Cobra 148 fake?

[The Collector]

It's arrived at my house, although I'm not there for a few days! I'll put a couple of pictures up when I get back. It'll then be packed up again, ready to be sent away for any needed repairs & tweaks.

[The Collector]

Back at home now, so have unwrapped it. First impressions:

Well the casings are a bit tatty as per pictures, but no bad scratches or dents so respraying should be easier. Shame I've got no nice, spare Rotel ones.

The power socket needs replacing as it's got a chunk out of it (which I knew), but I've got one from the only scrap radio I own at the ready.

There's something rattling inside, but could be a speaker grip/bracket as a speaker screw is missing from the casings.

The included Cobra mic' just needs a good clean. The Cobra logo plate looked damaged on the ebay photos but it'll clean up nicely I'm sure.

It'll need a trip to Uncle Nick, but overall I'm very pleased with it so far.

@Claude - feel free to copy the picture if you want to. Cobblerswhoreslops can bugger off and get their own though!

[Otter]

Nice. Nick brought mine back from the dead when I bought it. Then it was the first that he'd seen, but it was a good few years back.

[14CS06]

Hello

I would prefer larger images if possible

Thank you

@+
Claude

[Otter]

C148_mk3.JPG

[The Collector]

Yours is a nipper compared to my "Old Man" no.88 serial number

[Otter]

The cases on mine are horrible, but at least there's no rust or holes in them. I need to find a mint Rotel to take the cases off...

[astradyne]

The cases on mine are horrible, but at least there's no rust or holes in them. I need to find a mint Rotel to take the cases off...

Give them a good sand down to the bare metal and do a respray.

[Otter]

If I resprayed them myself they would probably look worse.

[The Collector]

At least you're honest

I'm not sure if yours are the same, but I noticed on my Cobra that the cases are closer to a black, rather than a metallic graphite grey like the front panel is? I'd like to keep them the original colour, but I too had thought about robbing some Rotel 240 ones if a tidy scrapper turned up cheap.

[Otter]

My cases have already been re-painted. Badly. I could try some solvent to see whether I could get back to original.

[The Collector]

You could try, but it's likely it'll eat into any original paint underneath too. Some cases with that vinyl-sprayed finish like Amstrads may survive a more gentle solvent like Acetone, but anything "painted" may not.

If it does start stripping it altogether, at least you're heading towards getting it all off in readiness for a better paint job

BTW- the rattling inside was indeed a loose speaker tab/bracket thing. I haven't fired it up yet as I just resoldered the coffin-shaped Cobra mic' that came with it tonight.

[Otter]

Well, white spirit started taking off the paint and underneath it's the hammered black paint finish that you find on Hygain Vs etc.

[The Collector]

Cool. It'll be slightly easier to spray a satin hammered-effect black as it won't need a clear lacquer over it. If you keep going with yours, you may get them looking better than they were, even if you don't end up respraying them.

I'm going to Cheddar car boot sale tomorrow (if the weather holds) so I'll look out for a cheap spray can or two.

[The Collector]

Well Cheddar car boot came up trumps in the paint department. I wandered up to the loos before I left and on the way back, I found some guys flogging car stuff. I bought a can of Hammerite satin (flat finish) spray and a can of hammered enamel stuff too. I also bought some grey and black cans of primer. With a coat of black primer, a coat of satin paint and then a quick, distant blow-over of the hammered-effect stuff, it should replicate the original finish pretty well.

Guess what I'll be going this week, so long as the weather stays warm and dry so the paint doesn't "bloom"?