87 Invader v171

[pridekit]

Hello all, new member here! Soooo.... I'm a first time boat owner, and found a 87 Invader V171 (not 100% on that, but its the best match I can find) for $800. The motor runs, there is slight issue with idling it seems to die out after about 10 seconds, but I'll fiddle with that later. The floor had some "soft spots" and I figured that would be ok, I checked the stringers and they seemed fine, or so I thought.......... The stringers are wood with fiberglass over them, I pushed and tapped and what not and they seemed hard as a rock (or fiberglass ). After I got the boat home I started pulling up the soft spots, I accidentally cut into the top of one of the stringers, and my heart sank at what I found in side. This lovely dirt/mud looking junk... At this point I assume the entire stringer is rotted out as the fiberglass looks the same (kind of this blackish color, should have been a sign!).

I am torn between selling it and continuing my search or trying to replace the stringers. I'm just not sure how comfortable I am with replacing them, I have been doing some reading here and am feeling a bit more comfortable with the idea. The stringers had these pieces of wood that went across the top similar to the ones in the attached picture. Now this piece was completely rotted, but I'm not sure what the purpose of this is. I was entertaining the idea of filling the fiberglass stringer shell with foam, but I'm not sure what to do with these cross pieces.






Short version: bought a boat, stringers are rotted, should I sell or replace with foam or wood stringers.

Here are a couple of pictures of the exterior.

Photobucket album:

http://s10.photobucket.com/albums/a150/Pridekit/87 Invader/

 

[GT1000000]

Re: 87 Invader v171

Welcome pridekit,

What ever you decide to do you can be sure to get the best possible info here...

The decision to continue or get rid of it...well that's personal...if you think you can rebuild it, with the help available here, you can do it...

It is a difficult, nasty, sweaty, bloody job to restore a fiberglass boat, but several things come from it...a great learning experience, an immense amount of pride from having accomplished the near impossible, and the knowledge that you have built a boat better than the factory ever could and will be able to enjoy it for many, many years...

Otherwise, you can search for a better hull, but better is not always better or cheap...

If you decide you want to tackle this...start out by reading through this... http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=288451...espaecially #'s 11 & 15...

Also the part about getting a photobucket account, free...load your pics there, click the IMG tag, and post them here...

Pictures are HUGE here as they help us to see what you see and give you the best course of action...

Good Luck with whatever you decide...

Regards,
GT1M

 

[pridekit]

Re: 87 Invader v171

Welcome pridekit,

What ever you decide to do you can be sure to get the best possible info here...

The decision to continue or get rid of it...well that's personal...if you think you can rebuild it, with the help available here, you can do it...

It is a difficult, nasty, sweaty, bloody job to restore a fiberglass boat, but several things come from it...a great learning experience, an immense amount of pride from having accomplished the near impossible, and the knowledge that you have built a boat better than the factory ever could and will be able to enjoy it for many, many years...

Otherwise, you can search for a better hull, but better is not always better or cheap...

If you decide you want to tackle this...start out by reading through this... http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=288451...espaecially #'s 11 & 15...

Also the part about getting a photobucket account, free...load your pics there, click the IMG tag, and post them here...

Pictures are HUGE here as they help us to see what you see and give you the best course of action...

Good Luck with whatever you decide...

Regards,
GT1M

Thanks for the reply!

I will take some pictures tomorrow. I was so bummed out today I just couldn't bring my self to look at the rot anymore. I feel like friscoboater did at the beginning of his thread. Great thread by the way, its been very informative so far!

 

[oops!]

Re: 87 Invader v171

hi....welcome to iboats....

you will find thoes frames at 4 foot centers.

they are there for a good platform for the edge of the plywood deck.

you can do this.....however, the cost is large......2500. for a full gut

but you will know the boat is safe and good when you use it.

as far as the foam stringers.....you are talking about engineered stringers....i would just use the rule of thumb. and that is replace what was there....but make it better....

click the link in my sig to KNOW you can do this.

 

[pridekit]

Re: 87 Invader v171

I've decided to hold on to the boat and at least attempt to replace the rotted wood. I'm going to take some measurements of existing structures (seats, etc) tonight and try to start cutting some more of the floor out.

 

[rickryder]

Re: 87 Invader v171

Well Pridekit Welcome to the club! and welcome to the Dry Dock!

You have a vast amount of help and knowledge here and we can get you up and running!

Post plenty of pic's (were pic junkies) and that will help us to help you....plus it will be a reference to look back on.

 

[pridekit]

Re: 87 Invader v171

So I took some pictures today.

Here is what it looked like after I cut some of the fiberglass out of the floor yesterday

The black slot is where the stringer was

Here's a shot looking down the stringer area

Here's a shot from the ski locker up towards the bow

Here is what is left of the ski locker cover

These foamish looking blocks are where the seats used to be (the previous owner threw them out because they had rotted out). I'm not sure if I need to keep these or not, but I know they are fiberglassed to the floor

 

[pridekit]

Re: 87 Invader v171

AQ131A / 275, I removed the fuel tank and battery in prep for cutting out the floor

Just a general pick of the inside. How do I remove the throttle control? I'm trying to pull the side panel off so that I can finish pulling out all of the old carpet. I've separated the trim and throttle from the back piece (not really sure what all the parts are called), but I can't figure out how to pull it all out or how they got it in there in the first place.

I'll try to take more pictures of what I'm talking about with the throttle assembly tomorrow.



The loose rot in the ski locker was thrown in there by me yesterday, nothing but fiberglass and a piece of pipe under the pile.

 

[oops!]

Re: 87 Invader v171

normally the placstic cover comes off.....and there are screws behind it.

as well....at the elbow joint of the handle......pull off the center cover....there is a screw under there holding the handle on.

once the plastic is off and the handle removed.....the rest comes out easy.

in the link in my sig......towards the end... (sorry its not in the index) is a detailed set of pics on the installation of the assembly

 

[rickryder]

Re: 87 Invader v171

That looks similar to my control.... is it a quick silver? Here is the dis-assembly instructions....It may be different... Hope this helps

1. Press the "throttle only button" and move the handle forward to a WOT position.

2. Pop out the TO button cap. Unfortunately Mercury made a large number of 3000 models. The TO button cap may be square or round. The square one can be popped by two flathead screwdrivers, the first one to lift the edge so that the second one can get a good purchase at the end and is able to pop it. The round one also can be popped by using two screwdrivers simultaneously.

3. There is a brass nut 11/16 inside. Remove it.

4. The handle will come off easily.

5. If the trim switch on the handle needs to be accessed, there is a screw on the underside, which can be removed.

6. If the control unit ( the rhomboidal metal case on the other side of the plywood, containing levers, throttle and shift cables and neutral safety switch yellow wires with red strip) needs to be removed, you will have to remove the plastic panel on the outside, after removing the handle. The panel is held in place by 6 bolts. The 3 larger ones 7/16, go into the control unit housing and are easily removed. They are short. The three small ones 3/8 size, but long, are used to attach the plastic panel to plywood. They have locking nuts and brass washers on the other side. Unfortunately, once you start removing these, the nuts rotate freely and the bolt cannot be removed without holding the nuts on the other side. This can extremely frustrating because there is usually no access to these nuts. Try anyway. Usually you are able to remove two and then the third comes off easy.

Like I said this is for the QS 3000....It may be helpful in removing your controls.

 

[pridekit]

Re: 87 Invader v171

I will try that tonight. The biggest problem I ran into was the trim switch wires. It seems like the manufacturer ran the wires through the handle and then wired up the trim switch. There seems to be know way to get the trim switch back through the plastic handle. I may just cut it off, I broke part of the plastic switch when I was fiddling with it yesterday.

 

[pridekit]

Re: 87 Invader v171

Managed to get the rest of the trim pieces removed, I ended up just cutting the wires for the trim switches on the throttle control. After a bit more searching I found that the trim switches weren't even hooked up (just the one in the instrument panel).

Started pulling out the remaining carpet.

I'm a bit concerned about how I am going to get this section of carpet out.

The white area in the bow is part of the cap. Any suggestion on how to pull that carpet out with out taking the cap off (I may have to do it eventually because I have a gut feeling that the deck and stringers are rotted out all the way through).



Should I yank the black carpet under the bow seats out or just leave it alone?

 

[rickryder]

Re: 87 Invader v171

Have someone help you... Lift up on the dash and the walkthrough should raise up off the deck a bit....then pull hard on the carpet.

If you need to glass under the dash area the black carpet will have to go so you gan grind the old glass and lay new glass... It's a royal PITA to work under there but it can be done....did it on my resto.

 

[pridekit]

Re: 87 Invader v171

Have someone help you... Lift up on the dash and the walkthrough should raise up off the deck a bit....then pull hard on the carpet.

If you need to glass under the dash area the black carpet will have to go so you gan grind the old glass and lay new glass... It's a royal PITA to work under there but it can be done....did it on my resto.

Alright, I'll have a look at your thread again. Thanks

 

[pridekit]

Re: 87 Invader v171

Got rid of most of the fiberglass that was over the wood deck. Pretty much any fiberglass left along the sides is on top of the hull.

The wood near the fuel tank and battery area visually looked OK (compared to the rest), but it was pretty wet so I have a feeling I will need to cut all the way to the back I really didn't want to mess with the area that the fuel tank was sitting; its raised up, maybe some wood underneath or something else.

This bow area was really bad. I think I'm going to look into taking the cap off just to make sure I get rid of all of the rot in the bow. It got so bad that I made one wrong step over the ski locker and I went through the floor (and I'm only 130lbs!).

I also confirmed that both stringers are going to have to be replaced for sure. They are practically compost at this point.

Updated the OP with my photobucket album.

 

[sabbath20]

Re: 87 Invader v171

hey pridekit, man am i glad to see someone else with an Invader on this forum. I was basically told they were junk and I made a big mistake when I bought it. Unfortunately I paid quite a bit more than you did. mine is a 19' 1985 runabout that is basically the same as yours in appearance.

What I have noticed from looking and reading these posts for a number of weeks now is ALL runabout fiberglass boats irregardless of manufacture seem to be built more or less fairly similar and when you remove the deck all of them can suffer the same woes your going through and I will be going through very shortly. I mean just look what happened to friscoboater! I felt so very sorry and angered for what he ended up going through and how someone could do that to somebody. On the other hand, I actually felt lucky that my ignorant mistake didn't end up costing me an arm and a leg!

If you don't mind I will stay in touch with you and ascertain needed tips from ya when I get to the points where I'm clueless about what to do next. I only have a thousand to get it up and running so I will have to see how this all plays out.

I'm glad you decided to keep the Invader and hopefully when all is said and done, there will be 2 sweet Invaders cruising our favorite lakes this summer.

sabbath20

 

[rickryder]

Re: 87 Invader v171

hey pridekit, man am i glad to see someone else with an Invader on this forum. I was basically told they were junk and I made a big mistake when I bought it. Unfortunately I paid quite a bit more than you did. mine is a 19' 1985 runabout that is basically the same as yours in appearance.

What I have noticed from looking and reading these posts for a number of weeks now is ALL runabout fiberglass boats irregardless of manufacture seem to be built more or less fairly similar and when you remove the deck all of them can suffer the same woes your going through and I will be going through very shortly. I mean just look what happened to friscoboater! I felt so very sorry and angered for what he ended up going through and how someone could do that to somebody. On the other hand, I actually felt lucky that my ignorant mistake didn't end up costing me an arm and a leg!

If you don't mind I will stay in touch with you and ascertain needed tips from ya when I get to the points where I'm clueless about what to do next. I only have a thousand to get it up and running so I will have to see how this all plays out.

I'm glad you decided to keep the Invader and hopefully when all is said and done, there will be 2 sweet Invaders cruising our favorite lakes this summer.

sabbath20

There only junk to someone that doesn't want it

 

[GT1000000]

Re: 87 Invader v171

There only junk to someone that doesn't want it

I wholeheartedly second that!!!^^^^^^

 

[pridekit]

Re: 87 Invader v171

hey pridekit, man am i glad to see someone else with an Invader on this forum. I was basically told they were junk and I made a big mistake when I bought it. Unfortunately I paid quite a bit more than you did. mine is a 19' 1985 runabout that is basically the same as yours in appearance.

What I have noticed from looking and reading these posts for a number of weeks now is ALL runabout fiberglass boats irregardless of manufacture seem to be built more or less fairly similar and when you remove the deck all of them can suffer the same woes your going through and I will be going through very shortly. I mean just look what happened to friscoboater! I felt so very sorry and angered for what he ended up going through and how someone could do that to somebody. On the other hand, I actually felt lucky that my ignorant mistake didn't end up costing me an arm and a leg!

If you don't mind I will stay in touch with you and ascertain needed tips from ya when I get to the points where I'm clueless about what to do next. I only have a thousand to get it up and running so I will have to see how this all plays out.

I'm glad you decided to keep the Invader and hopefully when all is said and done, there will be 2 sweet Invaders cruising our favorite lakes this summer.

sabbath20

Sounds good! Keep an eye on Mroz's thread as well (http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=543859)



I'm going to start taking out the foam and investigating how to remove the top cap this week.

I figured out what kind of throttle control I had. Its a Hi-Lex like this one http://www.ebay.com/itm/HI-LEX-OMC-..._Accessories_Gear&hash=item256eeac63a&vxp=mtr

 

[pridekit]

Re: 87 Invader v171

Well I have gotten most of the foam out from one side.

I think I am going to cut out the stringers instead of trying to put new ones in the fiberglass shells.


Updated the OP with some exterior pics I should have put up a while ago.