1988 Invader 18' Boat

Well...I've been talking about it forever and finally a deal came along. I picked up this 18' "Invader" brand runabout yesterday.

It looks ok from the outisde...

The inside is pretty rough. Floor is wasted, vinyl is done-for...

It's got Volvo 4 Cylinder power...

My plans are to basically just have a run about to get out on the Missouri River. I won't plan on actually fixing much of the interior until I make sure it's worth fixing. I might not even fix it then

What was surprising to me about this boat is that the entire engine is hanging off the transom. There are no mounts to the stringers. It is somewhat apparent in this photo...

So...I guess I'll do a little once-over...fluids, trailer wiring, maybe see if I can fix the tilt that the PO says isn't working, etc. In the spring, I'll see how stressfull it is to ride around in a junky boat on a big river and reformulate my plan from there

Anyone who knows me knows this will not be an extravagant project. I want it to be functional and reliable...hopefully even aesthetically pleasing. but I won't be spending lots of money on it.

Plus...mark my words...I'll probably get rid of it before I get to use it much anyway. It invariably goes that way.

If anyone has experience working on these Volvo Penta stern drives...I'm sure I could use some advice.

Thanks for looking,
Clem

ClemSparks wrote: 18.png" alt="" /> Anyone who knows me knows this will not be ...functional and reliable...

FTFY.

Laughing out loud.

Yeah...now just come fix the boat for me and we're set!

My buddy has one just like that, looked about the same when he picked it up too...

You are a brave man! You do know what BOAT stands for right? Bust Out Another Thousand. :) Don't listen to me, I'm just jealous

Nice boat. I would consider making a front engine mount, even a 4X4 wedged betwixt the engine and the stringers would be an improvement.

I've been poking around the boat forums. They're calling this "cantilever" mounting and apparently it was a pretty common mounting method for this particular powerplant. The aluminum head evidently helps make it a pretty light package.

The reason I bought this boat even though the floor is rotting is that I don't have to necessarily replace the stringers (which are undoubtedly rotten too) to remount the engine. Now...that doesn't mean the transom is any good...but it hasn't fallen off yet.

past performance is not indicitive of future results.

andrave wrote: past performance is not indicitive of future results.

But since we have nothing else to go by...that's the standard for predicting the future.

On the other hand, the fact that so much HAS rotted out may indicate the transom is next, no? lol

exactly...that was kind of the undertone of my point.

Realistically, I won't likely be restoring this boat. I'll use it to decide if I want to have a boat in my life permanently. If I do...I'll find a nicer boat or one more worthy of restoration. (or...possibly restore this one...who knows). Fact is, I have too many projects, but I think I'd like to have a boat be on that list of projects.

Clem

Trim the engine up and sit on the foot. If the transom flexes it's rotting. It shouldn't move at all. Floors aren't too bad to replace, BTDT. Transoms are a royal PITA.

If you want a restoration project, I've got a deal for you or anyone else on here that wants a boat.

1990 Sea Ray 210BR (21' bowrider), floor needs replacing. It's usable but soft. Transom and stringers are solid. 5.7 Chevy, Mercruiser Alpha 1. Battery cables, starter and alternator need to be replaced. Upholstery is in good shape. It's been sitting under cover for 3 years. It's a 50mph boat that needs a lot of TLC. Sitting on an aluminum trailer that also needs TLC. Cheap, like sub $1000 range.

Like this.

ahh, so glad youre close to atlanta. That makes it easier for me to say I'd buy it if it were closer.

I'll be following this thread too. How do you plan to fix the floor?

I just picked up a '72 Mark Twain open bow that was overheated earlier this year. We've had it out twice without issue but it needs some work.

My criteria for purchase? It's a 16' long open bow tri-hull and it fit in my garage by 2".

Toyman01 wrote: If you want a restoration project, I've got a deal for you or anyone else on here that wants a boat. 1990 Sea Ray 210BR

That would be tempting if I had more time, money, and a better tow rig to drag it home ;).

Seriously...we'll see how this one goes. I'd much rather have something with a Small Block Chevy in it. Someday, I probably will...

Clem

Boats like this make me glad I run aluminum+outboard.

I also want an aluminum boat...but I want an in/out (or just straight inboard would be even better) and those aren't real common around here (especially not at challenge-friendly prices).

That's just my preference. I'm more comfortable with the auto engines and they're generally quieter (unless you want them to be loud...and then the V8 rumble is more appealing to me than two stroke cackle-and-scream).

Clem

Volvo eh? Turbo swap?

RossD wrote: Turbo swap?

I figured that would come up. I don't think I'll pursue that. Constant loading/boost could maybe be an issue...I don't want to find out whether it would be a problem or not.

Clem

OK, winter is over.

Any progress or updates on the boat?

Thanks for the interest!

Well...I fired it up in the driveway the other day, just to hear it run (and only for a few seconds) but that's about it.

Good news is that we'll have a barn to store it in soon.

I have a feeling the river is probably WAY up right now. Even still, I'll probably have it on the river sometime within the next month or so just to try it out.

I want to vacuum it out, change the oil, and do a few other things...but mostly, I'm just going to put it in the water and make sure I have a friend on standby and my phone in a ziploc. What could possibly go wrong?

Clem

Well...we took this out on the river last night. The Lady, Psteav, the Dog, and I went down and gave it a whirl.

When the truck would not restart on the ramp, it was looking like a bad start to the evening...but I managed to roll start it...in reverse...on the ramp...(I had not backed quite to the water yet).

I poured a little fuel into the carburetor on the boat and it fired right up. In a minute or two, we were off, up on plane, and headed for the Missouri River (about a mile down the tributary we launched into).

We cruised up the Big Muddy, then back down for some Thai food at our favorite river hangout, and then back to the ramp. We were on the water a couple hours.

I'm thoroughly impressed with the Volvo powerplant/outdrive.

The $500 boat was more reliable (this time) than the $1,000 tow rig. If the whole thing sinks next time out, I'll consider it break even, lol.

I really did nothing to this thing to prep for this trip. Now that I know the boat works, I'll probably clean it up a little and try to fix some of the issues like inoperable tilt/trim, gas gauge, etc.

Psteav might have a sunset shot to share with us here...not sure. I was having WAY too much fun piloting a boat to take any photos...this time.

ClemSparks wrote: ...but mostly, I'm just going to put it in the water and make sure I have a friend on standby and my phone in a ziploc.

And I'm quite happy that I had my phone in a ziplock. I had to get out to push us off a sandbar that we beached on (somewhat intentionally) and the sandbar went from knee deep to waist deep in a hurry. Ziplock = river wallet = win!

This sounds fun.

So...the boat has a long list of stuff that should be fixed. Including, but not limited to:

Fix the leak in the seawater pump (hopefully just a new gasket will seal it up right).
Fix the rear (white) light.
Fix the gas gauge.
Fix the tilt function on the lower unit.
Dial the idle down to a reasonable RPM.
Etc.

So...I got to work procrastinating on that list by draining the oil and fitting an oil drain valve. It's a "Fumoto" brand one. This thing isn't cheap, but the quality knob looks to have been turned up toward 11:

The Volvo oil drain plug is on the flat bottom of the pan. The threads on this drain valve were long enough that I was afraid it they would stick up past the bottom of the interior of the pan and leave a significant amount of oil in there when draining. So I used a wire-tie to determine the length of thread I actually needed (I bent a 90 in at the end of the tie, hung it from the top side of the bung in the pan and bent the bottom over to indicate the distance I was dealing with). Then I brought the drain valve to the disk sander and took off just enough to be sure that it will drain as well as if I had a plug removed...and here we go (twist-tie template and modified plug):

I did figure out that the rear light worked fine...it just needed some attention when plugging the mast into the receptacle to make sure the contacts lined up properly.

Psteav aptly noted while cruising the other night that my two inoperable gauges were also the only two on the panel that did not light up with the navigation lights. Maybe that's indicative of an easy fix...maybe not...but good info, none the less.

I'll pick up the gasket for the seawater pump Saturday and see if I can get some photos of that setup going back together...

Clem

Hey All,

Just wanted to update anyone who's actually interested on the status of the boat.

We've had three successful cruises on the Missouri River so far. I am generally having too much fun to take photos...but last night we got a couple.

The project itself has been pretty easy going. Most recently, I replaced the Drive bellows (where the driveshaft to the outdrive comes through the transom of the boat) which was pretty straight forward, and the parts weren't outrageously expensive. I meant to get photos, but forgot completely (again...having too much fun, )

Here it is in knee-deep water at a sand-bar-island in the middle of the Big Muddy:

This shot came out blurry, but it's still too neat not to post:

And this...this right here is why I have a boat! It's been worth the price of admission thus far.