swick
Petty Officer 1st Class
- Joined
- Aug 15, 2009
- Messages
- 282
Today I went to see a 1975 17' Glastron Bass boat. Pics on the web looked great, all fiberglass, nice looking seats, 115 hp Johnson, Minikota trolling motor etc...
Got there and the boat was not so white in person. The seats weren't new and were barely hanging on. Gauges, switches, and lights did not work, owner pretended that he didn't know answers to questions, very shady. I did a compression test and it came out perfect= 120 X 3 & 125 on the 4th.
Dropped it in the water, ran nice, my wife asked seller to let me have a go and he said no! I said to him "well that makes me uncomfortable!" I am here to see if I should buy it or not. He let me drive it after I made that comment to him. Oh yeah, forgot to mention that there was a softspot in the floor where the water drains, I know nothing about reinforcing fiberglass... there were also minor cracks around the fiberglass all around the boat. He said they've been there for a long time and wouldn't get worse. Obviously it didn't start out that way and has gotten worse though!
He was asking $1850. After all was said and done I offered $1400 and he said no. Trailer needed work as well. I asked him how low he would go and he said he would get $1850 for it. Am I out of my mind or is he?? The engine compression was fine, but still a 1975 on a 17' piece of junk.
One more thing, he had ATF in the lower unit, not oil. Thought that was very very strange but he said he learned it from a friend who was a boat mechanic. I don't know what to think about that...
Got there and the boat was not so white in person. The seats weren't new and were barely hanging on. Gauges, switches, and lights did not work, owner pretended that he didn't know answers to questions, very shady. I did a compression test and it came out perfect= 120 X 3 & 125 on the 4th.
Dropped it in the water, ran nice, my wife asked seller to let me have a go and he said no! I said to him "well that makes me uncomfortable!" I am here to see if I should buy it or not. He let me drive it after I made that comment to him. Oh yeah, forgot to mention that there was a softspot in the floor where the water drains, I know nothing about reinforcing fiberglass... there were also minor cracks around the fiberglass all around the boat. He said they've been there for a long time and wouldn't get worse. Obviously it didn't start out that way and has gotten worse though!
He was asking $1850. After all was said and done I offered $1400 and he said no. Trailer needed work as well. I asked him how low he would go and he said he would get $1850 for it. Am I out of my mind or is he?? The engine compression was fine, but still a 1975 on a 17' piece of junk.
One more thing, he had ATF in the lower unit, not oil. Thought that was very very strange but he said he learned it from a friend who was a boat mechanic. I don't know what to think about that...
