Yer right Jo,

i didnt think the paint looked the same, but the boat sounded too familiar to think it may be the same one. The one you are talking about was at national Liquidators a few years back I
believe??

Griff,

Got any info/picks of your 28 pantera. If I can sell my boat soon I'll pay 45K or close to it.

Here's some pics. I'm heading outta town in about 6hrs. I'll PM you with more info when I get back.

Now Griff what do you want to go and do that for???

Jo is correct, that is my old boat. I had a great time on that boat and never had any promblems. Awesome boat!!!!!!

OK guys, thanks for all the input - now I need a little more.

I'm ready to close on this deal. But there are some issues.

1) The boat has been sitting for 2 years and has yet to be cleaned- so the interior is filthy. I'm hoping it will clean up nice. But may need to be replaced. The interior looks like it is in good condition just dirty. Does the interior clean up good - do you think I can bring the white out again?

2) Rust on the engine - not a whole lot, but enough to make you uneasy - say 10% of the entire engine. Should I be concerned here. DDT test said only 250 hours and the boat should be good for 1000 hrs I'm told. The motor mounts are a little corroded. The interior tie bar is so corroded that it looks like its about to break in half - but its right underneath a blower hole so I figure just a little bit of salt water got on it. I am told you can just remove this and leave off.

3) All the vinyl has come ungleud in the cabin - I already made plans to have that fixed so not really a big deal. BUT the little problems are starting to add up to a big problem.

4) Test drive on Saturday did not go so well. One of the motors poped off a freeze plug (before the test drive) and they had to put it back on first. Should I be worried here - sounds like it wasn't properly winterized - and they told me that. But it started up and ran fine. Had a hard time starting up one of the engines - they finally sprayed some starter stuff in there to get it going. We got up on plane for about 2 minutes before we blew an impeller and the engine overheated. I'm thinking no big deal happens all the time - especially when a boat sits for 2 years.

I am having my mechanic look at it on Thursday. Boat will go straight to the shop when I get it and I am budgeting around $2,000 for repairs and long awaited maintenance. Long term plans are to try and get atleast 5-6 years out of the 454mpi's and then slap in a pair of 350's with just a little more horsepower.

Its only $50,000 for a 1999 so I feel like I am paying for what I am getting - it just needs some TLC. Do you guys think I should go ahead with this deal or wait for the next one. I love the colors and don't mind a couple thousand in repairs, plus its very close to home, BUT I want a good used boat not a story. GIVE IT TO ME STRAIGHT AND DON'T SUGAR COAT IT - I'm a big boy

pass...
all this has reared its head already? there's surely more to come.
by the time you get it cleaned up, you could be in the one at shogren.

how about this?
ain't this the old cherry bomb?
http://www.offshoreonlyclassifieds.c...o16693-en.html

Griff's boat was a solid 8.5 to 9 (out of 10) for $45k with a nice aluminum trailer. It's 3 years older and a single, but I'd be very hard pressed to say that the 1999 you're looking at is worth $50k, especially when the one linked above and the one at Shogren can be had for another $10k. As nice as my boat is, I can still blink and drop $1,500 on it over and over. An extra $5-$10k up front is going to be well worth it.

Now maybe if they wanted $35-$40k for the 1999...

I've read the old Cherry Bomb boat was not in very good overall condition. It has been for sale off and on for about 3 years. I think the 500's also have/had quite a few hours-like maybe 400???? Don't know for sure though.