build and the very Best of British with Her

Batteries and power steering pump definitely moving to the console going to be a squeeze but I can wire it all up on the bench and then move the console to the boat once it’s all done.

Don’t think I can be bothered to glass the furniture in but they already have ‘floors’ so I think if I silicon them in to stop stuff going underneath, they will be waterproof anyway.

For the dashboard I think I’m going to go with the sheets of black acrylic bonded on to the fibreglass. Then I can cut it out on cnc machine.

[jakew009]

Originally Posted by _monkey

Adding to the console opinions; I found it easy to blend in gelcoat when I changed out the stereo and switch panel (narrower and different heights than previous units), but I found the colour matching a problem - the answer from ECF was to send them a piece of the existing gelcoat for them to colour match.

I thought this was a good approach and provides a more contemporary look.

I think this is my plan. What thickness acrylic normally gets used?

[jakew009]

Originally Posted by charliee

If you need to access the fuel tank you can cut in the ‘trench’ and so your repairs are below the wood fillers.

I did wonder if that was the case. Makes sense now

[jakew009]

Finally made a bit more progress. Spent most of the last few weeks just trying to get all the bits I need ordered and tons of researching. Think I now have basically everything I need to put it all back together. Anyway...

Bought some sheets of acrylic and got my favourite power tool out, a tracksaw is basically carpentry on easy mode



A little while later it looked like this...



Started laying out where the two Axiom plotters were going, engine gauge and Fusion radio remote going in between



Had a disaster when I got distracted whilst using the drill press, so had to start again



Found a dremel and a multi tool was quite good for cutting the acrylic, I swapped the blade before I used it before anyone asks




This little diamond blade was pretty good for doing the intricate stuff



Offered it up, now need to chop the fibreglass



Wasted loads of time before realising an angle grinder with a thin metal cutoff blade goes through fibreglass like it’s butter

[jakew009]

I kept as much structure behind the acrylic sheet as possible



Then started chopping out the holes for the lower piece of dash



Finished for the day with it looking like this:



I’m going to tweak the curves on corners of the acrylic to match the corners of the plotters so their not so pointy.

I’m trying to keep it as minimal as possible, the top row will be plotter screen, mercmonitor engine gauge and fusion radio remote in middle and then the second plotter.

Bottom half will be handset for black box VHF, autopilot screen, throttle, steering wheel and key switch.

Under dash on right hand side will be switches and kill switch and some other stuff.

[diver 1]

Looking good.

My two recommendations are 1) fit glow fuses that illuminate if a fuse blows 2) fit a few small LED light strips around the inside of the console

The LED light strips are awesome if you need to see / work inside the console in poor light / nightime etc

[jakew009]

Not much time today

Mounted the mercmonitor between the plotters (did it on the broken piece first).



Then decided to do something about the stupid access panel to the front of the console. The original was just the seat back of the suicide seat, and water would just pour straight in to the console. I really don’t understand why Cobra skimped so much on things like this and the wiring, how much more would it have cost to do it properly?? Have Cobra improved things since?

Anyone, marked out for a nice new hatch the same as the other ones on the boat.



Chopped it out



Much better and now I can easily access all the electronics.


I also gave the whole console a good scrub with oxalic acid but forgot to take pictures. Got rid of all the rust marks.

[jakew009]

Originally Posted by diver 1

Looking good.

My two recommendations are 1) fit glow fuses that illuminate if a fuse blows 2) fit a few small LED light strips around the inside of the console

The LED light strips are awesome if you need to see / work inside the console in poor light / nightime etc

The glow fuses are a good idea I think I have a box of them somewhere.

And a light in the console is a good idea too. Will add it to the list

[A1an]

Originally Posted by jakew009

The glow fuses are a good idea I think I have a box of them somewhere.

And a light in the console is a good idea too. Will add it to the list

If you put lights inside the console I’d advise AGAINST a door switch on your console hatch, I’ve yet to find one that will withstand the marine environment, I think I’ve managed 6mnth out of one and that was the best one.

I swithered about wiring a console LED strip in to my anchor light circuit to save another switch. My console is completely sealed so having the LED strip on inside console wouldn’t be an issue.

[jakew009]

Not had much time to work on things but I really want to get it finished now so going to try and put a few extra days in and get it done.

Spent ages and ages fussing over where the key switch was going to go, eventually decided it fitted nicely down by the wheel.



The basically finished console layout, I think I spent more time looking at it then doing it



Had to have a bit of an interlude and go and fit this for my dad, 5 minute job turned into half a day job as I had to pull a bunch of armoured cable into a duct.



Next thing was to mount some plywood plates to mount all the electronics too. Used my adjustable height table



Plates all cut out, inside of the console was a weird shape



Used a whole tube of Sika 292, don’t think it’s ever coming off



Plates mounted ready for coating

[jakew009]

Time to flowcoat the inside of the console, need to be like a contortionist working in this thing. The epoxy fumes numb the pain



Looks much better now compared to the grey / black before.











Then decided it was probably time to glue the acrylic screens in. Scuffed then back of the acrylic and front of fibreglass lightly to aid adhesion.



Used Sika 291 for this, the acrylic is clamped by the screens / instruments so it’s more sealing than sticking. I wanted a good seal to try to keep the console dry inside.

[jakew009]

Left it overnight to cure with loads of excess sika, in hindsight this was a stupid idea as it was a bugger to clean off



After burning my finger prints off, I eventually got it cleaned up. Acetone wouldn’t touch it, the epoxy catalyst does something to it and made it a bit easier to remove.




The old vhf mic holes still need sorting




Then got some new edge trim



Massive improvement

[jakew009]

Then started on the electrics

Final list of stuff is:

2 x Raymarine Axiom 9” screens, one just screen only, the other with the fancy downvision sonar thing. I’ve never fished in my life but being able to see the sea bottom in 3D seems cool
Raymarine AIS800 Class B+ with vhf splitter
Raymarine RAY90 blackbox VHF
Raymarine Evolution Autopilot (ACU150 and 1 litre pump, P70RS control. I didn’t want a control but it was cheaper buying a kit than the bits individually)
Fusion BB-100 blackbox radio + remote
Seatalk NMEA 2000 network
Mercmonitor engine gauge to do smartcraft -> n2k
RMK-9 remote keypad to control the screens if too rough for the touch screens
Seatalk HS5 switch to connect it all together

I bought a Quantum Radar very cheaply that was badly advertised on eBay, but it looks massive and I’ve no idea how I’m going to mount it. The scan strut brackets are stupidly expensive so I’m going to have to fashion my own.

All this stuff was carefully bought over the last few months, most of the Raymarine gear came from Hudson Marine in the Rayamrine sale who were brilliant to deal with. Coastal Rides had some very good value refurbished Ray stuff. Cables all bought from eBay for a fraction of retail price.
Bought the Mercmonitor from US eBay.



I’m really having to squeeze stuff in as the console is pretty small and I really want to get the batteries, the Mercury power steering pump and the autopilot pump in the console. The batteries and pump used to be in the back of the boat at the transom but that seemed a dumb idea.



Put some of the n2k network together to work out what cables I needed, there’s a lot of n2k stuff to connect 8 drops plus power



I don’t like the fact the batteries are different sizes may have to replace the optima as I think it’s not in great health anyway



The power steering pump is going to have to sit here




So question time - is it going to be a problem having the Autopilot compass much closer to other electronics than the instructions recommend? I’ve kept it as high and far away as possible, but short of putting it in a bow locker I don’t know what else I could do

[jakew009]

Is anyone still reading

Bit more progress on the console, hoping to have the wiring finished this weekend if a few missing bits turn up.

Mounted loads of cable tie bases with some Sikaflex ready to attach cables to







Then put the screens in, used the gaskets that came with them but would it be better with sikaflex?







And then started a bit of wiring. There’s a lot of wires to go in here


Still waiting on the NMEA2k backbone and raynet switch.



Battery cables and power feeds tomorrow

[Orwell boy]

Yup plenty still readiing i am sure ,Interesting post thankyou

[GuyC]

Good work.

I hope the cable tie bases remain stuck! I'm always a bit dubious about gluing that type of plastic with Sika.

On the screen gaskets, I made up my own using a sheet of 3mm closed cell neoprene foam. The gaskets that came with my screen were thin and in several pieces and I decided it would be a potential leak path. I am sure though that Garmin (in my instance) had considered this when they designed the gasket but I took a belt and braces approach.