Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

Alright... I've been asking questions... I figured I would start a fresh thread to document the process- Hope you all enjoy.

Here are pic's of the boat I will be working on.. Will be re-decking, new carpet, and hopefully adding some upgraded fencing... Who knows what else.

Jason

Cool can't wait for the after pics, we did ours two years back and I was way over due, but it turned out alright thanks to the help from Pontoon Stuff and a little work on our part

Well, If mines half as nice as that... I will be happy!!! Looks good!!

I am going to try and salvage the seats for now... They are in decent shape. Still soft and no tears or cracks... but are faded. Might tackle that later.

Jason

Those pics look better than my boat did the first time I saw her! Her crew consisted of wasps, dead squirrels, birds , live and dead, and enough pine straw to stuff a king size bed! Sheesh!

But it will get better good luck with that! and remember the

No turning back now!!! Day 1 of tear down-

I will be interested to see the progress, I have the same boat, mine is burgundy color. Your seats look a lot better than mine did before I tore them out, Is the bases rotted out though?

Those 88 specials didn't come with trim and tilt. I will never understand why.

You may want to find a trim unit for it while you are rebuilding. just sayin.

Grumman- the seats are actually in very good condition and they have cleaned up nicely. The bases on a couple of the are rotten. Getting a littler TLC

Good deal, I bought mine from an elderly man, and although it was kept indoors Raccoons had there way with it. Im still getting coon hair out of the carpet a year later and multiple cleanings lol. My seat bases were all rotted, Deck is good, we just use patio furniture for now. I run a 73 Johnson 50hp on it Does 17 in calm water, you should be able to do 20 easy with that 88.

Thing I would add is a built on fuel tank, I hate lugging 6 gal containers, If I had a 18 gallon tank I could boat all weekend and not have to buy overpriced gas at marinas

ok-Had a little vacation down to the gulf...so not much work on the boat last week or so- but back on it now!!! We did rent a pontoon while we were down there... pretty awesome, except for the jellies!!!

So- my question- re-decking. What is y'alls opinion on marine vs. regular pressure treated plywood? My logic in even considering the regular pressure treated is that this is an older boat 89/90... and I really would think I would be doing good to get 5 or 6 good years out of it. I think that the regular pressure treated would be good for at least that, or more- Am I crazy? I will be using the seam tape on top and on the cross members on the bottom.

I know not a great place to try and save a buck... but seeing if any of you have done it with success???


Thanks!

Jason

If you do some searching on the site you'll find several posts about not using regular pressure-treated plywood with aluminum. The materials used react with the aluminum and can cause it to disintegrate rather quickly.

I used AB marine-plywood from the local Menards at $69.99 per sheet for 3/4" which I figured was worth the extra money. I didn't want to tear it apart again for at least 10 years!

Wow... I never even considered some sort of reaction- Thanks for the heads up!!! That could have been serious trouble!!!


Thanks again!

Jason

Well, back on. Been slow going on switching over fence paneling from one boat to the other, but it is working so I am happy. Should have the boat back from getting tune up tomorrow, and will be ready to start going back up. Here are a few pic's. I can't believe how nice the seats turned out!!!

Finally coming back up- Feels like slow motion!!! Got the carpet on, trim, and moved over the back half railing from the old boat... Starting to look like a boat again. I also took a shot of the boat I am moving the railing from...