Vintage PlayCraft Restoration

Owning a pontoon boat that is more than 30 years old and still runs like new is indeed impressive. Check out this amazing restoration project, a 1984 PlayCraft completed by Justin Evans of Bethlehem, Ga., who regularly boats with his family on Jackson Lake. This is Evans’ first boat for his family, along with his first attempt at a pontoon restoration to fulfill a long-time dream. He has come a long way since his rebuild, as he completely refurbished the interior.

Background
After recently selling an old vehicle, Justin and his wife Kate were in the market for a boat that would be great for family and friend outings and safe for their three young children ranging from 12 years to an 18-month-old. He decided that a pontoon would be the best choice for his situation, so with a $5,000 budget, he started searching various listings and places for good used deals. He struggled to meet his budget for a while until Kate finally found an old one sitting in a driveway that looked interesting. Justin asked his wife for the phone number on the tag, and he called it later that day. The call was answered by a man who was eager to show this boat, so Justin and Kate immediately headed back down to check it out.

The boat was a 1984 24-foot PlayCraft pontoon with a 75hp Mariner outboard. It was rusty and dirty, its seats were heavily worn and falling apart, it barely had carpet, and it looked hardly usable. However, that didn’t stop Justin. He ended up purchasing it for $800 and the trailer for $1,000.

Project
In fixing this old boat up, the first thing Justin did was power-wash the entire interior of the boat. When he looked at the interior more closely, he started to worry and realized rebuilding the vessel would be much harder than he originally thought. Then he tried to fire it up, and nothing happened.

“This was going to be a big project,” he said. Nonetheless, he was determined to have it running 100 percent by Memorial Day. He went shopping online for new seats and carpeting. He and his wife decided on a tan carpet from Wholesale Marine, and white Wise seats with blue and black stripes from RestorePontoon.com. After that, he began to demolish the interior, starting with the old seats and console. He then pulled the old carpet up and tore the railings off. As he pulled the old interior apart, he also realized the console would need new wiring. Before rewiring, though, he wanted to see if the engine would run. After buying a new battery and ignition switch, he turned the key, and with some backfiring, coughing, and a huge puff of smoke, the engine started right up! By then, seeing the motor run well, he really had a strong will to get the vessel in the water again. When the carpeting arrived, he was able to install it immediately, because thankfully, the flooring was in fine shape and did not need to be replaced. The seats later arrived, and he installed them by working his way up to the front of the boat from the back seats.

After that, it was time to rewire the boat, so Justin pulled all of the existing wiring and also installed new lights and speakers, among other electrical components. He kept the original audio head unit, but the old speakers were replaced with new Kenwood marine-grade speakers, and he added an auxiliary jack to the system. After Justin ordered a Bimini top from Amazon and recovered the sun deck with some new foam and vinyl (similar to the seats), it was finally ready to float!

Trail & Error
The Evans family took the PlayCraft out for its inaugural run at the end of May, and the boat ran perfectly well. Unfortunately, that was only for 10 minutes, as the engine began sputtering and lost a lot of its power. Justin suspected the carburetor must have gotten blocked, but they continued to enjoy their time on the lake before going back to the marina. After all, the boat was still running; it just couldn’t go full speed.

He took it back home, cleaned the carburetor, and took the boat out again a few days later. This time, the engine fired right up without any problems, but it still lacked power. That night, he did intensive research on engine problems and tried different things for a few days. He checked the compression, replaced the fuel lines, added an in-line filter, replaced spark plugs and wires (several times), but to no avail. Nonetheless, the family didn’t complain about this much, as everyone was still getting to enjoy the water. Eventually, Justin noticed that two of the spark plugs didn’t look functional, which meant the engine wasn’t firing on all cylinders, literally! He went back online and had plugs shipped to his home. They were an expensive fix, but it only took ten minutes to install the new plugs. The next time the family went out on the water, the boat ran at its full potential, but only until midday. The throttle control handle broke off, and he was stranded in the middle of the lake. Thankfully, he broke down in front of a friend’s cabin and his friend was able to tow him to the marina. As he got home, he ordered a new throttle control.


Current State & Future Plans
Since the replacement of the throttle control, the 33-year-old PlayCraft runs extremely well and is a genuinely pleasant ride with a modern layout that makes it look much more like a family boat. The tan carpeting is soft and plush, and it provides amazing comfort similar to that of home carpeting. Such a carpet will feel good on your feet! The new seats are firm and comfortable at the same time, and they feature plenty of storage. The speakers also sound excellent.

Justin and his family enjoyed their boat all summer in 2016, spending most weekends at the lake, and even some weekday afternoons cruising, tubing, fishing, barbecuing, and floating. They have all been great ways for Justin to spend valuable time with family and friends. He currently plans to paint the fence a dark blue this spring to match the seats and Bimini top and replace the audio unit with a Kenwood system to match the speakers. He also plans to polish the pontoons. Upon completion of those things, this boat will look almost entirely new again. All in all, in the meantime, the end result of the work so far was worth every bit of the time, effort, and money that Justin put into the project. He learned a lot about boats and their engines, along with many other marine systems while at the same time being able to fix his boat up exactly the way he wanted it. He plans to keep his old PlayCraft for many years to come. This goes to show that it’s amazing what hard work and perseverance can do if you decide to refurbish an old pontoon rather than buy a new one.