Re: New to Boats - Want to buy and Rebuild!
This second boat is looking much better, inspect the floor and stringers and such for rot, look at how well everything has been kept up overall. <br /><br />See if a water test is available before you hand them the cash. Wouldn't trust it as well if its not, but at least run it till it heats up on a hose. Look at the oil in the motor and in the lower unit for any unhealthy colors or cloudiness. After running pull the 2 block and 2 exaust drain plugs and see how much sand is in there, use a small stiff wire (piece of coat hanger or something) to poke in the holes.<br /><br />That trailer sure is interesting, I love the several feet of gap to the front, I don't think it could even be adjusted to work right. Could probably trade them for a correct one or sell it and get the right one though.<br /><br />I didn't know mercruiser used a 3.0 V6 (though it was a big I-4 but maybe thats just the really new ones) but for the most part all mercruiser drives and motors are very standard easy to get parts for. I like the hulls with I/O's because they are much better for dive platforms. If you know carbureted cars you will be able to fix that motor easy, and the drive isnt very complex. Many I/O's have horrible access to the motor though, depends on the boat.<br /><br />This boat will not be as light as the other one by alot, what are you towing with?<br /><br />That hull may clean up with a crap load of buffing, those strange 80's only gauges in the dash would be on my eventual replacement list even if they somehow work correctly, id put in a whole new panel with new mercruiser standard round gauges, with numbers, not colors or letters, those kind are useless.<br /><br />I would wait them out for a lower price, if it had the correct trailer and runs really good I would say the price was closer to fine, but you cant even tow it on that, if you stop fast itll roll forward on the rollers and bad things will happen.<br /><br />Smells like a consignment boat to me, they may not even own the boat or trailer, only an owner would mismatch them that badly.<br />I have a hunch they want it gone, see what they will do to make a deal.<br /><br />Am I crazy or is the skeg broken off and ground into a funny fin shape? Almost looks like it deployed while driving. Thats bad if it is, need to have that fixed, can be welded while attached I believe, dunno costs. Make sure the trim and tilt works correctly AND stays up over time.<br /><br />This is like my 3rd edit, if you move the front thing back and space the rollers out a bit the trailer MAY work well enough to use. With the boat sitting that high youd never get it on and off the trailer without having the vehicle underwater on shallow ramps.
