Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

Hey guys I know there is a ton of info and help on this site, so I come to you for some help. I have an older pontoon that has an issue with one of the toons. The previous owner got something with it and dented the nose pretty good. Now it doesn’t leak which is a good thing, but it’s dented in a way that when I am at higher speed, it splashes water directly over the front and onto everyone on board. My question is (for mostly northern Illinois guys) does anyone know where I could bring this thing to have this dent repaired? I will try to get some pics loaded in the next day or so. Thanks for the help

You will need to find someone experienced in working metal, and they are not easy to find. Pontoons are often machine made, but all nosecones have to be made manually. If course most of the manufacturing is in the Elkhart area.

Depending on the dent, sometimes holes can be drilled in the dent and a dent puller can pull the dent out. Then holes the holes can be tig welded and sealed. Anyway it goes, aluminum is not easy to work with.

^^ yeah I was thinking maybe a body shop that deals a lot with the ford aluminum body panels that might help/have experience with aluminum. I also think maybe a metal Fab shop might be able to help (at least with the important part of rig welding the aluminum.

UPDATE: I got a piece of .060” aluminum 24x24” and cut out a piece that I could kind of “wrap” around the front of the cone. I shaped it the best I could and made sure the nose was a nicer seem to kind of “cut” through the water like the other one. I tried my hand at brazing this piece on (on the outside first) and realized that was more difficult than I wanted it to be lol. The outside held and I formed the inside the best I could. I filled the dent with expanding foam and then I used some hillybilly engineering and put flex tape around all edges. I can say it’s not real pretty, but we spent 5 days on the lake for the 4th of July and my piece is still there, however the splashing over the front is still a problem. So here’s my next question, is there a way I can get the front of the toons out of the water more? I noticed when I had 5 people on board and we sat in the back, it hardly splashed at all. I don’t want to hillbilly fix it with more weight lol. Does a tilt/trim unit help get the front of them out of the water better?

Boat info:
1996 Sweetwater
20 feet long
70hp Mercury (its a 1978 year 2 stroke)

If I can’t get the splashing under control, my wife wants a glass boat. Thanks for the help guys

Try tilting your motor and not having people sit in the front unless they're featherweights.

A couple Stainless steel bowls, sandpaper to rough up pontoon and bowls, and 3M 5200, oh and tape so it can dry a week or two and you would have 2 armor plated matching cones

Buy a tig welder and learn how to use it

NonHyphen: I’ll try to tilt the motor up 1 hole and see if that helps (I’ll test it this weekend). Thanks

Bansil: should the stainless bowls have nipples on them for water displacement purposes? Or try without first? Lol

Aluminum Maiden: a buddy of mine has a rig welder, however I have tried to learn how to tig weld and it is very difficult for 1 and 2 I don’t have the time really to teach myself. Ultimately the best repair would be to cut the nose come off and replace it, but I can’t find anywhere that has just a nose cone, plus my toon is an odd size at 22” diameter.

Thanks for the info guys. Hopefully I can keep the Mrs. content for the rest of the season and next season too. Then I can get myself a newer used tri-toon.

Have you tried contacting Sweetwater about getting a nose cone? I have a friend who dented the nose cone on his 15 - 20 year old Crest and Crest sent him a new one to have welded on.

This place in Springfield, Ohio will make about any size or shape toon or nose cone that you could want. I took a tour of the shop and the welding they do on toons is much better than a lot of manufacturers.

https://custompontoonboatkitsetc.com/index.html

wc9550 wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 18, 2018 5:41 am

NonHyphen: I’ll try to tilt the motor up 1 hole and see if that helps (I’ll test it this weekend). Thanks

Bansil: should the stainless bowls have nipples on them for water displacement purposes? Or try without first? Lol

Aluminum Maiden: a buddy of mine has a rig welder, however I have tried to learn how to tig weld and it is very difficult for 1 and 2 I don’t have the time really to teach myself. Ultimately the best repair would be to cut the nose come off and replace it, but I can’t find anywhere that has just a nose cone, plus my toon is an odd size at 22” diameter.

Thanks for the info guys. Hopefully I can keep the Mrs. content for the rest of the season and next season too. Then I can get myself a newer used tri-toon.

I hear you on the time to learn thing. I have never Tig welded and yes it looks challenging. If you can mig weld, you may be able to use a spool gun for aluminum. That's my last ditch DIY idea

Probably could use a ballpeen hammer head, place bowl salad side up on 2x4, cut handle off ballpeen hammer, clamp visegrip handle on it, put safety glasses and face shield on, top with hard hat just incase of rebound projectile.
1st off..... get into a slavic squat, Grip the vise grips w/round hammer head down, remember salad side of bowl up! Insert nipple device into center of soon to be custom nose cone.

Using a 5 pound sledge hammer hit the remnants of the ballpeen hammer

Walla



Disclaimer
Because of pc whining and laywers...never hit a hammer face with another hammer, if you decide to, record video, upload to liveleak and post link here

rbtnt: thanks for the link. I’m gonna call them tomorrow morning and see what they can do. My toon is an odd ball size at 22” diameter. Still, if I can get a decent deal on a set of new toons, I may got that route.

Bansil: boobie toons are a good idea!! I think we should start Manufacturing them. Maybe we can corner the market lol.

Aluminum Maiden: I can not weld pretty good. I might go that route over the winter and make that the winter project. Possibly cut the nose off and hammer the dents out from the inside and weld it back on.

Thanks for the info guys. Trying to get her all fixed up for a better ride. I’m gonna try to tilt the motor this weekend first since I’ll have her out and it’s oretty easy to do. I’ll let you guys know how that goes. Thanks again

UPDATE: So we just got back from the lake about an hour ago and tilting the motor up by 1 hole has pretty much solved my splashing problem. We had ROUGH water this weekend and it only splashed about 4-5 times. The water waves were about at 12-14 inches with white caps and the wind was about 18-20 mph. The nose of the boat stayed out of the water and we stayed pretty much dry (based on water conditions). Thanks for the help guys!!

NonHyphen: where are you located? If you’re anywhere near northern Illinois, I owe you a case of beer lol. Thanks man.