I found a 17' 1976 Terry bass boat in the Boat Trader for $900. It has a 115hp Johnson motor that needs to be rebuilt. It also has a new trolling motor, depth finder and carpet.

Does anyone know anything about these boats?

Would it be worth checking out?

It's 30 years old. Would the fiberglass still be servicable?

I have been thinking about upgrading from my 12' utility boat to a larger boat and using my 9.9hp Merc for perhaps a 14' or 16' V-bottom utility boat but maybe this Terry boat might be an option.

What would it cost to rebuild a Johnson outboard?

Thank you,

Tom

In it's day, it was one of the best, was considered up there close to a Ranger. I had a couple of them back then. My brother still has one of my old ones. As with any boat that age, if has to be checked closely for rot. $900 is way too much for it though. If the transom and floor check out sound, $500 is the absolute max I would pay with a bad motor and would have a hard time wanting to pay that. That old of a motor is only worth a little over scrap metal price. Very good chance the steering cables are rusted up, control cables might also need replacing. You will easily have a couple of $K spent on it by the time you get back to a fishable boat (as menitoned, that's provided it's structurly sound). You can probably buy another good running, older motor, much cheaper than you can rebuild that one. Even if you can build it yourself, just boring with new pistons rings, and gaskets will cost you close to $1,000 retail for the parts. That's provided all the bearings and crank are good and reusable.

Forgot to mention, it is also among the narrower Bomber style boats, Not quit as narrow as the Bomber not a big wide boat like the newer bass boats

Thanks Way2Slow.

I found 2 of these for sale on line and they wanted between $300 and $500 for them. One looked really beat up. The other just looked old but well taken care of.

As W3S said, in it's day, Terry was one of the Premier builders right up there with Ranger.  In fact, I'd have prefered a Terry over a Ranger, their layout was more fishermen friendly.  Terry began building the old bathtub style, narrow hull bassboats, then they moved to the sponsoned Vhulls, those were their best boats. Finally, when the true Vhull came into vogue in the early 80's they followed.  Somewhere in the early 80's they dropped out of fiberglass production and only produced an aluminum hull then they disappeared for good.  As stated,  anything that old is VERY prone to wood rot and I'm talking just about everything from the transom to all the stringers.  If you could find one that's been garaged all these years it would be quite a find.  Terry's models that were most in demand used metric numbers as models, ie: 4.7, 5.3 and 6.2.  I fished out of a couple in my day and they were a very well built boat.

Taking into account the money you're spending though, you'll easily be dropping another grand or more into any boat of that age just to get it into a reliable, safe condition.  And that's not including the cosmetics which could run it up even more.

Thanks Cart7. I think I'll be leaving that "deal" for someone else.

I have a bigger boat for fun on the water. I was just looking for a fishing boat that's bigger than my little 12 footer for pure fishing fun. The 12 footer is just not big enough for my needs, especially when the wind and boat traffic are up on my lake.

I think I'll just keep looking.

Tom

I have a mid 70's Terry boat,and the fiberglass is still in good shape.Mine had a 50 hp Evinrude that was not worth fixing,so I put a new Yamaha on it.It's a boat that is all that I need for the kind of bassin' I do. $900 is a steep price to pay for it,though.I traded an old worn out 30-30 rifle for mine.I think you can get 'em to come down off of that price.

Thanks Rattlinrouge,

I think the price is a bit high as well.

My father still has his 1970 Terry bass boat.  He's had it garaged the whole time, and had it stored for 20yrs when he moved up to Alaska.  He moved back, and uses it today.  It's in mint condition.  Even has the original MotorGuide trolling motor on it (that still works perfectly).