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My First Malibu


New2Texas

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Hello Everyone, I have finally got around to uploading some photos of my 'new' 1996 Malibu Sunsetter LX:

1996 Malibu Sunsetter LX

My essential criteria for the boat when i was searching was:

  • Great hull shape
  • Wedge
  • Tower
  • Solid maintenance history
  • Needs to keep me busy when the lake is choppy
  • Needs a little TLC

I have a list as long as my arm of projects that I intend to complete including:

  • Automatic bow ballast
  • Automatic center ski locker ballast
  • Extensive gelcoat detailing
  • Swim platform re-finish
  • Cover modification for tower
  • Replace all the gauges
  • New Sunsetter decals
  • Sub woofer
  • Polished wedge
  • Replacing the carpet around the engine cover
  • Tower speakers

Anyway, I wanted to share the 'before' pictures with you all. This site is awesome and through your description of projects I am inspired to enjoy my Malibu to its maximum potential. Keep you posted!

Any thoughts as to what you would do first?

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I would start with the ballast, makes life a ton easier on the lake. That's just me.

Bow or center ski locker first?

Mostly surfing and wakeboarding these days (60/40)

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I would do both if you could, If you can only do one I would do the bow first so you didn't have to keep taking up seating if you were to go on top of seats. Think about whatever makes moving around in the boat easier. I don't like people having to trip around sacs and tubes.

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Nice boat, congratulations!

If you know it's good mechanically, I'd start with the best bang cosmetics. Detail the gel coat, fix the engine cover carpet, and get the boat cover mod done to fit and cover the work you just did. I would leave the decals on unless they are really messed up. If they are in bad shape, take them off when you do the exterior detail. Replace if desired. I put a small one on mine towards the stern. Replace all cup holders with stainless steel ones, I got mine at bakesonline.com. Then redo the teak and polish the wedge. Then ballast. Lastly the guages, that won't be cheap.

How has the trailer maintenance been? The boat is fun to start fixing up, but make sure your trailer is up to par too (bearings, tires, lights, no rust holes, etc.). A simple trailer problem can wreck a weekend.

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I would do both if you could, If you can only do one I would do the bow first so you didn't have to keep taking up seating if you were to go on top of seats. Think about whatever makes moving around in the boat easier. I don't like people having to trip around sacs and tubes.

+1

I'd do both the ski locker and bow at the same time and only dig into that part of the boat once. Work on the cosmetic stuff between big projects.

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Nice boat! Ski locker ballast for sure, it has a huge impact on the wake with the SV23 hull. Unless you're planning on running a lot of weight in the rear of the boat (which it doesn't sound like), I would not consider the bow ballast essential. The space under the bow seats is pretty small, so you're not going to get much weight in there.

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Looking at closeups of the hull color scheme it appears to be indentical to the 95 S/S I bought over the summer is it black, grey, and kind of a blue/teal ?

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Nice boat! Ski locker ballast for sure, it has a huge impact on the wake with the SV23 hull. Unless you're planning on running a lot of weight in the rear of the boat (which it doesn't sound like), I would not consider the bow ballast essential. The space under the bow seats is pretty small, so you're not going to get much weight in there.

I found by loading up the rear with a ton of weight and throw down the wedge I have trouble getting on plane and issues with bounce. I've also found the boat is difficult to handle and hold speed with all the ballast in the front and wedge dropped. Currently, I run my boat with a 260# in the floor ski locker, a 260# in the walkthrough, and ~700 (1100# sack filled 2/3) between the motor box and rear seat, no wedge. If I drop the wedge in this setup I get the bounce and plane issues. Seems like if you want to utilize the wedge you'd want to try a 700#, 400# setup front to back. (this is for wakeboarding)

For surfing, I keep everything where it is except move the rear sac to one side, fill it up all the way, and drop the wedge

If your going to do auto ballast, you wanna make to get it just right for what you want to do.

btw, I ordered all of my ballast from Wakemakers and had a postive experience

Edited by itsonlywater
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