advice on quality of build, 1986 Viking 48' convertible

Well the good thing about Viking is they have had one only family owner since 1964. So no corporate shenanigans or manipulations, a good solid track record for the owners who are now the industry leaders on many fronts.

The 1986 48 is well regarded for its era, faster than a Bertram or Hatteras, not as fast as an Ocean but better quality and should be a good fit for your price bracket and needs.

A plus to have recent rebuilds and fresh water is kinder to wear and tear than saltwater.

Always liked those 2 stateroom Viking 48's. Had an 89 Viking 45 with a similar layout that we liked. If you get to contract, have your hull surveyor thoroughly check the balsa coring above the waterline for moisture. Especially where there are any penetrations, transom, hatches, doors, tackle cabinets, and the sides below the ss rub rail. We had coring repaired at the transom and tackle cabinets. We ran ours from NW FL to the Bahamas, Keys, and fished in the GOM 100 nm offshore without any issues. Not a great ride in a head sea. Nice boats, can be noisy from wave slap sleeping in the bow, good to have a sleeper sofa for those nights. That boat should be better than average being a freshwater boat up North. You can still get support from Viking too.

Nice boat. Do the 8V92s have a longer lifespan between majors than the 6V92 ?

Nothing bad to say about any of your choices. The Berts and Hats are slower cause they're tanks, but I don't see you battling through 20' seas on Georgian Bay (beautiful btw and nice people all along it). Welcome to YF.

Quality of build is very good. Check as others mentioned. I worked on another Viking SF and replaced all of the deck hatches, all of the Balsa was sealed extremely well with epoxy. Boat is a bit wet and pounds a bit in a head sea, but a good boat. It almost seems to be too cheap with fresh rebuilds.

2 things
pressure test those 35 year old aluminum fuel tanks. (don't think fiberglass came to Viking tanks yet)
the dry turbos started many fires in 86 and 87. 88 had wet turbs.
the turbos are very close to the saloon floor

One thing that comes to mind on a Viking of this vintage; it may have a solid glass hull. If so, put that in the plus column.

Below the waterline is solid fiberglass lay up. Hull sides above the waterline are cored with end grain balsa.

I will join in on the positive comments. We have an 88 Viking that we purchased 2 years ago and love it. We had her out on Lake Michigan last year in what was predicted as 2-4 ft seas that became 4-8 ft before we got to Beaver Island. She was a bit wet but managed those seas well.
We are constantly getting comments on her when we travel as to how nice she looks.
Check the fuel and water tanks as ours are fiberglass.
Hope this one works out for you.
We bought our boat locally in Northern Michigan and Jefferson Beach Yacht Sales was the brokerage company. From our experience they are a good company to deal with and have resources to facilitate the deal. They have been around for a long time now.

Good luck in your search.

As I was thinking about this it did occur to me that you did indicate your boating is in Georgian Bay and are Canadian. A question I then thought about and do not have the answer is how the closure of the
US-Canada border to non essential travel ( don’t you just love that term? ) would complicate this deal.

We had plans to travel to the North Channel this year but that did not work out obviously. The closest we got was Drummond Island. May next year.