Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

Hi all:

I am a first time boat owner who just boat a 1992 Sweetwater 1900 Godfrey Marine Pontoon boat with an 60HP Johnson motor. I had the boat out on the water before winter so I know everything works fairly well....it is just old and tired looking. I decided to redo the entire boat this winter. (decking and seats) I just started taking all the seats and railings out this weekend and as I was doing this I do have some basic questions (that I probably should have considered before I started)...so here they are (and I know I will probably have many more before I am done).
1. Do I need to take the motor off the pontoon boat to replace the decking and seats? I did notice that the very rear of the boat has a narrow deck that also looks very tired. This is not carpeted and seems to be covered in a harder material (fiberglass?).

2. I am going to have to replace the old console (cracked). Is disconnecting the ignition wiring and the steering something that I should call my local boat guy to do? I am pretty handy....but not really a car or electrical guy? I do plan on buying a new wiring harness and new lights all around as most of the old ones are beat. I am a little concerned that I will not be able to figure out how to re-connect the ignition or the steering cable.

3. Can I buy a new console that has the gauges already installed?

Thanks for any help you can give me. I hope I posted this question in the right place...sorry in advance if I didn't.

Earl

I am handy as hell but figuring out boat wiring is a myth to me.
There is a rebuild and rehab section, you might get more help there.

We have some pretty handy people on here so hopefully someone will chime in.
I would not think you need to remove the motor. If so, yours is not too heavy anyways.

good luck.

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1st welcome

You need a game plan , write down what you want the boat to do or be for you

You will not be buying a new wiring harness either, you can replace all wires connectors etc seperately tho. Your boat is too old for a wire harness,actually most new boats dont have one because so many different setups.

Check out what several of us have done, ours is very utilitarian while others are full of seats for cruising so are setup for glamping even

Check out my rebuild link in my signature lots of tips!

I have a '96 18-foot Sweetwater with 40HP Johnson. I wanted to replace the harness because the PO chopped everything but the ignition portion during a re-deck. Rather than patch it together using diagrams & expensive marine-grade wire & waterproof connectors I bought a used harness off eBay that looked to be the same layout as mine. There ARE a lot of variations in where the branch break-outs are located & wire lengths but making changes to branches isn't too tough.

With the harness restored I've so far added a tach, horn, OMC idiot light system (System Check ®), new accessory switches and ripped out a lot of crappy low-spec hardware store wiring to the lights. Still more to do.

Thanks all for the advice and photos. I think I will post more questions if I have them in the restore/rebuild thread.

Take pics of all things you gonna changem for future reference, it helped me.