Is this a deal??

http://dallas.craigslist.org/ndf/boa/886924441.html

I havent seen it yet, but it sounds like a deal to me. Even if there is a little rot, $3200 seems fair.

As long as it is in ok mechanical shape and the stringers are solid as well as the floor being mostly solid. 3200 isn't much if it get you out and wakeboarding for a couple years.

Thats what I was thinking...I recently sold my boat and was planning to buy a new tige but now that I am probably getting laid off I dont think adding a $600 payment would be wise. I emailed him and he doesnt know what a stringer is! Not a good sign... he says it starts right up though so thats good. Anything else I should look for when I go to look at it??

How much is it to replace the stringers if they have some rot?

Ask the guy if you can take it to your nearest dealer to have it checked. Even if you pay for it its worth your time and money. 100-200 bucks is worth it especially when you have a chance at losing $3200

I'd be buying that if I was in Dallas, if it ran, and didn't need two bilge pumps five minutes into the test drive. If it runs and drives you could part it out for what you'd have in it. Spend your $600/mo on gas and have fun till the economy turns.

he says it runs great...but we'll see

Stringer are not real simple if they need to be replaced. I've done stringers myself before and its allot of work and its MESSY!! Just getting the floor and everything else out of the boat then cutting the stringers out, grinding the glass down before new stringer go in.......You also need to know how to work with fiberglass of course. To do the job yourself it would be mostly labor. The expense of the supplies wouldnt be that bad, mabye between $500-$1000. To have it done im not sure how much but youd definately want to pull the boat apart yourself then have the stringers/floor replaced, im sure it would be allot cheaper.

where there's some rot there's usually more, very much like an iceberg. if the boat was garage kept you might get lucky but this guys says it was outside for 2 years at least. old supra's weren't built to last forever.

3200 isn't unreasonable but you might be getting yourself a big project. $1k in supplies is probably a little on the low side but it all depends on what you find under the floor. you can easily spend a couple hundred hours working on it, esp if you haven't fiberglassed before. it's not rocket science but its nasty work.

do you feel lucky?

this is an 87 supra not quite completely gutted in this pic...


(Message edited by salty87 on October 22, 2008)

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Stringers almost never need complete replacement. People do it because they think it's the 'right' way and because it never occurs to them they can replace just pieces or that adding additional material doesn't hurt anything, especially in a wake boat. As long as the engine hasn't fallen through the stringers supporting it they cane be reinforced quite easily for a relatively small cost. The guy can buy the boat for $3200 which is only five months payments for the boat he was planning to buy. Even if the boat breaks in half in two years and it's a complete loss he can still recover some of his money by selling the trailer and the boat's parts. Worrying about resale value or spending money to 'make it right' is throwing good money after bad.

If the OP buys it I'd be interested in the barefoot boom and I have a Ski High I'd sell as I'm building a tower for my '82 Ski Supreme I paid $2k for.