Excited today. This summer I convinced my husband to help me build a small pontoon boat. I had looked at Pond King and other small pontoon style boats, but the price was just not something I could do. I did have a bunch of 4'X8'X12" styrofoam sheets and some building experience. And a husband with lots of experience! After lots of talking, thinking, drawing of plans and a little cussing, we floated the boat earlier this week and I mounted the trolling motor today and took her out. I have under $300.00 and about 12-15 man hours in it so far. That includes a new battery. Next year will see another couple hundred or so added in 3 boat seats and some additional sealant. The deck is 6'X8' with 10' pontoons. Yeah, I know, pictures are not here. I will get a photo bucket account one of these days, but for now, I am going to go try to catch my first fish off the new floating casting platform.

LovinLiving and Fatih, next time you visit, we can all fish from the same boat!

Got to post pictures!

I got a sneak peak, and yes Cim you need to post photos!

Very creative!

Here is the boat sitting on the edge of the water!!!! I have added some rope cleats and the trolling motor since the pic was taken. Fished for a while tonight off her! Yeah!!!

Very cool!

Thanks RAH. It was fun to build and I am enjoying fishing off it.

cool little boat....and I bet it is so easy to move around

WOW!! Impressive! I WANT ONE! How are the logs on the bottom built? You said styrofoam...but they look to have wood texture. Are they covered in wood or wood "look"?? If they are styrofoam how did you mount the braces? Just curious...GREAT JOB!!

Peachgrower, the pontoons are covered with wood so the foam won't get beat up while docking or hitting brush. And so we could attach the frame to prevent twisting. The frame sits between the pontoons with the deck overhanging the width of the pontoons. All stapled together and all seams reinforced with liquid nails. Stable, pushes easy with a 40lb thrust trolling motor. Very happy with how it turned out!

Pond King price was definitely way too high IMO. Also, the weight was too much.....I think 175 pounds for a 1-person pontoon. How much do you think your watercraft weighs? If you have them, please post pictures of the building process or any stages of the building process. Looks great! BM61

Did you treat the wood on the pontoons in any way? I have used 1/2 poly resin and 1/2 acetone to treat wood that would be in a damp area and it has worked very well. It soaks into the wood but doesn't slick it out like regular resin would. Just curious. Thanks!

I would hit is all with LineX and it will last for ever.

Yeah or some of that Rhino spray for truck beds... It's a done deal then...

RC

+1 on what Dono and RC said. That would be the way to go.

Oooh, oooh, how about that stuff that guy uses on TV, where he sprays/paints it on the screen bottom of his jon boat???

Personally I think fiberglass would be best and fairly easy, but for less weight, what about a good sealer, then the rubberized paint they use on swimming pool bottoms? Less resistance than the bed-liner stuff so you'll just sail across the pond .

And maybe an aluminum skid plate where it's pulled up on shore?

Thanks for all the ideas! So far we haven't sealed the wood. I will pull the boat in a month or so. We are planning on using a product designed to seal concrete. A paint like substance. I thought about bed liner, but as unsure if it would adhere well to wood. The deck especially is very waxy, Advantex brand 3/4 sub flooring.

Don't know the weight, am horrible about estimating these things! Two people can pick it up to flip it if needed.

I am going to the big computer later to email some photos of the build to another forum member, I will upload some to the new photo bucket account and post here as well.

Dono, have you used linex or similar product on wood? I like the anti skid effect and would like that on the deck at least if it wouldn't peel off. As stated, the deck is very waxy feeling, maybe some oil product to repel moisture.

Keith, I tried that stuff on a roof leak. It didn't work.

OK, here are some of the pictures from the build. I will answer any questions that I can. If you have any.
http://s1070.photobucket.com/user/mikean...sort=3&o=13

http://s1070.photobucket.com/user/mikean...?sort=3&o=0

http://s1070.photobucket.com/user/mikean...?sort=3&o=5

I THINK, if you follow any one of these links, you will go to the photo bucket with all 14 pictures?? Darn, I am very new at this picture thing.

Any way, hope hollar at me if you have any questions, and keep the suggestions coming!

If I order 1 now can you have it to me by Christmas?

Bed liner spray will swell and come off when constantly exposed to water. I would suggest an oil based silver paint and let it soak in. I have had indoor plywood last many years when exposed to wet weather and ground contact when using the oil based paint in this link Rustoleum Oil-Based Aluminum paint

I laid on several thick coats and let each soak in, in every drill/screw hole and wood edge.

I guess I am way old school. Why not just coat it with a good marine spar varnish?

looks like a ford torino maybe 1970 model in your shop. Am I close CMM?

Bill D, I don't know if I can convince the husband to team up and do this all again. But I will ask. As far as the marine varnish... price and familiarity are the two biggest reasons.

Rainman, paint was one of the options, Mike has used this concrete sealer on a number of different bases and likes it a lot. If it doesn't work, we will go back to the drawing board.

Flame, you are SOOOO close. 70 Fairlane 500. Older cousin to the 66 Galaxie 500 that is the hubby's daily driver. The Fairlane is getting some upholstery done and the hood is off in anticipation of a new motor. Time and money... Hope the pics answered some of your questions on the little boat.

Thanks for the photos CMM. It helps me a lot. I just sold a 1970 1/2 ford Falcon. If you have never seen one or know the history of them,you should look it up. They look like yours and a Torino BUT... they have a post and are not a hard top. Pretty rare car. All Torinos were hard tops.Let me know what you think.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lfd7_p4SVBU

I love the stuff. We did the whole interior of a ford scout and left it topless for ever. It washed it self out.

Only mistake I have ever seen done with it was doing an oil pan on a jeep. It heated up the oil and would hold the heat in. Swapped it out for an aluminum pan.

I would not have a truck bed with out it. Not only dose it protect the loads stay and won't slide around.

Cheers Don.

If that's untreated wood you better pull it sooner then a month or so... Just don't think it will last long in the weather without something on it. Cool idea though very nice!!

RC

Yeah Flame, those are sweet cars. Why did you sell yours? Something even better in the garage??

Story on the Fairlane is that my husband drove his 66 Galaxie to VIRGINIA with a tow bar and towed the Fairlane home to Missouri. He said if the Galaxie broke down he would switch the tow bar around. Thankfully he didn't have to. I told him to take my truck and the flat bed trailer. OH NO, he wanted the antique (or close enough) to tow the classic 1,000 miles. He hadn't had the Fairlane home for a week when the local cops gave him a warning for leaving rubber in the road. Silly man.

CMM, I have a 1969 Mustang Mach1 that I fully restored and a Bonnie and Clyde car a 1933 fordor sedan all steel I made into a streetrod. I have been painting and restoring old cars for many years. I try to sell one or two a year but those two I mentioned are like a member of the family!! I towed my 1933 to Texas from Souix Falls South Dakota where I bought it except it was on a U-Haul trailer.

Awesome. I bet you got plenty of thumbs up on the trip. Mike and I have a deal, for every old car he gets, I get a new gun. Works for me. Plus, he builds me ponds and takes my crazy ideas and turns them into boats.

Do you take your cars to shows?

Yes I do. Next one is in November. I have been very fortunant. Those 2 cars have won over 35 top awards in some pretty tough competitions. Good luck with your projects!!

Alright you two, enough is enough! This talk about classic cars can not continue without pictures.

Pictures please, we need pictures!

Cim, I've seen Mike's Fords and they both are worthy of sharing. And Flame, The Mach 1 and '33 ????

Pictures, please!

I know right? Thinkin the same thang!

I would love to see pics of Flames cars. I will see if I can find one of both of hubby's 500's together to post.

I have seen Flames cars and they are super nice. He put a lot of time and effort into them
Joe

Hey Smokey Joe!! You better start getting on this forum more! I didn't even know that was you. Thanks for the nice comments about my cars. If I can figure out how to post photos I will put a couple on here. Stay in touch!

Ah, Flame, if I can figure it out, so can you. Promise.

well, I attempted to put photos of the cars on but it keeps telling me the size is too large. I have no idea how to make them smaller to be accepted on the forum. I downloaded the photos from my phone to my computer and have been trying to put them on the forum from my computer. So far no luck. Any advise??

Here's what I do when I hit that problem uploading image files to the forum file manager.

I store the pics on my computer and then go into My Computer, select the pics, right click, hit send to, enter my e-mail address, select pic size and then e-mail them to myself. My Computer reduces the size a bunch.

Good Luck!

Wow!! Thanks Bill. I'll give it a try. Does anyone else think this seems like a lot to go through to put a picture on here?

Another idea, and one I use is to open the folder with the pics (usually my camera), right-click on the one you've chosen and click "edit". When the edit program opens I then click on "Resize". It shows up at 100% and I just replace that with 30% because my photo are huge! Then click on "Save as" from the "file" tab and name it and save it in the appropriate folder. If you need to make it even smaller, repeat the steps from the folder you saved it in as it's now much smaller than the original.

Then when I upload it to Photobucket it's usually around 500-700kb instead of 3.5mg. Takes up much less space on the hard drive and uploads much faster to Photobucket. Regardless of the program you use to post photos here, the pic itself (file size) is now much smaller.

When I right-click on the photo to "Edit", here's what I see:



Then click "Resize". This is what the "Resize" window looks like and the only number I change is the top "Horizontal", the vertical automatically follows suit:



Then click on the blue "File" tab (as seen in the top photo) to access the "Save as". Then save it where you want it.

And if you're new with Photobucket, from the "library" the "IMG" link is the one you will copy/paste into your PB message:



And if you click on the photo to open it (in Photo Bucket), you'll see this to the right of the photo, and just by clicking on the "IMG" window it automatically copies and you just paste it in your message.



Just my $.02 and what works for me (because I don't know any better). And it might seem like a lot of steps but it's actually pretty quick.

(hopefully this message will breed even a better and quicker way from other members!)