1988 Party Barge Rebuild

[Harley pontoon]

First of all, I am NEW to Pontoonforums, so thanks for allowing me to join. I have learned so much from this site! I hope to share as much as I have benefited from this site, but I know I never will!! Ok, so I have a project!!! I am going to do a Harley Davidson themed pontoon boat. I picked up a 1988 Party Barge a few weeks ago. This Pontoon Boat is made by Tracker Marine and called a Sun Tracker Party Barge. 24 ft, 45HP Mariner outboard. Seats are shredded. If anyone has tackled a Party Barge reno and would like to share pics, please post them. I will not feel like you are hijacking this posts. Same goes for a Harley themed reno. Please share pics. It may give me more ideas. Most of what I do to the boat on the inside will not reflect HD though. I am sure it will evolve as I rebuild it, which is cool because that is indicative of the Harley Evolution!

I hope to post pics and updates as I go along. I took her out a few times and she has start issues with the Mariner 45HP outboard. It seems that once it starts she seems to run well. It maybe coil? Stator? I already replaced the plugs before putting in the water. I will take it to a Mercury engine guy this week and hope for the best. Once started, it ran at 12 mph full open (two people and half the seats). It is not a race car, but I want a boat for swimming and partying and evening dinner cruises and relaxation, so going slowly from point A to point B is fine, but 20 mph would have been nicer.

I have not done much yet. So far I have cleaned the pontoons of oxidation. I used a very acidic air conditioning condenser coil cleaner and it did an amazing job! I do not need a mirror finish. I also ran new wiring and lights on the trailer.

Here are a few of my plans...

-Remove furniture and helm. Remove rails and fencing. Remove outer trim and clean hand rails and side trim.

-Pull up the mildew infused non-marine grade carpet from the marine grade (or so I have been told) plywood, scrape off old adhesive and install marine grade Luxury Woven Vinyl, using glue.

-Acid wash the rails and use etching-primer, then sand and paint them black. (Any recommendation on the type of paint? Enamel? Polyurethane enamel? I want the paint to last 5-10 years! Powder coating is cost prohibitive.)

-Replace the fencing with black fencing. Paint gray/orange/black graphics on fencing.

-Install black fencing on rails and reinstall side trim and rails.

Q- Is there an issue with sharing costs on items I have purchased for this reno? It's nice to know what others have spent on a project.

[curtiscapk]

Mine is a 94 but check out the link in my sig....
Good Luck!

[Harley pontoon]

Thanks Curt!

[Harley pontoon]

Craig! Wow! That is quite a rebuild you did!! Great job, brother! The Floater looks like a dream come true!

[curtiscapk]

Thanks! it was and still is!

[Harley pontoon]

Progress! I removed the rails and seats yesterday. Had some trouble with the helm though. I could not disconnect the steering cable from the steering wheel so I just disco' it from the motor and back-fed it through the pontoons and up through the deck. Aaaarrrggghh. Thought of an easy was to remove the carpet after fighting with it for 15 minutes and getting two feet pulled up. To remove the old carpet I connected a rope to one end of the carpet and looped it around a utility pole then to the ball hitch of my truck. Slow steady pressure and after three rope breaks it finally was removed. A three or four hour job was done in thirty minutes. Now I have the fun job of scrapping the old adhesive from the deck.

[Harley pontoon]

Progress! I removed the seats and side rails. Had a hard time with the helm though. I could not figure how to disconnect the steering cable from the wheel! I just disco'd it from the motor and back-fed it to remove it. I started pulling up the carpet and after a half hour I only had about a 1-1/2 ft by 8 ft piece pulled up. So I tied a rope to the carpet, routed it around a utility pole Nd to the ball hitch on my truck. In no time the old carpet was laying in a heap on the street. After scraping, sweeping and vacuuming the deck, I layed out the woven vinyl. Pulled half of it back and rolled on the adhesive. With help from my GF, we rolled the vinyl in place and I bloomed it out. Repeating on the other half of the vinyl and it was done before noon! Wow! What a difference! I couldn't be happier with the look of the woven vinyl. I will post pics!

[Harley pontoon]

New vinyl"

[joe20toon]

Good work! Keep updating....

Just wondering... Did someone use a 12 gauge shotgun on that seat?

[Harley pontoon]

I am not sure WHAT happened. The guy that I got the 'Toon from said it was in a barn and a cat did the damage. I can't imagine a cat doing all the damage to the back of the seats though. Take another look at the other pics. My guess is a coon or a squirrel. Or a opossum with a shotgun.

[Harley pontoon]

Sometimes time schedules do not turn out as you plan. I had some problems starting the old 1986 Mariner 45 HP motor so I took it to an engine guy who specializes in Mercury outboards. He replaced the stator and went through the engine. $660 later I am up and running. It was way too hot and humid to put any work on the boat over the weekend so I started to prepare the panning on the rails yesterday. Well the 24-1/2" panning is a might bit short for the 25" needed for the aft rails. So today I ordered wider panning. Wasted a bit of $$$ but I hope to use it later on...

[Harley pontoon]

Almost the end of July 2016. I hoped to have the lion-share done by now and just be left with little details by this time. Still waiting for the seat bases. I ordered Wise bases. I also bought a bar from a Premier Solaris series. I am painting it today. So now my pontoon is turning into a Frankentoon. i.e. seats by Aqua Patio and bar from Premier. Time will tell how many other manufacturer's parts will be used!

[ROLAND]

It's looking good my friend...... looks like you're doing a good job...

[Harley pontoon]

Thanks Roland! I keep chipping away at the Boulder. I feel like I got a lot completed today. Nose corners and all four corners and all the metal panning installed and the rails remounted on the deck. I got some graphics on as well. I mounted a few clears too.

[Harley pontoon]

End of July...