Boat Shoppin'

[85_Ranger4x4]

As I was standing on a bank last weekend fighting tooth and nail with rocks and trees I decided it would be fun to get a boat for fishing. I have been looking around and I found this:

http://omaha.craigslist.org/boa/774453153.html

You can't beat $120 with a stick for a boat that floats, that was cheaper than a pontoon rental for a day at the lake I was at.

My big worry is this thing is made out of fiberglass, what is the typical lifespan for a fiberglass boat?

Also I have 2-3 other guys that go fishing with me, is this thing going to be big enough for 4 decent sized guys fishing? Looks like it seats 6 but not in ideal fishing positions.

I was at Rathbun Lake, the second biggest lake in Iowa (16k acre), and aside from light ski traffic it looked pretty smooth out there from what I could see. I can honestly say that aside from MAYBE Red Rock Lake which is only marginally larger it would never see a larger body of water with me at the helm. We would mostly be going around the edges chasing fish.

 

[Sunk]

A buddy of mine has a 14 foot boat of a very similar style and it took 3 of us and A LOT of crap a few miles for a camping trip, so 4 guys should work. It takes pretty well, but the seats pound your ass since they aren't padded.

I have no clue on the lifespan of a glass boat, but check for soft spots in the floor. My buddy's boat has a wood floor and they've had to replace quite a bit of it

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Well I emailed him at about noon and after 2 replies he had it sold to someone else at about 1:30. It was a tad on the old side for my taste, but its simplicity (I have very little boating experiance) was tempting.

Thanks for the heads up about the flooring, that is one aspect I never even thought of but is pretty important.

I found a 1985 sierra 16 foot bowrider which looks like it would fit our needs a little better, supposedly needs a fuel line and has no interior. I don't know if no interior means that it just needs seats and minor stuff or if the floor and everything is out (dealbreaker, I am NOT restoring a boat) I am going to check if my brother is still willing to go in with me on it and maybe email them tonight.

http://omaha.craigslist.org/boa/774129598.html

 

[Sunk]

Well it hasn't been completely gutted, but it does look like it's partly taken apart. With a boat like that you could also use it for tubing/skiing if you're into that..

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Tubing or skiing isn't really my thing, mainly looking for a self propelled floating platform from which to catch fish. A bassboat would be ideal probably, but they only have room for 2-3 people and hold their value much better than the multipurpose/ski sort of boats I have been able to find for cheap.

Ok, got another one the line... a bunch of people dumping boats right now for some reason

Anyway it is similar in design to the bowrider I posted earlier... only it has a inboard/outboard 6 cylinder Volvo powertrain. Exactly how do you check this out? At least with an outboard you can scrap and it stick a different engine on the back but with a I/O I think you are sort of commited to the stock setup.

I notice the Volvo engine sizes I am seeing sound familiar, 4.3, 5.0, 5.7, 8.1... Are they actually made for Volvo by Chevy or is it just a coinsidence?

It has some age on it, and I can use my imagination to figure out how expensive this can be to repair (Volvo) so I want to check it out good before hand. The parts between the engine and the propeller are what scares me the most and I am most concerned about.

The guy had it out a couple years ago and was pulling his friend on a tube at 35mph... so I assume it runs pretty good. The starter is out of it now, and he wants to fix it before he sells it so we know what we are getting. He is a good friend of my brother's which is why he is going thru the effort for us. He says minus the starter it is a good solid boat.


On a side note there is now a 1956 14' boat listed for sale in a town 20 miles away for $850, I think somebody snatched my first one up just to resell it as it was up 2 hours after I got my email it was sold.

 

[Boggin]

my dad had a 20 year old fiberglass boat thats been used every summer in salt water and never had anything replaced...that looks like a nice boat

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Thanks for the help, this thing will probably never see salt water but that your dad's has lived that long on it means something.

I guess it is a straight 6, which means no GM 4.3L (bummer) but possibly a Volvo B30, I wonder how hard it so to find parts for one of those...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volvo_B30_engine

 

[Sunk]

From what I've heard, Volvos are pretty good. At least the Penta out-drives, but I'm not sure if that boat has one.

As far as engines, you'd be limited to something with the same bellhousing bolt pattern essentially. If it is the B30 (or any that was used in cars) it'll be easier and cheaper to find parts... Just make a trip to your favorite wrecking yard.

The same buddy of mine picked up am '82 Wellcraft 18' with a Chevy 3.8 (not Buick) last year. The PO didn't winterize it, so the block was cracked. His dad found a freshly rebuilt 3.8 in a wrecked car and that thing was quick... Until it started blowing pistons. We eventually figured out that the block was bored .030 and oversize used and that standard car stuff. Since it was fresh it was real tight. Since marine engines runs have an unlimited supply of cold water for cooling, the block stays cooler, while the pistons don't so much. So the tight clearances were too tight. So they picked up another stock block, honed it alot and ran stock pistons. It only took 2 or 3 pistons and pulling the motor 6 or 7 times within a span of about 3 weeks to figure it out.

You probably won't run into that issue, but something to keep in mind if it is an auto engine and it ever needs to be replaced.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Pre 1975 Volvos were crushed and hauled away a long time ago, it is rare to even see one of any age on the road around here...

Not much info on those older Volvo inboard/outboards. Hopefully looking at it this weekend will give me some more info to look up (like exactly what it has)

I have read that some boat engines run the water thru heat exchangers on the exhaust manifolds to warm the water up before it goes into the engine (and to prevent the glowing hot manifolds from finding anything to ignite. It is crazy all of the odd stuff they come up with for problems that don't happen when the engine is in a car...

 

[Sunk]

Ahh yeah '75 is getting pretty old. I missed that part when I read the Wiki before, oops. They are a couple on the roads here, but I haven't seen any in wrecking yards.

Yeah that boat didn't have a heat exchanger (obviously). I agree about all the wierd stuff with boat engines, it took my buddy remembering a conversation he had with an acquaintance about the boat he had that had that problem for us to figure it out.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Well it was a 1976 Reinell with an 1974 170hp B30 Volvo straight 6 with three carburators. It is in ok shape, interior needs help, most of the seats are busted, carpet might be tolerable with some help, floor has a small soft spot about 1 square foot around where the captains chair was, some of the vinyl trim around the bow and stearn are dried and cracked badly. The hull looks really good with a couple minor rub marks, but no major damage that would ever amount to anything. It is a 16 footer with a tri hull, and has seating on the bow which is nice. Not an ideal ski boat but nice and stable for fishing.

A great big beyond big red flag is the two freeze plugs on the front of the cylinder head are gone... which means it wasn't winterized (he admitted to it) before being stored (it hasn't seen water in 3 years) We did get it to hit on 2-3 cylinders with 2 year old gas and badly pitted points (the parts store gave him the wrong ones and it was after hours) We also had the old points set to .02 (general rule of thumb for what we normally set points to, later we noticed it said .011 on the valve cover)

Another problem is that it has a car starter motor rather than the $300 marine one with spark shielding... that will need replaced as I want to limit the possibility to a on-board explosion as much as humanly possible. It does have the water cooled exhaust manifold though along with a ventilation pump which are pluses.

So to sum it up:
1. It needs a small part of the deck replaced.
2. Seats reattached to the floor
3. Maybe carpet
4. Minor upholstery work
5. Marine starter
6. At best 2 freeze plugs and at worst an engine...
7. The condition of the final drive is still unknown.

It has a solid hull, needs interior work and possibly major engine work (It did turn over nice though) and fired decent IMO for what it had to work with.

He is going to do some work to it (get the seats back in it, clean it up and get it to run so we can take it on a test ride) and get with the co-owner about a price, I am thinking $500-$1000 depending on what all he does... Thoughts??

 

[Boggin]

Thanks for the help, this thing will probably never see salt water but that your dad's has lived that long on it means something.

I guess it is a straight 6, which means no GM 4.3L (bummer) but possibly a Volvo B30, I wonder how hard it so to find parts for one of those...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volvo_B30_engine

your welcome