I need some help from my fellow forum members. I have 2 P2K GP-18s, an NP unit (road number 381) that I have had for a few years and a BN unit (road number 1994) that I have had for better than a decade. My question is this: How do you attach the separate winterization hatch that is included in the detail package to the shell? I know that at least some part of the rear fan is removed to attach the hatch (I have put enough hatches on the rest of my diesel fleet to know [1 F7 and 7 GP20s]). Other than that, I am completely stumped on what else I need to do to attach the hatch.
If you remove the shell and look under the top of it you well see some dimples that need to be drilled out. I’ve never removed any fans on any of my GP7’s or GP9’s, I just drilled out the holes, added a touch of glue to the holes from the BACK SIDE of the shell and lined up the holes to the pins on the hatch and just pushed them together.
That would work for the NP unit as it has the dimples you were talking about. However, the BN unit doesn’t have those dimples. I suspect that it is an older unit that wasn’t made with that option.
If you don’t have any locating holes you coulf try to measure them & make them, but with aftermarket hatches (& some kit ones) I just test fit. trim. test fit, trim, etc. On some that will be permanent I sometimes trim both the hatch & the fan/longhood, & relocate lift rings. On ones that may be removed I try to only trim on the hatch & affix with paint mask or rubber type cement. I just did that process on an Genesis SD60M & trimmed both the fan & the hatch, as this one was permanent & I wanted the fan detail inside the PE screen of the hatch. Hope this helps.
I drilled out the holes as suggested. I ran into a small problem: The rear two are not aligned with the two rear pins on the hatch. What I ended up taking the top half of the rear fan off leaving the base that fits in the hole and the fan detail. (I still wanted to see the fan detail.) I removed the rear pins from the hatch. I also trimmed the sides of the base enough that the bottom of the hatch comes to the top of the shell.