Re: Is this boat worth my time for $500?
No, IMO it's a basket case. Move on.
If you're going to spend time restoring a boat, I would only do it on a boat that will reward your investment by being worth more than the total of (at the very least!!!) the materials and parts you put into it. No chance on this basket case, you'll never get anything near what you put into it if you sold it, much less even a dime for the hundreds of hours of labor it would take.
There are plenty of boats out there that are simply poorly maintained and the owner who is willing to do some work will be well rewarded. I just sold a Crestliner fish and ski that I owned for 3 years for $500 more than I paid for it. Not a huge sum, but when you consider my total cost of the "restoration" was 20 hours spent with a pressure washer, buffer, and carpet scrubber, etc. The only other costs were for the Armor All, 409, SoftScrub, etc cleaning products. That's cheap boat ownership for 3 years.
Now I just took that money, threw in an extra grand and bought a Wellcraft. More than anything it suffers from lack of use, the interior was dirty, needs a buff out, etc, all the usual stuff. I strongly suspect after 10 hours of general cleaning, I'll be $2000 in the black on this boat.
I see a lot of boats on CL that have outdrive issues, but look like in otherwise OK condition. I have to think that on average at least 25% of these would reward the buyer who negotiated hard because their value is depressed much more than the cost of replacing the outdrive simply because so few buyers are willing to take that risk.
Obviously, you have to know your stuff and have good mechanics that can tell you with reasonable certainty what the required repairs will cost.
Grouse
