More progress, surely it can't last...

Managed lots of time on the build this weekend and made some good progress, only to be hindered later on Sunday (but that's the build process for you, i.e. you gotta take the rough with the smooth). First up was to make up all the oil pipes for the Accusump/Oil Cooler etc, this was far simpler this time round as we had already done all the fuel pipes. The pipes were cut as per Ultimas instructions using the methods described earlier and assembled. The joints were not tightened as this would affect the orientation once on the chassis. Once this was done the assembly was put to one side to be fitted later once the rest of the engine bay piping had been completed.
 

Next up was the Swirl Pot this is situated to the left hand side (passenger) of the engine bay on a aluminium bracket. It is connected by 2 silicone hoses and a joining section, this basically will give you the left/right orientation all you need to worry about is its height. The height is best determined by going as high as possible while still being able to access/undo the screw cap. This seemed to work out fine with the fuel pipe tank to tank link as it just touched the vertical silicone hose (so Ultima were right (sorry Dave)). The expansion tank was fitted next and this was orientated in the same left/right position with the height the same as the position of the cap on the swirl pot (this was with the help of a broom, spirit level, Dad and Chris Morris (in no particular order!)) . You need to align the tops of the caps as the brackets are quite different as are the tanks. The silicone pipe could now be connected up with the jubilee clips tightened and the pipe to the lower position of the swirl pot could be cut to length and connected up. The rest of the pipe was then connected to the upper connector of the swirl pot and was loomed in with the heater hoses and cable tied into position across the back of the bulkhead.

Finally the expansion tank overflow pipe could be fitted, I had to get a extra length from the factory midweek along with a length of pipe for the fuel filler overflows (this arrived next day even with a postal strike). The expansion over flow pipe was fitted using two p-clips behind the left side of the tank and was routed further to atmosphere. The fuel filler overflows were also routed into the corners to atmosphere. With the oil cooler/Accusump pipes now added I think I can say ‘engine bay complete and looking good’.

Next we decided to attack the front grills (with the next goal being the completion of the front canopy) and with Chris at hand with some good advice things should be simple. First up was the radiator grill this has to be shaped (bent/cut) into position, time to call in the expert (Dad!)… Some time later we had a fitting grill with one small problem, a large area of paint had come off the grill (mainly in the area where it had been bent). Lucky Chris was there with the calming words (don’t worry this is normal, you’ll need to respray it!). Respray we did (all of them including the front silver one) and true to form they looked as good as new. Finally on Saturday we wanted to get the main front grill into position ready for fitting, this required the drilling of three holes in the front canopy (scary I know). The grill was first centred in the aperture and the centre position found (this had to be adjusted slightly to ensure the bolt would go through one of the holes). This hole was then drilled and one either side, the holes were then countersunk to allow the bolts to sit flush. The two small grills were then moulded into position using some gloves as the edges have a tendency to get caught in your skin, ouch!. With all the grills now fitting and sprayed (but only one side) it was time to call it a day. Thanks to Mum for supplying the three of us with food and beverages throughout the day, it’s amazing how calming a good cuppa can be…

Sunday come and fuelled by the success of yesterday we decide to start on the front lights as it’s raining. Knowing that the indicators were a little more tricky than the others we tackled these first. These are a little more complex due to the fact that you have to rivet a bracket to the back of the indicator housing and this is complicated as the bracket fits almost diagonally into position to give you some meat to drill/screw into. I will give a better account of this in the next update as they have not been fitted as yet and I have no piccies. The reason for this is that we also knew the most of the apertures would need to be fettled a little (this was done with a flapper wheel on a drill) to get a good fit. It was during this process while trying to get the twin lamp into position that a small split appeared in the light cover housing (**** **** *********!). There was no real reason for this to happen but happen it did, so now a repair is the order of the day and both covers will then have to be resprayed). It was at this point it was time to throw the towel in…

Later this week I will be collecting more goodies from the boys at Ultima and priming them for when the ‘most important Ultima’ arrives at the factory first week in February…

Better get my ass in gear then...

...Dad!

P.S. It wasn't Valvoline, it was of course Pennzoil, oops!

Happy birthday to you...

Today the build is one year old and the end is clearly in site (well almost!), but that may be a bad thing as my father and I have enjoyed the build massively over the last 12 months. For anybody considering building an Ultima my advice is this...

DO IT, ENJOY IT, DRIVE IT!

On Thursday we made the now short trip up to the Ultima factory to collect the final parts of the build (more money, but I think that's it now, phew!). The main item on the list was the G50 gearbox (I have no idea what model/version it is and don't really care considering it's got a 12 month warranty). Other parts included rear wing (a must in my opinion), clutch assembly, stainless exhaust, rear canopy heat shielding and starter motor. Now I understand where some of this weight is coming from (or perhaps I need to get down the gym more often). While up at the factory I managed to grab a couple of snaps of the red track spec demonstrator (my fav), which still looks as good as I remember. Over a cuppa we had a good chat with Richard (Ted was busy doing the hard work... test drives, 'it's a tough life') and mentioned the problem we had fitting the front lights and the small split in the light housing. After discussing it with a couple of the other guys Richard concluded that they would sort the problem for me on the cars return (thanks guys!).

So Sunday arrives and we manage to get a few hours in, so what to do? We decide to carry on and try to fit the front lights as per normal to ensure that we can get everything up and running before we send it back to Ultima. Last we week we were in the process of fitting the indicators as these at first seem a little tricky as the body need to be drilled (yikees!). We first tackled the orientation of the bracket that fits to the back of the indicator housing. There is a notch in the rubber that is normally at the bottom of the lens. The indicator was then placed into the hole (a tight fit so it stays in position) with the notch facing UP (as the canopy is on the floor upside down). The bracket can then be positioned approximately for drilling the GRP (we just used a drill the same size as the hole in the bracket to make a mark). The bracket sits at an odd angle as can be seen on the build manual and here, this ensures that there is plenty of room to drill into (otherwise you could go right through the GRP (nasty!). With the bracket held in place temporarily we could mark it on the edge at the same position as the notch. This assembly could now be taken aside re-aligned on the bench and the hole positions for riveting the bracket to the indicator marked with a centre punch. You will then notice that the holes are VERY close to the edge so these were drilled with a 2.5mm drill first and then fettled (pulled if required) to 3.2mm with a needle file for a perfect rivet fit. The assembly was then riveted together. I am of the understanding that the recommended way (I may be wrong) is to then drill and tap the GRP for the required bolt. As we were not keen on this we actually used a extra small (5mm OD) rivnut, all we need to do now is to find some appropriate screws.

With all the lights ready for final fitment we decided to move on and do the grills before we final fitted the lights. The grills had been prepared and sprayed earlier (thanks Dad). First we did the small grills at the front and these were held in position by some tie wraps and a couple of pencils after adding a bead of goo underneath. A further bead was then built up all around the edge and then smoothed down with a finger or two (a finger/hand covered in WD-40 that is) works a treat. Next up was the main large front grill, it’s best to make sure that your screw line up with the furthest hole back you can get to in order to pull the grill close to the edge of the opening. With the screws and washers in position (no easy task, we used a hack saw blade with double sided tape to position each washer/nut) the other edge was bonded using the same technique. Lastly the curved radiator grill went into position using 3 rivets along the bottom edge. It’s a good idea to make sure you put the holes in the GRP in the positions of one of the gaps in the grill (otherwise it may all end in tears). This was duly done and the top edge was again bonded with more goo. When the front canopy was positioned back on the car you could see a small amount of the silver of the rivet holding the radiator grill in place. We think we will remove each rivet in turn and fit another that has been sprayed black and ensure we get a good fit. This should improve the overall look.

OK that’s it for now.

Home Improvement...

No Progress this weekend I'm afraid due to home improvement exercises (although looks like a bomb site now, maybe I should stick to cars).  That's the plan for this weekend, on Sunday we hope to complete the front lights and refit the front canopy.  From there it's on to the side windows and the helicopter vents (not looking forward to that).

Fingers crossed...

An 82mm Hole in a Window (you must be !£$%^&*)...

Windows, who needs ‘em? Unfortunately me is the answer and fitting them to the GTR has just taken the best part of a day. So what did we do and why did it take so long?

First we masked up the entire outside of the window to ensure that the screen didn’t get scratched. Once this was done we could mark the centre for the hole (for the helicopter vent), this was positioned 3” in from the front and bottom edges. Positioning is obviously not critical but you need to ensure that both side are at least the same. The hole was now cut using a 82mm (yikes!) hole saw (thanks Chris!). we positioned the screen on a block of wood and also some layers of bubble wrap. Drilling was a lot easier than I had expected utilising a nice slow speed on the cordless drill (thanks Geoff!). After this the edges of the holes were cleaned up using a small file, this should also prevent any cracks appearing when we try to insert the helicopter vents.

The vents look as if they were never gonna fit as they are indeed a tight fit. They were first placed in boiling water for about 5 mins in an attempt to make the more pliable. This seemed to work well as both were then fitted with relative ease.

Now the part of the day were the cursing and swearing starts. The edge of each side screen needs to be painted with an 18mm border using the etch primer supplied (sound easy enough, but it took us bloody ages). Ultima had kindly supplied some 6mm edging tape. Now the theory was that you apply 4 strips of this tape all around the edge of the screen and once this had been done the first three strips could be removed leaving a perfect 18mm border (yeah right). After some time I eventually threw my ‘toys out the pram’ and concluded that it was all crap! Time for someone with far more patience than me to have a go, Dad!, and have a go he did. In the end he did it all (damn good job too!). Apparently the secret seemed to be to utilise different sections of tape for the corners, as the tape has a tendency to lift if you try to go all the way round in one go. With the border now ready for painting it was time to make one final attempt (with a plastic thingy) to ensure all the tape was stuck down to ensure there would be no bleeding (trust me this is important).

So to the painting/etching of the side screens, this is done with the paint provided (red tin) and the strange ‘brush on a stick’ applicator, that actually works well enough. The most important tip here is use lots of paint (and when I say lots I mean LOTS!), as if you don’t you will be forced to try and retouch and that simply doe not seem to work. So get on thick and fast seems to be the approach, worked for us anyway…
The etching on the body is not so critical and was applied easily. The edging tape could now be removed to check for bleeding, there was only one small area that seemed to have bleed a little and this was scraped (carefully) off with a small piece of soft plastic.

The bonding agent supplied with the screen fitting kit could now be applied (damn hard work too, not to sure why). We applied a small but continuous bead al around, not wanting the glue to spread too much once the window was seated into position (check the window fits first!). The side screen were then placed into position and held in place (as tightly as possible) with more masking tape. All we have to do now it wait for it to set to see what it really looks like and that will be next week I’m afraid.

We did gets some other small jobs done, one of note is that the rivets holding the radiator grill in positioned were removed and replaced with painted black ones. As they were slightly visible in silver, we were pleased with the result. Some of the light have also gone in but more on that next time…