Collection: Repairing Pontoon Fence Damage

Below is a email exchange we had with a customer about repairing his pontoon fence railing.  We decided to post this here as this will apply to many people who have this kind of pontoon fence railing damage.  His actual fence rails were still in good shape along with his furniture so replacing the panels in his existing rails was the best option for him.  You can see his email and our response below.

FenceForPontoons team,

     We have a 2009 G3 Sun Catcher, railing was damaged when the lean to we had it stored in blew apart in a wind storm. Do you have a railing to replace ours?  Below are pictures of the damage for your reference.  

Thanks,
Kenneth

Kenneth,
    We unfortunately do not have boat specific fence rail pieces and do not do custom fence orders. However it appears that your fence railing is still in good shape and that it is just the panel that is damaged and pulled out of the fence rail frame. The good news is that can be fixed fairly easy, the bad news is that looks to be the old colonial white color and that color was discontinued by the mills a little over a year ago as no new boat builder uses that color anymore. I would recommend when you pull the boat out for the winter changing the panels in your existing fence railing to a new color so it all matches, not only will this fix the damage you have, it will make your pontoon look like new again going to a new modern color. You can find out how to change the panel here.  You can also find videos on YouTube of people doing this here.  You can find all the available replacement fence panel here.  Our replacement panel is available in three different heights, 16.5”, 24.7”, and 33” tall rolls and are the same .032" thick panel that is used on new pontoon boats with a baked on enamel finish on both sides. All of our replacement fence panel is sold in 20’ rolls so three rolls should be about right for you. You may end up needing a forth roll if you make a few mistakes at first but you should be able to get by with three.
     The good news is your G3 pontoon has the modern Q rail for the fence railing, so it should be fairly easy just a little time consuming. To start remove your rails from your pontoon boat and take them to your garage or other work area, preferably with a bench or something to work off of. Then you would kick out the old panel from the backside. This will crease it in the middle allowing you to pull the old panel out of the rails. Then take a rigid putty knife to gently bend the lips of the Q rail up slightly, clean out any gunk or debris that has ended up in those channels. Then measure and cut the new panels to the same height and length as the old panels. If you are cutting the height down I would recommend these electric metal shears found at Harbor Freight as they work really well and are fairly inexpensive since you will most likely not ever use them again. You can find those here.  Then after the panels are cut to the right size use our fence foam tape along the railing (found here) This will keep the panel tight and quite when boating. If you choose not to use it, it will still work but will rattle at higher speeds. Then place the new panel on top of the railings they are going into, and you can most times bend it up slightly in the middle from the backside to get it to pop into the channels of the Q rail. For corners and pieces with bends it is easier to slide one side in and then have some gently push the panel whole someone else is pulling it, sliding it all the way to the opposite end. After the panel is installed take a rubber mallet and lightly tap the Q rails back flat to hold the panel in place. I highly recommend doing a little at a time and working from left to right, then back right to left and again left to right bending just a little of it at a time so you do not see waves in the Q rail (caused by bending to much at one time) The goal is to lower it as one whole length (section). After it is all changed out just re-bolt it to your pontoon deck, I would highly recommend using new stainless steel fence bolts found here and plastic fence risers (Spacers) found here.  Just because overtime those can get gummed up and sometimes reusing them can be challenging.
     I hope this helps and that I did not overwhelm you with information. If you have any questions feel free to contact myself or any member of our team.

FenceForPontoons.com
(877)294-3395
sales@fenceforpontoons.com