@SkipGundlach I am not sure what you mean by the edit function went away, the thread is not locked or hidden. But to keep this somewhat organized I am going to merge your threads together.

Completed Survey report here:

and not a peep about the lawsuit w/ Tommy's.  that's probably predictable but also funny to me.  I didn't listen to the call but hoping someone asked about it.  

Yeah just lay down and look up at the back of it from under the helm.  You should be able to take a pic of the model/serial numbers with ur phone.  

With many apologies, but the editing function disappeared on my original post, and there are some significant things to report.  There were several comments to the original, all of which can be seen, linked below, but this is cleaned up and current following my trip.  If you want to see the original comment streams, click the pic:

So, starting over:

Greetings, all,

So, I went to Holland MI, and have surveyed and sea trialed the Sunscape mentioned in these pages previously. (https://www.coralgablesyachts.com/boats-for-sale/2002-malibu-sunscape-21-lsv-holland-michigan-8967585/)

It was pretty much as I expected, with a couple of surprises; the first was the virtual silence of the motor starting and running. That's among the good news.  Along with that, based on the pictures in the ad, the interior was in fantastic shape, with only some incipient stitching failures at the various cushions' welting as typical of older boats, but no actual failures yet. 

It came with an unadvertised Skylon as well as both ski and wakeboard lines (but no toys) and the requisite brick full of horsecollar lifejackets.  

Another unadvertised, very nice, surprise was the also-installed Perfect Pass, seen just in front of the shifter.  

Another welcome feature, given that it will be me at the helm most of the time, was that even with my very long legs, my feet - with the seat fully forward - fit perfectly to the ramp at the front of the driver's compartment.  Tilt wheel and bolster, along with a long, perfect-condition slide, made sitting high easy as well.

And the sea trial was also pretty much as expected.  Gentle rolling acceleration (like getting a new tow up for the first time) was smooth and silent.  A hot start, as I used to do (throttle all the way, ease at ski speed) fully impressed the broker, and pleased me, as it exceeded the up-and-flat performance of my much smaller and lighter, Cleveland 351-powered, venerable Ski Supreme.  On the other hand, on my hard-turns tests, what with a nearly-empty fuel tank, while the port turn was as expected, the starboard turn threw what little fuel there was away from the pickup tube, and we stalled out.  In blustery cool winds, we drifted east, but got her restarted and back on the trailer without excitement other than having to back off and fiddle a bit due to the alignment poles being, respectively, stowed and broken off (on which more below).

That was the good news/surprising pleasures.

The not-so-good was limited to a couple of things, one which initially appeared potentially gnarly:

The first is the rectangular hole in the starboard rear of the trailer frame which, I discovered, was the previous location of the bracket for the guide arm.  That same arm (without the bracket attached to it) was in the port aft locker (the black tube between the Skylon poles).  The bracket and arm which had been ripped off was lying on the stern cockpit sole... The frame didn't  appear distorted, and so I'm trustful that a skillful welder can reattach that, pretty up the weld, and match the purple, hull-matching, paint which is in generally fantastic condition.

As well, perhaps related, there had been some misadventure to the starboard fender, causing an incipient rear-step weld failure, as well as a potential tire hazard intrusion of material into the wheel well:

The broker is going to further depress the fender edge to minimize the potential for its involvement with the tire on the trip south.  The port fender/step has similar, though very much less distressed, issues.  We'll get the boat in the water and then deal with resolving those fairly-straightforward repairs at a body shop or trailer specialist.  I'm expecting this to be trivial to folks in that/those businesses.  Once again, tiny, perhaps inconsequential, stuff, but with everything else being amazingly bristol (a sailing term meaning pretty and shipshape, if you'd not heard it before), something worth doing given the bargain achieved in this purchase.

Finally, however, and I quickly received guidance from the group, in the original thread regarding solutions, the Velvet Drive transmission dipstick had the thought-to-be-screw-down part broken off and secured in the dipstick hole, leaving a small collar at the cap-end.  I had first feared that it was a screw-in plug which would require a drift and a careful extraction, with a (hoped for) replacement easily sourced. It initially appeared to be a dissimilar metals problem visually, with what I presumed to be the solid screw-in having corroded to the aluminum.  It was last fluid-replaced (with no 'younger' service records indicating any later attention given to the transmission) in 2021.

The good news is that the hive mind knew better.  First, it's a Walter V-Drive, and they're still very much in business.  Best, it isn't a screw-in, but merely an O-ring-secured straight shaft, which, in the earlier thread, a kind soul pointed me to (albeit rather expensive, partly due to shipping, I expect) replacements; our broker (Brandon Ricci, Coral Gables Yachts, Holland MI) was adventurous enough to gently give it a tug, and it popped right out.

The dipstick top actually looks like this pic:

and it's entirely possible that a thorough cleanup and some judicious application of JBWeld will render the original sound again.  It's my suspicion, as the remainder came out without a fuss, that this broke years ago and was treated as trivial and not worth fixing.  I'm the kinda guy who'd fix or replace it, though ☺

So, overall, I'm thrilled that the dipstick will, even if expen$ive, be a trivial fix.

On the way to the sea trial, it was noted that the left trailer tail light seemed inoperative (no blink or brake).  Maybe a dead bulb, maybe a wiring issue; the starboard worked just fine.  Small beans. The broker agreed to get that fixed  before the shipper picked it up... in 4 days, two of which are weekend ... and on his nickel. Perhaps that's what the new housing seen in the Skylon pic was for, and the owners never got around to it ☺

The sale is complete, the compounding/buffing/waxing/polishing/cleanup-after is under way, and the shipper is picking her up (well, attaching the trailer to his hitch) and heading south this coming Monday.

I sported my TheMalibuCrew shirt for the survey and sea trial, have acquired my 2014 Jeep Cherokee with never-before-used factory ClassIII tow package, and will have moved to the lake by this time next month!

L8R

Skip and cohort ☺