Body prep...

Saturday 4^th June 2005:

Somewhat bleary eyed (Charlie likes his breakfast at 5am!), at least an early start meant that I could have a full day in the workshop. Now that the wishbones were all done, the objective today was to get the brakes on and to get as many other jobs finished so that I had a rolling chassis.

Before you get too carried away unwrapping all that lovely AP kit (if you've done the sensible thing and bought them that is), some pre-work is required. As I'd experience on the GTR, the first thing to do was to clear the threads on the wishbones. Camber adjustment of the uprights is achieved with a balljoint on the front upper wishbones and a rosejoint on the rear upper wishbones. To clean these out, file a small 'V' in the ball joints and rosejoints then screw them in, remove, clean and re-fit.

That done and upper balljoints fitted I could think about fitting the uprights themselves. No rocket science here, just make sure they are fitted to the right sides (the hubs are stamped L and R) and the right way up. For reference, the squared-off part of casting that the balljoint fits into is the top and the chamfered part of the casting is the bottom.

The balljoints are supplied with nylocs to secure, but as a belt-and-braces approach I also drilled them to take lockwire/split pins. I may need to replace them with castellated nuts though as the nylocs don't leave much exposed thread when torqued up. To fit, use some copperslip on both balljoints (this will make life a LOT easier should you need to split them from the hubs later - and you will at some point!), fit the stepped washers top and bottom and torque up the BOTTOM NUT ONLY. Just hand tighten the top one at this point as you will need to adjust the balljoint by screwing in/out to get the camber setup correctly. Also, don't forget the locknuts on the top balljoints!

Quick tip when it comes to tightening the balljoint nuts, you may need to lightly clamp the upright to the wishbones to stop them spinning in place. You can attach the steering arms at this point, but only screw the bolts in hand tight for now. You'll need to remove them again to allow you to torque up the top/bottom balljoint nuts properly. Centring the steering rack is best achieved using a pair of equal length spacers made from an offcut of angle section (58mm). Tape in place and you can be sure that the rack is dead centre making your initial alignment MUCH easier! Wind the steering rack toe-links in/out so that they drop into the steering arms ready for tracking adjustment.

Onto the rear uprights. Again, straightforward enough, just make sure the right bits are in the right place as far as washers are concerned. The top mount of the upright is held in place with a long bolt using the spacers provided. These ARE the correct length but will be a tight fit (deliberately so). You may need to persuade them in place with a rubber mallet ;)

Get the top mounted first unless you've got 8 pairs of hands! The bottom rear of the upright is held in place with another long bolt using two unequal thickness washers. The thickest washer goes onto the bolt first, then through the bush, then the thin washer, through the upright mouting lug before being secured by a standard washer and nyloc.

The rear toe-links attach to the chassis and the front lug of the rear uprights. You'll need to cut these down by about 10mm each (nice new hacksaw blade and plenty of elbow grease) before inserting back into the threaded hex adjuster. They are bolted to the chassis and spaced in the mount using 4 washers: 2 above and 2 below the rose joint itself. Then, simply bolt to the front mounting lug of the rear upright using a bolt, nyloc and pair of washers. Needless to say, all bolts should be given a liberal smear of copperslip before fitting.

That done, you can unwrap (as you'll be dying to!) the brake rotors and bells. It's essential that you fit them to the correct side/end of the car!! Handily, they come marked on the packaging, but it's a good idea to mark each part as you unwrap it to avoid confusion later. Firstly, go round each of the hubs on the uprights and give them a good smear of copperslip around the flange that the brake bell will fit to. Take the rotors and fit them to the front/rear uprights using 3 of the wheel studs - you'll need to space these off a bit as the wheel studs are closed end. Make sure each rotor it flush against the hub face by rotating it and checking for any runout. Once they're all 'true' you can do your initial alignment.

First step is to ensure that the chassis is absolutely level front/back and side to side, achieved by lifting the chassis (no easy feat when you're on your own!) and packing out on the trestles. Once done, the uprights can all be checked with a spirit level to make sure that they are vertical. If you've fitted the dampers (why?) then replace with the ride height struts before you do this. Now,, take your two long strips of metal that form the ends of the 'box' - I used box section rather than angle as it's absolutely rigid - mark their centreline and mount them coincidental with the centreline of the chassis level with the hub centreline (a laser level made this alot easier). Then, stretch a piece of string between the front/rear strips making sure that they are tied off the same distance from the end of each one (assuming that your metal strips are the same length!). The objective is to make a box that's absolutely square, centred to the chassis. Once you've done this, you can adjust the toe adjusters on the rear rotors until both sides are an identical distance from the strings. Similarly, the steering rack track rod ends are wound in and out until the front rotors are parallel to one another and to the strong box. Once you're happy that they're parallel, check again to make sure all uprights are vertical. This is all a bit fiddly, but it's worth taking your time as it's a lot easier to adjust it at this stage then later when the body is fitted.

So now I've got the uprights and rotors all aligned properly, I can engage in some bolt on fun! Well almost, first job was to go round every nut on the wishbones, uprights and balljoints and make sure it was torqued correctly. I use loctite on the steering arm bolts in addition to the special washers as you really don't want them coming loose! I don't paint these at this stage as I go round the entire car and do that for every bolt at the end of the build. Actually, the factory does this for you when it safetly checks the car!

More AP fun then. Childs play to fit these really, but the following should be noted. Make sure that you've got the caliper mounts oriented correctly on the uprights and that they are secured using loctite on the bolts (supplied) to the correct torque. Provided you've got the right caliper on the right upright, everything should just bolt straight on, but dry fit first just to be sure. The caliper mount bolts look a bit long, but they should clear the rotors just fine but you'll need to remove the rotors to fit them. As the saying goes, a picture speaks a thousand words, so the following should help if you get stuck.

The rears are much the same as the fronts, but you also have the handbrake calipers to fit. Again, make sure these are put on the right side of the car with the larger of the mounting holes at the bottom. The pads are a lot thinner than I had with the GTR so they were a doddle to fit. They self adjust, so you may need to operate the handbrake a few times before they bite properly.

Flagging a little by this point due to the early start, but now that the chassis was effectively 'rolling', I could turn my attention to the next 'little' job - namely, the radiator. This is done in three stages, first, fit the fans to the radiator, second, fit the radiator to the chassis and third, fit the radiator box skin sides.

First, I slid a strip of scrap aluminium under the top/bottom edges of the radiator edges to protect the cooling vanes when drilling for the fan mounting brackets. The fans were the placed on the radiator and loosely attached to the brackets, using the allen cap-headed bolts and nuts. The nuts sit into the captive recesses in fan shrouds. After centralising the assembly, carefully drill into the radiator casing for the top mounts (these were supplied pre-drilled). As usual, drill the end holes, skin-pin and then do the rest. The assembly was removed and the top mounts were then rivetted into position. The lower bracket was then drilled for rivets at 50mm intervals (that leaves about 15-20mm at each end of the bracket). The fans were then re-fitted to the radiator and attached to the top mounts. The lower bracket rivet holes were then drilled taking care not to dislodge the protective ally panel strips. Once done, the assembly was removed (again), strips removed, lower bracket rivetted into position and the whole lot final fitted again. Simple eh :)

The radiator itself is fitted using 4 rubber mounting bobbins. Two of these should already be in the chassis (if not, and you've panelled the radiator box, then you're on your own ;) and the other two mount into the brackets on the front of the chassis radiator box. Getting them all in is a fiddly affair, but helped if you bear the following in mind. Measure the distance between the bobbins and centralise this on the radiator mounting brackets. Cut slots instead of holes that allow some forward/backward movement of the radiator when fitting. Take care to protect the radiator itself by wrapping in corrugated card or similar.

With the radiator in place, I could fit the side panels. I left this until I'd fitted the radiator to ensure that they were aligned correctly with it. You rivet to the side diagonals of the chassis radiator box, so you haven't got a whole load of flexibility, but it's worth waiting as you wouldn't want to fit them then find the radiator won't go in! So the side panels were dry fitted. You can notch them a little on the leading edge, but mine were a pretty neat fit anyway so I could just seal them up at the end with some sikaflex. I marked them for the rivets on the side diagonals and also along the base, taking care that the rivets didn't overshoot the edge of the radiator box floor, as they overhang this. They were removed, drilled and deburred, then replaced and drilled through for the rivets, again, using skin pins. Now these side panels also use exanding foam tape along the top edge to get a good seal with the radiator sides. You can either race against time and fit the tape, then try and fit the sides before the stuff expands all over the place, or, like me, release the radiator from the top bobbins, then fit the sides and tape and drop the radiator back in. The job, as they say, is a good'un.

Total knackered by now, but good progress made. Chassis is rolling and ready to go. Once the rest of the cooling system is in, the joy of wiring comes next!

Saturday 11^th June 2005:

Never wishing to jump into the loom side of things, first job of today's update is to fit the long, ally coolant pipes down the sides of the car. This is a straightforward procedure, but can be a little fiddly. First, take the large aluminium 'p' clips and mark them up for a 'triangle' of rivets to mount them to the chassis. Also, I use an additional rivet just above these to hold the two halves of the clip together, thus gripping the pipe firmly. Next, clamp the two sides of each clip together and drill for the rivets. You might like to file the sharp corners off at this stage too. Position them on the chassis rails using the pictures here and on the build CD as a guidem making sure that they don't extend lower than the bottom of the rails and drill. Finally, thread the clips onto the pipes, get them roughly into position and insert the rubber strip provided. Once you're happy that the strip is in position, rivet to secure to the chassis. To get the final 'top' rivet in (that holds the two sides of the clip together securely) you will need to clamp the two sides of the clip together. I used a pair of long nosed mole grips for this.

Not alot more to say really, except perhaps that you may have noticed that unlike the GTR I have not lagged these pipes with heat insulation. The reason for this is that after the traumas of marginal cooling in the GTR, I am do everything to maximise cooling this time. The alumiunium pipes play a part in the cooling system by helping to conduct some heat from the water as it travels from the engine to rad and then back again. The problem with this is that the heat that dissapates can warm up the cockpit. However, given the more efficient insulation that I've applied to the cockpit itself (and again shortly to the luggage pods), hopefully this problem will never manifest itself. One final thing, once the pipes are in place, squeeze a 'bung' of sikaflex between them and the chassis rails (on the bend and at the rear) to stop them from moving/chafing etc.

Once the side pipes were in place, the Samco hoses could be fitted to them using the jubilee clips supplied. Once elbow connector is used for the top left radiator inlet and the bottom outlet is connected with the short straight section of hose. Then, the coolant overflow pipe can be fitted to the top left side of the radiator. This is a tight fit, so, with all hoses, use a smear of washing up liquid to lubricate the connection. It may help to soak the end of this hose in boiling water, to make it a bit more flexible too.

So, onto the joy of looms :) Actually, this shouldn't be a daunting task as the factory make things fairly easy. However, once you start to modify the loom itself, well, rod for your own back and all that. So of course, that's exactly what I decided to do :) First job is to use a quiet evening to mark up every connection on the loom with a tag explaining what it is. This makes life MUCH easier when you come to connecting everything up.

As mentioned earlier in the build, the first thing I decided to change was the position of the brake light switch. I moved this so that it was activated by the front circuit, not the rear one. Unfortunately, this means running a wire pair (you could get away with one if you pickup a live feed from the front - but seeing as you've got to run one, yuo may as well run two - capiche!) from the rear of the car to the front. Strapping wire with PVC tape by hand is a laborious affair, but strangely satisfying at the end! I decided to connect to the original connectors instead of chopping back into the loom just in case I had to put the switch back in its original position (though I can't see why I'd need to?). I take a belt and braces approach to wiring as tracing dodgy connections is a time consuming and frustrating experience! First, I crimp the wires into the relevant connectors using a professional crimping tool. Then, I solder the wire to the connector (typically a spade type) where it exits the holding collar. I heat the spade itself then rely on the capillary action as it cools to draw the solder in. At this stage, whilst it's still hot, I re-crimp the connector. This not only ensures an absolutely tight fit, the soldering process (I use a micro gas propone torch for this) melts the insulation of the connector slightly, so when I re-crimp, I get some degree of waterproofing too. Anyway, once the connetions were tested for continuity, the sub-loom was strapped to the original ready for fitting to the chassis. There are other electrical gizmos that I'm fitting (like central locking), but I'll have to wait until the body is pre-fit to check the wire routing. These will all act as sub-looms so I'll just cable tie/tape to the main loom or use the conduits.... see next.

So with the loom in place, it was rivetted to the chassis. Work from front to back, using the junction for the radiator fans spur as a startpoint. This sits just in front of the vertical chassis rail below the wishbone mount. You'll probably find that by the time to get to the luggage pod area that you'll have a bit too much loom where it splits to the dashboard connections and the rear run of wiring. Just bundle up the excess and cable tie it to the diagonal chassis member up which you'll run the dashboard section of the loom. It would take an age to describe the routing in its entirety, so study the pics below to get an accurate idea of where things go.

All that loom strapping has done me in, so I'm off home. More next week...

Saturday 18^th June 2005:

Not the greatest of days to be in the workshop as the temperature is pushing 40! Still, nothing like your own sauna to work in. Which brings me appropriately on, to the air-con.

This monster box of bits consists of quite a few components. Here's how you fit them. First job is to fit the mounting plate to the chassis. This comes pre-drilled, ready to fit the blower unit, but you must drill and rivnut to attach the under-dash vent/control plate and of course, for the rivets used to secure it to the chassis. Life for me is slightly simpler in that I won't be using the under-slung control panel! My experience of the air-con system in the GTR had told me that it was a bit tricky to use like this. I could never remember which way was hot/cold and finding the controls on the move wasn't that striaghtforward. Not only that, the bakelite control knobs and panel aren't to my taste. So, I've decided to relocate the panel - don't exactly know where to yet! But probably on the dash face. One of the most dramatic differences with this Can-Am will be the interior, but more of that later...

So, where to position the mounting plate? Well, the build CD shows you where the plate goes for a heater unit, but not for the air-con. Fortunately, it's self evident as you can position it back from the dash chassis rail using the control panel plate as a guide. For your info. it resolves itself to be 180mm from the front chassis member. I wanted to get it as far forward as possible, but you need to allow for the position of the wiper motor which sits snugly behind this unit. It's easiest to mark the chassis rail positions from beneath, then mark for drilling, which is exactly what I did. A bit of Waxoyl, a bead of Sikaflex and a few rivets later and the plate was in place.

The blower unit is attached to the mounting plate with bolts and captive nuts, but you also need to drill a couple of holes on the vertical tab on the plate (at the back of the blower unit). One of these is used to secure the rear of the blower unit with a cable tie and the other is used to ground the motor. Do youself a favour at this stage and pull out the covers from the ends of the fan units. These can rattle a bit, but more tricky was that one of these caught on the fan impellor in the GTR and seized the fan! Not a fun job to replace once the bodywork is fitted, so for safetys sake, pull them out and chuck them! :)

Now you're faced with a plethora of pipes which you need to fit! Well, fortunately I've done this before, so hopefully life will be easier for you if you're reading this ;) Take the two longest pipes with pressure connectors on the end. These fit to the right (cooling) side of the ac blower unit. However, before you can fit them, you need to screw on the thermostat type connector (use some PVC to ensure a tight seal), winding the copper sender around the pipe and clipping it place with the steel clip provided. Once in place, insulate it with the sticky tar-like tape provided. Then, you can attach the 18mm lower pipe to the connector ensuring that you remember to fit it with the appropriate 'O' ring supplied. Same goes for the upper 22mm pipe, just be careful when tightening up the nuts as you don't want to fracture the soldered joints inside the blower unit. It won't harm if you gently spread them apart a little though.

On the heater side (left side), take the long 22mm tube without end connectors and attach to the heater matrix inlet/outlets using a pair of jubilee clips. Again, use some washing up liquid to lubricate the pipes. For the time being, leave this tubing intact as a long loop and pass back along chassis sides, through the luggage pods and leave the loop in the engine bay. You can cut to length once the engine is installed. There are two other components that need to be fitted to this pipe, but it's best to leave them for now. Firstly, you have the heater switch, which sits in the left hand luggage pod (but I will be moving mine :) and secondly, you have the bypass connector which sits on the engine bay bulkhead. This allows the water to continue to circulate around the engine if you shut the heater valve off. Again, you can fit this later once you have a better idea of the routing of the rest of the engine bay gubbins. So, that's as much as I can do for now.

Which leads me onto the luggage pods. I approached this task smug in the knowledge that I knew the appropriate method that allowed them to be fitted quickly and without fuss. Errr... wrong! The Can-Am luggage pods are a lot harder to fit than the GTR ones as you have strengthening rails on the top of the chassis side pods. This means that rather than being able to tilt them in, you have to go almost straight up. Also, you need to trim a lore more material than you think, just to get them in. Fortunately, you'll never see this as the sections you need to remove are hidden inside the pods themselves. So, get ready for more trimming, fitting, filing and re-fitting!

First job is to cut the slots for the coolant hoses where they pass through the luggage pods. You need to allow for the hose widths AS WELL AS the top chassis rails. As a guide, a slot 72mm deep and 24mm wide will be pretty much bang on what you'll need. That done, you need to figure out what material needs to be removed to get the luggage pod in! Thankfully, you now have some pictures to help you :) Use these as a guide and get one luggage pod fitted. The second one should be a mirror of the first and will take a fraction of the time! Just remember to allow for the diagonal cross braces!!!

After a lot of filing and fiddling, both pods were in. I drilled them for rivets off the car after taking into account where I could and couldn't get a rivet gun in (those strengthening cross braces again!). Luckily, you don't need many to secure them. Once I'd drilled them and pre-fitted to the chassis, I removed them again to fit the wiring conduits. Wiring conduits? I hear you ask, well, having had the joy of threading wiring/cables through these pods with the GTR once they were all fitted along with the body, I have learnt that prevention is better than cure! I decided to run a length of 24mm tubing inside each luggage pod to allow an easy run should I ever need to get cables/wiring from the front to the back of the car. The stereo speaker wiring for example, runs through these pipes. The other advantage is that they are more temperature stable, as they don't run alongside the heater/cooling cables. So, a couple of holes at each end using a stepped drill and the pipes were in place. These pods are going to be fully trimmed this time, but that's a job for after the body has been pre-fitted.

Which is now ready to happen! :) Enough for today, I'm roasted!

I was buggering about for the rest of the day experimenting with some steering stuff (more on this later), but eventually just called it a day. Not a lot of progress!!