Wanted to get into boating low budget in case the family or I didn't like it. I looked over a month on Craigslist and came up with a system that if any boat had 2 of the 3 things wrong with it I would walk away. Soft floors, bad interior or engine work. Eventually, I stopped asking the condition of the boat over the phone since "great shape" can mean different things. I wanted something between 18-22' so I could trailer easily. I looked at this Imperial and besides the very oxidized gelcoat and some dings here and there, the hull was in pretty solid shape. It ran "ok" and I could live with the interior flaws as it wasn't that bad, but still needs recovering at some point. I liked the fact that is was 22' with a 5.7 and no carpet on the deck. So I picked it up for $1600.
Needs mainly minor maintenance stuff. So far I've installed a new water impeller and gear lube. Serviced the engine, replaced all filters and full tune up, one new battery, replaced the ends of the battery cables and cleaned up a bunch of electrical connections. New trim senders. Full carb rebuild and clean. The red color on the gelcoat was so oxidized it was pale pink. I did a quick wetsand/wax just to make it a 15'er cosmetically, but I plan on restoring the gelcoat over the winter. A couple of the seat bases were waterlogged so I replaced those temporarily (hatch wouldn't stay up from the weight - lol). I think I have about $300-325 into it so far.
After servicing the lower unit I found the upper unit was leaking lube from somewhere so I ordered a seal kit for that. Been battling the shift cables, previous owner said the drive shift cable was replaced, still shifts funky so I plan on replacing the long control cable. Trying to nurse the boat for the rest of the summer, then pull the drive, rebuild the gimbal, etc over the winter. Also going to replace the fuse block as it has the old glass fuses and some corrosion.
Only had it out 2 times, so Im ironing out the wrinkles. Heard some tapping last time out and found a few loose rocker arms, 2 rocker studs pulling out that I need to replace next week. Doing some more testing on that.
Needs mainly minor maintenance stuff. So far I've installed a new water impeller and gear lube. Serviced the engine, replaced all filters and full tune up, one new battery, replaced the ends of the battery cables and cleaned up a bunch of electrical connections. New trim senders. Full carb rebuild and clean. The red color on the gelcoat was so oxidized it was pale pink. I did a quick wetsand/wax just to make it a 15'er cosmetically, but I plan on restoring the gelcoat over the winter. A couple of the seat bases were waterlogged so I replaced those temporarily (hatch wouldn't stay up from the weight - lol). I think I have about $300-325 into it so far.
After servicing the lower unit I found the upper unit was leaking lube from somewhere so I ordered a seal kit for that. Been battling the shift cables, previous owner said the drive shift cable was replaced, still shifts funky so I plan on replacing the long control cable. Trying to nurse the boat for the rest of the summer, then pull the drive, rebuild the gimbal, etc over the winter. Also going to replace the fuse block as it has the old glass fuses and some corrosion.
Only had it out 2 times, so Im ironing out the wrinkles. Heard some tapping last time out and found a few loose rocker arms, 2 rocker studs pulling out that I need to replace next week. Doing some more testing on that.