Considering Purchase. Can Anyone Identify?

[dzignr_tastz]

I'm looking at picking this boat up tomorrow for $1,200 (trailer included), but all the manufacturer decals have been stripped. I did a quick search on "88 4-cylinder boat" and found a few pics of Thundercraft 170 Citations that look very similar (right down to the ski storage grate), but I'm still unsure as to the particular model. Any ideas?

http://www.iwanna.com/i/w/a/photos/iwannadealers/raw/88boatrcy.jpg

Additionally, there are a few "potential" issues I'm concerned about and would like opinions on. First, they said they went to water test the boat and while it started and ran strong, it started to overheat so they shut it down and trailered it back to the shop. There, they put muffs on it and noticed that the rubber hose running from the outdrive/water pump to the water jacket was hardened/cracked in the portion that was outside and exposed to the elements and was leaking, so theoretically, a simple hose replacement would fix the overheating problem. Next, there was some slight hull damage on the keel (probably from running aground) and it looked like someone had attempted repairs, but not properly. And finally, when I climbed inside the entire center section of the floor from about 2 feet in front of the doghouse to the front edge of the wood ski compartment grate bowed slightly under my weight of 190 lbs. It didn't feel soft or rotted by any means, but almost like there was not enough (or no) support under that area. Maybe just thin plywood on widely spaced stringers?

Anyway - those are my only concerns, and the rest of the boat looks to be in rather good order. This would also be my first boat and I'm handy enough to do any required repairs myself, so I guess I'm asking would you do the deal or steer clear? Any quick advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

[emoney]

Re: Considering Purchase. Can Anyone Identify?

Ummmm....do you have experience with boats? They can look really good on the outside, but be mighty, mighty ugly on the inside. Sometimes, a "solid feeling floor" is just hiding a bad set of stringers, which happen to be the more important of the two. First and foremost, you've got to know what you're getting into and that's a few thousand dollars to pull the floor, take out all the rot, replace and then reglass/paint. Second, nothing is more important, in my humble little opinion, than a boat that "overheats". It's the issue that can lead to so many other problems. For instance, it could've been run hot for a short period of time and caused the head gaskets to blow, and maybe melt a piston here and there. I wouldn't even consider this boat without having a marine mechanic look it over head to toe. $1200 doesn't seem like a lot of money, but if you found out that you just paid that for the trailer, how would the deal sound then?

As far as the manufacturer is concerned you could probably find 10-15 makes that look exaclty the same. There were lots of small boat builders in the 70s and 80s, most of which are out of business now. What's the motor and outdrive, or rather, who's the manufacturer of that because it's more important.

 

[dzignr_tastz]

Re: Considering Purchase. Can Anyone Identify?

Nope; absolutely none... although I can rebuild, supercharge, or tune a car engine without blinking an eye (and while I know it's not quite the same, I'm just stating I'm quite the experienced backyard mechanic). My boss is quite knowledgeable about them, however, and recently purchased a 30 footer for himself. He was torn on the situation and suggested I take my battery charger and compression tester up in the morning and test the cylinders as a deciding factor.

That noted, while I'm by no means no expert, I'm a quick learner and have been doing a little reading around the boards this evening before asking for opinions. I know there's a definite chance of moisture damage to the the stringers or transom, but what am I going to do; tear up the floor and check before I buy it? That's not really an option at this point. And given the fact that the dealer selling the boat (who is a small motorcycle dealer that admittedly knows little about the boat's history other than he bought it from a church auction which someone donated it to) advertises with my company and is a respectable guy, I don't think he'd try to screw me on it. He's apparently just doing a little "spring cleaning" of unfinished projects (which include a couple of other quite reasonably priced boats as well).

Anyway... on the optimistic side, if the compression tests out, is it even possible that he (and his mechanic) had enough common sense to shut it down when they saw the temp gauge was going a bit high sitting right off the dock last fall and the only real issue with the motor (which I'm pretty sure is a 3.0 4-cylinder Mercruiser with an Alpha One outdrive... both of which are relatively clean) is the dry-rotted delivery hose? It's not like I wouldn't have to pull off the lower half of the outboard soon to replace the fresh water impeller anyway, so it wouldn't be a huge deal to replace if that was the primary issue. And as for the floor, while I'm obviously not arguing there could be more damage than meets the eye... a few thousand to fix? I'm pretty handy with glass from doing custom fit sub boxes back in the day so I'm pretty sure I could tackle replacing the top flooring myself, but am admittedly not sure I'd want to tackle the stringers even for the asking price.

 

[dzignr_tastz]

Re: Considering Purchase. Can Anyone Identify?

So that's it, huh? My first post here and all I get is a single reply from some guy questioning my knowledge and "experience"?

Where's my <rolleyes> smiley? Oh; wait...