All that really needs to be finished before gluing the deck to the hull is paint!! I decided to glass in a few pieces of 1" PVC tubing to hold wiring, steering cable, and throttle in place... I hate stuff bouncing around.... drives me nuts!
PVC tubing glassed in place to old wiring from dashboard to engine bay.
More PVC- This time for steering and throttle lines.
Once the PVC was glassed in the areas of the hull that get glued were masked off. The hull was painted in prior steps with at least 2 coats of epoxy. Now the hull is painted with another 2 coats of primer, and then 2 coats of semi gloss finish.
Front of the painted hull.
Left rear of the painted hull.
The upper deck pieces were next on the painting list....... While they dried the wiring was put in place between the dash board and the motor bay. I wasn't really sure what wiring would be required between the front and back of the craft so I ran 10 pieces of 12ga stranded - each piece a different color, and then all 10 were bound by spiral plastic.
Wiring and the two of the painted deck panels.
I gave the paint a day to harden and removed all the masking tape that I used to protect the glue surfaces. I did a little bit of "fine tuning" and glued all the deck panels to the hull! I started with the rear deck then proceeded to the front, followed by the two sides. I mixed a thick epoxy glue and painted it 1/8" thick on all the mating glue joints on the hull. Once the glue was in place I laid the panel in position and then clamped it in place. Once the clamped panel was in the correct position I screwed it in place temporarily until the epoxy glue sets up. I thought about using 3M 5200 Sealant / Glue- in fact I even bought 3 tubes of the stuff, but I wimped out! Never used the stuff and got too nervous so I decided to stay with the Epoxy glue.
The Front view with all panels glued.
Glued rear panel.
Front and Side panels.
I let the craft sit for a few days before removing the screws. Once the screws were removed I sanded and rounded all of the outside edges. I glassed all of the outside "deck to deck" seams, and also reinforced the side decks with fiberglass tape at the bend, and again at the cockpit edge. My fun wasn't over with the hull just yet!.... I needed to flip the craft over and glass the inside seams where all the deck sections are joined together. Needless to say - working through the 80mm air holes isn't much fun. I wear extra large gloves and cramming my oversized paws through those little bitty holes left my hands looking as if I had been sticking them in a "Cuisinart". While the craft was upside down I also glassed in the top of the air splitter to the rear deck, and glued an aluminum block to the underside of the side decks near the back of the craft to act as cleat blocking.
Here's an inside seam and also one of the cleat "backer" blocks viewed through an air hole!
Go To Viper Build Page
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 9 10 11 12 13
|