# Start to finish- 18 months in 68 pictures- Ashcraft project



## topnative2 (Feb 22, 2009)

Beautiful!


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## Rosco (Nov 6, 2010)

nice


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## permitchaser (Aug 26, 2013)

Your son has a great Dad. That is one cool boat and a lot of work. If you started with $300 what did you end up with. I am restoring my boat and the money keep flying out of my wallet. I bet you saved a ton by doing it yourself


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## cutrunner (Jun 8, 2010)

Wowwww
great job.
thats the reason i love fiberglass, there is absolutely endless possibilities in design that guys like you and me can build as long as we have the time and patience


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## GTSRGTSR (Nov 10, 2009)

Very nice rebuild


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## firecat1981 (Nov 27, 2007)

sweet job on the rehab. I love the flare of the ashcrafts, not to many of them around anymore.


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## bw510 (Sep 1, 2011)

Amazing transformation! 
Nice work!


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## Net 30 (Mar 24, 2012)

Wow….


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## jboriol (Jan 2, 2010)

Great work, that rig should catch some great fish and memories!


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## fishicaltherapist (Mar 9, 2013)

Hope you and your son have MANY days of seeing RED!!  A real work from your heart. Kudos to a great Dad! [smiley=1-thumbsup3.gif]


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## hillcharl (Feb 7, 2011)

Great looking redo! It's very similar to what I want to do once I find a 16 Ashcraft. Those 16s are hard to find! How much did the tabs improve the ride?


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## spartina (Jan 26, 2007)

The tabs "set" the transom in corners (we run in tight creeks and turns) and allow you to push the nose in to make tight turns. And, you can do the usual roll and adjustment in trim. I added wedges to transom motor mount (they're painted so you don't notice) because the 50 Yamaha 2 stroke doesn't trim down as far as it should and was getting vent on hole shot. Now it launches in a half length, rides very shallow and prop bites well in hard turns. Tabs don't always help a lot, but they never hurt.


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## spartina (Jan 26, 2007)

I've done five boat projects a lot like this one and I just did the final accounting of every single receipt and cost, my first absolutly "honest" assessment of a boat project. I started out with the intent to document every single expense and I think I may have been successful as there is quite a pile of paper here. 



Several things become clear:

•construction materials: fiberglass, paint, epoxy are major costs and buying retail as needed is not smart. If you could estimate successfully the paint and epoxy and glass needed and buy wholesale or in bulk it would save 20% on that category


•Wood isn't expensive but bad carpentry is a huge increase in time needed to improve cosmetics.


•Rigging was a best effort to junk-yard and is a significant savings over buying new. That category includes very expensive cable sets for engine, tach, anchor, lifejackets and lots of rigging needs. I saved over half of rigging costs by junk yarding.


• No matter what your heart tells you, it's cheaper to buy something good/near-good and use it right away. This was a long project and many hours of labor (I enjoyed it all) but the time would have been better spent fishing. You can almost never rig a hull cheaper then buying someone elses mistakes and misguided purchases. 


•"it just needs a paint job" is the single greatest lie if it implies that's cheap or without concern to the project. Paint and prep are huge portion of time required for hobby builders. I spray my own, it's still expensive. Trailers fall in same category.


•I had guessed I could do the entire project with engine and trailer for about $6000. I wasn't too far off truth but still short.


Hull without registration $300.00

Engine as converted from tiller to remote, carbs serviced $2452.11

trailer total with new hubs, wheels and tires $544.46

construction materials with epoxy excluding paint and faring $1283.58

paint and faring materials $835.01

Rigging parts and outfitting without pole platform $1380.23

pole platform and welding $450.00



Total for boat as finished project without registration $7245.39


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## johnbw620 (May 19, 2010)

Impressive - both the finished product and your honest assessment - would think it's valuable for anyone considering a similar project.


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## tomahawk (Mar 9, 2012)

> • No matter what your heart tells you, it's cheaper to buy something good/near-good and use it right away.  This was a long project and many hours of labor (I enjoyed it all) but the time would have been better spent fishing.  You can almost never rig a hull cheaper then buying someone elses mistakes and misguided purchases.


I totally agree with you, but for me, the building is the most enjoyable part.
Great job.


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