cobra 25 gtl (taiwan) full restoration

[Uncle Ronnie 336]

for the sh1ts and giggles i picked it off the pile and started messing with it. I was gonna recap and do some hotrod mods and leave it as an ugly ratrod, but after I had a safety meeting with my old man this last weekend, the face/bezel got disassembled, sanded the bubbling chrome off the bezel, painted it with some self-etching primer and VHT black epoxy paint. took magwheel polish to the faceplate and shined it up surprisingly well.
the LED channel segments were dim and tired too, so we're going blue, the rx/tx LED will shine blue on RX and pure green on TX, and the stuck faded meter is getting replaced with one with a blue backlight. tomorrow after work i'll be getting more paint for the cases, ordering a new speaker inside, and finishing up the internals, which incl. biased mosfet, TIP120 NPC-rc (internal trimmer) and a diode-switched channel kit homemade with lowers, 26.515-26.955 switched using the brt-dim switch. kinda stoked on this build. pics to come

 

[Uncle Ronnie 336]

face moves

 

[Uncle Ronnie 336]

oooo pretty

 

[Uncle Ronnie 336]

everythings a deeper shade of blue than the camera picks up

 

[Uncle Ronnie 336]

this isn't the only 25 im restoring, got 2 89 phillies that are getting this same level of resto. saved from the junkpile

 

[Uncle Ronnie 336]

epoxy paint will make ya wicked smaht if you fire it off in an enclosed area

 

[Uncle Ronnie 336]

bezel is back on, new switches, one of them currently sporting 3 wires for a channel kit. starting to look like somethin.

 

[Uncle Ronnie 336]

took 100pf across c42 and c46, changed r43 to 4.7ohm. threw a HG 2sc1969 into this, replaced the nylon screw with a allenscrew and insulator. the slug got removed. now im getting a little over 10.5 MFJ watts rms and around 30 MFJ watts peak. without the NPC mod the dk is 9.5 so im gonna build that next and trim it back to about 2-4 watts depending on what's going behind it

 

[Uncle Ronnie 336]

the shells look pretty nice now. still screams "rattlecan" but ya know what? thats better than screaming cigarette tar

 

[Uncle Ronnie 336]

details details details. as im sure some of ya fellow working class bros have come to the realization that if you want nice stuff, ya gotta work for it. if you want a nice CB you are either dropping a big amt of dough, or you can take a rig headed for the scrapyard, dirt cheap, give it a little love and polish it up. i hope to inspire some of ya to do the same.

 

[BlackPearlRadio557]

This is inspiring.

 

[loosecannon]

instead of removing the slug from that final tuning coil, remove one turn from it and then you will be able to peak that coil using the slug.
LC

 

[Uncle Ronnie 336]

This is inspiring.

these old rigs are worth the work. the HG final really tuned out good

instead of removing the slug from that final tuning coil, remove one turn from it and then you will be able to peak that coil using the slug.
LC

i do that most of the time but ya know what? im thinkin this is good enough for govt work here with the numbers i'm seein. after posting that i actually thought to tune the slug right before the driver (duh). now we're at 11.5W rms and a few clicks above the 30 mark that I was seein. (mfj watts) note that the mfj has conservative numbers compared to birds with an opamp peak kit.... also noticed that c149 doesnt exist in the GTL's but does in the LTDs which needs to be removed. i am calling that part done, that's my story and i'm stickin to it.

 

[loosecannon]

copy that.

by "before the driver" did you mean L14 or L13?

I only ask because many people will try to add a slug to L13 and try to tune it, but it is just the voltage feed for the collector and doesn't "tune" anything.

Sounds like you are done messing with it, but just for the future searchers i'll add in here that changing the driver transistor to a 2SC2314 and playing with the value of R41 can yield a couple more watts. not that they'd be noticed...
LC

 

[Uncle Ronnie 336]

between the predriver and driver. the resistor r43 was the one i swapped from 10 to 4.7 right at the base of the driver. idk what its got in there but it is rockin. now where does one find a 2sc2314 these days that isn't counterfeit?