Pontoon Rescue

[Azera]

A few weeks back I posted in the new member section, so if you're having the devil of a time getting to sleep, you may wanna read the drivel I posted. However.....now I'd like to bore you even more about my pontoon rescue project. I'm not calling it a restoration, because a restoration is something one does to something old to make it (hopefully) look new again. No ladies & gentlemen....what I have here is a rescue because my in-laws literally abused the dang thing by not ever using it, letting it stay out nekkid in the weather so all manners of critters could nest in it and feast on the various things that critters find tasty like seat foam (personally I've cooked it several different ways and it always taste like crap to me) and just the nasty, moldy, crud that builds up sitting under trees.

So the mother in law tells my wife that her and Phillip never use it anymore and that we can have it. Well.....you don't have to say free but just once to me before I'm in my clothes and putting the key in the ignition of my pickemup truck. Oh - and did I mention that it had been years since I saw this boat and that was just after they bought it? The MIL tells my wife that the seats are good, the motor runs, every thing works - it just needs some TLC cleaning. Sounds good to me, let's go get it.

OMG! What I saw was indescribable. Every dang seat was torn and the vinyl sounded like a Lays potato chip. It was nasty, but I kept telling myself "It's free, it's free. You can work your magic". Honestly - if I'd known then what I know now, I'm not sure I'd have dropped that POS on my hitch ball. Oh....the motor that runs - DIDN'T.

We tow it home (300 miles) and I'm paranoid the whole way since it's Sunday and I'm not sure what shape the hubs are in and it has those small little high speed tires that look like they belong on a lawn gardening cart. Once home, I pull the caps to the hubs and discover something I've never known about wheel hubs/bearings. Did you know you can use Crisco for bearings?? Seriously - you can! I mean, that's obviously what oozed outta the hubs. Who knew.......

From there it's been months of doing one thing after another to the thing. The wheel bearings were shot (guess the Crisco broke down at some point) and the leaf springs were rusty as hell so I replaced everything but the axle. I've got the entire stainless steel hardware section in Lowe's memorized.

The trailer lighting was shot, so a brand new LED system was installed. LOL.....my wife is a wonderful lady and there's a special place in heaven for her putting up with me (an egg head, anal Engineer), but sometimes.......she......you know.......helps. At one point I look over and just about crap in my pants 'cause the entire trailer light old harness is laying on the ground. "Honey?? What is that and what did you do?" "Well....I could see you needed help and you have a new harness and said you were gonna replace the entire thing, so I pulled the whole dam thing out. Aren't ya proud of me?" "Uhhhhhh.......well......yes - in a way. But how do you think we're goona get the new harness through that boxed steel section that makes up the tongue of the trailer? I was planning on using the old harness to pull the new one through." "Uh - oh......I guess I screwed up, huh?" "No, no, no dear......I'll figure out something." (Tom walks away mumbling and swearing).

I rewired the entire console, installed some docking lights, replaced the navigation lights with new LED units, bought a new helm chair, installed a VHF & AM/FM radio from a previous boat, discarded all the fishing swivel seats because they were trashed and were corrosion welded so as to never swivel again, installed a new larger gas tank, and replaced the Yamaha 70hp two-smoke with a brand new Merc Command Thrust 90hp 4-stroke. Next week, she'll make her maiden voyage.

Now....having been on many forums that have postings that have no pics, I can attest to the fact that the postings SUCK!!! So do not fear.......as soon as I get some time, I'm gonna update my rescue topic with photos because.....to be blunt......I do pretty dam good work. Oh.....I almost forgot, I treated myself to a Garmin EchoMAP 73sv. Git ya summa dat! That thing is bad@ss.

So until next time, I remain........

YrHmblanObdentServnt,

Azera

[ToonGuy]

Pics or it didn't happen....

[curtiscapk]

Yep! I call bullshit on the whole thing! Restoring a pontoon who the hell does that!

[Bamaman]

LOL.....my wife is a wonderful lady and there's a special place in heaven for her putting up with me (an egg head, anal Engineer), but sometimes.......she......you know.......helps.

Now....having been on many forums that have postings that have no pics, I can attest to the fact that the postings SUCK!!! So do not fear.......as soon as I get some time, I'm gonna update my rescue topic with photos because.....to be blunt......I do pretty dam good work. Oh.....I almost forgot, I treated myself to a Garmin EchoMAP 73sv. Git ya summa dat! That thing is bad@ss.

So until next time, I remain........

YrHmblanObdentServnt,

Azera

Don't you really mean Egghead-Anal Engineer-Novelist?

[Azera]

Sorry this took so long - some of us have to work for a living (just saying). Anyhow, as promised (and to quell the noise from the peanut gallery) here's my work in progress.

Sorry I don't have any "before" photos, but from the first couple of shots you can imagine what I was dealing with. This first image is what it started out life as - a so-called four corner Fish.

Original.jpg (35.53 KiB) Viewed 4829 times

[Azera]

These next two pretty much show where I'm at now. There's a bunch of stuff I've done you can't see like trailer lighting, all new wiring from the battery forward, new hubs, bearings, leaf springs. But you can see the new and larger fuel tank. Originally it just had one of those portable pull-out 6 gallon jobs. I though I'd be smart and get a 12 gallon. I measured and measured and was sure it would fit. It fit alright.....problem was, it couldn't come out once that back cover/bench was in place. But never fear - Engineer is here.

[Azera]

This rear cover/bench was a major PITA. First - it originally held two swivel fishing seats. Those seats were so trashed that I....um....trashed them. Not even the swivel bases were salvageable. That square thing in the middle used to be the cover for the live well. Knowing we were going with a different furniture layout next year, we decided for economic reasons we'd just turn it into a seating bench. So I sealed up the cover and hacked out the live well beneath (which was SUPPOSE to give me the extra room for the new larger fuel tank. My Bomar 10" locking deck hatch solution arrived and that solved that problem. BTW - the round grey thingy just above and to the left of the gas cap is an on-demand valve. No more primer bulb - SWEEEEEEET!

[Azera]

After I got my new motor (Merc 90hp Command thrust replacing Yamaha 70hp two-smoke), I couldn't deal with the control cables not tidy. The trouble is, nobody I could find had split loom in a diameter that would go around all of cables and such. BUT.....being a self-described McGiver I found this black tubing in the plumbing/irrigation department at Lowe's. All it took was a box cutter knife to split it and some zip ties and wha-LAAA. Sanitary cabling.

[curtiscapk]

That is sweet!!! See how much better you feel appeasing our need for pics!

[RcgTexas]

Looks like a good layout for family fun and fishing.

I am confused.....I thought an on demand valve would stop flow when the motor was not running. How will it make a bulb unnecessary?

[Azera]

Speaking of sanitary wiring........

Here's my re-wiring for the boat. Personally, I think I do dang good work. Something I wanna point out and suggest for anyone who decides to do their own wiring. First.....spend the money and get you a decent crimping tool. Second, go to Lowe's and get a tube of GB OX-Gard. It's a dielectric grease compound and will save your butt from corroded wiring as it protects the copper from all elements - even salt water. Plus it has no effect on conductivity. Yes - it's messy and a PITA to squeeze that stuff into the end of every crimp connector but if yer gonna do a job, by God do it right the first time.

Off to the left in the photo you can barely see my Shakespear VHF/FM antenna splitter. It allows me to use my VHF antenna as the antenna for my radio.

The two harnesses to the left (one with orange plug and one with multiple wires) are my GPS transducer cable and tachometer wiring. Today I'll be tidying them up since maiden voyage is this Saturday.

Also in the photo you can see that I used those "GM" style water proof connectors for power/ground. I got those of eBay and they're the shitz - and dirt cheap too!

The second photo is of my custom oak switch panel. Once fabbed, I stained it, applied a coat of polyurethane, then stuck on labels I made, and layed on three more coats of poly.

[Azera]

Lastly, there's "THE CONSOLE". I could write a book on it alone. But I'll try to keep it short.

Since I needed to gut the thing and because the gel coat was ugly weathered, I figured I'd be smart and paint it. So I take it to a local body shop and they say a hunnerd dollars. I tell the wife that surely with some patience, I can rattle can paint that for waaaaaay less. She say's "Baby.....you can do almost everything, but shouldn't we let the experts do it? Besides, it'll be one less thing you'll need to do."

Note to self: Please....PLEASE listen to my wife.

So I ignore her advice and start sanding. Then I start painting with a Rustoleum color she picked out. On my second coat, I got a couple runs, but no big deal, I sanded them out. Shoot another coat and dang it more runs. After a few more tries I get it right and clear coat the dang thing. But something odd I noticed - the paint was staying "soft". Like it wasn't curing. I thought I was being too eager to get it back together. But two months later, it's still soft. I ask my buddy at work who's the paint shop lead man and he asks if after I sanded that gel coat, did I use a poly primer? I said what primer? His reply "If you didn't use a primer after you sanded that gel coat that shit ain't never gonna cure."

No worries - I'll just strip it and start over. I choose a stripper (Goof-Off) that mentions nothing about harming fiberglass. Put it on, come back 20 minutes and OMG!!! It's not only sttripping the paint, but the gel coat and reacting with the fiberglass! I quickly get the hose to neutralize it. It looks like it's been exposed to some kinda radiation and then kicked down a dirt road. I'm sick and pissed at the same time but mostly mad at myself.

I take it back to the (same) body shop to see if it's salvageable and the first thing this guys says to me is, "You were in here once before, huh? I guess it ain't as easy as it looks, huh?" Yeah - just go ahead and throw salt in the wound buddy. He looks at it and makes a face and a sound as if he just smelled a turd. "Wooo weeee......dats sho 'nuff is ugly. But yeah - I can fix it. Hunnerd dollars." Go ahead and laugh yer asses off at me - I deserve it.

The first photo is when the paint was soft, the second is after I spent a hunnerd dollars and added the mount for my Garmin EchoMAP 73sv.

[Azera]

Looks like a good layout for family fun and fishing.

I am confused.....I thought an on demand valve would stop flow when the motor was not running. How will it make a bulb unnecessary?

Honestly - I'm not sure. It's just what the guys at the marine place that did the motor install told me.

Azera