1971 17' Invader Tri-Hull Restoration, The Madness Begins

[Mud Puppy]

Re: 1971 17' Invader Tri-Hull Restoration, The Madness Begins

Thanks David! First time I got a real good idea of what the bow really was suppose to look like. Wish we were closer, I'd be bugging you to go look at it.

One of my windshield frame braces is AWL and my glove box is shot plus the door is missing. I could fabricate all of them, it would just be easier to start with something other than scratch.

When I get around to posting pictures of it, you will see that my transom plate is shot too.

With all of the lakes in Missouri, there has got to be some around in these parts. I can't have the only one in South Central MO can I?

Thanks again. Enjoyed them! :encouragement:

 

[Mud Puppy]

Re: 1971 17' Invader Tri-Hull Restoration, The Madness Begins

Got all of my important HDs accomplished including running to the store for the Captain. I noticed most on here refer to there Mrs. as Admiral, but I am sure that is because they have had more time on the water than mine so for now she is just a Captain. I have been First Mate on friends boats a lot and have been First Mate to the Captain for quite a few years now. Not really sure why she has kept me around for so long. But I guess if I ever get this boat wet I will not only be First Mate, but I get to be Helmsman as well. I can't wait for the chance at promotion!

Okay, enough of my poor job at being humorous, back to my project: :focus:

After taking the drive off I noticed the odd angle of one of the lower anodes as I disconnected the tilt rams from the Gimbal housing and a large area of stain directly below it as well.

Here's what I mean:


I'll jump forward in the timeline to better describe what I found.

The picture below is of the stain on the stern after the Gimbal mount was removed:


This was water leaking out from the bilge area since it had set for so many years uncovered, even before I got it. The gasket was in pretty good shape for its age (you can see it in the first photo) and there was a real good seal of white silicone sealant around about 5/6s of the mount which was stuck to the boat real good as well. I was pretty sure what I would find once I had the engine out and could focus on the transom plate.

And this is what I found as I pulled it off:


The bottom four bolts were completely gone as a result of electrolysis and corrosion. I was pretty afraid to move on as I also feared there would be more; and there was. :facepalm:

 

[Mud Puppy]

Re: 1971 17' Invader Tri-Hull Restoration, The Madness Begins

This is as I pulled the plate loose from the inside transom surface:


And this is what it looked like when laid down in the bilge:



And this is what it looked like after a couple round trips from home to the shop and moving it around when I was sanding the hull behind the transom. Noticed I haven't cleaned it up yet and there is a hole all the way through the plate in the lower left hand corner of the photo below. (Kinda looks like the state of California)


My first thought was to clean it up and removing all of the corrosion on the mount, down past the pitting, removing all of the "white" and getting back to good material using a small rottory angle grinder and Roloc disks and Christmas tree sanding cones to get into the tighter areas of the forging. Once bright and all of the corrosion gone, I was going to use a convergence coating to protect the bared alloy.

I figured any difference in what it was suppose to look like concerning flatness compared to what had been lost to corrosion and clean up I could build up using a 5.6ksi or stronger epoxy adhesive resin and flatten it back out to match the surface of the transom wall when it was completed.

I thought in the area where it needed built up more, I would research what alloy the plate was and "v" notch any damaged areas after cutting them square and burn in some bar stock. We seldom do welding at the shop on A/C components, there just aren't that many places where it is done, but I grew up on a farm, had several years of Ag. classes, including 2 years of Ag Welding and Ag Construction (were we welded) and I'm pretty good at Oxyacetylene, AC/DC stick, MIG, and TIG.

Pretty sure it is a 6000 series AL but maybe someone out there can verify this for me who already knows, but the more I think about it I may just try to find one that's not so far gone. If it were warmer I would already have it rebuilt, but I am quickly running out of time. :frusty:

I'm not sure how many different types of Transom plates there might have been back in the '70s. Were all MerCruser plates the same or were there differences due to things like PS or no PS?

Sorry for being so long winded and boring. :sleeping:But this is all knew to me and I'm having fun and I guess that is all part of the experience isn't it!

I promise I will get out of the preliminary stuff in the next couple of posts and get some glass ground so I can share the "itch" photographically speaking.

 

[Mud Puppy]

Re: 1971 17' Invader Tri-Hull Restoration, The Madness Begins

Pulling the engine was a breeze. It couldn't have gone easier. I had an offer from the former owner Kenny to help me take it out. That particular Saturday, I didn't get out to the shop until around 1000 hrs. and went right to work. I opened the big bay door and pulled in. I went and got the fork lift and I got a boom extension with a screw thread clevis which I ran through the eye in the front end of the boom. I dropped it down over the engine and ran my short chain through the clevis and reattached it to the eye. Hopped out of the boat, took the slack out of the chain by raising the mast on the lift. I hopped back in the boat, took the bolts out of the front and rear mounts, jumped back out and lifted the engine up and out over the stern.

It took all of 10 minutes to do the whole thing which was even including waiting for the bay door to raise enough to pull in.


I built a box out of 2x4s and 2x6s that was the same size as the oil pan plus about a 1/2" more each direction for slop and notched one side to receive the starter. You can see the box in the phot above and the photo below. The 2x4 in back [Ref. photo above] stands on end while the 2x4 in front [Ref. photo below] lays down between the two 2x6s. The 2x6s are directly beneath the oil pand to block cap screws.

I moved the lift truck over out of the way and sat it in my box gig and unhooked the chain.


I must apologize for the quality of some of these pictures. I was using several different cameras and a couple of them were junk. :embarassed:

Thank you all for viewing and if I don't get anything else posted this weekend, you all have a good what's left of it!

 

[Mud Puppy]

Re: 1971 17' Invader Tri-Hull Restoration, The Madness Begins

Good Morning Everyone!

Just sitting here wondering if it will ever get warm enough to get back on the boat resto. It's 27?F which is warmer than it has been this time of day for quite a while and they are still calling for snow today, but I don't think we will get much if any, just not real sure about tomorrow however. I know when I went to bed last night it was really looking like it could, the real foggy looking snow cloud condition that blankets the sky at night causing everything to have a slight red/ yellow tint to them. It was like that still when I looked out the front door this morning.

I've told the Captain several times over the past few weeks we were missing out on some really good days to be out on the lake, the ones where there was hardly any wind to speak of (of course it wasn't above freezing yet); the last couple of times she hasn't even spoken, however I have gotten that look from her...

you all know "the look" I am assuming you all know the one I'm talking about, the one you get when you say you need something new for the boat or the truck, or they are having a tool sale; that "look".

Okay, on with the show.
Back in post #11 of this thread, I had shown some really wet looking bilge stringers along with a saturated keel stringer at the front engine mount.

This is what I expected everything to look like since I was only gone for about 5 minutes.


Well after setting the engine off on the floor and parking the lift, I went back to resume work on the boat that particular Saturday and this is what I found:


I had removed the keel stringer and had cut the front of both of the bilge stringers, so the front mount had nothing around it. The weight of the front mount was too much for the glass and whatever adhesive had been used to attach it to the hull.



Above the green leaf is the bilge bottom. Below the green leaf is the 2x6s which make up the base for the front mount. Where the green leaf is, is where the base had been attached, but I don't think it had been that way since Shep was a pup.

So I guess I'm pretty glad the floor and transom were as bad as they were. It caused me to check into everything, and go further and further. I would have hated to have spent a lot of time and money, just to have the front of the engine drop or run the boat one season and find that the new transom was starting to show signs of stress fractures.

On the upper left and upper right of the photo above you can see the repair someone had made back a few years to "freshen" the stern up. Those layers are approximately 3/8" to 1/2" thick CSM and resin at the leading edges in the photo and the layer as it turns onto the transom was maybe 1/4" thick. It must have been good looking enough to pawn the boat off on some unsuspecting person at one time. I know Kenny said it looked pretty rough when he got it so it was already having issues then.

I don't know if anyone has noticed all of the "white flags" all over on the cables, lines, and wiring or not. I've never being around a boat that much and never being around an Inboard/ Sterndrive ever before, I took a roll of white phasing tape used in electrical work and labeled EVERYTHING.


I don't want to get to the point where I am ready to start putting things back together and scratch my head for days or weeks trying to figure out what "this" is, especially when it was last fall when I took "this" loose and since there isn't any Intruder around that I can go look at. I have also taken photos of just about everything you could take a picture of for reference some day down the road.

 

[sphelps]

Re: 1971 17' Invader Tri-Hull Restoration, The Madness Begins

Making good progress MP ! Good idea on labeling everything . Is the hull on a bunk trailer ? You might need to put some extra supports under the hull to help keep it's shape while replacing the structure inside .
Hopefully things warm up for ya up there !

 

[Fastatv]

Re: 1971 17' Invader Tri-Hull Restoration, The Madness Begins

Hi MP. Looks like she's really coming along! It has been written and seems to be very true..." the more one digs, the more one will find". Same for about any type of project, but seems especially true for boats. Your boat is going to be very cool. I just wanted to clarify, is that a six cylinder engine? If so, I'm excited for you as I would think that six will really perform in that boat....a torque monster. Anyway, keep us posted on your progress. Rick, AKA Fastatv

 

[Mud Puppy]

Re: 1971 17' Invader Tri-Hull Restoration, The Madness Begins

Making good progress MP ! Good idea on labeling everything . Is the hull on a bunk trailer ? You might need to put some extra supports under the hull to help keep it's shape while replacing the structure inside .
Hopefully things warm up for ya up there !

Hi SP! Good Mornin'! I haven't gotten it off of it's trailer yet; too many military engine cowls in the shop right now to have left it in there all winter. I have taken detailed measurements of the hull and added them to a CAD 2D drawing for now. Before I do any work I will export them to a 3D modeling software and use it to help recreate templates I can cut to size for different features of the shape.

We build reverse engineered "splash" tooling all the time so it isn't a biggie. Also with the boat having the cathedral radii in the hull it will help hold its shape over say a V-bottom. There is only one main stringer in the bottom; the keel stringer. I'll make a double kerffed bed for either cathedral and rest it on it. The hull bottom has cracked and popped a few times under my weight so I am going to put one layer of woven plain or harness weave down before I floor it to help ward off any evil spirits that may still be lurking around. This will add some structural strength back to it as well.

Hi MP. Looks like she's really coming along! It has been written and seems to be very true..." the more one digs, the more one will find". Same for about any type of project, but seems especially true for boats. Your boat is going to be very cool. I just wanted to clarify, is that a six cylinder engine? If so, I'm excited for you as I would think that six will really perform in that boat....a torque monster. Anyway, keep us posted on your progress. Rick, AKA Fastatv

Good Morning to you as well Fast! Thanks. I can only hope so! Sometimes my mouth outruns my body anymore. :lol:

It is an old MerCruiser/ GM 250, 6 cylinder In-Line, 165 HP. Pretty much the same engine I had in my first three or four pickups. Should be REAL easy to work on. There goes my mouth again. :lol:

I've already removed the carburetor and tore it apart. Dipped it and rebuilt it changing out the float which I didn't like the looks of. It is a single barrel Rochester 2CV vacuum choke carb. Took longer in the dip than it did to rebuild and adjust it. Looks brand new. Took a desiccant bag and a moisture badge and sealed them with the carb in a Ziplock plastic bag and set it on a self out in the garage to wait on spring.

 

[Mud Puppy]

Re: 1971 17' Invader Tri-Hull Restoration, The Madness Begins

When I got everything out of the way on the transom I had to deal with what was left of the wood. I didn't want to take any chances on cracking the fiberglass hull behind the plywood. I thought there had to be part of it still bonded together even though it looks pretty bad.



You can see where water intrusion was happening around the transom plate. I know from the condition of the wood and glass it had been happening for quite some time and the bilge pump was expelling the water as fast as it could and there hadn’t been any close examination of the engine compartment.




You can see moisture had spread up to the top of the transom a some point and had started delamination of the plys of wood layers which make up the sheets.


I have 2 circular saws I used for this operation, one a regular 7-1/4" circular saw while the second was a 7-1/2" worm drive. I used both because on blade is away from my right hand and the other is in front of my right hand. Since I was making kerf cuts in one direction, this would allow me some extra room when it cam to obstructions and I could cut closer to an object.

I took both saws one at a time and lay them on top of the transom with the base pulled tight against the inside plywood surface. I opened the guard up to expose the blade (do have the saw unplugged if you should ever do this) and set the depth of each saw to come within an 1/8" of the fiberglass hull. If you have never made cuts like this or there is damage that would allow the saw to cut deeper in one spot you cans set this to a shallower depth of say 1/4".

I plugged the saws back in and ran them one at a time from the top of the transom to the bottom spacing my cuts about 10-12" apart. I wasn't able to cut all the way to the bottom so I ran the saws vertically along the bottom of the transom also.

Now I could take and carefully pry out the cut sections of plywood minimizing the stress to the hull stern. The transom was made up of a 3/4" plywood layer, a 1/4" plywood layer, and another 3/4" plywood layer. From what I seen, it didn't appear to be anything other than just normal plywood.

So I didn't take any photos during this cutting and prying process, but I think you all get the drift.

I found there to be only 2 places where the resin at the hull was really attached, one on either side of the transom plate towards the top.


After sanding the stern it looked a lot better.


But here is another thing that I discovered. I don't know what they were thinking when they did this. They shot he glass and laid up the transom of course. When it cam out of the mold and added the bilge resin which looks like it is solid resin with little if any cloth in it. IT dose appear to have microspheres and definitely chopped fiber mixed in it, but if left a void when I pulled out the transom.


You can see what I mean in the photo above. It is the 1-3/4" gap between the stern and the bilge floor.

I think that moisture was getting to the bottom once it intruded the hull and through breaches in the glass integrity, was wicking up the plywood. Only a guess, but none of this damage had happened overnight. It took years and years to do its work and since it was hidden, by the time it was noticed. it was already too late.

The transom is 27" from top to bottom and I intend to rip a 4x8 3/4" plywood in half lengthwise and use that for the transom along with the 1/4" to make up the bulk of the 2" needed at the transom. I hadn't really wanted to buy 2 sheets of it anyway just to get the 27" needed.

What I intend to do is build up this gap in layers using resin, microspheres or fumed silica for a thickener, and 1/4"CS fibers for strength. I want to peanut-butter it in layers as I don't want the thermochemical reaction of the resin and the catalyst to affect the hull in any way. After filling this it will be at an elevation slightly above the bilge thimble and the plywood should be in the dry most of the time, thus getting it out of any potential water.

My only issue is I will have to lay on my fat belly as I run my die grinder and sanding cones in the trench to prep it for the glass.

Some one speak up if you think this is overkill, but I can't imagine going back the way it was.

 

[Mud Puppy]

Re: 1971 17' Invader Tri-Hull Restoration, The Madness Begins

I got to noticing that I hadn't spent any time afore the engine compartment for some time now and no real good pics either.

The boat after tearing out most of the main deck floor and removing most of the foam looked like this:


I took an air powered Radiac with a 2" cutoff wheel and ran it down either side of the keel stringer, cutting only through the glass. The bottom of the stringer had been glassed minus any fillets but had been tabbed in using woven tape running continuously from stem to stern on either side of the stringer. There didn't appear to ever have been anything that adhered the stringer other than the tabbing as once cut, it was a simple mater of kicking it loose and pulling it up to toss it overboard.

For all of you hardcore restorers, I have promised sanding pics just so you could get your itch on. This was taken after pulling the keel stringer:


Notice that I had cut the foredeck in between shots. The floor was lain before the hull cap was ever installed with this one. The hull cap contained a 3/8" foredeck floorboard as part of its structure so like other boats I have read about in other threads, there would have been a slight transition from one elevation to the other. The problem I see with this is there also was an air gap between the two floors leaving a squishy feeling when stepping on. I thought it was bad floor, but it turned out not to be so, just poor math figuring one height to the other.

I didn't have a camera handy when I got to this point; I wish I had. It was one of those head shake moments you have every now and then.

Like I had mentioned, I chose not to remove the entire cap as there was all of the wiring running from the helm to the stern, plus there were these plywood bulkheads under the bow-seats which were glassed in on either side and I really didn't want to take the time to remove them or cut the glass. I would have had to go back and glass them when I was finished and I didn't want to take time on structure which was sound. I will go back and de-paint these using a 5" high speed air sander and reseal using resin and CSM when it comes time.






The main deck flooring ran just past the sides of the bow-seats and were angled cut due to the cathedral hull starting to curve upwards as it got closer to the bow, so it was relatively easy to pull them out from under the bow-seat panels after the foredeck was removed.

And that is just about where she sits now for an ice-breaker to find her and bust her out of this freeze. I've got a total of 45 hours in her now and have most of the inner hull and both port and starboard freeboards sanded. I want to do a real light sanding job when I get back on it, just prior to the new structural glass going down.

In the next day or so I will try and post pictures of the tools I used to do the work. May also ramble on some more, just ain't for sure.

TTFN!

 

[Mud Puppy]

Re: 1971 17' Invader Tri-Hull Restoration, The Madness Begins

Hi everyone! Hope all are doing well.

It is still quite cold here and it snowed last night; more possibly tonight after midnight. Good news is we my be headed out of the freezer finally as starting Wednesday it is suppose to be above freezing and by the weekend highs are to be in the 50s. Next week even better. Not to be a skeptic, but I will believe it when I feel it.

I haven't been able to take any photos yet of the tools I have used to get me this far, but I thought I might add photos of the dash.

Mine is an unique one apparently as I have been unable to find anything even close. As I said, other than here on iboats, I have never found anything that remotely talks about Intruder boats to any great length.

I was hoping to find someone's post somewhere that went all out with photos and even sales brochures, but I have not found that link yet, but I have found some information by refusing to give up my searches.

In the past 6 months, going through photos which I found surfing the net, I have stumbled onto everything from trader photos to junkyard photos. Most are similar but not exactly like mine. Anytime I found a Tri-hull, I would try to zoom in on it only to find it was a later model or another manufacturer all together. Some Bayliners look pretty similar from a distance. Crews Craft look identical from a distance floating, but the keel is much more protruding and forward than mine. Ebb Tide, Tri Sonic, Glastron, and Glassmaster Tris were also very similar looking and I am sure there were others. I guess if something sold well, others tried to emulate that look also in hopes of a boon to sales.

I just thought of something while typing this: If more than one Radius is Radii, then is more than one Tri spelled Trii? Just wondering.

From what I have found there apparently were at least 2 different dashes for the Invader Intruder and I'm sure that depending on options, many, many more. But it looks as if there was a pretty plain standard dash and one a little more fancy as standard packages. The following photos are from a little later year model boats and appear to never have been greatly redone. Mine is also not and Intruder for what it is worth.







So taking that into account remember that mine is not an Intruder below are a few photos of mine:






Not being known for doing something only halfway, in my winter doldrums and below freezing funk, I have been working on a layout of the dash to help me to remember what goes where if I ever get that far, but again to help someone down the road possibly.

Here is a jpeg of that drawing, the upper portion being the front of the gauges, the lower portion being that of the back of the dash:


It is by no means complete yet as I am not laying in the snow to trace everything out; it will wait and so will I.

I have started in 2D Wire-frame, drawings of the boat itself and the trailer. I have dissected the boat from bow to stern in 1 foot increments to to give me a feel for the cross section at that station, station being the 1 foot interval.

I have also a very detailed drawing from a Red Rosin Paper transfer I made of the transom after I removed the plywood. I will roughly cut out for the sterndrive when it comes to reinstalling the plywood. Once everything is in place and after the PB has set, I will go back and back drill the mounting holes and clean up the cut out. The main thing that bugged me was the ski-bar never looked quite right and when I was taking measurements found it was off a bunch in the location of its 4 mounting bolts, both in the horizontal and vertical planes. While I am at it, I will most certainly blank out those holes and OCD them correctly with respect to location.

 

[Mud Puppy]

Re: 1971 17' Invader Tri-Hull Restoration, The Madness Begins

Here are a couple more drawings of the boat and the stern:






Pay no attention to the ski locker or the man behind the curtain as they don't exist in real life; I was just toying with the idea for rod storage.

Below is the grid layout I spoke of identifying 1 foot "Stations" so I can come to a better understanding of the cross section of the boat.




This is a 2D wire-frame of the trailer I started but haven't finished.




I also started an electrical diagram of just my boat; that way if I ever need to troubleshoot it, I won't have to look at things I don't have as options on mine.




Plus, I have completed extensive calculations on material needs including replacement foam determining the neutral buoyancy of the boat, plus I put together a B.O.M. of other items. I still have to create a list of the nonessential items which are missing, but I would like to replace before she floats.

Well, it is quite late, and work will still be needing me to come in and make an appearance. Sure am going to try and come up with a way that I can work from the boat once I finish it, but so far have not come up with any good ideas.

Everyone have a wonderful day!

 

[sphelps]

Re: 1971 17' Invader Tri-Hull Restoration, The Madness Begins

Wow MP ! You have this rebuild figured out right down to a 1/16 of an inch .. I wish I had your computer/drafting skills .
I guess in the meantime I will just have to use my "by guess and by golly " method of building stuff . :facepalm:
Nice job I know that took a lot of thought to put together ..

 

[Mud Puppy]

Re: 1971 17' Invader Tri-Hull Restoration, The Madness Begins

Wow MP ! You have this rebuild figured out right down to a 1/16 of an inch .. I wish I had your computer/drafting skills .
I guess in the meantime I will just have to use my "by guess and by golly " method of building stuff . :facepalm:
Nice job I know that took a lot of thought to put together ..

Thanks SP. I've been drawing in CAD for a year or two now. Started in '89 with AutoCAD Release 3. About all I do on a daily basis is to figure out, plan, and research stuff. I spent all day today looking for an old MIL Spec conversion coating for the passivation of a steel fitting used an an older aircraft.

By guess and by golly works too, I just can't ever do anything without fully understanding what I am doing or at least think I know what I am doing. Just more of that OCD thing.

Excuse me though, I have to go face the cans in the kitchen cabinet.

 

[glnbnz]

Re: 1971 17' Invader Tri-Hull Restoration, The Madness Begins

Yeah all I can say is wow also!! Nothing wrong with planning

Looks like you are ready to get the project completed

 

[Mud Puppy]

Re: 1971 17' Invader Tri-Hull Restoration, The Madness Begins

Yeah all I can say is wow also!! Nothing wrong with planning

Looks like you are ready to get the project completed

Thanks Glenn!

I am definitely ready for it to warm back up. It was a steamy 5?F when I got up this morning; up to 20?F now.

Been thinking about getting back on it this weekend, but we will be traveling. Once I get a warm weekend, I will have to get my old S10 Blazer running. Lost the timing chain in it. I replaced that, but it has some other issues I haven't had time to mess with so I have nothing to pull the boat with. I really can taste the resin: J.K.

 

[Mud Puppy]

Re: 1971 17' Invader Tri-Hull Restoration, The Madness Begins

Hi all,

I finally got around to uploading some of the tools I have used so far.

For cutting out the floor I used a couple of old circular saws set to the depth of the flooring. When I got close the the cathedral tops in the bottom of the hull I stopped making the cut. The floor was luckily rotted enough it didn't make much of a difference. I also used these when cutting the transom alternating from one side to the other in a vertical and horizontal plane and using the left hand blade worm drive closest to the port side freeboard and the right hand blade circular saw closest to the starboard side freeboard. I did this to minimize any undue stress to the old hull behind the transom. The upper saw is the worm dive which I would really much rather use. I am right handed so I can look at the blade as I follow any line I am trying to cut without looking over the blade guard in some contorted fashion.


Cutting the stringers, I used my old saws-all. Thirty-five years old and still works like new.



When it came time to do any heavy sanding on the inside of the hull in tight quarters I used a 5" rotary high speed air sander and 24 grit and 36 grit discs. I needed to cut through some of the old fiberglass and used a 3" Radiac with a 1/32" disk thickness.



Any area that was scolloped I flattened out using 36 grit paper on an in-line air sander. Detailed sanding was left to an air powered angle grinder and 2" Roloc disks or Christmas Tree sanding cones. I have two of these so it saves changing from one type of head to the other.



So far I have used about a dozen of the 5"-36 grit discs, 3-24 grit discs, 2-36 grit in-line paper, 1 course grit Roloc disk, 2 course Scotchbrite Roloc discs, and 5 3" cut-off wheels. I changed blades on the saws-all from a "pruning" blade with all of the radical teeth to a wood cutting blade. I like the pruning blade better for fast and rough cutting wood, but it didn't like the fiberglass and the resin. I moved to a wood cutting blade.

It has finally warmed up some here, so we may be out of the freezer for the winter and I can get back to work on the boat, that is if I get my Blazer back on the road again.

Got to go for now. Our youngest grandson's birthday is today and it is time to get ready to leave. It is about an hour and a half to travel back home and I have to load the mini-van. He turned 1 year old and we picked him up a bunch of presents in the city yesterday.

I'm not going to mention what we got him for his birthday as I don't want him to open up the forum and read about them here and spoil the surprise.

See you all later and have a great weekend!

 

[sphelps]

Re: 1971 17' Invader Tri-Hull Restoration, The Madness Begins

Nice arsenal of tools MP . Hope it warms up enough to put em to work !

 

[Mud Puppy]

Re: 1971 17' Invader Tri-Hull Restoration, The Madness Begins

Thanks SP! They are all extremely old as is the operator. The newest tools are the angle grinders; both are just under a year old.

Most of the work with these tools is finished except for the glass job they did to "freshen" up the hull at the stern. That was the major COVER-UP of the real damage and did absolutely nothing other than sell the boat to some unsuspecting first time boat owner.

There will be the quick sand job before I glass everything in and for that I'll be using my D.A.s and my old 7" grinder/sander if I can find or modify brushes for it.

 

[Mud Puppy]

Re: 1971 17' Invader Tri-Hull Restoration, The Madness Begins

High everyone; hope your weekend has been amazing!

Last time, I threw some photos up showing the tools I have used to do the demo, but I ran out of time. Our youngest grandson's birthday was awesome. He got all kinds clothes and toys for his first birthday and when it came time to eat his cake, it was all over him and the highchair he was in. Poor little guy got mad when he realized he had frosting all over his arm and there was too much to lick off.

We found a toddler bed at a second hand store that I sanded down and restored Friday afternoon. It was way inexpensive and twice as sturdy as anything we seen new at any of the stores we visited.

One of the most important tools I had in pulling out the floor was the puppy right here. It is an old chisel my Poppa had. I don't know how old it may be, but did it ever do the job. I used it to cut the glass at the edge of the flooring and to drive under the stringers to them them started up and out of their bedding. I have never sharpened it and it still has a fairly sharp edge on it.


Another important tool I picked up was a grease gun for my air tools. The hypoid gears in the heads of the air grinders both seemed rattly and I don't think I spent all that much for the kit which also came with a small bottle of air oil.


I also ran across this really neat storage box which is large enough to store all of my air tools. It started out as a way to protect the pads on the sanders either with or without paper on them, that way the soft foam pads or the expensive paper is protected. I was amazed when I went to the auto parts store and they wanted over $3.00 for each in-line paper I needed. I had waited too late to order any on line, so I was stuck paying the exorbitant amount for them.











I tend to be an organizational freak from time to time and I needed a way to pack my tools to and from the shop, this was a must. I can carry and protect not just all of my air tools, but the top has plenty of room for the wrenches that come with the angle grinders, air nozzles, cut-off wheels, sanding disks, and that expensive in-line paper.