Thay are TRS drives...

I'll probably go look at it monday and take a few pictures and post them up monday.

Is this a fairly balanced hull?

Thanks for all the replies, when you are new all this information realy helps.

Here are a few more pics, shows the engines anx what not.

http://www.siglersmarine.com/pre_own...R0&veh=2679278

I'm hoping the boat is nice and solid, and if it is, Ill work onthat price :)

One pther question I have, what kind of tow vehicle do you need for one of these? What kind of weight am I looking at?. I do have a nice older 2wd 78 f250 4spd with a 390 in it. I'm thinking this will do?

With trailer and about 40 gallons of fuel my 84 30' s-type weighs 9540lbs. It's a tripple axle aluminum I-beam trailer though, that steel trailer is going to way quite a bit more!

I tow mine with an 84 1 ton crew cab dually with a 454 and 400 automatic!

They are definetly heavy boats!!

Well I went to look at it today. It's going to.need at least new paint. I found one 4 inch diameter soft spot on the transo at the left top trim.

I do like the boat but it basically needs a ful restore and some transom work.

What would be a fair price to pay in this condition?

If you found a soft spot by feeling around the transom is 100% rotten. 3k to fix that if you pull the engines and rerig when done. Ask me how I know.... Panther is a great boat though and mine with a new transom, fresh blower motors and real bravo drives getting 90mph gps and towed on an alum tri axle trailer could be had for 30k.

I'm not gonna lie, I still want it. What is the transom constructed of?

I'm thinking around 10k for it might not be a bad deal considering the engines?

The soft spotalmost looked like it was from an oil leak off the trim.

Are the bravo drives that much of an upgrade?

Well, I don't know much about price, but I agree with everybody that the boat has trs drives and that's really not a bad thing. The trs drive is a good drive up to around 600hp. As far as the panther is concerned..they are great boats!! My first boat was an 87' panther, loved the boat, but mine had 454s with alpha drives.....I blew up a few of those till I leaned how to drive her. I don't care for the all black and red, but its a great riding hull and you won't have to worry about the trs drives unless you go crazy with the motors. If you can get the boat for a good deal, you won't be sorry. Trs boats have a tranny, so if you were to change to bravo drives there is some work to be done. Have to move the engines back and recut the transom..etc.

Get the boat surveyed. Period. At 10K a $3-500 is hardly a drop in the bucket and if it results in a motor having low compression in half its cylinders or finding out that the stringers are bad (normally some of them are rough if the transom is shot) you suddenly can get the boat for far less or maybe walk away. You'll find Black and red paint to be a serious pain not only to keep up, but also in the sun it gets hot enough to literally burn your feet. Start with a Survey. Go from there.

Personal opinion, I would keep looking. You can find some much nicer boats in the $20k range. You will forever be chasing that paint. What I mean is once you get it polished, it will fade fast. So a repaint is going to be around $6k (on the cheap end) plus the
Price of a transom repair ($3k). There will always be an extra $1k that needs to be spent on hidden things (it's a boat...). So figure you are looking at $10k in transom and paint alone.....trs drives are solid, but parts are becoming scarce and expensive. Now figure the cabin, looks to be in nice shape but very dated... You could find a boat with bravos, no transom repair and better paint in the $20s. Spend a little more and get an even better boat. While you may really like what you see, keep looking around. There is a better boat out there for you.... The$18,500 they are asking for that boat is way too much. NADA on that boat with upgraded motors is $14,500. This is assuming the boat is in "average" condition. Needing transom repair is not average condition..... While NADA isn't the bible, especially when dealing with older boats, just something to keep in mind..