When Craigslist first came out, it had some very limited uses. It was pretty much only good for finding crappy roommates in a new city. It’s definitely expanded though, and has since developed many uses. One of them is the ability to find awesome things for DIY projects. Take reddit user robinson217 for example. He made a find on the website that was well worth his time. I’m super jealous of this thing!
This is what he bought, an old sailboat that definitely needed some TLC, but he was ready to get to work.
It did come with everything though, including sails.
He started the restoration by de-laminating the hull tops.
He drilled holes into the fiber glass on the top of the hulls, and used a syringe to fill them with an epoxy resin.
The the process of sanding down came next. After the sanding was done he added layers of fiberglass to build the hull back up.
Bondo helped fill in all the problem spots.
A fresh coat of paint really brought it back to life.
The left side was next to receive some care.
He just repeated the process of drilling the holes and filling them with epoxy resin.
Then there was more sanding and layering of fiber glass.
This side had many more spots that needed to be filled with fiberglass and bondo however.
Rust-Oleum topside paint was used on the tops of the hulls above the water line.
On the sides he used Rust-Oleum enamel paint. This thing looks surprisingly professional.
His father even got involved by cutting out vinyl letters for the side of the boat.
They look great!
Then the tags went on.
Every vessel needs a name, so they decided to go with Old Blue.
After all the hard work, she was ready for her inaugural voyage.
The real test came when it was time to see if she would float.
It was like it was a brand new ship!
These before and after shots really show what you can do with a little knowledge and hard work.
This was quite the find for being so cheap. I can’t imagine finding an actual sailboat for only $250. He saw beyond the rough outer shell of this boat, and was able to put in enough work to make it beautiful again. I’m gonna have to start checking Craigslist more often for fun projects like this.