SCRANTON, Pa. — It's Jeff and Jimmy's dream vehicle, and they call it a boat car.
The pair saved car and boat parts from the junkyard and repurposed them into a creation you can't find on a car lot.
"I kind of had it in the back of my mind, and Jim and I teaching together did mention it once and said, 'We should build one,'" said Jeff Ellsworth, the boat car co-creator.
After retiring from the math department at Abington Heights, the best friends took on this unique construction project.
"So many people we talked to about this, we said we're going to build a boat car, we're going to throw this thing together, and they would laugh at us," said Jimmy Maria, boat car co-creator.
They used the doubts as fuel for building the boat car, but it wasn't exactly smooth sailing.
"You think that math teachers would use measuring and looking at volumes, but nope. This was mostly a lot of trial and error," added Maria.
They cut the body of a Honda Civic until it fit perfectly with the frame of the boat, saying it was satisfying to finally see the idea in their head come to life.
"This one took our mind off of things. It's kind of like a mental health-type project that we did together," Ellsworth said.
The idea that lived in their heads for years is now turning heads on the road.
"The one big question they ask is 'does it float?'" said Ellsworth.
"It will go in the water; we're just not sure if it will come out," Maria added.
When the pair took the boat car for a spin, they did not plan for the community's instant love of a boat on wheels.
"We started with selfish motives to make ourselves smile, and then when we saw what we did, we had to share this," Maria explained.
"Now it feels like we have purpose on this planet, you know, we're making people smile, and I just love that, and it's the best part about it," added Ellsworth.
"Well, let's just hope it doesn't end up at the bottom of the lake," Maria mentioned.
Jim and Jeff are excited to see where the boat car takes them next on their road trip through retirement.