2001 Weeres Pontoon Restore

Post your restoration and rebuild projects here.

Moderators: Redneck_Randy, badmoonrising, lakerunner

Post Reply
Message
Author
HarryO
Posts: 38
Joined: Sun Jan 11, 2015 11:14 am
Location: Oaklyn, NJ

2001 Weeres Pontoon Restore

#1 Post by HarryO » Tue Jul 21, 2015 8:17 pm

Well it's been an interesting 6 months. Last January I purchased a new to me Weeres 20' pontoon and now I'm finally ready to bring it home, Dean thanks for your patience. Between horrible weather and killer arthritis it's taken me almost 6 months to get my trailer ready.
Typical of any restore project there are surprises and why should my project be any different. The trailer restore that I figured was basic maintenance and bunk replacement turned into a minor nightmare. The trailer restore consisted of the following:

Replace trailer bunks
New wheels and tires
Mount spare tire to trailer
Check and repack wheel bearings
Replace and rewire lights adding a ground wire for all lights. (LED lights seem to be somewhat particular about a dedicated
ground wire for each light.)
Rebuild trailer winch

Pretty much standard stuff. I was surprised at the condition of the bunks no rot at all. the lag screws holding the bunks to the mounts were rusted almost through, a couple of smacks with a hammer and the bunks essentially fell off. Several of the bunks were warped or twisted so the decision to go with new 2x6's was easy. I used regular construction grade lumber painted with 3 coats of porch and deck enamel. I was still deciding on carpet or some kind of plastic slicks.
The surprise came with the brackets. They were rusted where the carpet wrapped bunks came in contact I used my 4" grinder with a wire brush head and knocked down the loose scale then coated with Rustolem restore then painted with Rustolem cold galv finish.

Next up were tires,wheels and bearings. Surprise #2 the lug nuts were frozen on the studs 2 days of soaking them with PB Blaster and I still needed a 4 foot pipe extension on my breaker bar to get em loose plus there were 2 different size lug nuts... :donno I finally got the old wheels off and started to pull the hubs, the dust caps literally disintegrated. Oh well they were ugly anyway. I pulled the hubs and cleaned the bearings and races all were in great shape. Surprise #3 came when trying to get new grease seals they were some really weird size requiring me to order them from Eastern Marine. I figured I'd tackle the studs and lugs next so I pressed out 1 from each hub and drove down to Franklin Trailer of course they were a weird size too, I had to come back the next day after they were delivered to the store from the warehouse. I pressed out the old studs using a vise and a socket that was bigger than the stud head and installed the new studs using my impact wrench and a large nut before the lug nut. The grease seals arrived just as I was finishing the stud install so on to repacking the bearings and mounting the hubs, gotta love those easy lube axles. New galv wheels and load range E tires and we're good to go.

The light and wiring replacement went smoothly. Harbor Freight LED lights and 50' of white 16 gauge wire with heat shrink connectors and done.
After pricing 2" stainless carriage bolts and falling off my chair I decided to use Galvanized fasteners on the bunks. I clamped the bunk boards to the mounts. marked the mounting holes with a pencil and drilled the holes. Then I flipped the boards over and counter bored each hole so the carriage bolt heads were below the surface. Now comes the big decision, carpeted bunks or some kind of plastic slicks? Pricing both carpet and either vinyl fence post covers or extruded plastic trim boards turned out to be a push, so extruded plastic 1x4's centered on the bunk boards and good to go. Gotta love those self drilling self countersinking star drive construction screws. They made mounting the plastic trim boards super easy.

Here are some pics of the finished restore:
http://s1192.photobucket.com/user/Frank ... sort=3&o=3
http://s1192.photobucket.com/user/Frank ... sort=3&o=6
http://s1192.photobucket.com/user/Frank ... sort=3&o=1
http://s1192.photobucket.com/user/Frank ... sort=3&o=5

You can see my 22' Pilot House in the background. I trailer TubToy exclusively I plan to leave my pontoon in the water for the season.
Crusing on the Delaware River and fishing the Delaware Bay

2006 King Viper 2160
Suzuki 225DF
2001 Weeres Sportsman 20
Evinrude 50hp 2 stroke

User avatar
photonfanatic
Posts: 185
Joined: Tue Jul 28, 2015 9:16 pm

Re: 2001 Weeres Pontoon Restore

#2 Post by photonfanatic » Mon Aug 03, 2015 8:14 am

Nice restore. Need some more pics though

Post Reply