CM23 Restoration

It 's more like a refurbishment really. In fact, if it were a car I think it would be called a Resto Mod.

I was chronicling this project on another forum over about a year so I'll try and condense it down some. As I said on another thread, the boat is a 1985 CM23. The CM stands for Center Mount referencing the location of the engine. I bought this boat with a partner in Long Beach, CA in 1989. For me, it was love at first sight. My partner owned a restaurant on the water in Long Beach and traded free food for a free slip at someone's home. That was his contribution....I did all the maintenance and upkeep. I exited the partnership in 1998 and relocated to Las Vegas.

After looking unsuccessfully for a CM23 for a number of years the guy my partner sold the boat to contacted me 3 years ago stating it was for sale. It had a bad starter so it was not running but knowing the boat and letting emotion cloud my judgement, I agreed to the $3500 price (mistake #1 of many) and drove the 6 hours from Sacramento to Long Beach to get it on a Friday to bring it back the next day. Until that day the boat had spent its entire life in salt water. I knew there was a trailer but I had not seen it in years. It was a 1996 Pacific and had only been used less than a dozen times but I was not prepared for the condition it was in. Unfortunately, the few times it was used it was dunked in salt water, never rinsed and just put back in the storage lot. Before I could even try and put the boat on it I had to: put on new tail lights, all new wiring, replace the winch cable, replace some missing lug nuts and buy 4 new tires, and all but the tires I'm doing in a West Marine parking lot. After I finally got the boat on the trailer and started towing, it became obvious that the wheel bearings we bad and probably the brakes as well. I could not find anyplace to get the bearings done on a Sunday so I put the boat and trailer back in the storage lot where the trailer had been and drove back North empty-handed.

Ten days later I was back with a floor jack and the tools to take a wheel off and at least see what I was working with. It was not good so I found a shop to replace all wheel bearings and I just disconnected the brakes and towed it, without incident, back to Sacramento. I should mention here that in the 10 days between trips south, my job of 9 years was eliminated, along with a few others, and at 64 years of age I found myself unemployed....and I had committed to this project unsure where the money was going to come from to do it.

So now with my new-found free time I started taking things apart to see what I had. First it was evident that the boat had had water in it for some time. I found out that the cover was not always put on the boat and it was allowed to fill with rain water. No, neither of the 2 bilge pumps were operational. I began pulling all of the interior panels, seats, cabinets and bulkheads out as the carpet was shot and would need replacing. Every piece of structural wood had water damage. So I bought a sheet of marine plywood and recreated panels and cabinets. All of these panels and cabinets were covered with a teak-look Formica-type laminate that always looked like crap. I purchased a 4x8 sheet of paper-backed 1/40" teak veneer. I covered all of the exposed surfaces with it and applied Cetol. Once completed I wrapped them and stored them aside. With everything out of the boat I discovered that when oil from the bilge is allowed to sit on top of water it forms a weird type of black algae. It was on everything in the bilge.
Here are a couple of pics showing where the engine sits.
For reference, here is a pic of a very nice '83 CM23 showing how things are suppose to look.
With everything out I started working on the mechanicals. Tomorrow I will share what you do when you pull the outdrive and you see the condition in the pics below.

Yep, that's looking in the gimbal housing where the drive shaft goes and what you get with a leak in the bellows.

Tune in tomorrow for the next chapter in, "How To Restore a Boat and Lose Your Mind" or, "What Was I Thinking."

Shawn

 

Chapter 2....

While I was cleaning up crap in the boat I was poking around as one does in this situation. I opened the radiator cap on the heat exchanger and found oil and water where coolant should be. A side note....This boat originally came with a standard Merc 260 HP engine with raw water cooling. Shortly after we bought it (the first time) the engine hydro locked. Somehow the motor had water in all cylinders. Pulled all the plugs, turned the motor over, squirted some oil in the cylinders, put the plugs back in and she started right up. But over the next couple of years it happened several times. During a conversation with Cobalt Customer Service they admitted a design error with the boat. They told me the engine was mounted a bit too low in the boat and water could work its way back into the cylinders past the flapper valves when coming down off plane. They recommended putting 4" extensions on the elbows. Not that easy but I made it happen. It didn't cure the problem. About this time I got out of the partnership and re-located but my partner continued looking for solutions and after spending tens of thousands of dollars, installed a closed cooling system. He had always wanted the boat to go faster (top speed was about 45 mph) so at this time he had a GM SB 383 Stroker motor built of undetermined horsepower but estimated to be in the 350 HP range. However, the Mercruiser Alpha Gen I drive is only good for about 300 judiciously applied horsepower. He blew the drive and replaced it with an SEI106 unit.

Back to the oil in the cooling system.... I installed a new starter on the motor and did a compression check and had one cylinder low. A leak down test show all good. As I am taking the motor apart to get the heads off I realize the many of the exhaust manifold bolts are barely finger tight. As I get them off I discover a badly burnt and leaking gasket. The manifolds are aluminum and powder-coated but after the finish was applied the mating surfaces to the head were never ground flat. So I had the heads re-done, the manifolds fixed and prepared to assemble the motor. But I notice the dip stick tube fitting to the 10 quart oil pan had a big gob of silicone around it doing a poor job of trying to stop a leak. The whole brass fitting was loose and I figured there was a nut on the backside, in the pan, that had come loose and I was going to have to lift the motor, drop the pan and tighten the backing nut and put it back together. This is where the fun really began.

Its hard to be brief in relating these issues but I will do my best. The machine shop that did my heads had a forklift and agreed to lift the motor so I could pull the pan while it hung in the air. But when the pan was pulled we realized there was no nut on the dip stick tube fitting but rather it was screwed into a threaded port on the pan....that was stripped. The shop said they could repair it but the motor would have to come off the forklift and on to an engine stand. To do that the bell housing would need to be removed. When the bell housing was removed a lot of brass shavings fell on the floor.
The diagram above is the drawing of all parts used in the Jackshaft Model Alpha drive. Part #14 is a Drive Shaft Connector that goes through a bearing, the coupler and into the pilot bushing, (#23) that inserts into the back of the crankshaft. That short shaft passes through a bearing (#17) that acts like a gimbal bearing in a conventional drive. That bearing had gone bad allowing just enough play in the end of the shaft to eat up the brass pilot bushing....the source of all the brass shavings. In its wake it also egg-shaped the hole in the coupler (#60). The replacement pilot bushing is now a needle bearing assembly that would no longer fit into the crankshaft as that hole had been enlarged as well. The machine shop had to machine the hole in the crank to accept a new brass pilot bushing that they made from brass stock. Sound expensive? Remember, I'm now unemployed. The repair worked beautifully the motor went back together and fired up quite nicely.

With the engine running well I turned my attention to the outdrive. The drive it self is a 2 year-old SEI106. But when I pulled the drive I was not expecting this.
Obviously the bellows had a hole in it and how the boat didn't sink is beyond me. But I post this to caution you as to what can happen when proper maintenance is ignored. As I inspected the drive shaft it became clear that the crud was all surface crud and most of it rinsed off. There really was no corrosion and some attention with a wire wheel cleaned everything up and I reassembled the u-joints.

Next as I began to address the bellows it became very apparent that the gimbal housing, the section that bolts to the boat, was very corroded as pieces began crumbling in my hand. It was going to need to be replaced. That night I was cruising craigslist and found a guy selling a complete gimbal housing, with trim rams, transom plate, power steering cylinder, etc. from a 1990 Maxum that had a rotted floor....for $200! And he was only 20 minutes away. Sold!

In my next chapter I will go into the adventure of changing those parts.

Please, if this story is boring or seems self-serving, let me know. I'm relating this for several reasons. 1. So others can see what happens when stuff is not properly maintained, 2. Some section of this may relate to a project someone else is doing and, 3. For those that see an old boat and think Wow! I can get that really cheap and fix it up. I'm doing most of this work myself and I am now into this project somewhere around $10,000 counting the $3500 I paid for the boat. I have no idea how many hours. There are not too many boats worth this effort. Some of you probably think I'm an idiot. I'm reasonably sure I'll never be able to sell it for what I have in it but that's not my intent. Sure, I have sentimental reasons for doing this. My wife and I had our first date in her; the night my youngest daughter was born I was out in her with friends and a bottle of champagne; all 3 of my kids and my 2 granddaughters have been out in her at some time or another; I took my first trip to Catalina Island in her. But the main reason is the rarity and uniqueness of the boat. She deserves to be brought back to life. I mentioned that she spent nearly 28 years sitting in salt water. Yes, some metal parts have been replaced over the years but the transom is rock solid as were the floors and stringers. What a testament to the quality and care Cobalt placed in the product.

Please let me know if I should continue....

Shawn









7

 

Back again....

During all of this work I was doing on the boat I was also looking for a job. Prior to the last job, I had spent over 20 years in the commercial laundry industry (as did my wife) in middle and upper management. After about 6 months of leisure I got a job offer and it was only a 1 year contract which was perfect as I was planning to retire about that time and move to the New Orleans area. The good news was I now felt better about spending money on the boat but I was working 60 hours a week. There was no time to work on it. Also I did not have room at the house to store it so I had about 30 minutes each way to go get it from the storage facility. So not much got done.

As I was working all the time and we were getting ready for our move to Louisiana, it became apparent to me that I needed to start organizing all the parts and getting things ready to ship. Many of the parts are not replaceable so I needed to be careful about packing for the movers and labeling everything.

I decided to use U-Ship to have one car shipped and to have the boat towed on the trailer to Louisiana. I finally settled on a guy with a Dodge 3500 to make the trip but I knew I had to get some work done to the brakes on the trailer. I found a guy with a trailer repair business on craigslist. Let's just say the tow guy never made it from Sacramento to Covington, LA without some issues but he did make it.

So back to the outdrive. I have worked on Mercruiser drives for a lot of years doing most of my own maintenance and repairs but I had never attempted this. But with the drive off, I removed the trim cylinders and lines, disconnected the power steering hoses, remove 4 nuts and 4 bolts from the inside, pull off the transom plate and bada bing, the gimbal housing should pull right off, right? Nope....it took 3 days and I ended up making a puller device like one I saw on YouTube. As a side note I have to say you can find a video on how to do anything on YouTube. I used it for a lot of reference material. The new/used gimbal housing went on without issue and everything fit as it should. I reinstalled the outdrive and with moving day just a couple of days away I wanted to back it into the water and see if I had any leaks. While a friend backed me in I laid on the floor staring at the transom with my fingers crossed. We backed it in very slowly and all was good until we were all the way in and water started coming in somewhere at the top of the housing. I was pretty upset as I knew I was out of time and I would not be able to do anything with it for 4-6 months due to the move. So I packed a lot of larger parts in the boat and signed it over to U-Ship. It was going to my Brother-in-law's home in Covington, LA and it would be 3 weeks before I even saw it again. I was also pretty dejected too because I knew I was going to have to remove the drive and all of the other components as well.

We ended up buying a 45 year-old home that needed some things that were more pressing than the boat so it sat for about 8 months. Last Spring I decided I needed to back it in again to try and determine just where the leak was. With my B-i-L backing it in and my nephew in the boat with me, we started looking for the leak....there wasn't one. It stayed bone dry. WTF? While still on the trailer I started the motor and put it in gear wanting to get some vibration in it. Still no leaks. Then it hit me. The boat spent 28years in the water then I pull it out and keep it on a trailer for 3 years in the Central Valley of California....a very dry area. Wood shrinks. I then move it to Southern Louisiana, a very wet climate and there was quite a bit of rain last fall and winter. Wood swells. I remembered that when I was working in a boat yard and we pulled wood cruisers out of the water on the hydro hoist for repairs. We would do a couple of weeks of repairs and when we put the boats back in the water they leaked everywhere. In fact, we would put them in the water at closing time but leave them hanging in the slings of the hoist so the hull could swell up and stop leaking. Leak problem solved.

I now wanted to run the boat for a bit but with the fuel tank out of the boat I rigged a 3 gallon outboard tank and took a 5 gallon can with me. We launched the boat with some difficulty. It seems when a boat has been sitting on trailer bunks for 3 years it gets kinda stuck. But she started right up and we slowly made our way up the Tchefuncta River gradually applying power until she was on plane. Everything was tight, solid and best of all....dry.

The next step is carpet and then the fuel tank but because the tank sits on the carpet and across the stern of the boat, I had to be sure I had everything tidy because once the tank is in you have little to no access to anything on the transom.

So new carpet and fabric for the cuddy cushions are on the way, I received my delivery from Sail-Rite today and next begins the task of removing all of the old carpet adhesive prior to installing the new carpet. During the Winter I did work on some of the forest of Teak that is in this boat. Tomorrow I will share some of that work.

"Never Give Up, Never Surrender"

 

Good Evening....

During the winter I worked on some of the teak pieces that are on this boat as well as attempting to evaluate the wiring situation. Over the years so much electrical had been added and removed there had to be 10 lbs. of unneeded wire that went nowhere. Luckily, I have the original Cobalt wiring diagram as well as Mercruiser's engine and gauge diagram. I wanted to keep the gauges original for some reason (a couple of the original gauges are missing) and I found a guy on eBay parting out a boat with the same vintage Teleflex gauges so I bought all that he had. What is missing from the original set is a clock. (Cobalt has class) But I've decided to but a digital depth gauge in that 2" spot. I first had to make sure all gauges are functional and then start methodically removing and labeling wires as I need to pull the instrument panel and refinish it. At the same time I am doing something different with the switch gear. Here is how it looks now.... All of the switches, lights and breakers on the right side are in poor shape. Replacing them individually was gong to be almost 200 bucks so I found this.... I am going to cut out a rectangular hole from light to light and breaker to breaker and this switch panel (above) will fit right in. I also have a 4-switch panel that will go on the left side. These panels are pre wired and lighted with a bunch of lighted labels. The left side will be the blower, bilge pump horn and an auxiliary. The right side will be cabin lights, courtesy lights, mood lights, power for stereo, amp and the drive up and down and the depth gauge. I will have some holes to fill as well.

Common to the C Series boats is a recessed teak "walk-around" on the deck just inside the perimeter of the boat. You can't really see it in any of the pictures but its about 5" wide and has 4 grooves that held that black rubber stuff used on teak decks. These boards are then screwed to the deck and the holes plugged. Over the years the black rubbery crap became problematic. The teak was originally left natural by Cobalt but after time the teak began to grey. The acid-based teak brighteners and cleaners really damage the wood. So over the years these pieces were sanded prior to the application of oil. So when one wanted to spruce up the teak the wood was sanded but the rubber remained and the boards became cupped between the black. In fact the cupping was so bad that I had to run the boards through my surface planer to get them flat again. I never liked the black crap and as it was more for aesthetics than a functional purpose I decided to remove it. Our KhaShing had teak and holly decks in the salon and I always liked the look but I could not find Holly, but needing a white wood I settled for rock maple. After meticulously digging out all that black rubber I was left with 4 grooves in each board 1/8" deep by 1/8" wide. The longest of the boards was 8' long so I bought a piece of maple 9' x 10" x 3/4". I ripped 1/8" strips on the table saw and then set up my Rockwell Blade Runner to rip those to strips of maple 1/8" x 3/16". I then glued them into the boards and clamped. They then went back through the planer and were sanded. I ended up with this....
I used to always use Sikkens Cetol on my teak but I was never really satisfied with the artificial-looking amber color I got so I decided to try something a bit different. I used Minwax Helmsman Satin Urethane. It dries very clear, is ready to recoat in a couple of hours and is self-leveling. Here's what 5 coats looks like
Also, instead of screwing the boards back down and re-plugging all the screw holes I put new plugs in the holes. drilled the from the back and counter-sunk each hole for a #10 SST oval head screw. I used the exposed screws on another project few years ago and I liked the look.
So these pieces are all finished, wrapped in paper and in the guest room waiting for installation. I'm so happy with the Minwax that I'm going to sand the Cetol off the other pieces I've finish and refinish with the Minwax. Here is the first piece I will do
This is the wet bar that goes on the port side. Inside the right-hand cabinet is 2 1/2 gallon jug and a pump that is activated by pushing the red button putting water into the sink. This is one of that cabinets I had to re-create and I never really cared for the color of the wood.

Tune in tomorrow for another episode of, "Holy Crap....What Was I Thinking?"

 

Hi Y'all....

Sorry no posts for the past couple of days. The weather has sucked so I've just been refinishing teak in the garage. One thing I did do over the weekend was buy gauges. I was going to keep the original gauges mostly cuz I'm a cheap bastard and didn't want to pay the price for a set of new gauges. So Last Friday I'm cruising craigslist, as I do often, and I find a party wanting to sell a full instrument panel. The gauges are Faria Chesapeake Black and they are all brand new. So I bought all (tach, speedo, volts, temp, oil pressure, trim and even a matching depth gauge) for $150. The tach has the LCD hour meter in it. I had to order a new temp sender and I'll have to buy a transducer but I just ordered them from Boatersland.com. I had never seen this site before but the Faria Customer Support person said it was the best place to buy Faria items as they don't sell direct. I'll post pics of them tomorrow.

A consulting job I picked up a few months ago has stated to demand more time so that has put me behind a bit. My wife is leaving on a 10-day business trip and I always seem to get more done while she's gone. Hmmm.... wonder why that is....

 

I mentioned last night I bought some new/old gauges for the boat. Didn't happen without pics.
I like these....clean and simple and I also like that these have the newer style plug-in connections rather than individual terminals. So I paid $150 for what you see here. Boatersland.com lists the tach at $96 and the depth gauge, without transducer, at $70. I guess I made a good deal

The wiring behind the old gauges is a rats nest and I think I can really clean things up using this package, the new switchgear I posted about and some new terminal blocks.

If the weather gives me a break this weekend I'm going to temporarily install the gauges and wire them for testing, fire up the engine and if all is good start pulling out the panel for refinishing. Man....there is still so much to do....

 

Hi y'all. The weather has continued to be uncooperative and all I've been able to do is work on teak in the garage....and there is plenty of that to work on as anyone with a Cobalt from the 80s knows. I did buy a carport to go over the boat and that is being installed Friday. At least know I won't have to remove and replace 18 tie down straps every time I want to do something in the boat. I'm hoping to get a lot done over the weekend.

 

OK!....this is a game changer. I got tired of the rain here and taking all the cover straps on and off to do any work on the boat. I decided to have a carport installed. OK....it's really a Cobalt-Port. I had it made high for a couple of reasons. 1. I want to be able to stand and work in the boat and 2. It and when I sell the house it's got covered RV parking. Now I can start on re-carpeting.

Shawn

 

With the Cobalt-port in, the guests gone and the wife out of town for the weekend I was able to get some things done. I'm trying to get the instrument and switch panels out, refurbed with new gauges and switches and rewired. Having the boat covered now is so nice. I can start something and not have to put everything away when finished.

The new carpet has arrived and installing that will sort of be the trigger to start putting it all back together. This weekend I began disconnecting, and meticulously labeling, the wiring in the gauge panel and then the lower switch panel. The wiring has had 30 years of people adding, removing, splicing, cutting and leave hanging. I have the original Cobalt wiring diagram for the boat as well as Mercruiser's wiring diagram which follows ABYC universal format. So I started with this....


After removing and saving a lot of wire and connectors I ended up with this....


As I said earlier, I have a couple of new switch panels that I will be using. With the old switch panel I removed all the old switches, lights and breakers. I then laid out the where the new large square holes will be for the new panels. These panels are 1/8" aluminum and I think they were originally anodized and dyed black. I cut the openings out with my Rockwell Bladerunner saw. Great tool by the way. Here is how the new switches will fit in the panel....

With the fabrication done I can figure out what to do to refinish them. My initial thought is to just spay them flat black but I hate to lose the graphics and the border stripe. I'm going to check around and see if any vinyl graphics company can do lettering that small. The 3 holes bottom left are for the ignition switch, ignition circuit breaker and a 12 volt receptacle from left to right. The new panels have backlit labels and look pretty cool. When I get the new finish on and install them I will power everything up to see how it all looks.

If anyone has any suggestions or comments on the graphics or whether I should use flat or gloss black to finish the panels I would love to hear it. I am also thinking about having them powder coated.

More to come....
Shawn

 

I've heard that as well but my panels are 1/8" aluminum and I think they work in plastic. I need the rigidity of the aluminum as my engine control is a binnacle-mount that mounts to that panel. Also my big panel has so many holes in it that I don't think a full vinyl cover would work. But you gave me an idea to contact them and see if they can do any of the graphics in a vinyl stick-on.

I'm getting close to putting in the new carpet. That will almost seem symbolic like it's finally going back together.

 

As usual, its been a while since I posted any progress report. I have been working on this but mostly in the garage....finishing teak, making new teak moldings, working on the dash panels, etc. It all has to get done. Sometimes I feel like I'm building a boat from scratch.

For the past few days I have been working on the dash panels. As I said earlier, these panels are aluminum plate 1'8" thick. The lower panel with the new switches is finished except for wiring it into the boat. I believe these aluminum panels were originally anodized and dyed black. Over the years the black really faded. A few days ago it looked like this....


Today I finished the panel except for some wiring that I'll do after the panel is in. I have also completely polished and waxed the fiberglass around the helm area. Here is the re-done lower panel....


The upper gauge panel has been painted and I will be adding the stripes and installing the gauges tomorrow. Then I will start cleaning up all the wiring. I really like these switch panels. They stay red until you turn them on then the lights turn green. They should both be ready to install back in the boat next week.

Shawn

 

Tonight I finished the Instrument Panel for the CM23. The old one was really faded and as you can see, had a mix of gauges. Of the original gauges that were still there, the copper foil that makes the contact for the lights was corroded and mostly gone so I would have had to replace the gauges anyway. I did find a full set of these older Teleflex gauges that I was going to use.



But, as I posted a few weeks ago, I found someone selling a set of NOS Faria gauges including a matching depth gauge. Here is what I will be installing soon....

The border lines do match up on the left. It's just a weird camera angle that makes it look off. I painted the old panels with a Black Hammered Finish and for the lower section I covered it with a sheet of 3/16" black ABS plastic with a "wrinkle" finish. The Cobalt logo is a stick-on I bought on eBay. I think it came out pretty nice! What do you guys think? I left the area on the lower left blank as I may flush mount a small GPS/chart plotter. There was a hole just to the left of the engine control for a cup holder but it was a stupid place for one as any bump would slop the beverage all over the panel. And I no longer needed the old Hour Meter as there is one in the new tach.

Shawn

 

You and me both....

 

Well weather, holidays, dying dogs, personal health issues have been getting in the way of getting the Cobalt back on the water.

The 2nd week of December I flew a friend here from California to assist me with the wiring portion of the restoration. This is something that I am capable of doing but I'll be the first to admit it is not one of my strengths. My friend is really good at this.

I may have mentioned before that this boat is now 32 years old and had several people make modifications over the years so the wiring was a bit of a train wreck. My friend and I started back at the batteries with new battery boxes and then worked our way through the harness eliminating old wire that was doing nothing and tracing everything up to the new helm. This included a new harness that came with my NOS gauges. At the same time we replaced all the old switches and I installed new and installed a new GPS. So now all gauges function as they should, engine starts and runs, all instrument lights work, etc. I am now running wiring to the outputs of the new switch panels.

The GPS is the newest from Simrad and it is the GO5 unit that is a 5" all touch-screen display. It has a built in antenna, WI-FI capable for downloading charts and also has a slot for cards and will accept them from C-Map, Navionics and others. Because I will never fish with this boat I chose the unit without a transducer but CHiRP technology is available as well. I will just be using the digital depth gauge in the instrument panel.

Here is the new panels installed in the boat and powered up....



We were also hoping to install the new carpet but the adhesive needs temps over 60. We never saw anything over 50 while he was here. Still lots of other tasks to do though....

Shawn​