+ 1. Sadly, your story is all too familiar when due diligence is lacking on the part of the buyer. Anything can be made to look good in pictures. I've traveled hundreds of miles numerous times to view potential vehicles in person that looked rock star in photos only to turn around and come home empty handed. Best of luck with getting the boat up to par so you can enjoy it.

This does happen way to often. Always make an attempt to see what you are purchasing in person. FOr some reason if you dont want to use a surveyor or cannot travel, there are tons of people on this board from all over and if you put the word out, most likely someone will go look at it for you.

I was looking at buying a 63 impala...guy told me it was solid..went to go see it and upon opening the trunk I noticed there was a pair of shoes in there just like mine! (floor rusted out in the trunk) :)

that had to SUCK! Been kind of browsing for a 62 as my grandmother had a nice red and white one with a 327 in it...

Another unfortunate thing... I wasn't a member here until I started looking for parts to rebuild it.... Once I lost contact with the dealership in april, I decided to do it myself.. gather up all the receipts/estimates and go after this guy...

Many survey people do not dig deep enough on the mechancial side of things like engine / drive (internally). I have never seen a report of them doing a leak down test nor a spark plug veiwer for the true way to examine the spark plugs nor a spark checker most do not even own a scan tool.

Take it to a real boat place and have an unbias pre purchase inspection done and pay for it for the engine / drive side of things.

Case in point I went to look at a boat in MD who had a survey done by a very highly recommended and contracted by a very large shop in Ill. All I can say it is easy to walk around a boat and pull carpet up and write stuff down on a clip board but will say the inspection for stucture damage was very good by him and spot on.

The motor side was very poorly rep. 1st off had auto Holley carbs on it, mech fuel pumps if failed would leak fuel in the bilge area, motor had 2 mis matched spark plug wires, fuel fill hose to the gas tank had one hose clamp not 2 plus loose, middle cyc spark plugs running very rich, one prop shaft bent out of spec, gear oil dark and so on and so on. None of this was in the report. it was reported comp good and motor ran good , pumped water, shifted fine. Big deal on the water hose. Under load a whole diff. story can take place.

Like I said highly sought after surveyor. IMO have a pro certified boat mechanic check out the engine / drive then have it surveyed for the cosmetics and structural part of this. Again most surveyors do not have a lot of tools or the know how to dig deep internally for engines and drives. Some do but most do not.

Sorry to hear about your troubles.

Next time, feel free to use OSO for the powers of good vs. the powers of backlash. Reach out with a thread to members in the local area who would be willing to take a look at a boat or any purchase for you. Hundreds of threads like that over the past 10+ years.

Sorry you had to experience such a transaction.
Careful on the surveyors too. Like was said, some walk around the boat and look and some know a boat bow to transom. Some even advertise that "if your looking for 14 page detailed breakdown of a boat we are not the ones for you", and I took that to heart. ABSOLUTELY I want the 14 page breakdown!

Careful even with a friendly helping pair of eyes. I had an uncle in the boating industry check out a boat for me once because it was in his area. When I looked at it and found obvious in your face issues he just said, I don't know how I missed that. ????????????? It was still my problem.

I flew to look at a boat knowing that I couldn't bring it home even if I bought it. The pics looked superb from the broker. When I got there it looked terrible. I didn't even want to hear the engines. I just got on the plane and went home.

Best of luck in your boating efforts

Thanks everybody......... I'm just hoping that after my interior estimate, i'll be able to optain a lawyer in that area and take them to court. i've already spoken with one, and they're waiting for my estimates to be all added together..

hay bup....im in azle....little boat house,,,,,,where your shop or yu just local seller?

I have 2 shops 121 HWY airport freeway close to downtown Ft. Worth for my showroom / boat sales and my other is located on the east side of lake Benbrook just up the road from the lake for all repairs. We work on about 500 to 800 boats a year not counting winterizations / summerizations. DFW not too much performance boaters left in the area but a crap load of wakeboard boats, bass boats & Pontoons.

funny ive lived here almost all my life an dont recall seeing a shop on 121......dont go to benbrook,,,,to small an to manty stumps...lol....im bout 1 mile from eagle mountain lake om 730,,,stop in sometime an see my 38kv im almost done restorin also have a purty nice 89 villian3 with 454mag that runs 70+