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I´d been waiting for this day for a long time, and now it had finally arrived ... it was time to cut holes in the hull.
Prior to cutting the holes for the two (2) Graupner Voith-Schneider® Propulsion drives, I used masking tape to cover the area to be cut. The tape made the pencil marks more visible, and it also protected the fiberglass thus preventing any chipping from the jigsaw blade.
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A center pilot hole was drilled first, and then I used my hand, Black & Decker® jigsaw to cut the larger hole. I took my time making sure to cut the hole perfectly.
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The thickness of my hull is impressive as seen here. I shouldn´t have any problems with warping when my motors are cranked up to full speed.
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Here is a view from inside the hull showing both openings for the drive units.
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The instructions for the VSP drives indicate the motors must be on the forward/aft axis. I elected to install mine forward and away from the manifold system.
The drives and manifold are simply sitting in the hull at the moment. They will each be installed later, but I wanted to display them together as a reference.
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Minor filing was necessary to fit the VSP mounting rings into the holes, and they fit very tightly.
I used Plastic Weld Solvent Cement (by Plastruct) to bond the mounting rings to the hull. It is a " ... leading general purpose solvent cement for fast, permanent bonding of most dissimilar products ..."
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