I'm sure I remember saying that I'd make lots of progress this weekend? Well, I didn't. In fact, due to too much partying and not enough working, the only thing I managed to achieve was to final fit the passenger side luggage pod! Most of the time was spent on deciding on pipe routing for the extinguisher in order to drill out the holes in the right places and insert the relevant grommets. I'd pre-drilled all the rivet holes, so out came the sikaflex and rivets to fix it into place. Check that the luggage box doesn't extend above the sill level otherwise the sill plate won't sit flush. I had to trim one end of the box a bit to achieve this. With the luggage pod in place, I could fit the heater shut-off valve. It's a simple enough affair. Start by drilling a small hole in the valve actuation lever pin (that the cable attaches to), I'll explain why later. The cable has to be cut down as it's way too long to start with. The armoured sheath is a bugger to cut, so you may have to persevere with the snips to get through it. To get the right length, route the cable into the luggage pod with a nice smooth arc from the rear of the heater control panel. This will reduce the friction inside the cable sheath and make operation of the valve easier. Switch the valve to the 'Off' position towards the rear of the car and cut the cable about 100mm oversize. Pull the cable back through some way with the heater control pull so that you can trim the sheath to size without damaging the core wire. Then, push the wire back through and wrap it around the heater valve pin. The cable core is solid and is bloody strong! So you'll have to give it some with the pliers to get it wrapped around a few turns. Once I'd done this, I could stop the wrapped portion from falling off (not that this was likely given the stiffness in the cable) by inserting a split pin (I didn't have any R-clips small enough). Job done.
A Very quick entry to say that my engine is now in the country and will be delivered on Thursday!!! :) Gail at American Speed made getting it here a doddle. As a private importer (if you're VAT registered it's even simpler), I simply needed to apply for a Pseudo TURN number (for HM Customs). This was just a simple case of filling out a faxable application form which was sent to me by SBS Worldwide, who are the shipping agent that Gail uses. That done, the customs duty is worked out (roughly 5.5% or the declared value of the goods) and VAT on top of that. Then, you can either pick up the crate yourself (from your local airport) of get them to deliver it. I'm only about 40 minutes from Heathrow and given the size and weight of the crate, it was only realistic to get them to deliver on a van with a taillift. So, I'll be out with the crowbar and the camera on Thursday and hopefully, I'll get a chance to post some pics here! In all, it add's about £650 to the cost of the engine which isn't bad considering how far it's come!
Well - it's arrived! Safely stashed in another garage (so that pikey Guy Thompson doesn't sabotage it), is my mega-engine. The specs? Well, it's a 383 cubic inch (that's 6.3 litre) smallblock Chevy, made from a 1972 block to avoid having to fit CATs. That beatiful lump on the top is THE SUPERCHARGER!!! Yup, if you're gonna have one, 'ave a big'un as my mates would say. Power-wise, we're looking at 600hp @ 5900 rpm and 580ft/lbs or torque @ 4500 rpm!! That's about enough to stop the world from rotating, or to ruffle a strip of tarmac like a carpet on a polished floor :) The engine (on it's cradle) is strapped down to a pallet with steel straps and has heavy duty cardboard around it. A bag keeps the moisture at bay. Needless to say, this was all removed pretty sharpish so I could have a good look at my (ahem) investment.
I think the pictures say it all. It's not an engine, it's automotive porn!! I dunno whether to put it in the car or keep it on display in my front room :) Actually, I do know. It's going to be a while before I can get it in the car as work has become really busy meaning quite a bit of time out of the country. Still, I'll be trying to get stuff done between trips so stay tuned! BBBBRRRRAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWPPPPPPP!!!!!!!
Well, doesn't time fly when you're working :( It's usual for work to become incredibly busy this time of year, but it doens't make it any easier when I'd rather be down the workshop! Anyway, after a nightmare of a week in Rome, my idea of R&R is to get going with the Ultima. It took me a while to get my bearings regarding what needed doing - namely, finish the luggage containers, underseal the sidepods and the fuel tanks.
However, there was another job that also needed doing to save some aggravation later on. The gear lever positioning (it's distance from the cockpit side panel) is based on the measurements I gave earlier (30mm for the lower and 45mm for the upper rosejoints from the chassis panel to the rosejoint centrline - se pic) but, until you've got the engine and gearbox in place where you can test it. Basically, I wanted the maximum amount of left-rigt deflection of the gearlever, to ensure I would be able to engage all 5 gears and reverse, once the 'box was in place. I'd fitted the rosejoints that hold the gearlever in place with a single nut to space it off from the side of the chassis panel, with another locking nut on the luggage pod side. The problem is, once you fit the driver's side luggage container, you can't get to the top rosejoint locknut. The solution, was simply to remove the locknut and use it on the cockpit side, to space the rosejoint off a bit further from the panel. I used the 'double-nut' because it looks better than having a load of rosejoint shaft thread showing on the cockpit side. The net result was far more lateral movement of the gearlever, and, if it's not enough, I can wind out the rosejoint a bit more as there's no locknut on the reverse side - simple eh!?
Next up, was the task of fitting the bonnet and boot (that's hood and trunk for our US cousins) releases. Basically, a pair sit at the front of the luggage container for the front release and likewise, another pair sit at the back for the rear. Simple stuff really. Just make sure you get the holes positioned so that the releases don't foul each other. With mine, a gap of 70mm between hole centres was fine. I positioned them 60mm down from the top of the container and 60mm/150mm in from the inside edge. Make sure that the holes that you drill will not foul the cable on the diagonal chassis rail in front/behind the container! Additionally, make sure the the rear cable releases will not interfere with the off-side fuel tank when fitted. The cables terminate in a solid shaft which can foul the top of the tank. Drill 14mm holes with a stepped drill bit and simply thread the cables through and lock with the locking washer and nut supplied. As I'm preparing my GTR for alternative use on the racetrack, I also fitted an FIA electrical cut-out and the remote brake bias adjuster (out of the way of fiddling hands in the cockpit by 'curious' passengers!). I made sure that the electrical cut-out was positioned such that a remote activator could be fitted later on without difficulty. Basically, the switch sits at a 3'o'clock position when active and is deactivated but turning anti-clockwise to 12'o'clock. So an activation cable could be fitted, mounted from the top of the container (making sure it doesn't foul the front bonnet/hood releases). The brake bias adjuster position was determined by the chassis rail diagonal in front of the container, whilst remaining in line with the kill-switch. A big hole and 4 rivets and voila - job done.
Now that the side containers were fixed into place (with sikaflex and rivets of course), I noticed that the heater cables have a tendency to 'sag' a little as they pass through the containers. The addition of a P-clip at the midway point allowed me to neatly cable-tie the pipes to the chassis, taking out the sag and making it all that much neater. Whilst I was busy fitting all this gubbins, Hels had been busy masking up the sidepods ready for sealing with stonechip paint. She did a grand job and they look great. Of course, the other bonus is that they won't smell so bad and the soft surface of the paint should give a little protection against crazing which GRP is prone to (despite being of such a high quality). Those done - I just needed to surface protect the fuel tanks and the sidepods could be final fitted - blimey!!!
So the last job of the day was to mask up the fuel tanks ready for spraying paying special attention to the threads for the fuel line take-offs and the holes for the filler neck and fuel level sender. I decided to etch-prime the tanks before applying the stonechip protection as it gives a far better key for the paint. Use U-Pol etch primer. It's not that easy to come by and costs about 15 quid, but, it's good stuff and gives a great primed finish. That done, it was a simple case of spraying on the black stuff. The end result looked great, so I bubble-wrapped them up again, ready to be fitted to the chassis. Ran out of time at this point and it may be 2 weeks before I get any more done, due to more work commitments. Still, I might be able to squeeze in a day on it this week with luck!
Well, after what seems an age, I finally made it down to the workshop to make some progress. The plan was to fit the fuel tanks and finish the odd jobs that were stopping me from final fitting the sidepods. After that comes the cockpit and the car's appearance will change quite dramatically again.
Fitting the tanks is a relatively straightforward affair. Start by fitting the threaded s/steel rod to the chassis with a nut on either side of the mounting plate to lock it into position. The factory provides normal nuts and washers for this purpose, but I replaced the nuts at either end with nylocs as a 'just in case'. Leave a thread or two protruding from the nyloc nut, add a washer and drop it through the top mount plate on the chassis outrigger to the rear of the luggage pod. Spin on a nut and washer onto the lower portion of the rod and tighten against the top nut to 'lock' the rod into position. Next, spin on another nut onto the bottow of the rod leaving about 50mm of thread showing. Now the tank can be offered into position. Take care not to scrape off the protective sealant that you've painted onto the tanks. As explained in the manual, the tanks are held in place by the s/steel rod at the front and the mounting flanges on the inner edge which will be rivetted to the lower chassis rail in the engine bay. However, before you can define the final position for the tank, you need to replace the sidepod. Otherwise, you may find that you fit them too far back meaning that you can't get the sidepod on! Once happy with the position, drill the mounting flanges through into the chassis (secure with skin pins along the way) and remove the sidepod and tank. Note: it's a lot easier to do this with the gear linkage removed otherwise you will have trouble getting access to the offside tank mounting flanges.
Now that you're happy with the position of the tank, it's ready to have the foam tape applied (follow the build CD for positioning of the foam tape). Additionally, the foam wedges can be fitted to the sidepods with impact adhesive. The 'thick' end of the wedge fits against the rear of the sidepod with the straight edge against the tank. See pic for details. You'll find this a lot easier to do AFTER you've finalised the position of the tanks as the foam is quite dense and is hard to compress which makes temporary positioning of the sidepod that much harder. You may need to add a piece of foam tape to the sidepod itself toward the front edge of the fuel tank as the gap between the tank base and the GRP is too wide for a single piece of foam tape to fill.
Seeing as the tanks were now almost ready to go in, I fitted the VDO fuel level sendors. It's CRITICAL that you remove the small pin from the base of the sendor units at this stage otherwise they won't work. VDO wisely tape over this pin with a warning label, but, it's worth checking that the pin is removed in case the tape has fallen off or wasn't applied as it's a complete pain to remove the sendor once the fuel tank has been fitted.
Tanks pre-fitted, all that remained for me to do before I could final fit the sidepods was to finish fitting the brake bias cable. This runs from the front edge of the driver's luggage pod and into the footwell. I drilled a hole at a midpoint between the brake pedal's minimum and maximum travel positions (to minimise movement of the end of the cable) at the same height as the bias bar (about 90mm). Then it was just a simple case of securing it to the chassis with p-clips and attaching the end to the brake bias bar. It works a treat. The rotation is fairly stiff as the p-clips which secure it are a little tight, but I'm actually happier with this setup as it stops the system from self adjusting! (although, there's a locking pin behind the know that serves this purpose too). The main thing is, it works and I've still got full travel of the accelerator pedal.
