nofxSOHCcrx

So me, my brother and our friend are rebuilding a pontoon boat. Going to be an all party no fishing boat. It's our friends dads old boat. He got a new one and decided he didn't want the old one and said if we restored it, we could have it. Our friend is the money, and my brother and I are the bronze, brains, and whatever else.

So when we got it, the decking was rotting, alot of the railing was falling apart, and the seating was tore up lol. We dismantled it down the pontoon structure, and started from there.

We wanted to get some plexy glass for the decking, but it was like $600 per 8 foot sheet....a little too rich for the money man. So we got the regular water board and mounted it on there. Then we could only salvage about 30% of the railing, so the rest we had to fab up ourselves. Welding aluminum is a pain the ass to say the least. It's all outdoors, so if there's wind, were screwed and can't weld. Eventually we got it all welded together, put it on the deck, checked fitting and screwed it all together, but not into the deck yet.

ATM, were painting the railing, then were going to pop rivet the siding on. We've been arguing over putting the siding on the inside, or the outside. Originally it's on the inside, but we've been looking at pictures of it on the outside, and it looks pretty decent. Not sure yet though. All we have left to do is order the seating, a captains console, get the engine put back together, run the wiring, set up the diving board, drill the holes for the railing, glue the carpet, wire the sound system, and get it in the water...only get to work on it 1 day a week, so got a few more weeks to go lol. I'll get some pics on Sunday and pots em up. Anyone else ever build/restore a pontoon boat?

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E_SolSi

sounds like a cool project

so wheres the pictures???

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МОΛΏΝ ΛΑΒΈ

SlushboxTeggy

You forgot the kegorator.

As far as plexiglass, yea that crap is expensive. But the stuff you priced was probably also bulletproof. I think it starts being bulletproof around 3/8". I remember we bought a 1/8"-4'x8' piece for a pong table and it cost us around $250.

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phyregod

Standard plexi isn't bullet proof/resistant! You're thinking laminated acrylic or polycast or something..


Anyhow, lets see some pics!

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nofxSOHCcrx

Ill get some pics this Sunday when we head over there. I might have some on my bro's myspace...Lemme take a peek. They won't be up to date, but they're something.

Here we go, I found one. This is when it was fully stripped down.



We've gotten ALOT further lol. It's actually funny too see a pic of before, and what it looks like now.

HAHA, I just had an Idea. I'll edit this post again, and add a paint shop pic of what we've done/what will be done

Alright...sometimes I amaze myself with my artistry.

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SlushboxTeggy

I guess that's what i bought then because the thicker stuff was in fact bullet proof.

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95b16coupe

that is the best photo editing i have ever seen. lol

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nofxSOHCcrx

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I thought so too...I was rather impressed with myself. Hopefully the finished boat will look better than my mock up. HA.

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nofxSOHCcrx

Damn, I wish we would have known about the thinner stuff. Not sure of weight capacity on each board though. It might have looked kinda wierd because of the cross braces that you would have seen from the top. Plus, would have meant no carpet...and in Vegas, that damn floor would have gotten so hot. Thinking about it....glad we went with wood and carpet.

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phyregod

That thing is huge! How long is it?

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95b16coupe

thats what she said.

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phyregod

Its not the length of the pontoon, but the skill of the captain!

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95b16coupe

says ye with small pontoon.

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Warning: If you are reading this then this warning is for you. Every word you read of this useless fine print is another second off your life. Don't you have other things to do? Is your life so empty that you honestly can't think of a better way to spend these moments? Get out of your apartment. Meet a member of the opposite sex. Stop the excessive shopping and masturbation. Quit your job. Start a fight. Prove you're alive. If you don't claim your humanity you will become a statistic.

phyregod

Yar, me pontoon can only float a brick house.

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nofxSOHCcrx

HA. I believe it's 24 or 27 foot. I forget. I'll take some measurements. I think everyone will be surprised how big my pontoon is.

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phyregod

Made some design changes.. Hope you don't mind...

Attached Thumbnails

 

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95b16coupe

win and rep'd

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Warning: If you are reading this then this warning is for you. Every word you read of this useless fine print is another second off your life. Don't you have other things to do? Is your life so empty that you honestly can't think of a better way to spend these moments? Get out of your apartment. Meet a member of the opposite sex. Stop the excessive shopping and masturbation. Quit your job. Start a fight. Prove you're alive. If you don't claim your humanity you will become a statistic.

SlushboxTeggy

Thin stuff wouldn't hold. Our piece died when a handle of captain was tossed across the room onto the table.

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nofxSOHCcrx

Phyre, You do win. We're definately changing the plans now.

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nofxSOHCcrx

Alright. We got a little more work done today on the boat. The pictures are when we first got there and hadn't started work yet. We got the rest of the rails pimered, and got the carpet glued down. It's actually looking like a boat!

This one, the rails and siding are just being held on with c-clamps just to show what it will look like in the near future. The rails are going to be a darker grey with some metal flake in em.



The front.


So, that's the sun deck, and this was before we glued the carpet down. Underneath the sundeck with be batteries, gas tanks, and all that good stuff. We are still yet to get all the seating and captains console. Money man will order that when we get a little closer to getting it all put together. We also need to clean up the pontoons. They're a little old, and have some oxidation on em. Trying to fgure out a way to paint them, maybe black or something...they kind of stand out being all old, when everything else is new.


I'll get more pics next week. Brother's phone went dead before I could take some after pics. Friends dad has pics of the entire progress, so once he gets those on his comp, I'll get em loaded to a thumb drive and get em on here.

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phyregod

Looking awesome! Great restore work!

Polish up the pontoons with mother's mag and a heavy duty buffer. Might have to do a little sanding first.. Depends on whether they were clear coated or not.

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SlushboxTeggy

I say rat rod pontoon. I think it would look sweet. Especially if you get a pin up girl painted on the pontoons.

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nofxSOHCcrx

The pontoons are anodized aluminum. Not too sure about sanding them...maybe an extremely light sand, but everywhere I've read it says too leave the pontoons alone lol. I think we are going to clean them up, and clear coat em to protect from the water. And of course a nice shiny polishing.

HA! That would be pretty sweet. One of a kind. I would consider that, if I were the money of the operation lol. Unfortunately, I'm not.

So after today, all we have left is:

2-gaskets for the motor, and it's done
Run the wiring for :
Lights - red and green up front, white in the back, and whatever other lighting we are going to need.
Stereo - 4-8 6x9's, 2-4 JL12's, 1- 1000watt amp, 1-700 watt amp
Captains console
Wench
Motor
Install seating
Bolt down railing
Install captains console
Install the diving board
Install the gas tanks
Install siding
Clean and Install flashing

Man...That's a lot lol. Slowly but surely. Were hoping to get it done at least a little before Summer that way we can go out once, but hopefully more. The most pain in the ass thing so far is finally over though. The railing. Welding, grinding, more welding, checking to make sure it lines up, grinding and welding some more, drilling holes, smoothing it with a wire brush attatchment, spraying it with an acid treatment, shooting a coat of primer, sanding, and shooting 2-3 coats of paint, and then clear coat. Very exciting. Anyway, I'll keep posting pics till it's done.

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phyregod

But the hard work is paying off, that looks like a professional job.

Also, you're probably going to want to either tone down the audio system a little, or run the boat's starter battery on a separate circuit. A 1000w amp will make short work of a battery. 1700 watts will be tough for the boat to keep up with even while running, unless you've done custom work there, too..

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nofxSOHCcrx

Yeah, we plan on throwing a generator on there...an if that's on there, were going to have to have a sound system to compete with generator noise lol. So it should work alright, maybe we can try to do a little sound proofing where ever the generator is going. This plan isn't set in stone yet, so were still thinking things up. Thanks for the compliments though. I'll have to get some pics of after next week. Updates come then!

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