pontoon dents

Hi all I am restoring my 24ft Harris pontoon and was wondering if anyone knows how to remove dents and scrapes on aluminium pontoons is there something I can weld to it and pull the out.. has anyone done this with success..Paul

Re: pontoon dents

Hmmm, i would say as long as it's not leaking to leave it be. If you start banging and pulling ht dents out you might weaken the welds or the metal. But i could see myself wanting to fix it if it really looked denty.

Re: pontoon dents

Call your local auto body shop to see if they have the "paintless dent repair" system. That system uses a vacuum pump and rings that "suck" out the dents.

Re: pontoon dents

Unfortuately, sheet metal workers in auto body shops are becoming endangered species. Now, they're more of parts replacers than craftsmen.

Look around to see if the paintless dent repair guys can help you. There are a few aluminum bodied cars out there (Jaguar and Audi A8) that they may have practiced on.

I have a new Bennington tritoon boat that I guard religiously against other boats getting close (including my own Waverunner). And I'm not very nice about protecting my boat from dents. My last pontoon boat was used 27 years, and there's not a single dent in the toons.

Re: pontoon dents

A boat is not a fender, you can move the metal in a fender quite a bit with your finger, try that on a boat, not so much.

The aluminum is much thicker and also to work out a dent you need to access the backside and push it out also not going to happen.

The only way to get a dent out of a pontoon is to drill a hole, holes, and use a dent puller, you need access to a welder to fill the hole, a sander and several grits of paper and you will more than likely end up with a big shiny mess that has 30 little dents instead of one big one.

Same with the scratches, you can sand and buff them out but now that spot is really shiney and will never match the rest of the tube so it really is best to just forget you saw them.

I was the lead repair guy at Bennington for 14 years so I have tried about everything you can thing of.

Re: pontoon dents

5150, what's your opinion on the spot weld stud option? In fact, I'm not even sure they exist for aluminum, but if they do I could see this being an option for Aussie (OP).