Right, just a quick entry today to give some intersting facts, well, interesting to me anyway. If you've been reading regularly, then you'll know that I've got a 383 supercharged Chevy going into my Ultima. Well, the good news is that I've had a chance to dig out the dyno sheet from the packaging. It was supposed to produce 600hp and 580ft/lbs of torque, the good news is that it's acutally pumping out a maximum of 629.3bhp and a whopping 614.6ft-Lbs of torque!!! Do you think it'll be fast enough? :)
At last, some decent time to spend on the car! Apologies for the lack of updates but I've been busy building - which is the point after all :) Anyway, lots to update so here goes. First job of the day was to finish plumbing in the fire extinguisher. I'm a bit of a stickler for finish detail, so I wanted to get the pipe bends as accurate as possible. A bit of experimentation on some offcuts quickly showed that bending the aluminium tubing by hand was out of the question. The trouble is, for a tight right angled bend (like those needed to get from the extinguisher tank nozzle to the luggage pod ledge) the tubing deforms, constricting the flow of foam. Not a lot of use as the extinguishing foam would never get to the output nozzles!! So another approach was needed. A trip to a local motor factors (after trying Halfwits - or Halfords as it says on the sign outside) revealed the tool that I needed. A pipe bender. Whilst common enough for brake pipes which have a smaller diameter, this one had a replacable bending wheel which could accomodate the ally pipe and would bend it whilst retaining its cross-section - fantastic. The only issue was that it tended to scratch up the pipework quite a bit, but, by wrapping the section to be bent in PVC tape, I got a neat bend without damaging the pipe. The only other thing to ensure was that the pipe cuts were done without ovalling the end of the pipe (otherwise the nozzles would leak). A small pipe cutter which I had was just the job, so all that was left to do was to work out the pipe runs (sounds simple, but wasn't!) and position the spray nozzles. In the end, I went for a front/rear system which put three nozzles in the engine bay - one on either side of the exhaust header positions and one facing forward at the rear above the transaxle - and three in the cockpit - two facing forward under the dashboard rail and one which loops upward around the rollbar from the gearlever position and faces rearwards towards the driver/passenger's heads. This seemed to give the best overall distribution of foam and made the most of the pipe lengths. I also made sure that they wouldn't be fouled by anything else later on (like the engine!) as 'denting' the pipe would have the same ill effect as constricting them. Fitting them was a bit tricky, especially the long sections from the luggage pod where they pass out of the ends, as the tortuous twists and turns of the pipes (which I'd pre-bent) made life difficult. Still, before long (3 hours!) everything was in place and p-clipped to the chassis rails.
At this stage, some friends turned up to give me a hand to move then engine from storage. I was concerned that it was getting a bit damp where it was, so to avoid any corrosion, either internally or externally, I decided to move it home to live in my hallway!!! Of course, this is all just a poor excuse so that I can drool over it every day as I come and go ;) but it does make a great hatstand!
That done (thanks Karly, Pepperpot and Stu), I had to leg it over to fellow GTR owner (a finished one though) - Guy Thompsons - to collect the brake vent kit templates that Ultima had kindly sent down. Guy had a bit of a coming together with a large branch that had fallen into the road resulting in a rather second hand looking bonnet :( So, a new one was promptly dispatched from Ultima who were quick to respond (as usual) to get Guy back on the road. So it was that I tagged onto his delivery to save a trip to Hinckley. Guy and I had a chat about how best to go about fitting them as he also has the vent kit. It looked as if the templates indicate the position of the holes that have to be made in the sidepod so that you can fit the vent itself. Either way, it looked like a bit of a brown-trouser job as I'd have to cut the sidepods to get them in - gulp. A job for tomorrow methinks!!!
Well, not a great deal of time to be spent in the workshop today as I wasn't keen to go jumping in to chopping up the sidepods. So, instead, I decided to finish prefitting them. The factory had already done an excellent job of prefitting the bodywork, so all that was left to do was to skinpin the sidepods back into their locating holes and drill along the underside (the top will come later after I've fitted the cill covers). Now the front of the sidepods overlap the aluminium floor which already has rivets running along the chassis rail. I think the usual method is to just over-rivet these but, I preferred to drill out the original rivets and laboriously mark the original rivet positions onto the bottom of the sidepod so that I could use the original holes. What made this rather pointless was that I'd already decided that a rivet spacing of 60mm was ample for the lower rail so whereas I was using the original holes to avoid over-rivetting, there would actually be a rivet underneath the GRP of the sidepod between 'its' fixing rivets. Still, the resulting gap (because the GRP wouldn't sit dead flush against the ally floor) would be filled with sikaflex anyway. Besides, the thickness of the GRP varies slightly. Anyway, I'm blathering and have started to bore myself with this meaningless detail!!! :)
Suffice to say, that after applying masking tape to the sidepod base, holes were drilled through into the chassis in the same way that was used for the ally panelling (ie. use skin pins frequently and move along) but at 60mm intervals. This resulted in the rearmost rivet being in exactly the right place below the vertical flange which was more luck than judgement! This was done for both sides and was made considerably easier by the chassis being on the dolly which allowed me to work underneath it on a crawler. I certainly wouldn't fancy trying it with the car on axle stands!! Once both sides were ready for final rivetting, they were removed in readiness for the butchering that was to take place tomorrow - gulp!!
Woohoo! Holiday so I had the luxury of a WHOLE DAY in the workshop - bliss. Well, except that the sodding mobile kept ringing. There's no escape from work after all :( Enough of that trivia, the plan for today had me waking up in a cold sweat I can tell you (well, almost). It was time to stop procrastinating and crack on with the fitting of the sidepod brake vents.
As I mentioned earlier, the vents consist of a single piece of GRP with a large, finished flange that attaches to the wheelarch face of the sidepod and a flange which requires trimming to fit onto the 'back' of the 'scoop' in the sidepod. Make sense? Thought not :) Here's how to do it:
First, identify the left/right template pairs (which is simple 'cos their marked clearly by the factory!) and work out which vent is left and which is right. Apply a good covering of masking tape (the wider the better) to the sidepods approximately where the holes are to be made. A double layer won't go amiss and will protect the finished gelcoat from stray file strokes etc. Slide the templates into position on the sidepod making sure that the return flanges on them are tight against the bodywork. Secure these into position with strong tape.
Once happy that everything is in place properly, use the template to mark out where you need to cut the holes on the masking tape. Now the templates can be removed and set aside. Now the fun bit - NOT!
Using various tank cutters, cut holes in the corners of the apeture positions which will allow you to then trim away the rest of the material. To cut away the bulk of the GRP that's left, I found the best tool for the job was a Dremel type, although even better is a 'Fein' which cuts using a vibrating cutter instead of a rotating one. Still, I didn't have one so it was out with the Dremel allowing a couple of millimeters all the way round to allow for final fitting.
Next up, you need to trim away the excess GRP on the scoop side of the vent itself. There's quite a bit of material here but it's left on in order that you can get a good match between the vent and the hole that you've made in the scoop. You have a choice here, either you can trim right back to the mold line on the vent and trim the scoop apeture in the sidepod to fit, or (and preferably in my opinion), use a combination of trimming both the vent and the sidepod to get a good fit between the two. Whilst the bulk of the material can be removed with the Dremel, use a good file and plenty of elbow grease for finer fitting.
Now that you've got the vent 'roughly' into position, you need to define a datum point, otherwise everytime you remove the vent for trimming, it will be a nightmare to reposition. Use the wheelarch side (which needs no trimming at all on either the vent or the sidepod) to get a good all-round fit of the flange. You'll find this is a bit tricky until you're quite close to a final fit for the vent, as it will be a bit too deep and will prevent you from flush fitting the wheelarch flange against the GRP. So once you're within about 2mm, drill carefully through the vent into the sidepod and secure with a skinpin. At first, only use one on the innermost edge. As you get closer to the final fit, you can fit more. I ended up with three. Now that you've got a consistent position for the vent, gradually trim the vent/sidepod until you've got a good all round fit. This is pretty time consuming to say the least (allow 3 hours or more per vent). Once you're happy with the vent fit (it still won't be perfect) you can use GRP filler to mate the two surfaces together smoothly. Before doing this however, I sprayed the vents with stonechip paint as I could then finally secure them to the sidepod with rivets and a bead of sikaflex. I could also seal the inside edges properly as the sidepods are not yet fitted to the chassis (retrofitting the kit would preclude this to a greater extent).
Once the stonechip paint was dry, I could sand back the area between the vent and sidepod (there was a slight ridge here) and fill/file/sand smooth taking care not to mark the surrounding gelcoat. As my GRP is blue and the vents are black, I decided to 'blend' the transition between the two in the scoop using stonechip paint. This area will also pick up debris thrown up from the tyre so it makes sense to protect it. After masking a suitable area, I simply sprayed it in. The end result looks great and is well worth patience getting it right. Phew! Time for a stiff drink :)
So, significant progress at last. Well, it seemed that way to me. I could FINALLY fit the sidepods :) Well - almost.... The passage of the heater/aircon pipes through the luggage pods had been bugging me. I'd gone to great pains to heat insulate the pods themselves, but if the pipes could radiate heat inside them, well, I'd just be holding the heat in!!! So, the solution was to lag the pipes. You can buy pipe lagging sleeves but they're horrendously expensive for what they are, so, with some offcuts of aluminised fibreglass matting and metal tape, I made up some sleeves. These were wrapped around the pipes and secured with tape and cable ties. Not only should they do the job - they look the dogs danglies too! :)
That done, I could FINALLY, yes that's a final FINALLY, fit the sidepods. So I did ;) The right side was a bit of a pain as the rearmost vertical flange has a packer behind it so even the extra-long rivets that the factory supply for this purpose struggled to get a grip. A couple of attempts later I got it done. I found it easier to apply sikaflex to the chassis and then fit the pod as you don't get it all over the place as you position the pod on the chassis rails. Once each was in position, it was rivetted securely with the long rivets. Job done - at last!!!!
This also meant that I could finally secure the fuel tanks too. I had already drilled into the rear mounting flanges on the tanks and had fitted rivnuts (dunno why I used these - I just did!). Now everything was in place, I fixed masking tape in an approximate position on the wheel side and drilled a 1mm pilot hole through the rivnuts into the sidepod from the tank side - does this make sense? Then, I could widen the holes from the wheel side in exactly the right place for the cap-head bolts, which in turn, secure it all together through the fuel tank rivnuts.
That done, I could crack on with fitting the sidepod sill covers. These are fixed at the rear of the front wheelarch to protect the coolant pipes etc. from the elements - more specifically: water. I found a cardboard template was a good place to start to work out the positions of the slots that need to be cut as the position of the coolant pipe varies from car to car. This was the usual process of measure, trim, re-measure, re-trim etc.etc. until you get a good fit. Once again, the Dremel was the tool of choice for this.
By this time, I was running out of steam and it was time to call it a night. Pleased with my progress, I have to interrupt it for a few days due to business commitments. Still, with no more interruptions after that, it's full steam ahead with the rest of the build with at least 7 days of solid work on the car. Can't wait!
No more interruptions - pah, famous last words. Anyway, down to business. First job of the day was to finish off the sidepod covers which I'd made a start on. You need to trim away a surprising amount of material to get these to fit well and it takes longer than you think! I started off with a cardboard template, but this only gives half the story as the cutouts change (get deeper) as you fit the cover, as it sits at an angle. The cover has a flange on the bottom, which overlaps the lower chassis rail and the sidepod. I didn't like it this way, so trimmed it back so that the cover and sidepod sit edge to edge where they meet underneath the car. Final job was to drill a hole for the aircon drain tube. I preferred to put it in the cover than through the sidepod floor!!!
Fixing them into place required drilling out some of the existing floor rivets underneath the car, but again, I preferred to do it this way rather than over-rivetting them. I decided to spray them in stonechip paint too, as it leaves a good finish. Once dry, a bead of sikaflex to keep things watertight along the lower chassis rail and you can fit the cover from underneath - only. This is as far as you can go though as final fitting takes place once the cockpit is on. As an aside, I had some rubber split tube left over from the luggage pods (used to stop the hoses from chafing) and used it to do the same job on the pod covers. The end result looks good and should prevent damage to the braided lines and battery cable.
That all done, it was time to tack the sill covers. More on this tomorrow.
Sunday 15th December
I didn't have a huge amount of time to work on the sill covers, but made progress nonetheless. First job is to identify which is left and which is right!! Take care as the only way to tell is rivet 'flange' at the outer edge. Basically, the covers have a raised flange which sandwiches the edge of the sidepod GRP so that you can rivet through both once the body is ready for final fit. Ironically, whilst the covers had protective film on them, it was attached to the underside! Still, the chaps at the factory had taken great care to wrap them carefully, so the polished face was unmarked. Wanting to keep them this way for as long as possible, I covered the entire face with gaffer tape (duck tape) as it's more durable than masking tape especially when there's sharp tools around. Next up, I made a cardboard template. To get the correct position for the sill cover, you need to align the hole in it with the chassis frame in the sidepod, so that when the carbon fibre cover is dropped in, it rests on the chassis rails. That said, check the overlap with the cockpit sides as if there's too much, when you come to bend the cover over the rail into the cockpit, it will overlap which would be no good thing. I found that having the edge of the sill cover aligned with the edge of the existing cockpit side panel gave the result I was after. Once you're happy with the template, it's the usual case of nibble a bit, file a bit, trial fit, trim some more etc. until it neatly wraps around the chassis rails and welds. These are the most visible panels in the car so it's well worth taking time over!! That done, you can mark for drilling. Take care again to match the existing rivet positions inside the cockpit along the top sides where they meet the sill covers and match the inside/outside edges of the covers too (30mm spacing all round). You don't need to drill all the way along the outer edge as some of it is covered by the cockpit section of the body - allow about 100mm at the front and 50mm at the rear but check against your cockpit to be sure. Labour intensive stuff, still, by this time you should all be expert ally panel fitters!:)
This work continued through into Monday, taking up most of the morning. One job I forgot to mention yesterday, was that before fitting the sill covers, you need to fix the hoop frames to them (these are sadnwiched between the cover and the chassis rails to stop the panel from flexing). Just run a THIN bead of sikaflex around the hoop and clamp into place an allow to cure. Make sure that the hoop doesn't protrude into the hole otherwise you won't be able to get the carbon luggage pod covers in! Once done, run a bead of sikaflex (I had to break into my second tube of the build at this point - I was gutted ;) along the cockpit side chassis rail and the rails at either end of the sill cover. DO NOT sikaflex along the outside edge as you cannot rivet this into place until the body is final fit. I stripped away the gaffer tape along the rivet line before inserting them and then carefully rivetted the cover into position. Watch out for bouncing rivet gun syndrome at this point 'cos you don't want a big scratch in that nice polished ally do you?
That job done, I could start to concentrate on the cockpit section (finally!). First job was to get my head around the electronics, starting with my replacement indicator switches. So, it's off to Maplins I go!
Had to do Christmas-type-stuff yesterday, so it's on with the work today. As I mentioned, the next job is to define all the positions of the instrumentation and switches for the dash so that I can cut it all out ready for the alcontara trim. I wanted to do this off the car as to my mind, the trimming will be easier this way (he says!). Basically, I first made a list of everything that had to be included:
So what's a steering wheel interface you ask? Well, those with good memories will know that I've decided to mount the indicator switches on the steering wheel rather than the chrome toggle supplied. Also, the wheel centre is a horn switch. However, my wheel is mounted to a quick release boss. So, this leaves me with two problems. Firstly, the switches that I've got are non-locking (so I'd have to hold them down to activate the indicators - not an option) and second, what happens to the cabling when the wheel is removed? Well, here's how I solved it.
The first issue was resolved very simply, by replacing the switches. A trip to a local Maplins store revealed an ideal switch, which was a rocker type but also round. In fact, it was only 2mm wider in diameter than the originals so a quick buzz of the stepped drill bits and the job's a good'un! :) They look great too. The next problem required some more inventive thinking. I had been thinking along the lines of a curly cable 'umbilical' which could be plugged into the dash and then removed with the wheel. Fine, except getting hold of multi-core curly cable wasn't possible and I needed at least 5 connections. Arse! A trip to my local B&Q to get some Dremel bits gave me the inspiration I needed. Whilst browsing the electrical section, I spied a curly PC keyboard extension (about 400mm long which was ideal) with a PS/2 type mini-DIN connector. AHA! Back to Maplins to buy a 6-pin mini-DIN chassis mount and the problem seemed solved :) :) :) So, today was spent stripping back the keyboard extension insultation sheath to find 6 minature cores which needed to be soldered to the left/right indicators and horn. It's bloody fiddly work, but with daytime TV on it seemed to take no time at all ;) Everything was soldered, heat shrinked and tested and to my disbelief - works! So, I can now plug in my steering wheel to the dashboard 'interface' and work the indicators and horn from the wheel. Nice!!! The only thing that remains is the fuel switchover, but I'm trying to get my head round this one.
Now that I knew what I needed hole-wise, I set about marking up the dash for the desired layout. The Stack pod and binnacle went in first. The binnacle is great and fits perfectly. It's remarkable how little material needs to be removed in comparison to the central one that's supplied with the factory dial kit. However, before you go chopping into things make sure you check what's behind the hole you're making got that? - good :)
All the switches and relevant gubbins was given a home after much procrastination, you're best off looking at the picture that I've included which shows all the relevant measurements. One final point, I found the best way of accurately cutting out the holes was with a Dremel type took and flexible shaft. I didn't have the shaft which is why I went to B&Q. I thought that they were about 14 quid from memory but alas they had none anyway. However, what they did have was a tool, stand, flexishaft and about 50 bits for 29.99! Bargain, so now I've got two Dremels - anyone wanna buy one? :)
Well patient viewers, apologies for the slackness in getting this update to the site but my, what an eventful Christmas!
Enough of that for the time being. It's time to rack my brain and remember what took place and when to update you all on my progress. Today I set about preparing some of the electrical bits and pieces that needed to be in place in order to be able to fit the cockpit instruments. First up, in addition to the FIA kill switch (necessary for competition use in my GTR road/track hybrid) I wanted to fit an engine start button. Well, it's got to be done hasn't it! Ultima have sensibly made provision for this in the loom (more of this later), but I still had some wiring to resolve. The simplest way to fit an engine start button is to use one of the black ones that Ultima supply. Just cut the red/white wire in the loom for this purpose and wire the the button in-line, with the red/white wire one one terminal and the brown (permanent live!) to the other. Then just hop in and press the button and hey-presto - the engine fires up. Now, this may have been a quirk of my loom, or to do with the way I tested it (I use a 9 volt battery in place of the car battery to test for continuity etc.), but the Brown wire was permanent live - even with the ignition off? Odd, I thought, with the net result that the car could be started without having a key in it - not good! It seemed that the brown was taking its feed from the permanent live for the radio (should one be fitted) to power the clock/memory etc. Anyway the solution, if this is the case, is simple. Just cut the red/white wire where the button will be (centre of the dash) and instead of connecting it to terminal '3' of the ignition switch, run it from '4' which Ultima mark as being for 'ancilliaries'. So, the ignition is used to switch the live to the starter button and the button is used to power the starter motor and so start the car.
As I mentioned earlier, I have an FIA kill switch. This differs to the cheapo kill switches in that in addition to cutting the battery supply, it also cuts the coil feed so that the engine can't run on the alternator. Whilst I'd always intended to fit one, I'd never really considered the positioning of it nor the wiring. So, I had the battery cable going to the starter motor and the loom +ve feeds in the usual position just behind the battery. Now, the FIA kill switch takes the feed from the battery through the switch, which then runs back to the starter motor and electrical system. This meant that I had to make a loop from the battery position to the switch itself. It would have been a bit easier if I had run the starter motor cable down the right hand side of the car alongside the clutch pipe, but then again, I'd have still had to run a live return back to the +ve connection to the main loom which sits behind the battery - so maybe it made no odds. I measured the runs and had a local auto-electrical supplier make them up as they need a monster crimper! Once I'd p-clipped them in place I found one to be a bit long, but I didn't fancy chopping the end as I couldn't remake the crimp, so it just loops back on itself to the junction of the loom +ve and starter motor feeds. The FIA switches are pretty consistent in their design, but check the instructions supplied for wiring. I've shown how mine fits in the the diagram above.
But that would be too simple wouldn't it :) A car like the GTR needs a decent button and thanks to Honda it was gonna get it! The S2000 comes fitted with the button in question (Honda part no. 35881-S2A-911). A nice chrome surround houses a big red button with 'Engine Start' (logically) on it so that over-eager passengers aren't tempted to press it to see 'what it does'! It's backlit too so the whole package looks very neat. Unlike the price however, 52 quid! So there you go, Ultimas are cheaper than Hondas - well, the buttons at least ;) The next job was to figure out how to wire it into my ignition loom. Needless to say, that the button itself isn't very industrial (read plastic) so carrying a large current for any length of time would result in a waste of 50 quid pretty sharpish - so running the button via a relay is a must. Now, the Ultima loom takes this into account anyway with the standard transmission setup, but after fiddling about with it I thought it safest to dedicate a relay to the button anyway. I won't bore you with the wiring details as they can be seen in the diagram below. Once I'd made all the connections (I crimp, solder, recrimp and heatshrink every one!) I could make up the relevant hole in the dash. It pays to have a decent set of bimetal tank-cutters when making any large holes. I got mine from a local DIY store for a tenner and they've been invaluable for my build projects. That done, I spent a whole lot of time working out and making the sub-loom connections for the Stack - but more of that later.
At this point, I was beginning to dither. I had to make sure that every conceivable hole was drilled in the dash before I applied the alcontara. So, to give me time to think I cracked on with a couple of odd jobs that needed doing which would be made harder once the cockpit was fitted.
Firstly, I decided to fit the passenger panic... I mean, foot plate. There are several designs available, but I went for a fairly sturdy one (if perforated aluminium panelling can be called sturdy) from TAS which is available through Demon Tweeks, amongst others, for about 11 quid plus VAT. It's basically an inverted 'V' shape with flanges for rivets to fix it to the floor. I wanted to fit the rest as far forward against the front bulkhead as possible, in fact, re-using the rivet holes that run left to right along the floor at its' foremost point. However, I wanted the rear of the rest to be almost vertical (for strength and space saving) so you're stuck for space to get the rivet gun in. The solution is simple enough, drill out the old rivets at the front of the cockpit floor and pre-drill the footrest mounting flange to match (simple if you've used a rivet jig). Then, flatten the footrest slightly by pulling the two ends of the 'V' apart, place over the original rivet holes and line up, then fix with new rivets (at the back of the footrest). Finally, fold then ends together again and fix at the front of the rest plate. It's a bit tricky to get spot on, but I got it with a bit of effort. The rivets in the front even line up with those of the original double-skin diagonal :) I used 4.8mm rivets for the front fixings as I wanted to use a wider than 30mm rivet spacing whilst retaining strength. See the pics and the labels for a better idea of how to do it.
That done, it was finally time to fit the seats. Well, position the runner mounting holes really, as it's a pain working under the dashboard with the seats in position and the cockpit on. First step was to fit the runners to the seats (use the cap headed set screws for this - the bolts are to mount the runner to the cockpit floor) taking care to get them the right way round/up (see pic) and position them so that the seat is in it's rearmost position of adjustment. Next, put some masking tape down on the cockpit floor in the approximate position of the runners. Position the seat in the cockpit allowing a little gap between the back of the seat and the rollcage. Position left/right so that the gearchange and handbrake lever are accessible by hand and don't get fouled. Mark the position of the runners on the cockpit floor on the tape. Now the tricky part. Remove the seat and carefully measure the runner mount centres and translate these to the masking tape on the cockpit floor. It is essential that they are at right angles to each other, or else the seat will sit 'twisted' and the runners may bind. Measure the holes corner to corner to ensure that everything's square. Then, simply drill out the mounting holes and de-burr. Repeat the procedure for the passenger side (a bit easier as there's more left/right room to play with) and you're ready to refit the seats later on.
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Now that I'd had some time away from it, I realised that I'd still got a couple of holes to drill in the dash. Firstly the screen vents. Now, the installation of the Stack dash pod means that you're very tight for space on the drivers side between the pod housing and the screen edge. Working out a position is made harder when the cockpit is off the car as you need to consider what's behind the point where you're drilling (this goes for all the instrumentation). So, to save temporarily fitting the cockpit and then removing again (I was on my own in the workshop so this wasn't possible for the moment) I made up a cardboard template to make sure I could get the hoses to the vents and nothing else got fouled up. That done, it was out with the largest tank cutter (still too small) and finish off with the Dremel. To make marking the vent positions easier, you'll find that the lower flange is about the same size as the inner edge of a large roll of masking tape! I would have liked to get the vents a bit further towards the front of the screen, but it's impossible unless you're happy for them to be non-symetrical (I'm not!) as the aircon blower takes most of the space available, but these are basically in the only possible position with an offset pod.
That left just two more holes. I'd remembered late last night to fit a cigarette lighter. Not because I smoke, but because it's a useful power outlet for mobile phones, GPS, radar detectors and the like. My local auto electrical supplier had a great one - very neat and illuminated too. Ultima kindly supply a loom feed for just this purpose so wiring it up was dead easy. However, before to committing to it's position, I had to decide on a position for the fire extinguisher pull cable. This was more tricky than it sounds as I wanted it somewhere to hand (for obvious reasons) yet not easily caught by items of clothing/getting in and out etc. and finally, out of reach of a passenger's inquisitive fingers! After thinking long and hard, I decided that the only practical place was between the starter button and the steering wheel. This presented another issue in that the rear of the pull toggle goes back a long way (like the starter button) and risks fouling the aircon unit behind the dash. Some careful measuring got it between two of the aircon blower pipes, so I took a measurement for the cigarette lighter which was equidistant on the other side of the starter button and cut the relevant holes. That was it, I had no excuse now to avoid trimming the cockpit and fitting it - gulp! Actually, I had one, I had to paint underside with good old stonechip (great coverage and seal). So last job of the day was to mask it up and spray it in readiness of trimming tomorrow - Christmas eve!
Well, today's the day and not one I'm looking forward to. Ironic on Christmas eve. Thankfully I had Hels to help me as the next jobs are quite fiddly. I decided to tackle the rear carpet first. It's quite thick and heavy and so isn't the easiest thing to position. I found that it was best to put it in place with the cockpit inverted (as it was for spraying), then mark reference points on it and the cockpit with a bit of masking tape. However, to glue the thing up (with the impact adhesive supplied by Ultima) it's easier to do it with the cockpit the right way up! Whilst the build CD showed the top half, then the bottom being clued up, I though it safer to just glue up the top 200mm or so (before the 'ledge' in the bulkhead) and then work down. Impact adhesive does what it says, you basically get one shot at the position as it can't be moved once in place, although, it is possible to carefully peel it off if you get it wrong as long as you've not glued up the whole lot! If you do have to remove it, you'll have to reglue it and try again. The registration marks in masking tape proved their worth and we got it in first go! :) Gluing up and working down the whole lot was damn near spot on. It's pretty smelly stuff so make sure you apply it in a well ventilated area otherwise you'll find yourself listening to Hendrix albumns, hugging trees and calling everyone 'man' ;) Rather than trimming the lower left/right edges where they sit on the sidepod sills, I resolved to fold them back under the cockpit which is neater and fills the gap nicely without 'raising' the rear of the cockpit by any significant degree.
So, the easy bit done. Next - the dash! Well, after making sure that all the switches, lights and instruments fit that is. Actually, it's not as bad as it may seem. There's a new section on the latest version of the build CD dedicated to it, but I didn't follow it verbatim ;) I decided to start with the Stack pod, as any mistake here wouldn't be too horrendous to rectify. I found that the material was nice and stretchy, allowing you to cover complex curves with little or no creasing. The pod was an ideal test piece and looked fantastic. So onto the dash! As with the carpet, rather than gluing up the whole thing at once - dash and alcontara - just glue up a strip about 50mm wide along the stitched seam. Basically, if you can get this right then the rest is much easier. I found that stretching out the seam a little (to keep it nice and straight) whilst carefully lining up the centremarks on the trim & dash was easiest. Once I was happy with that (1st time luckily), glue up the top section and fix into place, then concentrate on the dash face and returns on the sides. The factory does this all with the cockpit in place - madness! - but that only comes with the experience of doing hundreds of them. I'd strongly suggest doing it with the cockpit off the car where you can't goop up the rollcage etc. Also, you can wrap the alcontara under the whole lower edge of the dash and the sides, which would be impossible with the cockpit fitted as the sides sit on the sill covers. With some helping hands to tape the bits I wasn't working on out of the way, I carefully made my way around the sides taking great care not to get a crease or fold in the material. I wish I had more photo's of the process but it was too hands-on to take any! Anyway, take your time and you'll be fine. The end result was, well, excellent if I dare say so myself! I'd been dreading doing this as a cockup would trash the covering, but in the end, all was well :) Just the holes to cut now and the whole lot can finally go back on the car - woohoo!!!
Well, I expect I feel like you lot - hungover and too much excess! ;) Still, it's been a great Christmas made more so when I finally got around to proposing to my long suffering girlfriend Helen. Good job she said yes otherwise I'd be after alternative help down the workshop ;)
Onto today's business. Now that the worst of the trimming was over, it was time to cut out the instrument holes. Now alcontara is odd stuff. The benefits are that it won't shrink, fade and is hardwearing but the downer is that it will dull a blade in about 2 seconds flat! I used surgical scalpel blades for the job which are extremely accurate for fine work (like the warning lamps) but don't last long. I got through about 10 blades! I would have used less but I couldn't find my wetstone. Once everything was cut out, the windscreen wiper motor was fitted (no great task but note that the 15mm measurement shown on the build CD is the amount that the smaller stud protrudes above the bodywork) and the cockpit was put back on the car (thanks Mart!). Rather than committing to fitting it straight away, it was left resting on the dash rails so that I could gain easier access to the wiring. Then came the process of connecting everything up. As I'd labelled all the connections and made sure male/female connectors were in the right places (as my setup is non-standard) it was all straightforward enough. My only oversight was that the the Stack short loom couldn't reach the activation switches! This was my fault as I had thought the connector on the back of the Stack was the other way round which took about 200mm of the 400mm available going the wrong way! 4 pairs of extensions were made and everything was fine (if not yet tested!!). The Stack guage itself was fitted to the pod after modifying the mounting brackets (see pic).
A word now about installing the Stack ST8130P. You have two options before you start: firstly, to use the Stack loom and run it alongside the Ultima one, alternatively, to utilise the exitsintg Ultima loom and splice into it at the dash end. In order to save countless wires hanging around the engine bay (not to mention that the Ultima loom was all neatly fixed and to do the same with the Stack would now be impossible as the luggage pods had long since been fitted) I opted for the latter. The Stack has measurement for, and was mated with:
| Measurement | Taken from: | Sender |
| Speed | Stack loom | Stack wheel sensor |
| RPM | Ultima Tacho connection | Coil |
| Water temperature | Ultima water temp. guage connection | Stack inline temp. sender |
| Oil pressure | Ultima oil pressure guage connection | Stack pressure sender |
| Oil temperature | Utilised Ultima G50 speedo wiring | Stack temperature sender |
| Fuel pressure | Stack loom wiring | Stack pressure sender |
| Fuel level | Ultima fuel pump/guage switch connections | Ultima fuel senders |
| Battery level | From original loom +ve & -ve | Dash wiring |
So most of the sender feeds could be taken from the original Ultima loom with the exception of the Oil Temperature, for which I used the Ultima loom's speedo feed (the Stack uses a wheel sender for speed measurement) and the Fuel pressure for which I ran the extended Stack loom (about 2m of wire is provided) back through the driver's side luggage pod, as it was only one wire and fitted hidden away behind the aircon pipes. I made up a steel bracket for the wheel speed sender and mounted it to the offside front hub, where it would monitor the passage of the bolts that hold the brake rotor to the mounting bell (as they're ferrous). The gap between the sender and the nut heads was set at about 1.5mm ready for testing.
Once all the connections were made the cockpit was fitted properly into place ready for rivetting. So what does it look like? Well, see for yourselves :)
So finally I could fix the cockpit into place. I had to laboriously drill out and measure all the holes along the front bulkhead to re-use them, but it was worth it. I had to use 30mm spacing, not 60mm as I did at the sides and rear as it would have left an odd gap on the left side near the battery cables.
Once everything was drilled and rivetted, I could seal up the sidepod covers. Now here's a tip to do it neatly. First, mask up the seams that you need to seal. Next, smear sikaflex - sparingly! - along these seams keeping only a thin film overlapping the masking tape. Allow the sikaflex to half cure and then remove the tape (if left to cure you'll get thin 'ribbons' of sikaflex where it overlaps the tape). A very neat finish can be achieved this way. I had to prop the covers back a bit with some scrap metal strip that I had lying around to get a good tight seal. Sikaflex is a sealant NOT a filler!!!!
Last job of the day (and a long one at that), now that the cockpit was finally in position, was to treat myself by actually BOLTING something to the car! :) The fuel fillers to be precise. Not a particularly tricky task, just make sure that they're both oriented the same way (mine say Ultima towards the rear), drill and fit. Make sure that you remember to fit the cork washer below the filler plate and fix the funnel from below before inserting the countersunk allen-headed set screws and securing them with the nyloc nuts from below. Check the filler neck vent orientation making sure that it allows you to fit an extension tube.
That's it - I'm knackered!
So finally I can move on (a bit). In order to get a bit more room in the workshop - as well as it being logical - I started work on the bonnet, or front 'clip' as some refer to it. First job was to mask and spray the underside in a good rubberised stonechip paint. I'll add more coats to the wheelarches but this was enough to get me going on the lights. I'd forgotten what a beautifully sculpted bit of kit this was!
Anyway, that done I could move onto the lights. First up are the indicators. The indicators first have to be mounted to backing plates, oriented so that they're level when fixed into the pre-formed GRP mold in the bonnet. The easiest way to achieve this, is to print out the image supplied on the build CD and match the hole positions to the left and right indicators respectively (they are different). Making a template will confirm your measurements and when you're happy with the hole positions, carefully drill for long shank rivets and fix the indicators to the backing plates making sure that they are the right way up ('Top' is stamped on the lens). To fit them, I had to widen the holes in the GRP headlight mold a bit, but nothing too drastic. A Dremel sanding bit on a flexishaft is ideal for this. Once you can get them in, you need to make sure that they're level when viewed from the front and then drill holes from the rear for rivnuts, which allow you to secure them with cap headed set screws provided. Simple enough.
Next up, the driving lamps. These again required some 'fettling' to get a good fit. Three of the mounting holes are occupied by cap headed set screws using pieces of rubber tube between the mounting plate and the GRP mold to allow adjustment of the beam direction. The fourth, is occupied by the longer of the two threaded rods supplied. Epoxy this into place and screw hand tight against the rivnut and leave to cure, as this serves as one of the mounting posts for the headlight inner covers. Finally, the hi-beam pair. Whilst the left hand side went in with no trouble, the right was a pig, as one of the mounting rivnuts in the GRP headlight housing was too far out to line up with the mounting plate hole. I ended up having to drill it out, fill with resin and bond a new one into place. What with waiting for the resin to cure this took far more time than it should but hey, it happens.
So whilst I waited for the new rivnut to bond, I set about fitting the splitter. This comes with a range of fitting plates which were a bit bewildering at first, but soon made sense. The plates are tapped for the countersunk set screws, which screw in from beneath, so as to sit flush against the bottom surface of the splitter. The long plate sits in the centre and the short ones along the sides - whereas the furthest ends have no plates and simply bolt in place with the nylocs and washers provided. The rear of the central section is attached with tapped aluminium bobbins that are sandwiched between the GRP and the splitter. They bolt from above through the apeture for the radiator and from below through the splitter. Cover the lower front lip of the GRP with masking tape from wheelarch to wheelarch and then position the splitter until you're happy that the pre-drilled holes overlap the GRP lip enough to drill through (the factory may now leave more of a lip to work with as mine is only about 20mm wide) and are equidistant between the wheelarches. Then, drill the GRP ready for the mounting plates. Because the lip was so small on my GRP, I had to cut the mounting plates in half lengthways so that they would line up with the holes in the splitter/GRP. Finally, the two rivnuts supplied are for the long brackets which brace the rear of the splitter to the moulded GRP strengthening brace under the bonnet (that the hanging mounts are set into). That's as far as I've got for now as I've had to spray the splitter ready for mounting. After that, well, we're into the prefit of the engine!!
