More fiddling today. The car is due to be taken to the factory for the body pre-fit, so today was spent getting it on the trailer and more fiddling! It's frustrating not being able to get stuck into the build in earnest, but until that body's on, I'm stuck. The only cause for celebration was that I got the wheels on and it rolled for the first time.... straight onto the trailer :) I took it up to the factory without much drama, ready for the body to go on. I snatched a couple of pics before coming all the way back again! Richard (Marlow) seemed to like the carbon fibre interior - you wait 'til the rest of it is done ;)
The pics are self explanatory, just more mechanical p0rn really :) Enjoy! Next time you see the car, it will actually LOOk like a Can-Am!
More to come soon once the car is back from the Factory. Cheers!
Quick bit of news whilst I await delivery back of the car. Contacted the factory earlier and the good news is that my engine is in :) Now, as I'd said before, I'm not going for all out power this time (he says, but stay tuned ;) and was going to have a pretty much stock 350ci lump going in putting out about 350hp - trust me, this is ample in the Ultima and if you don't believe me, go for a test drive in the factory silver demonstrator, that is 'only' 350hp! Anyway, to cut a long story short, Gail at American Speed has worked his magic and out popped a 350ci SBC putting out 406hp and 485ft/lbs or torque :) I have a few 'mods' in the pipeline that will push this up a bit, well, I say a bit - more like 480-500hp ;) Anyway, have a gander, it's lovely!!
It's back! :) Late, but it's back. I'd taken a week off work to get on with the car. I was hoping to have the car back on Saturday, but illness at the factory delayed the car delivery somewhat. Anyway, it's here so I can crack on with the build!
As I did with the GTR, I opted to have the factory pre-fit the bodywork. Not only does it take a fair bit of time (that's a very precious commodity to me these days), there's no substitute for experience to get a good all round panel fit. Anyway, the factory had done a sterling job and for the first time, the Can-Am really started to look the business. It didn't take long to remove the car from the trailer and unload a variety of boxes and the great V8 I mentioned earlier. Once safely ensconced in the workshop, I set about undoing all the factory's good work and removed all the body panels :)
Hels and Charlie popped in for a look-see. Hels misses the building now she's got her hands full with our little boy, but that's the joy of parenthood for you. Must get him in training with the tools, but he spends most of his time asleep at the moment. Pondered the possibility of getting a child seat in - absolutely no chance!!!
The afternoon was spent (car didn't arrive until lunchtime) removing the bodywork ready to continue with the build
With the bodywork removed, it was time to get down to business. First up, interior mods. Right, now this is the part where I make life hard for myself by deviating from the 'standard' build - to so at your peril, as embarking on this route can be a world of hurt!. But, as I said from the outset, I want the Can-Am to be as user friendly as possible, with a more 'production car' style interior. The first thing I decided was that the factory supplied rocker switches, whilst practical and SVA friendly, didn't suit the style I was trying to achieve. I considered using the nice engraved ally round jobs, but at 20 odd quid a switch, they were not only expensive, but you still end up with a bank of the things. So I started to consider the possibility of fitting control stalks to the car. It took a fair while to find what I was after, but after a good deal of staring into car windows ;), I decided to use a set of Ford stalks. These would give me on-stalk control of side/dip/main beam lights, indicators, hazard lights, wiper and washer, negating the need for the usual switches. In fact, the only switches required now are for the rear fog light and a radiator fan override (optional). However, grafting a stalk setup in to the Ultima loom is not a straightforward task. Stick to the factory build if I were you!
Firstly, I sourced a set of stalks, in fact 3 sets! Buying on eBay is a bit of a lottery as items described as being 'mint' condition aren't necessarily my interpretation of 'mint'! Anyway, I managed to buy a brand new set at a good price. Next, I had to work out how the stalks worked - trust me, this is no simple task. You'd think that a set of stalks works just like a bunch of switches wouldn't you? Well, they don't :) With about 22 connecting wires coming out of the back, it takes a good deal of head scratching and testing with a multimeter to get it worked out, but I got there in the end! Fitting them is another headache. Firstly, the steering column needs to be extended to allow them to fit behind the wheel mounting flange. I decided to cut the column, which is in fact a tube, in two and tap a thread in each end. A threaded rod was inserted to hold the two halves together so that I could adjust the column length accurately. Once I'm happy with the setup, I'll get another column made or will re-weld the old one with an insert piece. This is still a work in progress as I also need to fabricate a suitable cowl for them. For now, I just wanted to confirm that the setup would work! At this stage, I was questioning my sanity for not sticking to the standard factory setup!
With the original switch plugged into the loom in the usual position, I connected the front/rear lights to check their operation. I won't bore you with the details, but it soon became apparent that there was a problem with the main beam. I tracked this down to the momentary latched relay (same type as found in VWs) which hold the main beam on. Basically you push an unlatched button to turn them on, then again to turn them off. The mechanical design of the relay means that it can be troublesome and stripping mine apart showed the problem. There was in fact a scrap piece of plastic that had somehow become bonded to the base plate in such a way as to prevent the main beam output from being driven. Once removed and after some fettling, it was working.
Lights tested, the stalks were jury-rigged to see if I could replicate the switch functions. One benefitbenefit of the control stalk setup is that the headlamp main beam is mechanically latched by the operation of the stalk. Push forward for main beam and pull back for dip. Pull back some more for momentary main beam. Therefore, I could scrap the Vw relay and re-wire with a conventional relay setup.
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This required some more relays to be purchased to drive the appropriate circuits, but they were soon grafted into the loom and after some testing - the stalks worked! Additionally, the Ford stalks use a built in flasher relay, this means that I could drive the indicator and hazard circuits directly from the stalks and what's more, it worked first time :) This just left the wiper/washer portion of the controls to work out, however, the wiper motor is on back order with the factory, so I'm a bit stuck for the time being :(
So with the stalks in place, I could turn my attention to some more control mods.
Now another area that I'd decided to change from the standard setup, were the aircon controls and vents. I found the controls in their usual position, under the dash, were a bit fiddly to use with my clumsy mits, so I thought about relocating them, but the design of the knobs supplied was a bit dated for my taste. That said, the push/pull cable for the mechanical heater valve (the valve is usually placed in the passenger luggage pod) is probably not SVA friendly if it was stuck out of the dash? Anyway, I decided that I wanted to move the controls to the dash face. This was easy enough for the thermostat and fan speed controls, but what of the mechanical heater valve? Well, after some thought. the solution was to replace the mechanical valve with an electronic solenoid type which could be switched from a simple rocker switch on the dash.
I sourced a Ford unit from a Ka/Fiesta and set about fitting it. Firstly I needed to work out how it operated! For some bizarre reason, the solenoid needs to be 'on' for the heater supply to be off - if you see what I mean? Basically, in normal driving you want the heater to be off. Therefore, I needed to send power to the solenoid from a switched live. When you want the heater to be on, you have to turn the solenoid off, so that the internal valve retracts and allows water to flow through the blower unit. Simple eh! :) Regarding the position of the valve, I was going to put it in the engine bay for ease of service (the electronic units do fail from time to time after all), but concluded that it was probably more likely to fail given the exposed position. In the end, I opted to position it directly behind the blower unit where I could access it at a later date should I have a problem with it. Another relay was grafted into the loom to drive the solenoid valve, with a simple rocker switch in the dash to turn the heater supply on and off. The thermostat and fan speed controls were also relocated to the dash with some turned aluminium knobs replacing the factory supplied items. I may get some vinyl graphics made up to depict the operation of each knob, but that's a finishing touch!
Not exactly working at a blisering pace, but I'm having to work things out as I go along! On to what should be a simple job: fitting the stack dash pod and cutting holes for various controls. But life's not that simple is it! The stack dash pod has been revised in design since fitting the one that I had to the GTR. I'm not sure why the factory have done this as the new one is a bit more tricky to fit. OK, you do have a more secure backplate to fix the stack in place, but the design now seems to rely on the lower lip of the pod going behind the dash panel, with the top portion secured with a bolt through the dash top. Trouble is, the pod is tapered toward the top, so to get the bottom bit in, you have to have a wider slot than is needed at the top - so you can leave a gap if you're not careful. So with great care I managed to get a decent fit which should be covered by the leather. Also, whilst the GTR dash top is pretty much flat, the Can-Am is convex, so one side of the dash pod will be flush with a gap on the other! More trimming required to 'shorten' one edge. So a bit of fiddling about to get it right.
That done, I moved onto the positioning for the other dash components. I needed to accomodate a stereo head unit, aircon vents (another mod covered below), starter button, A/C controls and the few ancilliary switches left - oh, and the warning lights! Laying this lot out took time before I was happy with everything and space is tight once you've considered the obstructions etc. behind. The vents needed positioning so that they worked effectvely, the radio needed to be within arms reach and the other switches and buttons needed to be not only easy to reach, but aesthetically pleasing in layout and SVA friendly. Eventually I came up with a layout I was happy with.
First, the stereo. Whilst the factory position is in the passenger footwell, this seemed a bit bizarre to me. I wanted to be able to control the thing without a remote, therefore it needed to be within arm's reach. I wanted it in the centre of the dash at first, but this would have pushed the vents to far left and right and wouldn't have left enough room for the aircon controls. Sitting in the car, I found that I could comfortably reach the dash space in front of the passenger seat. Given that my head unit also had turn-by-turn GPS I felt that the passenger would find it more interesting to look at than me ;) So that's where it ended up. This dash space is otherwise redundant (unless I fitted a glove box!) and with what little space there was left needed for switches/lights etc. this was the most logical choice. So out with the Dremel and ready for a nose full of GRP dust :(
Radio done, onto the new vents. The factory supplied vents are functional, but that's about it. Aesthetically, they're not that bad, but they don't really add anything to the looks. With this in mind, a while ago I considered replacing them with something a bit easier on the eye. I wanted a touch of brushed ally in the cockpit to go with the high-tech carbon fibre, which narrowed down the choices immensely. To one in fact: the Audi TT. These vents are quality items and come at a price to match! The brushed ally outer rings rotate to control the airflow, with movable fins to direct the air - lovely. Thing is, where to put them? The standard factory layout puts two vents in the dash top (necessary for de-misting the windscreen and also an SVA requirement) and two facing downwards under the dash. This works for keeping your knees cold/warm, but doesn't help a great deal if you want a nice cooling blast of air in the face. I asked Ted about this layout when I was buying the GTR and it's partly because Ted hadn't found any decent vents to place in the dash! That said, the TT vents are quite deep as they house a geared mechanism to adjust the flow, so position in the dash needed to take into account what was occuring behind them. Also, the vents needed to be fitted to a flat portion of the dash, which pretty much discounted the side return curves, but I'm working on it! In the end, I opted for two placed centrally (driver and passenger) and will worry about the other two later (yes, six in all so some mods are required to the blower unit pipework). I'll use the standard factory vents for the screen de-mist for a couple of reasons. Firstly, they need to be more discreet to avoid distracting reflections onto the inside of the screen and secondly, they need to be shallow as with the Stack dash pod in place, there's precious little room for the vent whilst still clearing the blower unit underneath. More head scratching required!
So that's about it for now... or is it ;) I'd not achieved as much as I'd hoped, but then again, these jobs took a lot longer than I'd expected. It's always the way when you start deviating from the standard build. We're off on holiday for a couple of weeks now, but while we're away, the bodywork is off to be painted. It's taken me absolutely ages to decide on the colour and I've considered pearls, flips, candies, metallics - you name it! I've finally decided on one though, but you'll have to wait a little longer to see it! More to come early August.
