First a couple of pics from the FIA GT Championship at  Donnington.  They don't do the day any justice but gives some idea of what was on track (for a 3 hour race too!).

So onto the build then; the weekend started badly when I went to collect my Ultima parts (Stack dash etc) from the courier knowing that they were open from 8:00am in the morning.  Unfortunately they failed to tell me that they then shut at 11:00am (Damn, blast etc).  So come Sunday it was time to think of something else to do and we decided that the first order of the day would be to fit the Mocal oil cooler.  Positioning of the cooler is not obvious at first although there are some good pictures on the build CD-ROM.  The cooler is supported a small distance (5mm ish) above the left hand fuel tank, held in place with two bolts with spacers (through the rear of the wheel arch) and a supporting bracket attached to the chassis diagonal cross rail.  Unfortunately the spacers seemed to be missing so we utilised a couple of rivnuts that appeared to do the job admirably (see pic).  The holes in the wheel arch were then transposed to the bracket on the side of the cooler (supplied by Ultima, good fit too).  With the cooler now positioned at the rear we could begin to locate the bracket on the chassis rail, this will depend on individual positioning and the length of the spacers.  But with a bit of head scratching etc it was positioned and all the holes drilled.  Note the two connecting pipes on the top of the cooler (the right angled one sits at the rear, the highly angled one at the front to clear the body by the rear canopy catch), make sure you leave enough clearance for these.

The bottom of the cooler was then covered with a strip of expanding foam and the cooler was bolted into position.  While in the vicinity we also connecter the electric valve for the Accusump system.  All we need to do next is work out where all the braided fuel and oil pipes go and we'll be done.

Ok so what's next, let's have a look at these lovely fuel pumps...
This was a far easier job than we first thought, first up was the positioning of the aluminium brackets that support the fuel pumps (having their own brackets also).  The brackets are positioned on either side of the engine bay at about the midway point (see pic).  A few rivets needed to be removed to help the positioning of the brackets but some holes were reused where feasible.  The pumps themselves are attached to their own brackets via the combination of the nuts and washers shown below (from the bottom up).  The pump bracket connects to the pump via three rubber grommets (supplied) to reduce noise.  The whole assembly was built and the brackets were riveted into position on both sides of the chassis.  As for connecting the pumps up to their respective electrical supplies, I am a little confused as the wires just hang on either side of the rear bulkhead (strange!, more news on that as I get it).

So that's if for this weeks update, more to come next week, stay tuned...

First up is an update to last weeks post:
 
The fuel pumps have a direction arrow indicator on them, so the pump should be installed in opposite directions to each other see new pic. Also I have received a tip (thanks Ted), to cut 25mm off the end of your petrol filler hose, the end that fits to the tank. This will remove the kink and make the car easier to fill with petrol (see pic). Finally despite what it may say on the build CD-Rom you do not need to fit a separate fuel gauge if you're fitting a Stack dash, the fuel pump/tank setup is also the same as normal. You should be able to just connect the Stack gauge to the fuel change over switch on the dash.

Before we could start on the dash covering a few final holes still needed to be drilled.  These were 4 holes for the operation of the Stack dash and 1 hole for the electric mirror control.  These were all placed to the right of the dash where Ultima usually fit all of the rocker switches.

With the above jobs out of the way (thanks Dad!) it was time for the scariest job of all, to start on the dash covering. I had chosen alcontara for my GTR and had been told that this was a little easier to work with, we were just about to find out. On Sunday we had budgeted a full 12 hour day for the job (although we knew that we were also to receive a visitor in the shape of Chris Morris a fellow GTR builder).

At 8:00am we started by sanding down the Stack pod housing ready for the messy contact adhesive. After looking at what alcontara we had to fit (one shaped piece & a small flat rectangular piece) it was apparent we had no idea of really how to fit this (gulp!). This is because the seam on the shaped section bears little resemblance to the shape of the binnacle. The reason for this is in fact that this is the same piece that is fitted to the standard Ultima Dash binnacle (there is no Stack specific piece), so some adaptation was going to be required. First we fitted the small piece of alcontara to the lower section of the Stack binnacle as the other piece was not really going to cover this area. Once this was done we glued up a 2" area on the seam (both the binnacle and alcontara) and began to stick the seam into place all around the binnacle, it is most important that the seam remains in the same plane all around the binnacle edge. This was not meant to be easy, as later when gluing the top section into place we found that we had too much material and were beginning to suffer from creasing (not what you want!). A quick re-think was the order of the day and the solution was to not have the seam running down the sides of the binnacle, but to allow them to blend into the corners at the bottom of the triangular section (sounds crazy I know, but looks good, even Chris seemed to agree). This enabled the top section to be smoothed out flat with no creases. After a quick tidy up of all the corners and edges and the task was complete and we felt that it looked good too (what a relief!, now for the even harder part)...

So next up was the dash itself, surely this was going to be a nightmare. After ensuring the dash had been keyed with some medium Wet 'n Dry in preparation for the contact adhesive we marked a centre line both on the dash and on the alcontara. We planned to use the same technique, to glue up a 2" wide strip on both the dash and the alcontara and affix this to the dash first. As this seams straightness was of utmost importance we had to get this right. Luckily we had two people on the job at the same time and this definitely helped as one of us could hold the other area out of the way as one was being positioned. Getting the seam perfectly straight is not easy and many attempts were made (yes you can pull it back off if you're not happy, you may want to add a little more glue though), stretching of the seam was the best way to ensure a good uniform horizontal strip. After about 5 mins we had a perfect seam running the entire length of the dash (well chuffed!). After gluing up the top of the dash this was then smoothed into place by working out from the centre in a fan type shape until the edges were reached (this worked well!). The edges were trimmed down a little leaving around 10-15mm and this was then glued and tucked down between the dash and the body (carefully) with the blunt edge of a knife (this also went well, so far so good). Next up was the dash face this was going to be a little more complex, gluing the face was easy enough but the area above the side pods was going to be a bit of a problem. By losing the bolts (see pic) holding the body to the pod we enabled a small gap to develop but unfortunately this only ran as far as the main front roll bar/chassis intersection where we were left with no gap to tuck the alcontara under (**** ** ****!). So the material was cut at that point into position with a scalpel leaving just a little to force (carefully!) into the corner. Once this was done the bolts were tightened back up and any excess alcontara was removed. Job done and in the end we are happy (the dash itself was easier than you would think). Tip of the day is get that seam in position first and work the rest from there (it worked for us!).

So next week we hope to start fitting some of that lovely switchgear etc to the dash, laters...
 

We get most of the switchgear on...

But not wired up; Sunday started early at about 9:00 and the aim of the day was mainly to get the Stack dash into position and then as much of the switchgear into place as possible.  First up though is the easy job of cutting the holes in the alcontara.  This, believe it or not, is a ****** nightmare even with the use of surgical scalpel blades and somewhere in the region of twenty of them (yes 20!).  You're facing two problems, the first is the fact that cutting the material is a bit like trying to cut sponge, i.e. it just tend to deform when you try and cut it and this is made worse by the second problem.  Alcontara seems (I know it sounds daft) to blunt scalpel blades for a past time, as I said we use approximately twenty (well, dad did, he did most of the work as he'd started even earlier).  With the holes cut, the Stack dash hole edge was tucked and glued up underneath to ensure a good edge.  The dash was offered into position and with a little persuasion fitted beautifully, this was then secured into position with the retaining locknut and a good size washer.  The main loom plug was then secured to the back of the dash and it was time to start thinking about the additional four Stack control switches.

The switches come with a variety of accessories (different surrounds, rubber switch covers etc), we went for the standard switches with the chrome type surround.  Now amazingly enough the ****** wires from the loom to the switches were too short (typical) and after chasing around Bristol for appropriate wire, terminals and tools they were wired up and fixed into position.  While in the vicinity we also fitted the ignition barrel (still looks a little close to that gear change!).  The warning lamps were fitted next these were simple enough, except for the fact that I have opted for just one indicator warning lamp (saving weight and all!, hehehe). So the left and right cables were both wired to the same lamp.  My special indicator switch was then fitted and wired up and as I thought looks a lot better on than off (it should also flash!).  The fuel change over switch was positioned just temporarily, this is the switch that will cause me the most grief as it will require the addition of a couple of relays as it is only a single pole switch (talk about creating work for yourself).

At last it was time to crack those lovely switches that I had sourced (some of the especially made).  Again we fell foul of the wires are too short, on the loom this time, as the loom is designed for the switches to be placed on the right hand side of the dash.  The wires were lengthened and the first switch was placed into position, the wiring a little more complex due to the switches being back lit by an LED.  Time was now unfortunately in short supply so we decided to fit the rest of the switches to see what the overall effect was going to look like.

The switches from left to right and top to bottom are as follows; side lights, dipped beam, main beam, rear fog light, hazards, wiper, washer, fan & brake test switch.  With the steering wheel positioned back in place the overall effect was almost there.  One word of caution is that the right hand air vent is very close to the main beam warning lamp so be careful.  The wiring for the rest of the switches, started button and the electric mirror switch are all jobs for next weekend, so that's it for now...

Remote control...

Saturday comes and once again an early start sees me at my father's for around 9:00am ish, with additional wiring cable and numerous relays in hand. The task of the day was to try and wire up as much of the dash as possible. Cheating we decided to go for the easy stuff first. Having spoken to Dave (thanks!) at Ultima during the week regarding the wiring we planned to connect up the 'Engine Start' button first, but ooops!, we had only drilled a round hole in the dash and the button housing isn't round (we had forgotten to open it out). With the dash now covered this was a little more awkward than normal, but with a bit of fettling with a file or two the switch was in position (well done dad!). The switch is a little awkward in design and has no retaining mechanism, maybe something will have to be done about that at a later stage. If I understood Dave correctly the best way to wire up the switch is to disconnect the 'White & Red' wire from the ignition barrel (if you don't want to start the engine on the key) and wire up 'no.32 Start Button' as per the wiring diagram on the build CD-Rom. This requires you to cut the 'White & Red' loop of wire and connect both sides to positive side of the switch and the brown wire to the other. This already is wired through a relay so no additional relay should be required. I understand that the button is also backlit and I plan to connect this up to the 'no.56 Radio, Red & Black' illumination wire, this should illuminate the switch when the side lights are switched on (fingers crossed!).

The Door mirror switch was much simpler and could be connected up as per the wiring instructions. I have only wired up the main switch at the moment but later two feeds have to be taken up to the mirror motors themselves. There is a diagram of this on the build CD-Rom and Ultima have also sent me another on paper. IF you find that on the diagram the colours of the wires are not matching up (as I did) you should be fine just following the pin numbers themselves (thanks again Dave!).

So it was time to get back to the main set of switches having only wired up the brake test switch so far. Next up was the fan switch and having only a push button switch (on/off) I could only have one fan speed so we opted for high speed for the moment. Next was the washer switch this was easy enough although the wires needed to be extended (as did most of the others). Next was the wiper itself this was also a two pole switch and as such we couldn't seem to work out its operation (obviously we would only be able to have one speed), it was decided to leave this until later (chickens!). It was at this point we ran out of small spade connectors (typical), so off to B&Q and guess what, none. Next was Maplins and guess what, none!, BUT thanks to probably the most helpful guy I've met in years we found a solution to the horn problem (i.e. I have buttons on the steering wheel). Not wanting any unsightly wire hanging around the wheel, a transmitter/receiver system was needed and Maplins had just the answer (see pic). This would allow the transmitter (key fob) to be installed inside the boss of the wheel and transmit a signal to the receiver up under the dash which in turn would active the wiring for the horn (sorted we hope). We then found some connectors in Halfords of all places although we had to buy ten packs of four (so they are good for something).

Now with some connectors in hand we could continue and next up was the hazards (too complex for the mo so again we moved on). Rear fog was simple enough as was the switch for main beam, this was also wired to the main beam warning lamp so the switch would stay lit (blue) while the main beam was on. Lastly the lights and again here Ultima use one switch so I have two, these were wired up as per Dave's instructions (different Dave, Geoff's dad, more thanks (what would I do without all this help)) so hopefully these will be fine. Before the day was over we had a chance to test the remote horn which looked like it would be perfect for the job.  Also having spoken to Andy today I'm pleased to report that the boys at Ultima will help me as much as they can to ensure the passes its SVA even though I've made some relatively serious changes to the dash (thanks guys!).  And before I sign off best of luck to Chris who should be receiving his monstrous 7.00 ltr V8 in the next couple of weeks, can't wait to see/hear the beast.

So that's it and for some time to come I'm afraid as I'm of on my hols for a while, next update should be on the 25th August. Thanks for tuning in until then, bon voyage...