Pontoon Rescue
Posted: Fri Jun 12, 2015 8:42 am
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
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