Today the remaining decking was removed from the ’87 Manitou pontoon boat. A few pieces had significant rot, with one spot completely rotted through. I’ll haul these 4 sheets of old plywood decking to the dump next weekend.
With the boat down to the bare aluminum, I was able to inspect the structure for damage or stress cracks. It looked good, except for one area where a prior owner decided it was appropriate to cut through an aluminum cross member. I’ll have to cut some aluminum bar stock that I have in the garage and bolt it into this section.
Next week I’ll be cleaning the aluminum and starting the rebuild – stay tuned!
Looks like you really been moving along on the restoration project. You have it all stripped and ready to be put back together. The throttle cable looked to be on it’s last leg to. Now the fun part starts. Each step now is gonna start making it look good. I wonder why there was such a big chunk taken out of the frame like that?
The pontoon is really gonna look good when it’s all done. So far you’ve done a great job Kevin.
I suspect that the previous owner routed the steering cable below the frame, then realized that it interfered with the trailer, so he cut that chunk out of the frame to set the cable in. The cable shouldn’t be routed this way, regardless. I repaired the frame with a new piece of angle aluminum, bolted in place with stainless steel fasteners.