1955 Chris Craft Cobra project gloat

John Pollman

Member
Messages
1,332
Location
Rochester Hills, MI
Hi folks,
long time no see. I've been in love with this boat since the first time I ever saw one. It took me a while but I finally got one. Unfortunately she's only 27" long. :) I bought the kit about thirteen years ago and worked on it furiously for a couple weeks and had the basic hull finished but that was just before we got married. Once the wedding was over I got busy and put her on the shelf for a while. Not too long after that we put the house on the market and moved. I figured once we got settled in to the new place I'd get back at it. Well then our son came along so that didn't happen and then we moved again. But not long ago my son was poking around the shelves in the basement looking for something and asked "Hey dad, what's this ?" Oh man I had completely forgotten about that thing. I had some time to kill lately because things have been slow so I decided to work on it some more. Once I got into it I just couldn't stop thinking about how awesome she was going to look when done. I spent quite a few nights up until 1:00 or later working on her but I just finished her up yesterday.

She's a scale model of a 1955 Chris Craft Cobra. The only thing left to do is mount the radio and I'll take her over to the pond in our sub for her maiden voyage. She's a double planked hull. The base hull is birch ply and the rest is all solid mahogany and bass wood with styrene on the deck. Let me tell you that it was a LOT of work shaping, sanding, and forming all of those deck pieces to make them fit and look right. If this one works as good as she looks, I'm going to build one of the barrel back models next. My son really wants to work together on the next one. Here are some pictures....

cobra1.jpg


cobra2.jpg


cobra3.jpg


I only wish could afford to own a full size version.

Take care

John
 
Man, that is THE coolest thing I have seen in a long time! What an awesome project, and the outcome is outstanding. I don't think I could bring myself to put her in the water.........but, that's what she's for, so have fun with it. What a great father/son project John.........I am sure you will enjoy the next build with your Son. That is REALLY cool! :thumb:
 
Sweet model! Now that you have experience with the scaled down size, just upscale it and make your own. Judging by the time you took on that one, you should be able to make the bigger one in a mere 20~30 years!
 
Really cool! I've always loved Chris Craft wood boats. Now that you've finished the model - when will the full scale start!


Wes
 
One of the cooler projects I've seen in a while, neat! :clap:

One of my Dad's friends had a Chris Craft boat, I know it was a 30's or 40's era boat, and I remember it had two sets of seats up front, and one right at the back, like a rumble seat. I think it was called a "Runabout" or a "Rocket"....? :huh:

Boy was that a nice boat.
 
John, I Looooooooove the "Mock Up", can't wait to see the Real thing.:thumb::rofl::rofl::rofl:

That Mahogany sure brings back memories of when I worked at a Sporting Goods Store/Service center my Sr year in HS. The Fiberglass boats were fairly new, but we did a lot of Refurb work on the Yellow Jacket boats which were form molded from solid mahogany. They were beautiful boats, butafter many "Refurbs", we did a large volume of work covering them with fiberglass cloth & resin to prevent rotting and underhull damage. We had NO power sanders and man was that stuff hard to sand smooth, and it really made the boats heavy, but the Mahogany really showed through the clear resin nicely in the areas where there was no glass cloth, (above the waterline), and we colored the resin in the areas where the glass cloth was used. Our finishes were good, but I can assure you that they were no match for that finish you have done.:D
 
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Thanks for all the compliments folks. I really think it came out nice. I've got the radio installed but I'm just short a linkage for the rudder steering. I'll probably hit the hobby store tomorrow and get that and she'll be ready to run. I'll take some action shots of her in use. :)

Last night I googled "1955 Chris Craft Cobra" and surprisingly came up with quite a few hits. I found several for sale. The cheapest I found was priced at $77K, the one in the middle was I think $92,500 and the most expensive I saw was priced at $125K! :eek: That's a bit out of my range. ;)

Can't wait to get her out on the water. Pics will follow!

Thanks again.

John
 
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