Party Barge Time
Going from partied out to party ready.

 

Becky and I have been looking for a pontoon boat off and on for the last couple of years but haven't been real serious about finding one. I finally decided it's time to do this and once again hunted eBay and found one in Kansas City, KS. It's a 1975 eighteen footer with a nice trailer and two motors. One is what appears to be the original 65 horse Mercury, and the other a cool little 1958 Evinrude 35 that I'll save for one of my older runabouts.

Join us as we transform this well used party barge into a refreshing 50's retro party cruiser. From the cool, crisp Sea Foam green and white paint job to the matching 1950's Coca Cola chest storage and cooler system, this should be one party barge that stands out in a crowd. Keep checking in as we mix the old with the new for a refreshing twist on an old barge.

 

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The original Ebay photos. We've got to get rid of all that baby blue.

 

 

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Time to get to work! We parked the boat next to the shop, took off the roof, raised it up from the trailer and lowered it to the ground. It's much easier to work on now with the lower height. First thing is remove all the railing and pull up the floors. Kristen started unbolting the solid panels while Michael crawled underneath and loosened the bolts holding the flooring. After using the impact wrench on the outer frame bolts and grinding a few bolts everything was off.

 

 

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With the rails off it's time to pull up the plywood flooring. The steel beams underneath look pretty good, and will only need the rust cleaned off and painted. The pontoons will be cleaned and polished or buffed, or something to make them look decent once again, and something has to be done with that ugly motor mount. I'm hoping to toss it out and use one of the newer aluminum ones instead. I just don't like the looks of this one at all.

 

 

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She looks pretty bare now. At least it'll be easy to work on the pontoons now! I went out behind the shop and dug out my old Coca Cola cooler. It's 31" x  26" and 34" high. We will redo this to match the boat and mount it at the left rear corner of the boat. The top will be hinged for access to an ice chest, and in the bottom compartment a 12 gallon gas tank will be mounted. The filler will be integrated into the cooler on the left side for easy access.

 

To be continued....

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