1986 Sea Ray Sundancer rebuild

[dsinger1211]

All,
​This is a boat that my dad and brother and I always looked forward to owning one day, well in March of this year I bought a restoration project that I thought that I could make work.. Unfortunately my health took a turn for the worst and I have been in and out of the VA hospital a number of times. Today I stopped off at a local marina and asked them if they were still interested in doing the outdrive work and they said of course, so the Gen 1 Mercruiser outdrive is going to be replaced with a Gen 2 and the 454 is getting pulled out to be refreshed by a friend. Along with that the marina is going to be repairing the rotten stringers in the engine compartment, as much as I wanted to do all of this work I no longer can so I am now leaving it to the experts to do the work on the aft end and trailer. I will post pictures as the work starts, right now it has been at a stand still for quite a while and it will start soon. I need to figure out how to post a pic on here, please if someone knows, can you help an noob figure it out.

D

 

[DeepBlue2010]

The best way is to open a Photobucket account, upload your pictures there and copy the IMG code to the right of the picture on the photobucket site and paste it here in your message. Be aware that if you get comfortable with Photobucket and decided to move your pictures around and organize them in albums, your link here will be broken and the pictures will no longer show. Take the time to create the albums (folders) for your pictures as you want to organize and categorize them from the outset.

 

[White90GT]

The best way is to open a Photobucket account, upload your pictures there and copy the IMG code to the right of the picture on the photobucket site and paste it here in your message. Be aware that if you get comfortable with Photobucket and decided to move your pictures around and organize them in albums, your link here will be broken and the pictures will no longer show. Take the time to create the albums (folders) for your pictures as you want to organize and categorize them from the outset.

i also noticed when pasting the photobucket img code if you hit enter after pasting it messes up. so i always put several lines below where i want a picture so i can just arrow down to the next line after pasting the link.

White model/size is you Sundancer? I am gutting a 260 Weekender and replacing transom and stringers.

 

[boatman37]

lots of pics please. i have a 1986 250 sundancer. seems solid and i have nothing indicating i have any issues but just for future reference the pics may be helpful. mostly of the stringer and bulkhead configuration. additionally, i had thought about buying a 300 and if need be, redoing the whole transom/stringer system from the get-go. i would imagine the 250 and 300 would have similar layouts?

 

[dsinger1211]

Thanks Deep Blue for way to get pictures uploaded on here, I may post a few in a few days. Sadly my doctors will not clear me to work for the next 6 months so I am at a stand still with the boat and have been since I bought it, when I bought it I was still fully fit and ready to do all of the work myself.

​Now with no clearance to work from the doctors until next year, I am having to farm out all of the work which means a lot of money to get it to where I want it.

​White90GT, it is a 25' cabin cruiser with a small galley with a refrigerator and stove and sink it also has a full berth underneath the helm. One of the nice things on it is it has a water cooled AC which is needed here in the Florida heat. In addition it has a full fresh water system, 2 grey water tanks that I have an idea as to where they are.. Missing is the hot water heater and if it is still onboard it has been disconnected in it's past by a PO. Speaking of PO's a previous one put in an extra 100 Gallon fuel tank on top of the original tank and a big block 454 of unknown vintage and where it came from. It supposedly is a 300 HP engine attached to an old Gen 1 Mercruiser outdrive. One more thing is that this boat also has a complete electrical anchor windlass and I have bought new chain for it due to the PO putting rope in it instead of a chain.

​The marina I talked to yesterday whom I trust gave me a quote of roughly $3k for the rear stringer replacement, swapping over to a Gen 2 Mercruiser outdrive and all of the associated hydraulics and fluid tanks and fixing the trailer brakes etc. While I can do the trailer brakes myself, I don't want to push the healing process that has taken so long just to get to at this point.

​Sadly now I need to make a decision regarding selling it, this is the style of boat that my dad brother and I used to look at and dream about owning one day and having a great time one here in Florida one day. Now with dad gone and my brother whom lives out of state I need to really set down and think about it leaving without ever taking her out for a long distance trip.

​Thanks folks for the interest in this project, I just truly need to figure out if I am ready to put 5k or more into it to bring it back to where I want it to be or do I sell it and take a loss and then get a smaller boat and enjoy it

D

 

[dsinger1211]

Boatman 37, the 1986 Sundancer 250 IMHO is a beautiful boat and a used one can be a great boat to have and enjoy for many years to come with a family or even just with friends due to having 2 berths onboard and the ability to be able to load it out for a weekend trip and just enjoy life on the water. When I bought mine it had not been covered up in who knows how long and some of the windows and hatches have leaked over the years which caused a lot of rot.

​In my short amount of experience with my Sundancer I strongly recommend pulling all of your windows and hatches and cleaning and resealing all of them starting in the bow and working aft. My aft window on the helm station was never fully re-installed or sealed and it caused the rotting of that whole state room, the engine cover was not completely sealed so it leaked causing my aft stringers to rot and yes even my anchor windlass wood which had been poorly installed caused some rot in the cabin which I did not notice when I bought it.

​I am however going to put my anchor windlass wood back together using a composite plastic and seal it correctly along with the windows if I decide to sell her, which I don't really want to do and need to figure out what I am going to do. No one wants to be that PO whom was a POS and screw over the next owner and that won't be me if I do sell her.

​So yes I will post all of the pictures of her that I can so you have a reference point for yours if you ever need them

D

 

[boatman37]

thanks. i bought mine from the original owner last year. i see no signs of any leaks anywhere. no staining anywhere i can fine. i did reseal the whole transom this spring with 3M 4200 and resealed the horn mount, windshield base, and did a crappy job on the top of the rubrail and around my side windows. i want to redo the rubrail and windows cause they look pretty sloppy. i plan/hope to remove the windows and reseal them the right way and just clean up the 4200 around the rubrail. i also want to pull the bow hatch and reseal it and the rail and cleats. that should cover about everything. not sure i will be able to get it all done before next summer but will do as much as i can.
unfortunately i don't have a windlass or A/C. i love my boat but want a bigger one with A/C and windlass. i could probably have a nice 80's 300 by next year or wait another year and get a newer 300 (maybe late 90's or so). i had thought about buying a late 80's 300 with plans of redoing the entire boat before putting it in the water. this would include transom and stringers if it needs it (and maybe even if it doesn't need it just so i know it is done). having pics of the stringer layout would help my planning. my thoughts are that all 4 stringers run up to the front end of the aft berth in one long section with divided bulkheads along the way?
seems with this layout the worst case scenario would be removing everything from the cabin steps back (as long as the cabin is in good condition). i'm thinking this doesn't sound like it is that bad of a job? not like some of these bowriders where everything has to come out?

if it turns out it is that bad of a job that might influence my decision to buy a late 80's and redoing it and instead wait a little while longer to buy a newer one in much better condition

 

[dsinger1211]

boatma37,
​I have to take my anchor windlass off to allow for the replacement of the rotten wood that it is currently on, will take pictures of it for you so you can hopefully use them to put in a anchor windless system yourself.

​One question for the iboat guru's, let's say that the marine air conditioning unit in my boat is bad can I purchase a small window air conditioner unit and install it in former marine unit?? Yes the boat has a power inverter for 110 VAC to run a refrigerator, outlets and a stove not to mention the marine air conditioning unit.

Thanks in advance,

D

 

[DeepBlue2010]

Do you mean a house window AC unit?

Not as simple as you think and I doubt it is worth the trouble. Inverters must be sized based on the load they are feeding and the batteries they are feeding out of must be the correct size also otherwise they can be drained in few minutes.

To give you an example, few years ago before cell phones had a USB charging ports, I installed a small inverter (500W) on my boat. More than enough to charge electronics but it is not enough to run my coffee maker (750W)

Most likely your stove is not running on inverter AC otherwise you will have a hell of inverter and battery banks. Most likely it supports AC operation mode only when you are connected to shore power.

Moreover, some important and critical parts of a good quality marine AC unit (as opposed to Chinese POSs that are the pure definition of poor quality but they sell it to us for an arm and a leg because we are suckers with boats) are made to withstands the harsh marine environment without rusting or breaking. Most of home use ones are not designed this way.

 

[dsinger1211]

Thanks DeepBlue,

​I had pretty much figured that would be the case however I am still thinking outside of the box to see what will work in case mine has died or if someone else would like to do something similar out.

​You answered the question regarding my stove because I had been wondering why it was also a fuel based stove and not just an electrical one.. Speaking of the stove I am considering removing it and just putting in a small microwave and a hot plate only to be used when needed which I don't see very often

Thanks,

D

 

[DeepBlue2010]

I searched long and decided I will never use the Alcohol fuel in my stove. All the reviews and experiences I read didn't inspire much confidence. The Admiral bought two propane stoves from a Japanese store and those are what she uses while we underway to keep us fed and keep me caffeinated.

Once I hook the shore power, those go to storage and the stove runs on electric.

 

[dsinger1211]

I agree about never trying to use alcohol fuel in the stove, nor do even really want to use the electrical side on mine just due to the power panel issues which I have another one to replace the one in mine which is in sad shape.

​One thing that I have learned in the last few days and a friend of mine pointed it out to me is that while I thought it was an '86 year model due to the cockpit layout and a few other things my boat is actually an '85 year model and I came across the title to it and it does show as an '85 model.

​Now with that being said I have figured out why the PO added the additional 100 Gal fuel tank and from what I have read online is that Sea Ray only used about 1/4 inch material to keep the fuel tank off of the deck so it sadly rotted out in a lot of cases. So he gave up some storage space to have a reliable fuel tank in it which I can understand that.

​Also some things bothered me about the layout of my interior and it is a mix of the '85,'86 250 & 260 layouts, so does that mean that it was a special year end model or did the original owner have the layouts changed over??

​Another thing that I noticed in some of the YouTube videos this am is that my decking going into the aft berth doesn't flow straight in with the center section being able to be removed so that people could actually set down and talk like some of the same year models, which tells me that the boat has gone through at least 1 renovation and honestly it gives me a hell of a lot of hope now in just doing a exploratory rot check because the PO used pressed particle board instead of marine grade or pressure treated wood or even having any decent wood in it, the only thing worse would have been MDF IMHO

​Also one of the videos showed a 7.4 liter big block and mine looks more like a standard car or truck engine which really doesn't bother me because it is getting pulled and a good going through is going to be had and also to make it a marine 454 to include the marine alternator, starter and having the new Holley 675 changed over to marine use along with the new HEI distributer and associated equipment.

​Folks I know that I still need to put up pictures because without them it never happened right???

​On a side note Boatman, my anchor windlass was put on somewhere in it's life and I will take a lot of pictures of how it was hooked up and also how they put the mounting brackets in it.. You can do the same also without having to spend an arm and a leg on another boat.

D

 

[boatman37]

thanks dsinger. when you talk about the decking and aft berth, are you meaning having the aft berth be set up as a U shaped sitting area? mine isn't like that. my 1986 250DA has a 'bulkhead' at the very front of the aft cabin. if you remove my cushions it is one flat area. i believe the fuel tank is under the center section where your feet would be if you were sitting there. my guess is the stringers (at lest the 2 center ones) run to the front of the aft berth.

just pulled mine out this morning and brought it home. going to winterize this week then take it to the underground storage this weekend

 

[dsinger1211]

boatman37, Mine is set up like yours for the aft berthing area, I am at a loss on this one right now because I watched a number of sundancer video's on youtube this am (couldn't sleep) and a couple of the '85 year model had it set up like the u-shaped berth and the galley being on the Starboard side instead of the Port side. Without contacting Sea Ray with my HIN so that they could send me the build specs for my boat then I am really at a loss D

 

[boatman37]

hmmm. never saw an 86 250 like that. my galley is on the port side

 

[dsinger1211]

My '85 250 galley is on the port side also, damn I need to start forwarding the links to here to show the differences

 

[White90GT]

This thread is worthless without pics lol.

my galley is on port

 

[dsinger1211]

Will have to find the video and post it, it was a truly different style of layout and don't know if I like it better or not

 

[Hoosmatroos]

Will try to follow your rebuild. Good luck.

 

[dsinger1211]

White90Gt,
​Here is a youtube video of an '85 27' Sundancer and it's galley is on the Starboard side, it is a different style of cabin layout compared to ours which both have the galley on the Port side. Also my breakers are in a different location on the panel and while I wish I had the bench seat for the helm, a PO has replaced it with Captain's seats which aren't too bad although I do miss having the storage room in the front and back of them not to mention the fold down seats at the back of the helm station. I did find another video showing an 86 250 without the ac in it and I do know the location of it along with the anchor windlass and when this hurricane passes this weekend I will get back onboard and start taking pics of the inside for you and the rest of the iboat community to see and read

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6grHBUwBcDk

D