1983 Sea Ray Sundancer

[Don S]

Re: 1983 Sea Ray Sundancer

With enough money, almost anything is possible. After hours, days, weeks, months, or even years of searching, people can find all sorts of things to restore things.<br />Now, rather spending that kind of time and money on an 83 SeaRay is worth it or not, is up to the individule owning it.<br />The 83SR is a lot different type boat than the Ida May, engine rpm alone would keep the Ida May alive. Probably only 1200 to 1500 max rpm, where your SR needs 4800 rpm. Plus you have a plastic (Fiberglass) planing hull, not a wood displacement hull.<br />You really need to compare types of boats, not age of boats a way of comparing parts, maintenance, prices, labor, etc.<br />You will find most marine repair places don't want to mess with the old stringer drives or anything else because of lack of Parts available, people with knowledge to work on them (The company no longer exists) and the fact that if you try to fix something that is so corroded it breaks when you touch it, that it's not worth touching just because of the law suits that happen after it breaks.<br />Too many times I have heard the statement "It worked fine before I brought it in for repair"

 

[Bill Mason]

Re: 1983 Sea Ray Sundancer

"Plus you have a plastic (Fiberglass) planing hull, not a wood displacement hull."<br /><br />I understand about the lower rpms of the older motor. It should last longer. I don't understand why the wood hull is more desirable and would last longer. <br /><br />Planing or not I have no problem with my hull, my hull is perfect. So that is not part of the discussion.<br /><br />"You will find most marine repair places don't want to mess with the old stringer drives or anything else because of lack of Parts available, people with knowledge to work on them"<br /><br />Does this mean that there are plenty of parts for boats from 1926 and plenty of people with the knowlege to work on them?<br /><br />I guess you are saying that although there are still thousands of older Sea Ray Sundancers they are not valued. I perfectly understand that. <br /><br />However, a new Sea Ray 260 Sundancer is well over $120,000. That is bare bones. A decent used one say about 1993 is about $60,000. At least near me, it is. I am sure there are cheaper ones somewhere. <br /><br />So the question is, and this is not just my question it is relevant to any boat owner, how does one realistically evaluate making a decision ? <br /><br />Aside from all the criptic remarks, what is the process of making an informed decision?<br /><br />Several on the forum have given me some good ideas. Like... make sure you know the real extent of the damage. Also, learn the supplier market of factory stock, used, and rebuilt mechanicals for your particular boat. Weigh the cost of rebuilding compared to replacement with new. Compare the prices of resale boats of your type. <br /><br />All of this is extremely valuable information to anyone trying to fix their boat.<br /><br />I'm sorry that "most marine repair places don't want to mess with the old stringer drives or anything else..." but that doesn't help me repair my boat.<br /><br />There are a ton of great older boats out there; classic and otherwise, (midcentury I call them) that can be saved.<br /><br />I know that this is the "throw away generation", everybody has already upgraded. They have upgraded their car, their wife and their boat. Well I still have my 1947 vintage wife, my 1947 vintage house,my 1947 vintage Lionel train set, and my 1969 Alfa Romero.<br /><br />At the risk of offending everyone I am going to try to retain my 1983 vintage Sea Ray Sundancer. <br /><br />Thank you for your attention...<br /><br />boont

 

[paulie0735]

Re: 1983 Sea Ray Sundancer

boont, good for you mate. What happens a lot though when you ask for advice is that you get it! However I doubt anybody will advise you to spend 10's of thousands of your hard earned on your searay. Simply put they have not yet reached the age to be seen as 'restorable' so the advice you get will be based on the adviser’s idea of what’s worth spending money on and what’s not, doesn’t make it so, just makes it their opinion. I have a 23 year old 'plastic' ski boat that I love and have no issue with investing ‘hard earned’ and time and effort keeping in top shape and when I do take it out I get many admirers who consistently remark that “so and so had one of those years ago”. On the second hand market my boat is only worth a couple of grand but to me its worth what a new one of similar size and performance would cost and that’s around 35k. I don’t use it much as I have a ‘modern’ ski boat also, but the pleasure I get from taking the old girl out for a run is priceless. If you have the money and want to keep your boat in top shape or just want to get it back on the water than the reality is its up to you to decide what’s a fair investment and what’s a waste of money. Many excellent boat people on this forum and most of the advice is worth considering, at the end of the day mate, it’s just what ‘they’ would or would not do and you did ask for their opinion.<br /><br />Wooden boats are considered to have a character that was lost when fiberglass became the material of choice for pleasure craft. They are considered restorable where plastic boats are considered disposable.<br /><br />Cheers and good luck.

 

[DHPMARINE]

Re: 1983 Sea Ray Sundancer

Boont,<br />Sounds like you are ready to go for it.Good Luck ! We just wanted you to be aware of a few things,and the biggest prob will be the old OMC drive system.But it is doable,just hard.If you had Mercruisers the story wound be different because parts are readily available just picking up the phone.<br /><br />Between you and me and (how many members) I always wanted an older Johnson or Evinrude boat.Not one of the old hulks,but the smaller kind.They were powered by V-4 2 stroke outnoard engines adapted by OMC for sterndrive use.But even 20 years ago I knew I didn't posess the determination to follow through on such a project.<br />Those parts are really scarce.<br /><br />DHP

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: 1983 Sea Ray Sundancer

Boont, i know wher you are comong from. i have a little 15' 1960 LoneStar Commander w/ 1955 15hp Evinrude. it's my favorite out of the 4 boats i have, and can't be bought. the rest all always available for the right price.

 

[whywhyzed]

Re: 1983 Sea Ray Sundancer

Originally posted by Boont:<br /> I just called Jasper. They say they can provide me a duplicate of my 3.8 OMC motors. Complete marine engines sans starter, carb, etc. for about $2400 each, delivered with my old motors as trade-ins. <br /><br />That is a good start. Thanks for the help. <br /><br />boont

That sounds a bit steep.<br />I can send you TWO short blocks for around half that ONE ENGINE price ($1400 would do it for the pair + ship). No core back. keep em/sell em whatever.<br />You would then need heads, but they are 80-84 Chevrolet 229 , 3.8 V6 if your heads are not useable.<br /><br />This forum is not the place to discuss parts sales though. hystat@hotmail if you are interested. But I'm not going to discuss it for weeks...If you want them they're here. OMC factory rebuilds in GM boxes. .030 over I think (not sure- the boxes are still sealed)

 

[tommays]

Re: 1983 Sea Ray Sundancer

Bonnt<br /><br />i have a very rich sailing friend that has had a large classic sailboat in there family for for 60 years more or less.<br /><br />about 20 years ago they spent almost 500,000 dollars haveing the boat refitted to new condition.<br /><br />which to me is crazy but to them money is no object and the boat is a true classic.<br /><br /><br />in your case you are boating in saltwater with an outdrive that does not really hold up well in saltwater.<br /><br />you seem to have had very good luck with the drives which is not the case for most people in saltwater.<br /><br />the drives are the item that has people giveing you the dont do it feedback .<br /><br />i can say that here on long island your boat would have very littel value<br /><br /><br />i see many older 26' searays with twin 4.3 merc drives that have a hard time gettin 12000 dollars because there at the point they need a 20000 to 30000 dollar repower and most people just wont put that kind of money into them<br /><br />tommays

 

[whywhyzed]

Re: 1983 Sea Ray Sundancer

That's exactly why no one here can be much help- the decision can only be made by the owner. Opinions are going to be all over the board (no pun intended).<br />There is no solution that makes good financial sense... it's a boat!

 

[bolo789]

Re: 1983 Sea Ray Sundancer

i have a 1990 searay 220 da sundance for sale real clean with merc 5.7 l 260 horses very clean and runs great last season only problem i was having was with the carb, i just found that out , i replace it with a new edelbroke carb now she runs like a charm, so any one looking for a great running boat call or email me at bolo789@yhoo.com, so why spend 30 grand when u could have a nice boat for 13000 grand<br /><br />boat is in brooklyn bolo

 

[Cptkid570]

Re: 1983 Sea Ray Sundancer

Because he's just been given advise that would give him rebuilt engines for $2400 each and he would have a 26' boat, as opposed to your 22'.

 

[bolo789]

Re: 1983 Sea Ray Sundancer

oh i see, make sense

 

[rodbolt]

Re: 1983 Sea Ray Sundancer

boont<br /> you asked for advise and we gave it.<br /> the same corrosive effects go one in all parts or the drive,intermediate housing and engine block.<br /> not knowing which trim setup you have nor exactly which drive you have all I can say is the last set of ball gears I changed set the customer back about 1K. the last selectrim system I had to repair was almost the same amount.<br /> OMC quit the sterndrive market about 95 and was out of any business about 99. BRP does not support the cobra drive much and eliminated all stocks of anything they had of stringer units.<br /> if you reuse your intake manifolds and oil pans carefully inspect the pan for rust and the intake water jackets for cxorrosion or cast iron "rot". I have seen to many blow holes through the bottom just below the tstat housing and fill a relativly new long block to the top with saltwater.<br />my advise would be to have the entire drive assys dissasembled as well as the intermediate housings and the shaft couplers so a good assesment can be made of wheather its economically feasible to repair it or repower or replace the boat.<br />even when they were new the stringer units were problematic. most died young. there are a few survivors but mostly in fresh water areas where the boat sees less than 50 hours a year of use.<br /> are you sure the motors are 3.8 chevolet motors are are they 3.8 buick motors. a quick way to tell is the distributor is aft on the chevy and up front at about a 45* angle on the buick.<br /> the 225 buick marine parts are getting incredibly rare.<br /> but its not uncommon to have a drive package that is several years older than the hull.<br /> I quit working on stringer units a long time ago myself due to the saltwater corrosion and lact of factory support in my area. they are just more trouble than they are worth here and the cost of repairing them wont justify them.<br /> break off 8 or 9 bolts and driil them out and play 9 hours or so with them them slap the customer with an extra 900 dollars for broken bolt extraction and see the customer squeal like a pig.<br /> its just not worth it in some areas.<br /> so asses what you have, asses what it will take to bring the entire drive package back to reliable condition and go from there.<br /><br /> were it mine and I wished to keep the hull I would repower with 4.3 volvos and Xdp drives. they are light,powerful and reliable but would require some stringer mods and possibly some transom glass work.<br />the stringer units transfered all the thrust to the hull stringers, the big boards at the hull bottom that run fore and aft. the rest of the worl transfred fwd thrust to the transom shield mounted on the transom.<br /> so many stringer unit boats have very thin non-reenforced transoms.<br />most the shops here get 1500-2000 dollars to rebuild a transom.<br />kinda like a shop I worked in in cleburne TX back in the 80's. we specilized in restoring 55-7 chevies and packards.<br /> I am probably one of the few posters here thats ever seen the torsion bar leving system used by packard in the nid fifties and probably the only poster thats ever tried to make one work. took me 6 weeks and set the man back almost 4 k on a 57 or 58 packard clipper.<br /> did a rebuild on the supercharger as well that was close to 4 K.<br /> was it worth it? maybe. the guy had more money than god and about 20 oil wells on his ranch and liked packards. he had a couple barns full of them

 

[Bill Mason]

Re: 1983 Sea Ray Sundancer

I tried to write "hystat@hotmail" and all I got was returned mail. Please give me another contact. <br /><br />Question. Are there any other outdrives that could lash up to rebuilt OMC motors?. Or is there another mark like Merc, for instance, that I could repower with that would fit a 1983 Sea Ray Sundancer?<br /><br />I am hearing loud and clear that the outdrives I have are the weak link. OK. What could I replace them with?<br /><br />Is there a reasonable combo that has not been mentioned already?<br /><br />boont

 

[tommays]

Re: 1983 Sea Ray Sundancer

thats were the hard part starts the stringer drive did not bolt to the transome so it will more than likely need some rework.<br /><br />modern drives require a 2" thick transome that is very strong as all the force from the drive is now supported there<br /><br /><br />tommays

 

[Always Broke]

Re: 1983 Sea Ray Sundancer

OMG! This really turned into a meal when the guy just wanted a candy bar. I wish you were near the other end of the country, I have that motor and drive system on an old Bomber bass boat with a thrown rod (no block damage) and I beg people to take it away and it’s been sitting there for a year. They are all just holes in the water you throw your money into, if you like the boat you can’t put a price tag on it. Like a lot of the people here I’ve put way more into the boats that I have now and have owned in the past then the amount you could have went out and bought another one for. The parts are out there and for the right price if you have the patients to find them. My boats are a 64', 73' and a 77' and I still manage to keep em running. I don’t know how things got so twisted up on this string? It started out with you needing a motor and ended up with you building a new boat. Fix what’s broke and don’t go looking for more trouble because most likely you’ll find it. With twin’s if something else brakes you’ll still make it home.

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: 1983 Sea Ray Sundancer

broke where in Fl are you? i'm working on one now that was a tow off.

 

[whywhyzed]

Re: 1983 Sea Ray Sundancer

Originally posted by Boont:<br /> I tried to write "hystat@hotmail" and all I got was returned mail. Please give me another contact.

hystat@hotmail.com<br /><br />I should never assume, should I....

 

[Always Broke]

Re: 1983 Sea Ray Sundancer

tashasdaddy, I’m in Oak Hill, about 100 miles south of you on I95. You can contact me at daveg16101@aol.com I’ll be gone a few days but will get back to ya ASAP.

 

[JasonB]

Re: 1983 Sea Ray Sundancer

If you like the boat that well and understand the costs involved, fix 'er up. I own 2 1976 Glastrons. I have more in them that I could have bought a much newer boat for, but I enjoy working on them some and I have an affinity for old 'trons. The just don't make them like they used to.<br />I know nothing about this rebuilder, just did a quick google search, but check it:<br /><br /> http://rebuilt.com/Inboard_Marine_Engines.htm

 

[sumcat1]

Re: 1983 Sea Ray Sundancer

Alfa Romeo! Now we're talking.