TOPIC: 1972 g-w invader 14 foot redo

This is the start to my rebuild on the invader.

It's glassed at the seam on the inside

So I weakened the joint. I used wood block wedges

Many, many hours later it popped apart. I used 2 nail pullers to pry at it while the floor jack was inside pushing on the top. I was able to pound a nail puller into the seam and break it. Then I was able to go down the seam pounding the nail puller with a hammer and broke the seam further.

I need to cut through the glass at the transom before the top comes all the way off.

Yeah that multitool comes in real handy for that. Even the harbor Freight cheapy works good.

Bob

I finally got the top to come all the way apart. Lots and lots of prying and cutting at the inner seam.

What a mess

Yeah but you got her apart!

Bob

Yes, with a big sigh of relief! The separation was my biggest hurdle/concern.

I'm actually looking forward to replacing the balsa wood in the floor. I haven't seen it done (with pics or video) so it will be a good learning experience.

Look what I happened to find, I wonder how I missed it before.

Thanks to herters59...

Start out you must remove the old glass that is on top of the old blasa. This usually brings you to some nasty looking black wet dust. Or maybe some resemblense of what the old balsa looked like. No matter chisel scrape vacumn all the old out. When you are done with that there will be a putty like substance on the floor this is resin and cabasill or a mixture of something to make a putty they used to install there balsa. Start sanding it smooth best to remove as much as you can. Not a nice job but grind down till you hit the glass in the floor. The smoother the better. You will now have a very weak floor becareful not to step thru or damage it.
Vacumun the old floor then clean the floor good with acetone. Now cut and lay out two layers of glass (I use 1.5 ounce mat.)on the floor. This will strenghten the old and will give you something good to lay your wood on. Let this cure over night. When this is cured it will have like a sticky to the touch finish on it. Rough this up with some forty grit. You will clog you paper as you are roughing up wax. Vac and wipe the glass with acetone.
Time for the wood. Balsa comes in many thickness try to use what was in the boat before. The wood will come in a two by four foot sheet with cheese cloth on one side. Cheese cloth up. Fit the area you want the wood to go.
Time to install. Mix cabasil and resin together to make a peanut butter like paste. This will push up into the wood and also level out what is needed. Mix up a gallon or more so it is ready to catalyze. Now put some in a quart or larger and add your MEKP. Mix it good Mix it good it is easy to not mix in the mekp enough. Now use a trowel or spatch with one eight to three sixteenth inch notch ya want it thick. Smear one sheet lay your wood in the paste. Now I use a two by four that is ten or so inches long to tap the wood into the paste. You can roll it too what ever make sure the wood gets into the paste good. Pick it up and check you coverage. So install all the wood. Let this cure over night.
Now you have a floor you can walk on. Cut a layer of glass that will cover all the areas of the wood. On top of this I put a layer of roving. Now glue this to your wood. If you do not like the look of the roving then after those two are cured add a light layer of cloth on top.
You can get all the products you need to do this job thru Express Compost's in Minneapolis Minnesota. They are an advertiser on this board.
Oh of course wear all the safty equipment you can.

So I haven't had much time but I did cut open a few spots of my floor showing the balsa I need to replace

Yep that's going to be fun.

Bob

Ihave the mold to this hull in 14' and 15' and of course the 10' molds

Now ya tell me! Just kidding. Are you the one making the super invaders?

Love this project, thank you for taking the time to document. I just looked at the history of the GW Invader boats here on FG, didn't realize they had such an extensive line up. Those are cool looking boats! Can't wait to see the finished boat.

Pete

I'm close to having all the balsa cut out of the floor. Then I can do the grinding. New balsa should be here early next week.

I think I need to take some vacation days to get more done!

Kyle,
I have not been able to get a reply sent to you.

Please send your email addy in another PM.
doc

I got some more work done. The balsa is all cut out and hull is ready for grinding but i'm going to wait for a few cooler days.
The balsa will be here tomorrow. I plan on using the current floor as a template for the new balsa.

Oh yeah...I found 2 spots where the balsa was still wet and it's been sitting in the garage for 6 months!

How much balsa is in that boat? I have one to do sometime and it has no floor, stringers, or core.

3 sheets of 1/2" thick balsa. Each sheet is 2' x 4'

Thanks!

Today I decided to cut out some loose roving and found this.
The center of the boat was filled with balsa too! No wonder it stayed wet in the boat for a long time.

Should I replace the roving that I cut out with more roving or should I be safe using 1708?

How do I get spaces between pics?

On a side note, I picked up one of these for my 8' ski-bird

that will sink the skibird, we flipped a skibird with a 57 35 johnson,couldnt even sit in the boat had to ride on the deck

I was thinking it would be too big. Someone was saying a 35 would be a perfect match for the ski-bird.

Oh well. The motor runs and is complete with controls.
I did a rear brake job for it

Nice 4 cylinder Merc. Makes me wish I knew how to do brake jobs for bartering. I never thought of using barter exchange to help buy a classic motor. When I grow up, it would be fun to have a twin rig with a pair of these, but I would need to be patient and save my pennies for that to come true. I better focus on what is in front of me. Nice build on the Invader and very informative for me. Also that 8' bird sounds like it would take flight with that big motor. 35's have pretty good power and seems to be tons of them around. I see them pushing big pontoons all of the time. I am sure one of them would love to be "set free" so that it can wind up and fun fast pushing a light load for a change rather than being a plow horse all of its life.

As soon as it's not so hot and steamy I will continue working on it.

The full Tyvek suit and respirator (glass grinding) is going to be hot so i'm going to wait for a cool down.

my last skibird with an 18hp@31mphhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaK8GYKZ8kU

I guess I can revive this thread since I found a few motors.
Hmmmm, 280 pound boat with 110 hp tower of power.

And this one

But my transom is 18" and I don't know if I should go long or short shaft. I've seen these 14 foot invaders with 20" and 18" transoms, why would that be? is it because the boat will be riding on the pad when on plane and motor does not need to be in the water as much because of that???

The pad i'm talking about is about 6 to 8 inches wide and the best pic I have of it is this