How disappointing that must be.

what are the 4 black covers under the swim platform in post #4 for? I see tailpipes above and no openings below, some type of modification?

someone put headers on it and it looks like they had to go over the swim platform with them. The old holes are probably from the stock exhaust.

Unfortunate that you had to travel that distance to see a POS. Did the surveyor give it a clean bill of health?

The surveyor said that the motors ran fine and there was a problem with one of the outdrives in that it stalled the motor when he engaged it. He said that the outdrives looked different - 1 had nose cone with cracks in it and the other did not have a nose cone. He also said that there was "some" mold in the cabin and the boat needed a "little" TLC.

There was mold everywhere in the cabin - on the cabinets, the headliner, all of the cushions, and there was mold on ALL of the upholstry in the cockpit. He mentioned nothing about the throttles being bent. He said some of the gauges did not work, however mentioned nothing about the port side drive not going up unless you hit the button exactly right. The fuel lines going to each carb were connected in an extremely unsafe manner using some sort of hose clamps - surveyor did not metion this. He told us that the exterior needed to be buffed. The exterior actually looked like the previous owner never owned a fender - both sides had dock rash and the rub rail needed to be completely replaced. The checkered part of the graphics looked like it was from the factory, but the red and orange stripe looked like it was painted on with a brush as you could see uneven strokes where is was not evenly put on - surveyor did not mention this.

Surveyor

Could have been worse. Picture adjusting the price and making a deal off of the surveyors report without ever seeing the boat, then this shows up. It amazes me people that buy a boat off of a survey without looking at the boat themselves.

use a surveyor you know. locally to u not the boat. i did and glad i did i willing to pay the extra incl airfare for that..
its worth the peice of mind.

Hey..I know that boat, met the owner...who had no clue about performance boats..and a friend of mine worked on it. He did some glass work on it. The guy who owned it didn't have to money to properly get it running right, he unfortunetly listened to the wrong people trying to save a buck instead of doing it right the first time. He put in 2 new engines, but had got them from some auto place. I believe they are 502 blocks...but the cams are unknowns. If I remember right the cams are too big, causing reversion issues with the wet exhausts on the boat. The guy sunk some bucks in the trans...it had failed, he had it rebuilt, bought a new cooler and the trans failed shortly after the rebuilt unit was installed. Had that rebuilt again and shortly there after it failed again. I believe that's when the guy called it quits. I'm sure that's whats wrong with it now, the trans. and its on the port engine. I know the trans failed the first time because of an oil leak and when it ran dry burned up. Don't know what the reason for the next failures unless the installer put in the wrong rotation trans.
Anyhow, goodluck..that boat barely ran 60 according to the owner..actually it ran slower after his supposed upgrade to the 502/550hp motors from the old 420's she had. He was a nice guy...big muscle guy, but as you well know there are a lot of crooks in the marine world who will steal you blind if you don't know what you're doing.

That put a poor taste in his mouth for performance boating

Yeah, that experience would put a bad taste in anyone's mouth. The problem with the Atlanta area and that type of boat, carb motors and TRS drives, is that I only know of 2 people who know what they're doing and the best one is....well....he works on his own schedule, when he wants to work...so you have to be Really patient..and this poor guy got tired of waiting, plus I don't think he was ready for the costs, or the maintenance involved in that type of boat.

Sounds like a guy could open a prosperous biz there if knowledgeable.