I have a guy wanting to sell me a 1988 Stingray SVB 198 for $3,000.
It has a 4.3l Merc engine and an OMC outdrive. The boat looks clean
and nothing is rotted or in disrepair. However, there is black oily
dust on some of the engine parts and the altenator has some light rust
on the outside housing. All the hoses look to be in good condition
too. I noticed a motor mount nut was rusted pretty badly as well as
one of the bolts that hold on the water pump. Should I be concerned
about these little things? There are no holes in the hull or even any
scrapes like one would see if the boat had been beached from time to
time. But there is a place at the stern on the bottom that looks like
it may have hit a rock once and was repaired. There is no damage at
all to anything on the outside of the sterndrive and the prop looks
like it has never touched mud. Should this concern me? It is a
beautiful boat and I would hate to get it in the water and find out I
got a piece of ****.

Anyone had any experience with these boats? Are they as hated as
bayliner?

Thanks