New owner of an older VIP Vantage

[matt.benson]

Ok, so here goes. I have been looking at this forum for a while now and especially after my wife and I decided we were looking to but a boat. We ended up getting a 1989 VIP Vantage 1850. I am not sure if it is an LX model or an SS. When we got it the previous owner said he hit something in a nearby river and damaged the lower. Boy did he ever, he completely tore the forward gear out of it. So needless to say I went to Ebay and found a good condition lower and put it on. The boat is powered by a 175 hp OMC 4.3L Cobra. At least he sold it with a good manual.
Best thing to say is that these forums are great for getting ideas on how to solve problems you might have. Since we have had the boat we have done a few things to get it updated like putting in some new seats, putting on a new bimini top, and making sure everything with the boat was in good conditional and safe to operate, plus putting on a wakeboard tower.
Next up is replacing the gauges (new ones with a good speedometer for skiing and wakeboardingand) updating the switches with some LED lighted contura rockers and then doing the floor this winter and possibly opening the cuddy cabin up to put some open bow seating for better weight distribution.
Please let me know if you have any ideas on the VIP boat pictured below.

Thanks, any advice is very appreciated and welcomed.

 

[winfan]

Re: New owner of an older VIP Vantage

Hi Matt

Welcome to the forum and the VIP section. I am sure that someone will chime in and give you some advice. Nice looking boat. I just got a 1988 Vision 1750 a few weeks ago. In pretty good shape but in need of some work. I hope to really start into some of it this winter. New seats/interior work, things like that. Then maybe some updating of the hull graphics. We shall see. Again welcome aboard.

Warren