The Coon Toon Project (pic heavy)

Maynard G. Krebs

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Hello everyone, new to the forum and new to pontoon ownership. Brought home an '06 2075 FSI a couple of days ago. It had been kept in dry storage at the local lake and some raccoons used it as party central. The owner was an older woman that lived out of town and she didn't want to deal with the repairs so now it's mine. Here are some "as received" pics:

IMG_0001_1.jpg


IMG_0046.jpg


IMG_0042.jpg


T50 with 40 hours. Not fast, but this will be on a smallish lake (3 mi x 2 mi) and it's a non-contact body of water so 50 hp is plenty for fishing and cruising.

IMG_0012.jpg


and here's what the raccoons did...

couch

IMG_0017.jpg


captain's seat

IMG_0018.jpg


lounger

IMG_0014.jpg


I've spent the last two days cleaning it and have the damaged interior ready to go to the upholstery shop.

IMG_0051.jpg


The carpet was filthy but several hours with a RugDoctor has it looking pretty good. I hope to have it in the water in a couple of weeks.
 
What a project! If an upholstery shop can fix that for you, please post the "after" pics. I know there are a lot of folks here that would be curious to know what's "possible" in a case like this.

There have been some other upholstery "magic" photos posted recently of small tears and such being fixed such that you couldn't tell there was ever a problem, but if these are fixed (instead of replaced) I'll eat my anchor.
 
Yeah, I have no idea what the shop will say. I made the assumption that it would have to be replaced with new and negotiated the price of the boat with that in mind.

I plan on leaving the pop-up changing room out of the boat no matter what. Being that this is only a 20-footer I really like the extra room on the stern with it removed.
 
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I guess you're as old as I am to remember Dobie Gillis. Looks like a good find and really low hours. Good luck with the project and keep us updated. Oh,and by the way, WELCOME!! B)
 
See your Bennington dealer with the serial # and he can order factory skins. There not cheap but will match your boat to a T. Have an 05 that I just (past winter) had my sun deck redone. Skins were $600 and local fab shop charged me $350is to install. Now the deck looks better than the rest of the boat! I'm sure you can get new skins for all the damaged parts and keep the the boat all Bennington!

GoodLuck!
 
I'm waiting to hear from my dealer who's waiting to hear from Bennington regarding the skins. Cost will be a factor as to how this gets done. The upholstery shop said they could repair it with four yards of material if I could source the oem vinyl but I would like to see what pre-made skins would be first. I either pay Bennington and save on labor or get the four yards and pay extra labor to have it sewn up.

Ronfl, what exactly did you get for $600?
 
Well, my project seems to have run aground and I'm not sure why. I contacted my dealer on the 12th and asked him to get a quote for replacement skins. He responded the next day that he had sent the request to Bennington and was waiting for a reply. Then...nothing. Two weeks and no response despite sending emails asking for an update. I sent Team Bennington a pm through this forum four days ago asking what the normal lead time is for an upholstery quote and have received no reply from them either.

If it takes this long just to tell me the cost, I'm afraid to think how long it would take to actually produce the vinyl.
 
Three skins to cover the sundeck area of a 2275RL...

I'm waiting to hear from my dealer who's waiting to hear from Bennington regarding the skins. Cost will be a factor as to how this gets done. The upholstery shop said they could repair it with four yards of material if I could source the oem vinyl but I would like to see what pre-made skins would be first. I either pay Bennington and save on labor or get the four yards and pay extra labor to have it sewn up.

Ronfl, what exactly did you get for $600?
 
Go to Bennington.com and find another dealer. I ordered the skins I needed and recieved them in a few weeks. Just find a dealer that wants to help you... Good Luck!

Well, my project seems to have run aground and I'm not sure why. I contacted my dealer on the 12th and asked him to get a quote for replacement skins. He responded the next day that he had sent the request to Bennington and was waiting for a reply. Then...nothing. Two weeks and no response despite sending emails asking for an update. I sent Team Bennington a pm through this forum four days ago asking what the normal lead time is for an upholstery quote and have received no reply from them either.

If it takes this long just to tell me the cost, I'm afraid to think how long it would take to actually produce the vinyl.
 
You can pressure wash the carpet! It's an outdoor carpet and cleans up good with a pressure washer....

Hello everyone, new to the forum and new to pontoon ownership. Brought home an '06 2075 FSI a couple of days ago. It had been kept in dry storage at the local lake and some raccoons used it as party central. The owner was an older woman that lived out of town and she didn't want to deal with the repairs so now it's mine. Here are some "as received" pics:

IMG_0001_1.jpg


IMG_0046.jpg


IMG_0042.jpg


T50 with 40 hours. Not fast, but this will be on a smallish lake (3 mi x 2 mi) and it's a non-contact body of water so 50 hp is plenty for fishing and cruising.

IMG_0012.jpg


and here's what the raccoons did...

couch

IMG_0017.jpg


captain's seat

IMG_0018.jpg


lounger

IMG_0014.jpg


I've spent the last two days cleaning it and have the damaged interior ready to go to the upholstery shop.

IMG_0051.jpg


The carpet was filthy but several hours with a RugDoctor has it looking pretty good. I hope to have it in the water in a couple of weeks.
 
As I continue to wait (nearly a month now) for a response from Bennington concerning the upholstery skins, I've busied myself with other ares of the boat. Added some under-skinning and started cleaning the pontoons. I'm not sure if I'll need to extend the aluminum skin all the way out to the rub rail. I'll wait until it's in the water and see how much water splashes onto the area above the pontoons, but as it is I have easy access to the cables which I prefer.

IMG_0096.jpg


I noticed the factory wiring harness had some terminated ends near the bow which turned out to be speaker leads. The corner boxes were pre-drilled for 6.5" speakers so I bought some Pioneers, cut the fabric covering the holes, and installed them with a short splice of speaker wire.

IMG_0093.jpg


There's another terminated lead underneath that's wired to the lighting switch in the dash so I can add some task lights to the same corner boxes if I choose to. Again, there's already a pre-drilled hole so installation would be easy.

I'm running out of things to do, I never imagined I'd have this much trouble sourcing the upholstery. I sent an email to Bennington last week and thus far they've chosen to not respond at all. I can't imagine how they stay in business with such poor customer service.
 
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Nice job on the underskin and the speakers. Where you have the skin is perfect so the waves don't bounce off of the crossmembers. It's too bad that Bennington is taking so long with an answer. :angry:
 
Sorry Maynard, never saw a PM from you about skins. Not to be defensive, but dealers have a fantastic parts catalog for every model year...doesn't take long to look up prices or availability. Seems that "Bennington" is always quick to get thrown under the bus! Not to mention the fact that we have a transferrable 5-year warranty on new boats that keeps the Customer Service group working overtime in the summer. We can be more help for fixer-uppers in the fall and winter months. :(

As a Bennington old-timer, this TB member notes the "pearl" fabric on your skins, which we have not used for several years. Fabrics run in cycles and are discontinued by suppliers eventually. We try to buy all remaining rolls of fabric for warranty purposes, but eventually that will run out too.

PM Team Bennington with the boat serial number and we'll see what we can find out. You not hear from us for a couple of days, but we WILL reply!
 
Nice to hear from someone connected with Bennington. I sent a pm through this forum on June 22nd and got no response, and didn't expect one after reading the following in another thread: "FRIENDLY NOTE TO ALL CLUB MEMBERS: TB is not the Customer Service arm of Bennington, nor do we check this site on an hourly or daily basis! We will, on ocassion, step in." OK, fair enough, I then went to the Bennington website and used the "contact us" link but that hasn't panned out either.

The dealer I've been working with seems to be on top of things, he has responded to every email promptly but his position is that he sent all my info to Bennington and that Bennington has (possibly) forwarded the request to the third-party vendor that provides the oem upholstery. He's never indicated that there's a catalogue that he could check for prices. I don't know where this went off the tracks but it would be nice to move forward. I'll pm my info again, if you could relay it to the proper people in-house I would really appreciate it.
 
We have your project on the to-do list. We should have some further information for you within a few days. We just heard from your dealer yesterday. Thanks, TB
 
Well, I received an email with a complete list of upholstery numbers and prices. Unfortunately, it wasn't for my boat. I was looking at the list trying to figure out what was what when I noticed in the email that somewhere along the line the serial number got switched with another boat. It wasn't even close.

Doesn't really matter though, I could gather enough information from the list to know this was going to kill me financially. For example, the small cushion from the helm seat doesn't appear to be sold as a separate skin. You have to buy the whole seat to the tune of $741. That's a bit steep to replace a cushion the size of a grapefruit when the rest of the seat looks like new.

I called the dealer and ordered several yards of the oem material, I'll hand it over to my local upholstery guy and see what he can do with it. I would like to thank Team Bennington for their assistance in getting my project back on track. Hopefully I'll have some updated pics in about 3 weeks.
 
Did you screw the sheeting to the crossmsmbers or weld them?

As I continue to wait (nearly a month now) for a response from Bennington concerning the upholstery skins, I've busied myself with other ares of the boat. Added some under-skinning and started cleaning the pontoons. I'm not sure if I'll need to extend the aluminum skin all the way out to the rub rail. I'll wait until it's in the water and see how much water splashes onto the area above the pontoons, but as it is I have easy access to the cables which I prefer.

IMG_0096.jpg


I noticed the factory wiring harness had some terminated ends near the bow which turned out to be speaker leads. The corner boxes were pre-drilled for 6.5" speakers so I bought some Pioneers, cut the fabric covering the holes, and installed them with a short splice of speaker wire.

IMG_0093.jpg


There's another terminated lead underneath that's wired to the lighting switch in the dash so I can add some task lights to the same corner boxes if I choose to. Again, there's already a pre-drilled hole so installation would be easy.

I'm running out of things to do, I never imagined I'd have this much trouble sourcing the upholstery. I sent an email to Bennington last week and thus far they've chosen to not respond at all. I can't imagine how they stay in business with such poor customer service.
 
@ ronfl > I used stainless tek screws. (I have a mig welder but tig is beyond my skill level)

@ Rick C > Thanks for the words of encouragement. I look at some of the other members' boats and mine looks kind of pathetic in comparison, but it makes me happy and that's all that really matters.
 
Thanks!

We all started somewhere and you doing the fix up on a Bennington will pay you back when you get ready for the next one! Buying a fixer upper quallity toon will ad some nice equity to your boat for the future!

@ ronfl > I used stainless tek screws. (I have a mig welder but tig is beyond my skill level)

@ Rick C > Thanks for the words of encouragement. I look at some of the other members' boats and mine looks kind of pathetic in comparison, but it makes me happy and that's all that really matters.
 
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