We develop output-feedback adaptive controllers for two benchmark parabolic PDEs motivated by a model of thermal instability in solid propellant rockets. Both benchmark plants are unstable, have infinite relative degree, and are controlled from the boundary. One plant has an unknown parameter in the PDE and the other in the boundary condition. In both cases the unknown parameter multiplies the measured output of the system, which is obtained with a boundary sensor located on the "opposite side" of the domain from the actuator. In comparison with the Lyapunov output-feedback adaptive controllers in Krstic and Smyshlyaev [(2005). Adaptive boundary control for unstable parabolic PDEs-Part I: Lyapunov design. IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, submitted for publication], the controllers presented here employ much simpler update laws and do not require a priori knowledge about the unknown parameters. We show how our two benchmarks examples can be combined and illustrate the adaptive stabilization design by simulation. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.