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96 Speedster - rookie troubleshooting workflow

The thought had crossed my mind, but I live in kind of a weird spot. It's a peninsula that's suddenly become extremely rich over the past decade, so there's a lot less DIY community, everything for sale nearby carries a huge premium, and radius-based marketplace filters aren't smart enough not to try and send me directly across the bay on what's actually a 4hr one-way trip.

There's a partout listed in exactly such a location, actually, for an '04 Speedster. I'm having trouble figuring out if later access covers are "close enough" to fab into one of mine, but it doesn't seem worth the trip.


I also don't think I ever mentioned this part, but this was more-or-less a $300 boat. Repairs ($30 tach, 7x$50 carb rebuilds + needle seats + wear rings, $220 impeller) have been another $600. If the going rate for these things is $2-350 (ebay), that feels pretty wasteful. Same beef I have with the traction mat kits I see at $3-400.

Anyway, everyone knows boats aren't for poor people, more at 5.
 
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Ebay is always overpriced, if I’m selling something or buying I consider it to be worth roughly half of the average ebay price. I always shake my head when a post will come up with someone asking what is this worth. Last one I remember was a pretty minty 1997 GSX on FB group that was for sale for 1500.00 with a trailer. Lots of answers like I just sold mine for 500.00. and it’s worth 800.00 tops, meanwhile they just bought one for 600.00 with no trailer that needs everything, sitting outside its whole life, sink 600.00 in parts and countless hours into it, but no way is a garage kept machine with low hours worth 1500.09 lol.
 
Oh, absolutely, it goes both ways. Sellers want a million dollars for their stuff, but simultaneously buyers want to pay $3.50 instead of what stuff is actually worth.

I'm getting the impression boats have the same problem as motorcycles in being a lot less fabrication-friendly than cars and trucks. There's always some piece of plastic you've got to have, only the dealer ever sold it, and there's not really such a thing as the junkyard.

Without economies of scale, it goes like you're saying: buying all the parts a shitbox needs to be complete will run you more than it would just have cost to start with something nicer.

But, sometimes your budget is what it is, and if you want to play, you've just gotta do the best you can.
 
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