Thinking more about the actual build and how I could make it easier. I decided that to have the chassis on a movable dolly would make it far more convenient in the workshop as I still have to shift the cars round from time to time. I emailed Ted at the factory who kindly sent me through the specs. for the dolly that they use for the GTR. I guess that it's the same size for the Can-Am but caveat emptor applies!!
I modelled the dolly in 3D to make sure that my imperial to metric conversions worked! I've shown both measurements for the benefit of our American cousins who still order steel by the inch :)
Cutting list - all 2"x2"/50x50mm 16g Box steel unless specified:
Bracketed colour key relates to diagram. You get all the elements you need from two 6m lengths (standard supplied length for 50x50 box section steel).
You'll also need four ML384-1 swivel & brake castors from Machine Mart or similar. They're polypropylene wheels with a plate size of 79.4 x 104.7 and can withstand a 102kg load (per wheel). Order code is 051320095 and they're 4.69 each.
Not wanting to have to chop up 12 metres of box steel (not that I had any way of transporting it either), I called a set builder that I deal with, who not only had the right stuff on the shelf, but cut it all up for me too! I picked it up Friday along with the castors and some other bits from Machine Mart and after much procrastination, set to work welding it up.
Now I'm the first to say that my welding skills are less than perfect! I had an Arc welder in the workshop and started out with some 1.6mm rods. I started on the end caps as they were small and easy to work with but most importantly, weren't structural! The welds were not going well with loads of spatter and the bloody rods kept sticking to the work! The resulting welds were strong though, but took a fair amount of angle grinding to clean them up. Once I'd used up all the rods I had (each weld was using a whole rod!), I decided to give up with the arc welder and go and buy a decent mig machine.
So B&Q's favourite customer was back for shopping and saw me 150 quid lighter not including the gas and welding wire! Still, with luck tomorrows efforts should be better.
I rigged up the Mig welder and connected up the gas. The bottle that came supplied with the welder turned out to be empty! Fortunately I had a spare so once that was rigged up to the regulator, we were good to go. It took some fiddling with the settings ending up with 'Max' power and slow wire speed with LOTS of gas, but the welds now flowed MUCH better and I could even do the old 'cake icing' welds. Once you've got it all set up the welding is a breeze - well, except for clamping something of this size together! Make sure you've got plenty of grinding disks too - you'll need them!
I called a halt by the time I got to the plates which hold the castors and decided to go to the pub instead! I should get the dolly finished in the coming week but I'm pleased with it so far. Note the red trestle stands in the last pic. That's what I was going to build it on!
Fantastic news! Emailed Ted for an update on delivery in the vain hope that it would be ready early and Richard has just emailed me back to say that I can take delivery on the 15th...no, not 15th September but NEXT WEEK!! I'm well happy. Good job the dolly is finished! Roll on next Thursday! :)
Well, now that I know when stuff will be arriving, I started to plan the build facilities a bit better. First off, the chassis dolly was finished with a couple of coats of hammerite. To protect the chassis rails I also added some non-slip matting (made by Duck and available from B&Q) which I glued in place with silicon sealant.
The trestles which I ordered from Machine Mart which were cack, were repainted with Hammerite and now look a lot more appealing! I know that function is the main thing but with all the expensive toys in the workshop they did lower the tone a bit ;) To make preparation of the panelling easy, I erected another bench by the build area and covered half of it with the rest of the non-slip matting. This will make polishing the panels a lot easier as they won't skid around on the smooth worktop surface. I kept one half clear for drilling and deburring as the swarf would get trapped in the non-slip mat and would end up scratching the newly polished panels!! Which would be a total waste of time. So, with a final cleanup of the back office which is lockable (just as well with those pricey bits!) I'm all set to receive the goods.
Well, one more day to go! Have been thinking alot about the final finish of the GTR, gelcoat vs. paint and interior options. I fell in love with a flip-flop colour called Cascade Blue which I saw on the TVR Tuscan prototype a couple of years ago and have tried to replicate the effect on an Ultima. The paint is mixed from 6 colours and changes depending on the angle you view it from. There's some real pictures at my friends site of his Cerbera which was this colour - here. Click on the pic below to see the result. I'd be interested to see what you think so email me here.
In the meantime, roll on tomorrow!!!
Woohoo! Well, true to form, not only did the truck arrive but it was early too :) After scurrying about, moving stuff around the workshop, Grahame (the driver) and I set to work unloading the bits. It's further testiment to Ultima just how well everything was packed - even onto the truck itself. Nothing sliding around, everything clearly labelled - excellent. It wasn't long before everything was stashed in the workshop, the chassis was placed on the dolly (which works a treat!) and well, I was ready to start!!! :)
Not wishing to dive right in I popped down to see some friends and to pick up some bits and pieces - like drill bits! From experience I know that you get through these like nobody's business especially in the smaller sizes. I also convinced myself that larger rivets would look better than the factory supplied ones and so bought a load of 4.8mm ones. However, back in the workshop and a quick test strip showed that they were way too industrial and I kicked myself for not trusting the factory's judgement as their flat-headed 'pops' looked way better. The rest of the afternoon/early evening was spent inventorying the various boxes and bags to make sure everything was there.
Richard (Marlow) had already put a note in to say that the handbrake lever, fuel tanks and air-con kit were to come but I subsequently found that there doesn't seem to be any connecting pipes for the cooling system? Still, it was getting late and we (Helen, my girlfriend who's a complete Petrolhead was helping out with the inventory) were a bit knackered, so maybe I just missed them.
I can't express enough how impressed I am with Ultima's excellent presentation. All parts are bagged with the required number of nuts/bolts/washers/p-clips - even rivets to fit! As I've said before, the stage prices may seem a bit steep at first sight, but you get EVERYTHING you need to put that stage in. The quality of the components is absolutely first class too. The wheels are, to be blunt, 'kin stunning! The AP brake kit is the absolute dogs pods - even the handbrake calipers are Brembo for fecks sake!!! :)))
So, a quiet night in with a good book (the build manual) for me. Although, I must know the damn thing by heart by now! Ally panelling starts tomorrow! :)
Right, where was I. Well, once everything was put away and I got the workshop into some semblance of order, I set about preparing to panel the chassis. The first thing to do was to make a rivet jig. So what's a rivet jig I hear you ask? Well, from experience with the Locosts, the quickest and most accurate way of getting equidistant, neat rivets, is to make a pre-drilled jig strip. Now, this isn't drilled to accomodate the rivets themselves, no, it's drilled so that a centre-punch fits snugly into the holes allowing just enough of the tip to protrude to mark the panel ready for drilling. The photos show what I mean better than I can explain it. As per the manual, the rivet spacing was set at 30mm apart with the line of holes being made 10mm from the strip edge so that I could easily align the strip with any panel edge to get the right indent - smart eh! :)
First up was the rear bulkhead. Once I'd identified the right piece (there are 2 rear bulkhead panels as I ordered the double skin kit), I set about nibbling away at it to get a good 'dry fit'. For this, I used an air-nibbler which is a great bit of kit - but watch out for removing too much material! Finished up and fine tuning was initially done with a die grinder but the stones gum up with ally very quickly. By far the best method was a hand file and plenty of elbow grease! Make sure you've got plenty of clamps, the inexpensive plastic ones are great even if they do slip around on the round chassis tubes, get a decent steel ruler and square and a good permanent marker to indicate where you've got to remove material.
Another great toy which I bought for the princely sum of 29 quid in a sale just before Christmas, is the Laser Level which you can see in the photos. There are several instances where I will need to make holes in the panelling where measurement for positioning is difficult. By aligning the laser level to the point which you need to refer to, you can put the panel into position and know that the point denoted by the laser is in exaclty the right position to drill! I was trying to be clever and use it to mark the holes for the handbrake cables by directing the laser through the handbrake lever mount holes, but then realised that the holes through the bulkhead have to be offset slightly and drilled higher to avoid the horizontal and vertical chassis rails. The laser did give me a good start point though. In the end, I calculated the position and marked the rail positions from the back of the panel to check that the holes would clear. Although the cables are only about 8mm in diameter, the mounting nuts are 17mm at their widest point so I drilled 18mm holes with the stepped drill. This makes perfect circles in sheet metal and doesn't suffer from 'ovalling' like normal drill bits either. Besides, the holes are too big for conventional drills. Before you rivet this panel into position, pre-fit the engine bay skin panel and fit the small side returns to it - it's a lot easier to do this before the cockpit side panel is fixed into place.
Once the panel was fitted neatly, with the chassis welds notched out of the panel so that it could sit flat against the chassis rails, it was time to mark out for rivetting. This was made very easy with the rivet jig. Don't be tempted to rivet at the outsermost ends, top and bottom, as this is where the side panel returns fold over the rear bulkhead which you'll have to rivet later. Getting the centreline of the chassis rail was simply a matter of measuring the chassis rail diameter with the digital calipers and halving it. The rails are in fact 38mm (with a bit of powder coat!), so a line of rivets 19mm down should be bang on the centre of the top rail. The bottom lot are drilled 10mm up from the panel bottom as they are attached to a square section rail. Positions marked, holes drilled, next up was to drill the corners so that skin pins could be attached allowing you to accurately drill the rest of the holes.
Happy with the result, the only thing left to do to this panel is to drill it out for the gear linkage. However, not having the linkage yet and having no guidance as to it's position, I'll either call the factory for some measurements or drill it in situ.
Next up was the cockpit side panels. These proved to be a pain as the fit, especially on the drivers side where the pedal box mounts interfere with the panel positioning. Notching for the welds is also made difficult as initially, you can't get the panel flat up against the chassis side as the scuttle (dash) tubes need to be notched. So basically, you repeatedly, mark the panel, remove, notch, refit, check to see where it snags, mark it, remover, notch and so on. Well, after lots of messing about, I finally got the panel in position. Hmmmm.... the cut outs weren't bad but to my mind, they could be better. I'd taken a bit too much material from the notch and whilst on a Locost it would be acceptable, anything less than perfect on the Ultima is not an option! Trying not to get too downhearted and at the same time, convincing myself that I was being overly fussy, I persevered with the passenger side. This went much better and the notching was a lot more accurate. Hels turned up just as I was finishing dry-fitting the panel. After a long day, it was time to sit down with a well-earned beer and reflect on the days events. I decided to keep track of the time that things take to fit. See the link in the navigation bar for details.
Well, a weekend trip to see Hels parents put paid to any ideas about working on the Ultima but to be honest, it's sometimes a good thing to sit back and reflect on the build. So as I made my way down to the workshop, I decided that I'd have to make a decision on the side panels. Well, to be honest, once I'd inspected them again I didn't think that they were too bad. In fact, they were pretty good. Unfortunately, that's not good enough and given the position of the offending 'notch' (right by the gearchange where I'd see it every time I got in the damn car) I decided to bite the bullet and order another pair of panels from the factory. It serves me right really as it was probably a case of more haste, less speed. But, mistakes get made and I decided that it was the right decision to get the job 100% right. Once that emotional hurdle was over, I examined the build manual/CD to see what else I could get on with. The next stage in the build process according to the manual was to fit the front bulkhead. Ah, nice small panel - a doddle..... NOT! :)
I wasn't going to get caught out twice and decided that trial fitting and removing the panel 500 times was infinitely preferable to making a bodge of it. So I resorted to some good old cardboard templates to pre-fit around the chassis welds. These worked a treat and I deliberately cut undersize and finished with hand files to ensure a good tight fit. After much fettling, I was please with the result with a very accurately fitting panel.
Now that the panel was fitted in relation to the chassis rails, the holes for the master cylinders and studs had to be drilled - gulp! Firstly, I removed the temporary nuts on the welded studs. This is to remove the powder coating from the stud threads. However, it doesn't do a great job of it so you'd be well advised to run a M8 die down each one to clean it up properly (like I did :). The next step was to determine the positions of the studs. Once again, a cardboard template came into play. By pushing the card onto the studs, I could see the indent in the card which identified their positions. I punched holes in these impression and trial fitted it over the studs - perfect! Next, I needed to take a datum point to position this hole pattern on the bulkhead panel. By clamping the laser level in position so that the laser 'point' was aimed at the master cylinder stud head, then replacing the panel, I could accurately mark the hole position for that stud. I did this for several of the studs and checked this against my template. Sure enough, the template lined up with these reference points. To make sure, I also measured the stud interval (be careful as it different between the brake and clutch studs) and vertical spacing and took a measurement from the top chassis rail. After checking, double checking and then checking a few more times to be sure, I centre-punched the stud positions onto the panel ready for drilling. The studs are 8mm in diameter but due to the way you have to fit the panel onto them at an angle, drill slightly oversize to 10mm to allow for any discrepancies in stud positioning. Once that was all done, it was with some trepidation that I trial fitted the panel over the studs. Perfect! Phew! :)
Marking the positions of the holes for the master cylinders themselves is made a lot easier as you can just run a pen around the apeture for them from behind. Once I'd found the centres of these they were drilled out with a bi-metal tank-cutter. A cock-up made drilling any of these holes now would mean a LOT of work to rectify it. Take your time and check everything again and again until you're absolutely sure it's all in the right place. Which mine was ;) Once I'd deburred the holes, I trial fitted the panel once more to find that it was absolutely bang-on with the stud and cylinder holes in exactly the right place!
The nightmarish bit out of the way, all that remained was to mark and pre-drill the panel and chassis for the rivets and make the hole for the steering colum. The steering rack link hole position is described in the build manual however they don't mention the diameter of it! I got the calipers on the link rod and doubled it to be safe. This resulted in a 28mm hole being made in the prescribed position. I hope it fits!!!! That done, once again the rivet jig proved its worth and the top, bottom and sides fitted in with the 30mm spacing. You do have to fudge the outermost bottom rivet positions a bit though. The rivets down the vertical centre rail work out at a 29mm spacing otherwise you end up with the lowest rivet being a bit close. I did this by hand and punched it all out and pre-drilled it. Now came came another quandry as I had decided to fit and rivet this panel to the chassis. To polish or not to polish? After peeling away the protective film on the panel, I was presented with a beatifully mark-free surface which was slightly matt with a 'grain' in it. I had a metal polishing kit which I'd bought for the Locost but never used. I though I'd give it a go on the inside face of the panel so that if I hated it, you wouldn't see it. Much polishing, buffing and rubbing later I had a mirror-like surface on the panel. However, the nature of the process means that you inevitably get swirl marks on the panel and it's very hard to get a totally even finish. I decided that I didn't like the idea of a million and one reflections in the cockpit either and it wasn't in keeping with the 'race-car' feel (you never see a GT car with a mirrored interior do you?!). This had the added benefit of saving me around 500000 hours of polishing so it was a no-brainer really ;)
Another little tip for you to avoid smacking the drill chuck into that nicely finished ally panel when drilling the chassis, is to slide a small rubber 'bumper' onto the drill bit, in this case a small rubber grommet. That way, when you penetrate the chassis rail the rubber stops the still spinning chuck from gouging a collar out from around the hole. Simple but very effective! You can also avoid smacking the chuck into the panel by mounting the drill bit so that it's artificially long so that when it penetrates the chassis rail it hits the other inside edge (as if you were drilling right through) before the chuck hits the panel. The only problem with this is that it makes the drill bits very unstable and so they tend to break easily. So, my trusty angle drill in hand (top tool I can tell you!) I drilled out the corners of the panel and used skin pins to secure it. The rest of the holes were then drilled and the panel removed. The chassis and panel holes were all de-burred and a bead of Sikaflex ('orrible stuff for getting everywhere but a damn fine sealant! WD40 is the best stuff for getting it off again but make sure you wipe it off before it dries) was applied to make the panel watertight. I then replaced the panel and put all of the rivets in place (just in case you've got any rogue holes) and then used the air-rivetter (another top bit of kit) to secure them. A bit of a Homer-esque DOH! at the end here. I'd been advised by a couple of builders not to rivet the top line of the front bulkhead as you need to rivet the cockpit section of the bodywork to it later on. In my haste and general smugness of what a good job I'd done, I totally forgot and rivetted them all in! Bugger! Still, it's a simple job to drill them out when it's like this, but a bit of a pain as the ends will rattle around in the chassis tube :( Still, I'll lob a load of Waxoyl in which should gum them up nicely.
Well, one panel down and umpteen to go. Just for the record, to complete the panel fitting from start to finish took about 7 hours!!! It is however one of the most complicated due to the master cylinder holes but it puts the build into perspective doesn't it! :) What should be a bit quicker, however, is the website. I've altered the image quality of the JPEGs so that they load a lot quicker than before. Which is just as well given my itchy camera-shutter finger ;) Am away on business tomorrow so more updates on Wednesday.
A business trip precluded any more work on Tuesday, but as the new side panels were'nt due until Wednesday, I wasn't too worried. So, Wednesday morning was spent waiting for the delivery van to arrive - it didn't! So, I left instructions for it to be left with a neighbour and went to the workshop to see what I could be getting on with. The floor panels require the chassis to be inverted so that was out of the question as I was on my own. So, the next best bet seemed to be the double skin panel for the engine bay (behind the rear bulkhead). This is a bit of a pig to fit as it's slightly too large for the apeture between the outer chassis rails and you have to curve the panel to get it to sit between them. Then you have to mark out which bits will need to be cut away and remove once more. It quickly became apparent that the lovely powder coating wasn't going to last 5 minutes with the sharp panel edges scraping against them, so out came the gaffer tape (tank/duck tape whatever you like to call it) to protect the vulnerable areas. Now at first, I was working on the basis that the top of the panel should align with the top of the chassis rail as per the rear bulkhead. However, the engine bay panel is shorter that the one in the cockpit and so doing this would mean that I would have no way or rivetting it to the lower chassis rail. After a bit of head scratching and a search through the build CD, a final call to Ted in the factory confirmed that the top of the panel actually aligns with the middle of the chassis rail not the top! Well, I say the middle, I actually put it about 5mm higher so that the rivets would be bang on the centre of the rail. You can check that the panel is in the right place as it should sit about 15mm lower than the top of the chassis rail. This done, the panel was marked out for rivetting. Due to the centre cutout for the chassis rails, the rivet spacing didn't work very well if you took the centrepoint of the panel as a reference. Therefore, I spaced them evenly on either side of this at 30mm intervals. Be careful about going too close to the edge of the panel as you won't be able to drill the chassis rail let alone get a rivet in! The right-angled drill is excellent for getting into these tight spots. The vertical line of rivets also left me with some guesswork. Basically, much later on in the build, when the cockpit section of bodywork is attached to the chassis, it is rivetted along the top line of the panel but, there's no way of telling how much it overlaps the panel by? After studying the CD pics and taking some advice from existing builders, I just put a couple of temporary rivets in the top - which is what I forgot to do for the front bulkhead!. I left out the topmost vertical rivet as I want to see how the cockpit rivets sit before inserting the final one to average out any mismatched spacing. This sounds horrendously complicated but makes sense when you're doing it for yourself! Last job was to make a pair of 18mm holes for the handbrake cables as I did for the rear bulkhead. I had to set these a little higher than the ones in the rear bulkhead as they would have interfered with the centre notch in the bottom of the panel. No worries as the cables had enough flex even over that short distance and it was only 5mm or so.
3.5 hours later and I was at a full stop again as the delivery still hadn't arrived - grrrr! I then realised that I still had the hole for the gear linkage to drill for both rear bulkhead skins. This posed a bit of a problem as nowhere in the manual does it say where this hole should be drilled! Still, allowing for variance in the panel positioning it hard to be completely accurate so check before you take my measurements as gospel! Not having the gear linkage kit didn't help either as I needed to calculate the position of the selector shaft as it passes through both panels of the rear bulkhead. After some thought and a check of the CD, I realised that the same rose-joints are used for the gear selector as those used for the rear suspension toe-in kit. So, I ran a tap through the mounting hole threads (to remove the powder coating) and spaced the rose joint off with some scrap ally to get a fair indication of it's final position. Note: as an approximation, the lower rosejoint should be spaced off 30mm from the cockpit panel to it's centreline and the upper one 45mm - do NOT put locknuts on the outside of the chassis for the rosejoints as you won't have access to them once you've fitted the luggage containers and sidepods (see pic). So, I did the same for the engine bay mount (just behind the double skin) and set the laser lever to fire through both holes. Then, I skin-pinned the rear bulkhead and then the engine bay skin into place and marked the positions on the panels where the laser sat. A small pilot hole was then drilled though each panel and I tested to see if the laser passed through both rose joints and holes. Bingo! They were bang on. I calculated the selector shaft to be approximately 12mm in diameter (that's the apeture of the rose joints) and so drilled a slightly oversized 14mm hole to accept the shaft when it's fitted. Pleased with my efforts, the side panels finally turned up with the added bonus of the aircon kit too which was missing from the initial delivery. With some trepidation, I set about marking up the panels (again!) to get a perfect fit. But, a decent meal and a couple of cold ones were calling by this time, so I decided to call it a night to set about fitting them with a clear head in the morning. Lots to do tomorrow!
Finally - a full day in the workshop. My goal was to finish fitting the side panels so that the chassis could be inverted in readiness for the floor panels to be put in. Given the average time for a single panel being 4 hours, I was in for a long day. And long it was! I'd already made the templates for the side panel cutouts, the question then was getting them into exactly the right position. There's no exact science to this, just a question of measuring, re-measuring and then trial fitting. Always cut less material than you need to for the cutouts as they're deceptive and whilst it's easy to take more away, it's impossible to put it back (as I'd already found!). So, patience was the virtue and after I'd finally built up enough confidence to butcher another panel, the end result was perfection! The drivers side was exactly how I'd wanted it originally with a nice tight fitting around the rollcage and scuttle support tubes. Mint! Still, fitting the panel is only the first part of the equation, then there's the job of marking/drilling/deburring/waxoyling and rivetting it. In all, it took 7 hours to complete both panels but it was well worth it. I can honestly say that I would struggle to get it better. My only advice would be to not bothering drilling rivet holes for the bottom 3 holes on the drivers side nearest the front as you can't get a drill in to the chassis for the rivets as the pedal box mounts restricts access, also, if you intend to apply heat reflective matting to the outsides of the side panels to stop heat soak from the coolant pipes (see later build diary) now is the time to do it. Still, the other 200 or so rivets will hold it well enough! Napping the edges to fold around the chassis tubes was achieved with a block of softwood wrapped with rag to protect the ally (as you see from the pics, I only stripped the protective film from the rivettted portion of the panels as it's prone to more scrapes and scratches when the floor goes in). I also have a weighted 'dead-blow' rubber hammer which leaves no mark and is ideal for the hard to reach areas around the tubing welds and where the dash support tubes stop you from getting a good blow in. First up for final fitting was the rear bulkhead followed by the chassis sides. Oops, I also forgot to mention that I also drilled out the drivers side panel for the gear linkage. I just centre punched it lightly from the outside (through the linkage mounting threads) and drilled pilots to make sure it lined up finishing off with 13mm holes to accept the rose joints that hold the linkage shafts. So, seven hours later and I'd achieved my target of getting all the cockpit side panels fitted allowing me to invert the chassis with the aid of a mate (cheers Marty). Not a very interesting diary entry I'm afraid as it's more of the same, but it's worth taking your time as you're a long time regretting a bodge job! I definitely recommend getting hold of/borrowing/hiring an air rivetter. I'd have forearms like Popeye if I didn't have one!! :) Floor goes in tomorrow. Before you do this though, take time to clean out the powder coating from the pedal mounting holes. It's extremely difficult to do once the floor is in place.
So here's what happened! Not a huge report today as the process of installing the floor panels is quite straightforward as they're all flat an need very little trimming to fit. The manual recommends starting from the cockpit floor and working forward but I think that working the other way round is best. First off, dry fit all three panels, that is, the radiator floor, steering rack floor and cockpit. Next, clamp the panels in place and MARK from underneat the positions of the chassis rails which cross the panels! Once you're happy with the fit, measure out a centreline of rivets working from the front of the car to the back. This datum will define all the rivet positions for the panels. They differ in width so be prepared for intervals of 28.5 to 31 mm. I considered using the rivet jig and making up the difference at the ends, but, if a job's worth doing and all that. So I marked the intervals by hand, drilled, deburred and waxoyled the panels/chassis. A quick way of ensuring that the panel to panel rivet positions match, is to mark and drill the first panel, then temporarily clamp it next (overlapping by 20mm so that the holes are now 10mm in from the edge of the undrilled panel) and use it as a template to mark the rivet holes - simple and accurate. IMPORTANT NOTE! If you're fitting the double skin kit DO NOT fit the cockpit flooring or the radiator floor straight away, there are two things to do first. For the cockpit floor, whilst the chassis is right-way-up, pre-fit the double skin panel (it won't fit exactly at this point as you need to remove a section from it for the pedals) and mark the position of the diagonal crossbrace which runs from the mid point of the cockpit to the front. This way, you can ensure that you can rivet directly into it as you won't have access to it once the floor is rivetted in position. Secondly, the radiator floor makes access to the plates which hold the radiator lower mount bobbins inaccessible, so fit these first (the first things I have bolted to the chassis!). You will need to trim them a bit (about 5mm) so that they don't interfere with the radiator floor panel. Also, prefit the radiator double skin and mark from the underside the position of the 3 chassis rails which radiate out towards the front of the chassis to make sure your rivets hit them.
A LOT of drilling, deburring, waxoyling and rivetting later (about 250 I reckon) you will have the floor sections in place. It's shame that most people will never (hopefully) see the pains of your labour as this lot is under the car, although, should you be unlucky to run something over at least they can admire the painstaking care that you took to align the rivets! Don't forget to run sealant around the steel panels which make the seat under-floor. They're welded at intervals but have panel gaps in between. A good dollop of sealant will ensure a watertight fit. On the subject of sealant, quite a few builders have said that they've needed more from the factory. This makes no sense, as long as you apply it to the right bits of the chassis rails (ie. the bits which squeeze together with the panels!) there should be no problem. It only takes a few microns to make the seal (with the exception of the sealant 'filler' that you will make between the side chassis diagonals and the side panels to stop them 'drumming') so the rest is pretty useless. As a tip to help it flow better, cut the nozzle at a 45 degree angle and always apply it pulling the sealant gun towards you. This will leave a nice uniform bead which can be smoothed down with you finger. Job done!
Down to the last few panels at last (woohoo!). The cockpit double-skin section requires you to remove a 270x270mm section from it. From the build CD it isn't immediately apparent how the angled corner is measured which is why you will be glad that you pre-fitted the double skin and marked the cross brace! The shallow angle corner hooks over the existing chassis cross brace rail (measure 20mm from it to get your cut off point and bend at the point where it overhangs the rail) and the aluminium box sections can be positioned around the edges of the panel. Don't worry that the box sections don't exactly match the lengths of the panel edges, you can drill as normal and fill any holes with blanking rivets (there's sufficient support from the rest of it!) Take care when adding the 'false' cross brace (the box section which mirrors the chassis cross brace) and make sure that it's symmetrical with the chassis rail. Finally, mark up the rivet positions to match the cockpit sides and work out the rest accordingly. Same process as above to fit and voila - a finished cockpit floor! Well, I say that but I've got to complete it tomorrow! Back on target to finish the rolling chassis by the end of Monday. Cheers :)
And finish it I did. Straightforward enough now that I'd fitted umpteen of the things. Again, patience pays dividends and make sure that you get good alignment of the rivets against the side panels. I found it easier to prefit the ally box sections to the panel holding them in place with skin pins, then dry fit the floor and drill skin pin holes through into the chassis rails once everything fits well. Once done, drill the rest of the holes in the ally box sections through the temporarily fitted panel. This allows you some tolerance in the fit before committing to the final rivel hole positions. Once you've done all this, waxoyl and sikaflex, insert all the rivets to ensure all the holes line up and rivet away. The end result looked great and was well worth the effort.
Phew! Well, 2 more to go. Next up was the double skin for the radiator housing. Again, simple enough especially if you've remembered to mark the positions of the three chassis rails at the bottom of the box prior to fitting the bottom panel. You'll need the two remaining ally box sections for the rear of the double skin panel as there is no fixing to the chassis at he back of the radiator 'box'. Fit as before with the cockpit floor. As with all the panels, make sure you can get a drill/rivet gun into the areas which you mark out for riveting before you drill the panel. Don't rivet all the way to the front of the panel down the sides as you'll be adding the radiator side panels to this part a bit later on. Just put one right at the front for the time being. Take your time and THINK before drilling. It's a lot easier to drill a hole afterwards than to fill one in!
So finally the battery panel. It seems that the factory have changed the design from those that I've seen making this a lot simpler. The battery floor consists of a flat panel with an angled return (think of a letter J rotated 90 degrees counter-clockwise). Once you've fitted it in place (I STRONGLY recommend making a carboard pattern first as there are a number of chassis rails to be cut around) it's a simple case of fixing with rivets and a bead of sikaflex on the angled return where it meets the lower floor. Job done.
Finally, that was the end of the panelling. It's been pretty arduous, but patience pays dividends and remember, it may not be visible when the car is finished, but YOU know that it's been done well or badly! So tomorrow, it's time to get out the spanners!!! :)
First order of the day is the fitting of the pedal kit. Seems straightforward enough...err well no actually. First thing that I realised is that the powder coating on the chassis mounts makes fitting of the bolts impossible until it's reamed out. That's fine, except that once you've got the double skin cockpit floor in, there's no way to get a drill in!! Juducious use of the right angle drill (essential) or a flexible drill extension got the holes reamed out sufficiently to put the bolts in and even then, they're a tight fit. The manual has some good pics of the brake pipe routing, but neglects to tell you which way round the master cylinders go. However, a quick phone call (thanks Guy!) to a fellow Ultima owner (factory closed on Sundays of course) confirmed what I had thought, that the .75 cylinder sits on the right of the car to operate the front calipers and the .625 sits on the left for the rears. Getting the right end float (that's 'gap' for the non-technical) on the balance bar can only be achieved by screwing the master cylinder actuating arms into the anodised fittings, once the fittings are set with the right end float on the bar. You can either snip off and replace the clip on the rubber shroud or unbolt the master cylinder and screw in the whole assembly from behind the bulkhead. Next problem was the accelerator pedal. Whilst it's simple enough to mount the cable mounting plate (again, use the right angled drill), you'll find that a) the clevis on the end of the cable won't fit over the actuating arm on the pedal because of the powder coat (so grind it off) and b) the pedal movement is restricted by the chassis rail on the front bulkhead. So, you need to bend the actuating arm about 10 degrees away from the rail (to the left - for a right hand drive setup) and crank the tip over so that the cable clevis is vertical (Note: having talked to the factory about this, it seems that their solution is simply to mount the pedal in the rearmost hole to give full throttle travel - so ignore the bit in the build manual about using the central holes as a start-point). The aim is to get as smooth a movement for the cable to avoid it sticking once attached to the carb. A 10mm hole in the upper chassis rail needs drilling to fit two 6mm I.D. grommets to save the cable from chafing as it passes down towards the pedal box. See the pics for more details.
That little hiccup over, it was time to trial fit the steering rack. A bit nerve racking as I'd taken the hole positioning from the manual but wasn't entirely convinced by it! First job was to insert the bushes into the bush holders mounted to the chasses. As mentioned in the manual, make sure that the raised 'studs' line up with the holes in the bush holders and use some washing-up liquid as a lubricant to fit them. They go in easily enough and the 'Quick Clamps' are ideal for this as they have soft faces. In terms of getting the column linkage aligned properly thought the hole, the trick here is to allow the rack itself to rotate around it's horizontal axis (so that the 'Ultima Sports' casting actually sits at a NorthWest position when viewed from the side) to allow the splined pin to accept the universal joint in a position that lines up well with the upper portion of the steering column. You will need to part the UJs with a large scredriver/cold chisel or similar as they're a bit tight to accept the steering column shafts. The pinch bolts need to be cut down by about 5mm too to avoid then interfering with the UJs. MAKE SURE that the upper and lower UJs are matched in rotation otherwise the linkage will bind, so follow the position of the lower UJ with the upper and you should have no problems. Once done, thankfully the column fitted the hole that I'd pre-drilled in the front bulkhead well and I could move onto the wishbones and uprights.
Steering done bar checking for bump steer and potential rackbind (and polishing/lubing the column where is passes through the bearings and of course fitting the wheel and quick-release boss - so far from 'done' really!) it's on to the suspension wishbones and hubs. First job was to press the urethane bearings and steel spacers into place. Use plenty of grease to stop dry joints and those annoying 'squeaks'. Press the bushes home squarely, again, using the 'Quick Clamps' is an ideal way of doing this. The next issue was that of fitting the front upper wishbone rod ends and the rear upper wishbone rose joints. The problem was that the powder coat was clogging the threads. Not having a tap of sufficient size to clear the threads (18mm at the front), after a bit of head scratching, I filed a small 'V' into the rose joints and rod ends to help clear the threads as I screwed them in. This works a treat an definitely qualifies as my 'tip of the day'! Wind them in all the way home and out again and the threads should be pretty well clear of debris :) A few other things to note that aren't immediately obvious in the manual:
Now to the preparation of the hubs. This is pretty simple as they're now built by the factory (unless you specify otherwise). It's a pretty straightforward job to fit them. The fronts are marked Left and Right on the outer flange and the rears have the 'hand' marked on the packaging (it's a good idea to mark them up as soon as you unwrap them to avoid confusion later). Remember to fit the spacers in the rear upper rose joints and fit the stepped washers to the front hubs. You may find that when fitting the lower wishbone rod end to the front hubs that they just spin when you try to tighten them. If so, lightly clamp the hub to the lower wishbone. The rod end is a taper fit and this will stop it from turning so that you can torque it up. For a rough alignment, leave almost no thread showing on the upper front rod ends and about 10mm on the rear upper rose joints. Make sure that you cut the rear upright toe-in/out adjuster rose joints down to allow a full range of adjustment. This is best done with an air reciprocating hacksaw unless you have arms like Popeye! The gold steering rack bars bolt to the front hubs using the allen headed bolts supplied
Time for some well earned kip! See you tomorrow.
And so the last day of my little holiday and I'm on target to get a rolling chassis. Well, in fact, it could be right now so mission accomplished. Actually, that would be cheating a bit so I'll persevere. Next job according to the build manual would be to attach the brake calipers. Time to get out those lovely AP boxes! However, reading on a bit and you'll realise that you're actually better off taking time to do a geometry set-up as it's a lot easier to do with the calipers off. Consequently, I unpacked the rotors taking car to mark them on the rear with their respective sides (they're handed) and then bolted them to the hubs using three of the wheel nuts supplied with my beautiful billet wheels. That done, it's time to level the chassis and make a string box. Now, I'm lucky enough to have a flat-floor in my workshop so getting the chassis level was quite easy. However, take care as it's quite difficult to get an accurate left-right/front-back level as the chassis tubes on top aren't all at the same height. The most accurate measurements can be taken from the BOTTOM chassis rails as these are all flat and you can make sure that the left/right is level by measuring the hub centre distances to make sure that they're equal (they will differ front and back though so level them in pairs). Once this is done, you must set the brake rotors absoutely vertical with an accurate spirit level and set the steering rack dead-centre of it's left/right travel (lock off with mole grips). This will take some time at the front as the top of the hub tends to move outwards as you tighten the top link. Patience here will pay dividends later. Once this is done for front and rear rotors, you can set about making your string box. I used quite large box section steel as this has no distortion. After measuring the hub centre height at the front, I set the front rail at this height and aligned it's centrepoint with the centre of the chassis. The same process was taken at the rear and the measurements could then be taken. After more faffing around getting everything lined up, the adjustment is dead simple. The rear disks can be toe'd in/out with the hex bars on the rose-jointed toe-in adjuster and the fronts are aligned with the track rod ends on the steering rack. If you've taken your time and been careful you should have a geometry setup that's pretty damn close to what you'll eventually need.
So there you go, 8 days into the build and it can roll. Well, almost. The rear rotors foul on the hubs so they need grinding down, but it should be a straightforward job to put the calipers on after that. Back at work this week, so progress will suffer a bit, but, I'll be ploughing ahead in the evenings so keep watching. Cheers!
Unfortunately, I've not had a chance to make any more progress on the build side of things, however, I did make a quick trip to see Ted at the factory so that he could relieve me of more of my hard earned ;) Actually, I wanted to get his advice on engines, more specifically, the good, bad and downright ugly builders! Over the course of Ultima's existence, Ted has had engines built by almost every supplier in the UK. The long and short of this (without going into gory detail) is that I've decided to import one from the States - probably from American Speed who know Ultimas and will supply an immaculate engine (you wouldn't believe the state of some of them!) which will drop straight in. I'm still undecided on the power, but it will be 500bhp or more! I was a bit concerned that I had the standard rad. (there are two core options) but it turns out that I had the uprated one anyway, so that was cool. We then sat down and went through the list of bits that I still had to get. Gulp! The bodywork was ordered in blue (much to Ted's disgust ;) Ted's opinion on colour is much like Henry Ford's! I'll leave you to guess what he likes ;) Anyway, whilst the blue isn't the most flattering gel-coat colour (yellow looks best, then red then black) it will be a much better undercoat colour for my chromaflair paintwork as any stone chips will be less noticable. So I ordered all the remaining body stuff, engine bay bits, glass etc. which can be found on the price list as well as a few other things that don't appear like the dash covering, the front wheel brake vent kit (which opens up the apetures behind the front wheel arches), a dash binnacle for the Stack ST8130 instrumentation, the rear bulkhead carpet and a front splitter.
The factory have quite a lot of stuff available ex-stock, so I walked away (after paying of course!) with a pair of seats (alcontara), steering wheel and quick release boss, gear linkage, silicon hose kit (not included with the rad), gear knob, fuses/relays and some other bits. The fuel tanks had also arrived (missing from my original order) so I took those home too. Having got them home, I had a good look at what I'd bought. The seats are excellent. Far from cheap and to be honest, I was going to put some Sparco's in but apparently, they flex quite badly. The Ultima ones are extremely rigid, yet comfortable with adjustable lumbar support built in. You'll need to like the 'Fangio' driving position though as they appear very laid back. They do have runners though (extra) so there's some adjustment to be found. The Momo wheel is of a different design to those I have seen. It is lovely, but the price was a bit more than I thought. The quick release is a very neat unit. Ted isn't keen as he feels that some 'slop' can wear in over time, but I'd rather have one as it makes ingress into the car easier and is a great security feature. Not overly convinced about the gearknob though. Would like to have had an engraved h-gate pattern in the top rather than the plastic cap. Will have a better look later on. I can always return it if I decide to change it (I guess?).
Finally, after a quick gander at the silver demonstrator, it became clear why my brake rotors were fouling on the uprights. Not only are the rotors 'handed' left and right, but they're also front and back! I must have got the fronts on the rear and vise-versa as the fronts have a deeper bell. I'm sure that there was no marking on the box to denote which was which though so it's an honest mistake. Gave me an excuse to give Ted some grief though ;) So, brakes going on tonight and I can put the seat and wheel in to check the pedal positions and make the customary brummm-brummm noises. Later!
I was talking bollocks! Went down to the workshop briefly to change the rotors around and the boxes are clearly marked FRONT and REAR. So it's was me being a twat afterall - no change there ;) I started to dry fit the calipers to see how much shimming would be required. Not a lot is the answer, in fact, about 1mm as stated in the build manual. You need to remove the rotors to get caliper fixing bolts on though (through the lovely AP billet mounts). 3 of these were fine but the nearside front rotor - now on the correct end - is stuck firmly to the hub! After belting it with a rubber mallet and making no impression, I got the arse with it and went home before I ended up cracking the rotor itself. Don't work on the car if you're in a crappy mood - it will be expensive! I'm racing this weekend at Cadwell so not alot can be done to the Ultima which is incredibly frustrating. I hope to get some stuff done on Sunday so we'll see how it goes.