Before kicking of on the build this weekend I decided to add a couple more tools to the Toolbox as these would be required over the coming weeks...

This weekend I was determined to get lots done on the build and with the help of my father this wish became a reality. So let's start at the beginning, after fitting the radiator last weekend one job was still outstanding and that was to run the water pipes from the radiator to the engine bay. This setup consists of 2 pre-bent alloy pipes, 2 rubber hoses and a length of rubber hose for the radiator overflow. The 2 alloy pipes are fixed to the chassis using 4 pre-bent p-clips, these are then riveted to the main lower chassis rails (see below). Each pipe was dry fitted into place first to give the positioning of the p-clips on the chassis rails. The clips need to be riveted at the top to ensure a good grip (using the rubber provided) on the pipe. This is best done in situ (i.e. mark a line about 7.5mm down from the bottom of the 'P' and 7.5mm in from each side, centre punch and then clamp in place around the pipe, the 2 holes can then be drilled). The holes for riveting to the chassis can now be marked on the lower part of the clip and drilled (using a couple of skin pins to hold the p-clip in position). With all the holes deburred and the chassis Waxoyled the pipes can now be fitted into position. This is best done with the rubber connecting hoses in position. Special attention needs to be made regarding the position/orientation of the rear of the pipe (engine bay, drivers side) as it is close to the gear linkage uj, angling the pipe downward a little ensured a good clearance. The left pipe also has the overflow pipe clipped to it and where the pipe overlaps the clip a little rubber and Sikaflex is used to protect the pipe from chaffing (this can be seen in the build CD-ROM (pic)). Also as per the build a bung/blob (call it what you like) of Sikaflex is used to bridge the gaps (if small) between the alloy pipes and the chassis (pic) to prevent any chance of the two knocking. With the front jubilee-clips now tightened the job was done, time to move on to the heater kit.

As there is not a lot of info in the manual regarding the fitting of the heater kit, Ted sent me a few pictures for guidance, these can be seen below.

The pictures were great and basically showed exactly what was needed. The kit (pic) consisted mainly of an angle bracket, alloy plate, heater, cable and hoses. The bracket is positioned at 41.5mm from the inside of the front bulkhead as per the pictures supplied by Ultima. This bracket was cut down and mitred to fit the diagonal of the chassis. With this now in place the plate could be positioned and drilled. The top of the angle bracket also need to be drilled for the top holes for the heater itself these were marked in situ and then drilled accordingly. The plate could now be bolted temporarily to the angle bracket and the diagonals marked from underneath ready for drilling and riveting, this done the panel was riveted into position (centrally on the angle bracket). The heater was then bolted into place. The actuating cable was the fitted to the angle bracket on the drivers side of the heater itself. Finally the vent hoses were added, the water hoses and valve were to be added later.

After speaking to Andy at the factory he confirmed the positioning of the rose joint for the gear linkage and with this information we could now final fit it to the chassis. The positioning for the cockpit rose joints (i.e. the ones for the gear lever) were 30mm lower and 45mm upper. With this now set up the rest of the linkage was pinned into position and the rear mechanism was cable tied up out of the way to the rear of the chassis. This was a good job now completed as this had caused some major grief over the past few weeks. Next the brakes and brake they will from the look of the things...

So at last we get to open those lovely AP boxes, once open you can begin to appreciate where all those ££s went (pic). All the boxes are marked for front/rear & left/right so we opted to fit the front discs and callipers first. Fitting is relatively simple as you have a disc, calliper, mounting bracket, 4 bolts and washers per side. First the bracket is fixed to the upright using the 2 bolts, 4 washers/nuts and a little 'Loctite 262' (provided). The disc can the be placed onto the hub and positioned so that the calliper would sit centrally once positioned (otherwise you wont get the pads in). The calliper was then offered into position and held in place lightly with the bolts provided. The pads (be careful not to touch the braking surface if possible) could then be slotted into place and once happy the calliper could be bolted and Loctited into position, finally the anti rattle clip could be positioned and the job was done. The other side was also done with no problems.

Time was now running out so it was time to a call it a day, but a good deal had be done and we were happy with the results...

Not a very lengthy update this week as I only had one day of build time this weekend. The main aim was to run in the brake/clutch and battery cables as these needed to be clipped into place around the chassis. The routing is best discovered from all the available pics on the build CD-Rom. After looking at all the pics I could find I thought it best to start with the more complex side (passenger) as this involved the battery cable as well as all the brake lines front and rear. The actual procedure for doing this is quite straight forward the main aim being to make a tidy job.

First up was the brake pipe routing for the front bulkhead. The brake cable front and rear can be loomed together at this point for neatness (see pic). Once the front brake lines are in position the battery cable can be loomed in with the rear hose and you can start the run front to rear. All the routing was pre-fitted first to ensure that all terminations/junctions reached their appropriate positions within the chassis (most important) this was done with the use of the skin pins supplied for the aluminium panelling. Once routing had been established up to the 4 way connector (see pic) both the rear brake cable and the battery cable could be clipped/riveted into position.

Once this was done the 4 way connector could be fitted, the fluid sensor and the final 2 pipes left and right.  The left was just secured with one clip while the right needs to be routed under the engine bay to the other side, this can best be seen in the pictures below.

The bad news is that after fitting the 2 front brake pipes (left and right) it became apparent that one (right) was really a little short when the steering was on full lock, I also knew why (ooops!). When we fitted the brake master cylinders (front and rear) we unfortunately got them round the wrong way (one is slightly different to the other, easy honest!). But on first impressions it would appear that this would make little difference so long as the correct pipes were connected up. BUT the pipes supplied assume (quite rightly) that you have the cylinders the correct way round (i.e. the front cylinder (the bigger of the two) sits next to the accelerator and the rear cylinder sits next to the clutch cylinder. This results in the left hand pipe being a little long (no too much of a problem) and the right hand pipe being a little short (bigger problem). So after some discussions with Andy at Ultima we have decided that its best to swap the cylinders back (!!!). Although this will result in some additional work I want it to be right, so that's the next job then...

Hopefully this weekend we will get two full days build in, so tune in next week for the big update (fingers crossed)...

P.S. New GTR pics up on the Ultima website

So the time came to swap the brake master cylinders over (not a job I was looking forward to). So with due care and attention I began the process of removing the p-clips and beginning to un-loom the brakes pipes from the front bulkhead (this was the easy bit). With all the p-clips now removed and the connectors from the cylinders removed the pipes could be moved out of the way to allow access to the all important cylinders. The nuts and washers were removed and I gave the first cylinder a tug, not a lot of movement (no surprise there then). Not wanting to use any form of real leverage (i.e. screwdriver etc) due to potential panel damage I continued with the best tool for the job (my hands and a bit of brute force). This seemed to work a treat, once the seal was broken it was just a matter of wiggling and pulling the cylinder body, a couple of minutes saw the first cylinder removed (a lot easier than I had thought). The next cylinder was exactly the same (what a relief for everyone, well just me really)...

It was now time to clean up the cylinders and the mating surfaces so that they could be re-fitted/sealed into place. The SikaFlex is relatively soft and easy to remove as it peels/tares easily. With the cylinders now the correct way round (i.e. the cylinder marked with 7.5 (the other is 6.25) on the far right of the car), they could now be bolted back into place. The cylinders were now back in place and with no damage to the front bulkhead panel I was pleased with the result. The pipes we now re-loomed and p-cliped back into position with the main branch being supported with some cable ties (see pic). With the brake pipes now complete and the pipe lengths on each side looking a lot better I could turn my attention to the clutch pipe.

This is a straight forward run front to rear the only small problem here was that I seem to of run out of appropriate p-clips. A trip to the local Maplins sorted this as I returned with a couple of bags of 100 clips (6.4mm and 7.9mm). The 6.4mm were perfect for the job, although they were opaque in in colour unlike the black Ultima ones (but hey!). The latter part of the pipe run is a little more complex as it weaves its was in and around the chassis, but the routing (see below) can be seen clearly in the cd-rom manual pics (lets hope I've got it right then).

One quick final job for Saturday was to cover the radiator fan wires with some heat shrink sleeving and cable tie them in place neatly. The now covered wires are then fed through some blind grommets (25.4mm/1") in the lower supporting bracket (see pic). Again this can be seen in the cd-rom build manual (the pictures often tell far more than the words so it pays to study them carefully).  Also while I was in the area I also added the return bolt to the accelerator pedal, this prevents the pedal falling forward from the vertical.

On Sunday it was time to get on with the fitting of the rear discs and brake calipers not forgetting the separate Brembo handbrake calipers. First up a quick word of advise if you are currently building an Ultima and have not yet got to this point. DO NOT fit the rear calipers before you have fitted the handbrake caliper mounting bracket as it is impossible to do it afterwards (yes we found out the hard way, oops!). Now the rear discs, calipers and handbrake mounting brackets are straightforward enough, but the handbrake caliper assembly itself is a little more awkward...

The problem being is that it seems almost impossible to locate the caliper including the pads around the disc as the gap between the pads is just too small. But because the caliper has a non return mechanism the piston cannot be pushed back into the caliper housing. Now luckily I had been talking to Ultima previously (always a good idea, but maybe not as often as I do) and Andy had mentioned that if this was a problem then all you had to do was undo some thingy and then adjust some other widget and all would be fine (this is all I remember from the advise because as usual I had bombarded him with loads of questions, and forgotten half the answers!). But this is what we did, first you need to find a rare animal (a 4.5mm allen key that is) and we didn't have one surprise, surprise. The only place open on a Sunday that just might sell this sort of beast is the inevitable B&Q. So off to B&Q we went and no ordinary B&Q at that but 'B&Q Warehouse' and guess what out of the some 20+ combinations of allen keys and other combination sets they had not a sign of the said 4.5mm allen key (**** ** ******!). So as a last resort we returned to my fathers house in search of the mythical beast. Now the last place I expected to find a 4.5mm allen keys was lurking around rusting in the dark corner of a draw in my fathers garage. But I was to be pleasantly surprised for my father had hundreds of the things and after a quick bit of searching the beast was found (thanks Dad, years of collecting had finally paid off). Anyway I digress (slightly!) the reason that this key is needed is to undo the lug in the caliper that prevents the piston from rotating. As once this has been removed the end bolt can now be rotated and the piston pressed back into the housing. With this done the caliper was re-assembled and fitted to the car (hurrah!), the same process was followed for the other side.

Having spoken to Ultima today this was all a bit unnecessary as the pistons can be wound back in by twisting and pushing the mechanism at the same time with a pair of long nosed pliers...

Next up was the fitting of the steering wheel and after some debate we decided that we would fit the wheel using just two of the four bolts provided just in case the alignment was out after the steering had been set up. This was a straight forward enough task you just need to be sure that the boss fits centrally on the steering column as the plate on the column is slightly bigger than the boss.

Also we now have a deadline as Ultima will be collecting my chassis on Friday 4th April. Ultima will be carrying out a full body fit and not a body pre-fit this will ensure that the body will not need to be removed again once it returns to us. Also this will mean that my chassis/body assembly will be on show at the factory open day of the 27th April. So I hope we made a good job of it so far...

Until next time, James.

Just a quick note to say that there will be no update tonight (Monday) as I have managed to wangle some time off work and want to finish the build (ready for body fit) tomorrow.  There will however be a full update tomorrow (tuesday), see you then...

Stage 1 Build Complete...

Wow what a weekend and an elongated one at that as we needed an extra couple of days to get things finished off, and finish we did. This is the story of how 20 weeks work comes to a close (for the time being).

The main focus for the weekend was the fitting of the side pods (luggage containers) and the fitting of the wiring loom. First up was the side pods and we tackled the right side first as it should be easier (chicken!). The right hand side pod has to be modified to allow the accelerator cable to run through it, normally the air con pipes would also run through the pods, but we have opted not to fit air con thus making the job a little easier. The pods as they come will not fit into place as they foul on the water pipes, a small cut-out (x2) on the top outer edge of the pods rectifies this problem as it allows the outer flanges to be bent inward. With this done the pod can be offered into position, at this point it also becomes clear that you will need to allow and extra bit of play to allow for the welds. We also made a cut-out around the main front roll bar support as we did for the side panels. If you want to fold the edges over the chassis rails (as before) you will need to run a hack-saw down the inner corners (about 15mm – 20mm) to allow the panel to bend.
It was now time to add the holes for the accelerator cable to pass through. We positioned the cable just below the inner access rail so that the cable could not be seen through the access panel (fitted later). The cable was fitted into place with a few p-clips and an appropriate rubber grommet was used each end of the box. We could now mark and drill the rivet holes around the edge of the pod (be careful as not all of them will be central to the chassis member, and take note that the pod should not sit above the top chassis rail as a closure panel needs to sit flush later). The holes could now be transferred to the chassis (not the bent flanges though) with the use of some skin-pins to support the pod in position. With all the holes drilled, deburred and Wax-Oyled the pod could be fixed into position with some Sika-Flex and rivets. The bent flanges could be bent back into position and the chassis drilled and riveted. Once again the pod sides could be fettled into the contours of the chassis rails with a hammer and some soft wood. One down one more to go.

The next side pod was similar but unfortunately we came across a problem (a big one, ooops!). The problem is that on the other side the radiator overflow pipe runs along the top of the main water pipe and this was preventing the side pod from fitting. So we removed the cable ties from the pipe and tried again but still no joy as the main water pipe on this side of the car was higher than the other (****!). The answer was simple but the job was going to be time consuming, but we had to sort it.

So we removed the pipe completely and refitted it with the front support (p-clip) being some 10mm-15mm lower (see pic). With this done we could pre-fit the left hand side pod. The principles are the same here apart that the heater send and return pipes also run through the pod along with the actuating cable. We decided to cut a shape for the two heater pipes rather than a slot as we thought it would be neater, a hole for the actuating cable also needs to be made (see pic). The pod was then fitted as before along with the two supporting p-clips for the hoses, not forgetting the heater valve itself. This was then connected up by shorting the cable (it was a little long) and wrapping the end around the actuating arm and adding a couple of washers and a split pin to prevent it from coming off. We also added a small piece of foam between the valve and the pod side to prevent any vibration. Both side pods were now in place at last and a good job done well.

A quick note regarding the positioning of the side pods in the chassis. Out of the box the side pods position themselves forward in the space, but should be positioned back forcing you to cut a different slot in the top of the pod to allow for this. Having spoke to Andy he has confirmed that in the grand scheme of things it makes little difference and is a hang up of the old ‘Sport’ days (this is soon to be rectified by Ultima).

Next up the loom, as you can see a daunting task. It is very difficult to give a description of fitting the loom, all I can say is that the more pictures you can lay your hands on the better. The main thing is to try and establish a few reference points (i.e. fix the loom to the chassis at as many points as you can, assuming you know them to be correct). The first major one is where the main dash loom branches this can be positioned at the end of the main dash rail where all the other chassis rails join. This will give a good starting point as the branch splits into front and rear branches soon after. The other is that the main rear branch braches into four as is hits the engine bay, this branch should be positioned in the bottom left corner of the engine bay. The rest is best said with the piccies…

Also while I was in the engine bay area I routed the handbrake cables and connected them. Also the battery cable was further routed within the chassis as per pics in the cd-rom (see pic).

Once again this wouldn't of been possible without the help of my father for that I thank him (THANKS!)

So that’s it then all done, this weekend I will be labelling the dash area of the loom and giving the chassis a final check over before collection by Ultima on Friday 4th. Next week I will post some pictures of the completed rolling chassis, until then…

  This is what we started with...

So the last weekend of build prior to body fit is upon us and all is looking good. The weekend was mainly spent fettling/playing call it what you will. One job that was still to be done was to label all of the terminations on the loom, hopefully this would make life a little simpler later in the build. Thanks to Nigel 'Detail' Dean of 'Which Kit' for the idea of using a printed copy of the Ultima Wiring document to form the labels and thanks to my wife Annette who made them all up for me.

With some 88 labels in hand I set about labelling up the loom. The task proved far easier than I had expected mainly due to the order in which I tackled the task and that once you've found one connection all the others should be found further along the loom (i.e. it is identified sequentially). I started at the beginning (1 LH Headlamp Hi/Lo Beam), this can be found at the front of the loom beyond the two front plugs. It's just a case of working you're way back from there, this will get you as far as (19 Brake Fluid Level Warning Switch), at this point as the loom moves into the dashboard area I decided to employ the same Idea but working from the back. This will take you from (82 RH Indicator/Rear Fog Lamp (Reverse Lamp(USA)) through to (58 LH Fuel Pump), 83 -88 were not used as they seemed obvious. This should leave you with 38 labels, these should now be found in and around the dash area. After a little searching all the wires had been labelled up, the last real job had been completed.

Sunday was just spent farting about checking, cleaning and tiding up some of the loose cables and pipes. After this it was deemed that no more work could be done, so after some 21 weeks of weekend work the first milestone had been achieved. So the dolly was wheeled out of the garage for the final pics before the body goes on...

This what we have now...

The chassis is being collected on Friday morning so the next update will be then. I will then be up at Ultima on Saturday morning for a quick chat/piccies and then off to Donington Park for the kick off of the British GT Championship with Annette. Hope to bring another update on Monday from both Ultima and Donington, until then...