For years I spent the long brutally cold nights securing a spot. Usually it was just me and my dog by ourselves. Usually it was just miserably long night laying on the ground or in the bottom of the boat. Right before legal my buddy would bring the wives out and we would light the ducks up and head home. The idea was started off slow. The last time I did the spend the night thing I got a call from somebody on this forum. He said we are at Lake X and it is chocked full of birds, come on for the opener. My buddy met me and off we went, my cuz met us at the Lake. Off we went into the night and found the crew rafted up near the spot. Beer flowed, then the Gentlemen Jack with coke fired up. Then we stopped mixing in the glass just chasing a with the coke. By the time we new there was no more coca cola involved. At 0130 it was off to the spot to get some sleep. It was miserably cold and it started raining. It is miserable when your labrador is showing signs of misery. It was that night I decided, I am going to do the project. Here is a progression of hos it all went down. Pic Heavy!!!

First purchase








Final product


I received an offer and sold the boat. It wasn't big enough for what I wanted to do.

So this boat came into play. I was playing around on Craigslist and made a 50% lower offer than the asking price. Got this boat for $750 with no motor. That was alright because I still had the Johnson 88 from the tan pontoon boat I sold.




We liked it so much we decided to keep it just a pontoon boat. Come to find out the 88 had a smoked piston. I tore the power head down and rebuilt it. Now we use it for white bass at sommerville. You can play a football game on a 26 foot boat.

After the build
[img]http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q234/wal1809/pontoon/th_Shelives_zpsc711058e.mp4[/img]

So then I ran across this and went to whittling on the seller. He was as good a negotiator as I have ever met and I have haggled with the best of them. I finally got him to my price. $1300 for the boat, upper motor and trailer. I made out so good on that deal I didn't even get any crap from my wife when she pulled into the yard asking "Who's boat"? I have to say I got a bad arse wife. She only gets mad when I don't take her along.

This is when I picked it up.


All but one tire blew out before I got home. As I stood there looking at the tires the last one blew out. I had a angel with me that day.

The tear down

I didn't know the carpet was still perfect. It had a half inch of crusty dead algi on it. 2 hours with a power washer and it was perfect.
Junk from the junk yard

Getting started

These are the stabilizers for wooden garage doors and they were perfect for bolting to the floor.

First upright which used to be a leg from an old swingset.

Laying out the exterior plan


[URL=http://s137.photobucket.com/user/wal1809/media/Pontoon%20boat%20duck%20blind%20project/20150131_152256_zpsxntaob9a.jpg.html]

[/URL]


[URL=http://s137.photobucket.com/user/wal1809/media/Pontoon%20boat%20duck%20blind%20project/20150321_101358_zpsdbotcczm.jpg.html]

[/URL]








It was on jack stands because I was rebuilding the axles from the bare spindles out. Meaning everything that could be replaced other than the spindles is brand new, tires, seals, bearings ect.

When I get it back it will finish out fairly easily. I just need to arrange the seating, kitchen and shelving. A one day project maybe. I will post the pics here when done. I am pushing hard to make this a go for the teal opener. I have just the spot picked out for it.

very nice, hope you kill a lot of birds out of it

Very cool. How do you see to drive the boat??

What did the bearing job cost you? That's next on my RV.

Wow Wal, thats impressive.

to the right of the console is a window that I can open. Just in front of the console is a door and the very front has a door. There is essentially a very small blind spot. Famous last words as I have that kind of #$%tty luck

The bearings at a local autoparts store was $12. I ordered them and got them and the seals for $3.50 each, so $40 buck or so. I had to buy new Orings for the bearing buddies and that was nothing short of a continuous cluster mess. Sometimes we can have brain farts that never stop farting. It was about a 30 day long brain fart so far as finding the orings. Lets say this without burning my own hiney too bad. I am dyslexic. Orings have national 3 digit codes. Mine happen to be -134. So let a guy who knows noting about orings try to measure one, find the right national part code and order an oring with that code being dyslexic. If I could walk into a parts store that has Orings that size, no problem. It doesn't work that way. So if anyone needs a packet of 100 -130 orings, call me.

Well thank you Sir!

Looks like you'll be hunting in southern comfort-just need to put Phil's camo recliner in there! Good luck this season and don't get too comfy and miss the legal shooting time fly by's!

Let us know how it works out

Let me know when I need to head south

A month ago when I was working on this thing.

Haha. You so funny.

You're good!!

that's impressive.
nothing satisfies like the completion of a project.

wow great job and wonderful story.