There are two things guaranteed to drive you mad during an Ultima build (well, if you do it non-standard. like I do), rivetting and WIRING!
When I started the Can-Am, I had a plan (still do) of all the little luxuries I wanted to put in it. Well, as time went on, that list got longer and longer and the resulting wiring complexity increased proportionally! In principle, the additions boils down to three main areas. The Stack dash (at least this is a known quantity to me having fitted one to the GTR), the ICE (which has got increasingly more extravagent), the alarm/central locking system (complex, but logical) and the column stalks (don't even go there). The end result of this is a HUGE amount of wiring, with several sub-looms having to be grafted into the existing one. In fact, a great deal of the original loom is now redundant, but it would a shed-load of hassle to strip out all the unnecesary gubbins for the sake of a couple of pounds of weight. Anyway, with my trusty soldering torch and crimping pliers in hand, it's off to work I go.
First job. Before I could think about covering the dash, I needed to be 100% sure that it was pre-drilled with every conceivable hole for switches/vents/warning lights etc.etc. A run down of my mental check-list showed that I needed 4 more holes in the dash for the Stack switches and a few more for the canopy warning light system and alarm indicator LED. I wanted to avoid having switches on the right hand flank of the dash as I found them awkward to use in the GTR, especially for the Stack. I needed to position them where they would fall to hand, preferably without removing my hands from the wheel. With the dash pod temporarily placed in position, I held up the steering wheel and found that they would be ideally placed vertically on the right-hand side. In driving use, the switch you use most is No.2 which cycles through the sender readings (fuel level, water temp, oil temp etc.), so this is conveniently placed just behind the wheel edge where it can be prodded with ease. I had sourced some replacement switches instead of the absolutely dire Stack supplied ones, the design of the replacements is much more in keeping with the rest of the switchgear I reckon. So it was a simple case of marking out and drilling the four 19mm holes, taking care to get them vertical in relation to the dash (done by levelling the dash on trestles and taking a 'plumb' vertical).
Next job was to extend the Stack loom for the oil/fuel pressure senders. For some reason (to become obvious later), Stack now supply the senders with a short tail which terminates in their proprietary 'Sure-seal' connectors. The old ones used to just have the usual spade terminals. This means that you have the choice of hacking them off and grafting into the main Ultima loom or buying extension 'Sure-seal' cables so that the loom can reach the engine! I chose the latter route, which is alot more expensive (the cables are £27+VAT EACH!), but means that I didn't need to graft into the original loom for the oil and fuel pressure functions.
Next bit of wiring was to install the iPod adaptor, which works alongside the head-unit, meaning that not only do I have a 6-CD changer, but I can plug in my 40Gb Photo iPod too :) Connecting the unit up is simplicity itself, just requiring a ignition live and earth feed to operate. The time installing it is spent on working out the best position for it! After a quick check of the dash-top vent positioning, I found that the side of the aircon blower was ideal. It simply velcro's to it.
Next bit of the 'ICE' install was the aerial. I purchased a rubber 'bee-sting' style job from a local motor factors to keep things compact. Not wishing to install it on the bodywork, I looked for somewhere convenient inside the GRP (one advantage of having a GRP bodied car!). Just in front of the blower unit seemed like the best bet. Conscious of the fact that this wasn't going to be ideal from a reception point of view, I made sure that the aerial mounting plate that I fabricated had good contact with the chassis. Hopefully this will aid reception as the entire chassis will be grounding it. We'll see!
It then struck me that I'd left it rather too long to install the passenger footrest plate! This would have been easier way back in the build before the aircon blower had gone in, just after the floor had gone in, but having had to mess about with the position for the amp. etc. it's just as well I put it off. Anyway, I now had the rather cramped task of installing the footplate into the passenger footwell. I decided to rivnut this in place rather than rivet, so that removal was easier should I need to get the carpet out, or service the amp. So six M6 rivnuts were installed and the footplate was bolted in place. Sound simple doesn't it - well it wasn't :) Working in a cramped space and having to accurately place the rivets - through the carpet - wasn't a great deal of fun! Still, it finally went in, despite a close shave with a couple of the rivnuts with the chassis floor diagonal. Again, probably best to do this before you get the carpet in!
Finally, I installed the rear canopy warning light warning system. An ingenious, yet simple setup, that gives a visual warning should one, or both of the rear canopy latches not be properly secured. Two flashing LEDs are mounted in the dash which run to microswitches which mount to the rear canopy latches. You just need to run an ingnition live and earth to them and voila - they work :) This will certainly save those potentially expensive (not to mention dangerous) canopy air-brake moments!
Enough for today. More graft tomorrow...
To relieve the tedium of wiring, I dediced to bolt something to the car instead. Alas, this would inevitably involve some WIRING - but there you go :) So, fuel pumps. The factory, as usual, supply a comprehensive kit, with pumps, mounting plates, braided hoses, ally fittings and relevant fixings, clips etc. A new addition were the loom expension cables - woohoo! :) These short extension wires connect the pumps to the loom via a fuseholder. Saves aking them up yourself! The mounting plates are now supplied laser-cut, including the rivet holes - very impressed with this (I'm easily pleased ;) and is a good example of how the factory are constantly improving their offering to make life easier for the builder. Anyway, the mounting plates were positioned on the chassis rails behind where the engine mounts would ultimately go. The mounting plates were were aligned so that the vertical rivet holes were centrally positioned on the upright chassis rail, with the bottom of the plates flush with the lower chassis rail.
The plates were sikaflexed (to reduce vibration noise - but be careful to retain good chassis ground contact) and rivetted in place ready for the pump brackets. The rubber grommets were fitted to the mounting plates, taking care to ensure that the pumps would be in the right orientation ('in' side towards the bulkhead) as the two pumps are mirrored. You'll end up with one 'Carter' sticker visible and one not in this regard. Also, make sure that the thickest part of the grommet goes beween the mount plate and the pump (so the thin bit comes out the top). The pumps could then be mounted using the spring washers and nuts supplied. Would rather use nylocs for this, but not sure if I've got the right threads? Weird US thread types and all ;) Make sure that the earth strap is used between the -ve pole of the pump and the mounting plate or chassis earth. Similarly, do this for the pump loom extension cable.
Right, can't do any more to the fuel system until the tanks are installed, so back to wiring (sighs).
After pawing through the manuals for my Sat-Nav head unit, I realised that they recommend feeding the unit with a speed pulse in order to ensure that it's accurate. Whilst one of these is used for the Stack speedo readout, I didn't fancy chopping into the cable for it to seperate a feed out. The solution was to buy (at vast expense for what it is!) a speed pulse generator from Pioneer just for this purpose. This little box works by picking up a magnetic pulse from one of the tyres, from which you magentise a 90 degree section. It's another little box that requires an ignition live and earth, so more connections were made up (at this rate I'll need 4 batteries for ancilliary stuff!) and the box was rivnutted in place just behind the offside inspection hatch. This places it near to the front offside tyre which I'd decided was the best one to be 'magnetised'. I'm a bit concerned that it's too near driver footwell speaker, but I can test that out before installing the bodywork.
Next (short day today, but I've missed out lots of tedious soldering, cable routing, insulation etc.etc.) I moved onto the wiper motor. Two tasks here, firstly, to connect and test it with the column stalks I'm using and secondly, to pre-fit the motor in the bodywork. I was wary of the stalk test as some odd things seemed to be occurring when I tested the stalk function on the wiper side. But, methodically testing the setup, I managed to get the wiper working on slow and fast speed :) The park function was a bit more tricky, but once identified on the stalks (there's dozens of connections on the rear of the stalks to check) it worked straight away! The washer function required the washer bottle pump to be rewired so that it was earth switched, not live (switched earth on the stalks), but again, I re-made the connections and all was good. Finally, I have every function of the stalks working and ready to go. Well chuffed!! :)
So it was ironic that the 'easy' task of pre-fitting the motor in the cockpit bodywork proved a pain. Firstly, the position for the holes hadn't been marked in the bodywork (before it was painted - I checked) and second, the length of the mounting stud vs. the drive shaft seems to be wrong? The pics on the factory build CD show the stud to be about 10mm shorter than the main shaft. On my motor, it's more like 20mm? Have asked the factory about this, so am stuck until I've got an answer.
Finally, I moved onto the alarm system. This was again, pretty complex, but if you're logical and methodical, you can get there eventually! This isn't made any easier by the fact that alarm systems use suitable anonymous wiring (like all black wires!) and don't come with function identification tags! So I spent a couple of hours last night labelling it all up, ready to install in the car. Needless to say, I'm not going to put much detail into this installment of the build diary. Let's just say that it's a job that you may want to leave to an expert installer!
Well, a year and a day from first ordering my Can-Am finds me still in the workshop, with an unfinished car! In fairness, I didn't receive the chassis until Christmas, but that's still 3 months longer than the GTR took to finish! That's fatherhood for you!!!
So best get cracking then. It occurred to me in the week, that I needed to have a re-think regarding some of the instrumentation positioning on the dash. This was mainly driven by the need for an illuminated switch for the rear fog light. SVA requires you (I believe) to have a lit indication showing that the fog lights are on, when operated. Therefore, I could either use a basic toggle switch with a labelled warning lamp - not nice - or buy a switch made specifically for this purpose. I opted for the latter, as there is a nice range of engraved aluminium switches available which would suit the style of the dash. To balance things up, I also ordered another switch which will be used for the heater matrix solenoid, well, that or radiator fan override, I haven't decided which yet! At over 20 quid a switch, I didn't want to order many of these things!!! This was in fact also one of the reasons I went for the stalk setup over replacing the standard plastic switches. To replace the standard 'bank' of switches would cost upward of £140! Anyway, to fit them just required the enlargement of the two holes under the dash vents, where toggle switches were originally intended. All will become clear when I finish the dash!
Now that I was in bodywork hole-cutting mode, I decided to fit the wiper motor. After some emailing to the factory, it became clear that my original wiper motor was the wrong one. The shaft that drives the wiper arm should have only been 86mm, not 96mm like mine. The factory kindly sent me out a speedy replacement which I received well in time for this weekend. The emails also provided the answer for the positioning of the holes. The drive shaft hole should be positioned 45mm forward of the windscreen frame base, central to the windscreen. The secondary shaft is positioned 37mm to the right of this position. It was with some trepidation (and lots of checking of measurements) that I drilled the holes with a stepped drill bit. Thankfully, I got it bang on and the wiper motor fit snugly into place - phew! I replaced the cockpit section on the car to verify that the motor wasn't fouling on the aircon blower, which thankfully, it wasn't! When conisidering the position for the stereo head unit, I wanted to position the blower as far back as possible. I ended up using the 'usual' position for it, using the aircon control panel as a guide. Looking under the dash now that the motor is in place, there's precious little room for it, so there's very little room to move the blower back further than it is. Maybe 10-20mm tops. Anyway, I wired it up to the stalks and checked that it was working properly, which also gave me a chance to finish the loom connections, soldering, crimping, insulating and labelling them as I went.
Couple of other jobs to do whilst I was playing around with the dash. First was to insert a pair of countersunk rivnuts into the windscreen frame gulley so that rainwater can drain away via tubing to the side pod trim panels. I also made appropriate holes for the alarm microwave sensors and the GPS antenna for the Sat-Nav system. These will come up through the dash material. The holes will be filled in with small grommets to tidy things up.
Whilst playing around in the cockpit, prompted by a thread on the forum, I fitted a throttle pedal return spring and stop bolt. The stop bolt was wound into the threaded M6 hole, made for this purpose, in the pedal base. A small hole was drilled to one side of the throttle cable bracket (probably easier to do this before fitting it, must make an amendment to my earlier diary entry!) and a return spring placed between it and the bolt that secures the cable end.
Those little jobs done, I moved onto the major task for the day. That of fitting the new Sat-Nav/Stereo unit that I'd splashed out on! :-o The first head unit that I bought had a turn-by-turn navigation system, which in retrospect, I wasn't that keen on. The AVIC-X1R (pictured), has a fold out LCD display with full 3D mapping, not to mention a plethora of other details, touch screen, DVD player, A/V inputs, reversing camera and most importantly, a vehicle dynamics display :) Using internal electronic gyroscopes, the system can show realtime feedback on G-forces, which allows you see your lateral-G and accelerometer :) Should be fun! Anyway, the first headache was finding a home for all this technlology! The head unit has a second 'brain' which need positioning accurately level and in the direction of vehicle travel. Whilst the usual position for this unit would be under the driver/passenger seat, there's not enough clearance under them for that in an Ultima (unless you add spacers under the seat rails which I was loathe to do).
After a lot of head scratching, I decided that the best place for it was in the driver side footwell, just under the steering column. This area would be 'tight', but there simply wasn't a better alternative. Firstly, I needed to fabricate a panel which would be secured on the chassis side rails and very carefully (to avoid drilling into the heater matrix!), into the bottom side of the aircon blower mounting plate. Using some spare ally plate I had lying around, I got busy with the air nibbler and files to make up a suitable bracket and mounting plate. I took great care to level it in relation to the car (essential for accurate G and GPS measurement) and then rivetted it into position. I decided to use 2" velcro to secure the 'brain' to the plate so that it could be removed at a later date. Another reason that the install has taken more time than I thought is that I wanted to make as much of it removable as possible (by me, no some theiving scrote that is!). With the 'brain' in place, the head unit itself was wired up to test. Amazingly, even in my workshop, the GPS accurately displayed the cars position on the screen! The AVIC uses a 3D location system, so that even with poor satellite 'sight', it can triangulate your position. Impressed with this, it made me feel better about splashing out so much on it (over a grand on just the head unit in fact :-o ) The entire install accounts for about £1600 of my budget!
Another issue came to light when testing the head unit, its weight! It's a pretty hefty piece of kit, mainly due to the screen I guess and I was concerned that it wouldn't be secure in the dash without some additional support. So I fabricated a support bracket that its behind the usual head unit 'cage'. I had a couple of options when it came to securing it to the dash. I could epoxy it, glassfibre it or use some kind of mechanical fixing. The problem with the mechanical fixing was that it would show on the top of the dash. However, I favoured this as being the most secure way of hanging the bracket. In the end, I drilled for rivets into the dash top and countersunk the holes from above, so that when rivetted, the rivet heads sat below the level of the dash top. I then filled these with body filler and sanded smooth. Whilst I was at it, I ended up sanding the entire dash area as I wasn't sure how well the contact adhesive would take to the paint finish. Hard work, but worth it. All that remains is to re-paint the underside (I wasn't happy with the matt black paint that the paintshop had used) and trim in leather :) But that's a job for another day.
Paint first. I managed to get some Sperex Tough Black, Polyurethane paint as recommended by the factory for this purpose. The dash and side-pods were masked off and I set to, with the aerosols. The paint has excellent coverage, but I would reckon that you need about 3 or 4 x 400ml cans to do the 'insides' of the entire body. I could get away with a lighter covering as the bodywork already has a matt black paint which was applied when the body was painted. Sidepods, done, it was finally time to pre-fit them again, ready to final fit to the car.
This was a striaghtforward task, but one that needed great care as all my bodywork is in effect, 'finished' so any paint chips would have me crying into my wallet! (this is the reason you should leave painting the bodywork until the car is finished!). The sidepods were secured to the chassis with skinpins and the single M5 countersunk bolt that's positioned to the rear of the door apetures, as pre-fitted by the factory. This was to ensure that everything lined up and will go on easily. It also shows how many rivets you will need to drill out of the chassis floor, there the GRP of the sidepods overlaps it. You can, of course, just rivet straight over these with a liberal bead of sikaflex to fill the gap, but that wouldn't be doing the job properly, would it? ;) So working underneath the car, first job was to drill out the riverts in the chassis floor where the GRP of the sidepods overlaps. Then, you're faced with the seemingly onerous task of measuring and redrilling holes, through the sidepod GRP, into exactly the same positions as the original holes! However, here's a smart short-cut for this which I call the 'tape-transfer' ;)
First, drill out the rivets. Then, using 2" masking tape, tape over all the holes using one continuous strip of tape. Place a second strip of tape alongside the first and span both pieces with some registration marks which will allow you to line them up again. Now, use an old rivet to poke through into the holes, leaving you a line of holes in the tape. Now remove the piece of tape with the holes in (leaving the one with the registration marks on it in palce) and refit the sidepod. With the sidepod in place, place the tape with the holes in, onto the GRP of the sidepod, lining it up with the piece of tape with the registration marks on. Now, you can see exactly where to drill the holes in the GRP so that they go straight into the original floor holes. Simple eh? :)
This done, the rest of the sidepod holes were marked up and drilled at 60mm intervals. Take care to drill along a line that coincides with the chassis side-rails (about 20-25mm from the edge of the lowered seat pans is about right) otherwise you'll be rivetting into thin air! Another reason to be vigilant is that it's likely that the clutch/loom/brake lines run alongside the bottom of the chassis rail and you REALLY don't want to drill up into them do you?! :) Once all the holes were in place, the sidepods were removed and swarf cleaned off.
Next stage was to get the fuel tanks ready as these need putting in place before you fit the side pod as it is NOT possible to do afterwards! Mine had already been painted with stonechip paint, so it was just a case of fitting the fuel level senders and trimming them with expanding foam tape. The tape is used to stop stones/debris getting under the tanks and chafing away at them (the fuel economy isn't great as it is without leaking it out!). The tanks sit flush with the rear face of the sidepods, so you can temporarily put them into the sidepod off the car, to see where the tape should be fitted. That way you can create a 'sandwich' of foam tape both on the tank and in the sidepod. Next, using contact adhesive, glue the foam wedges to the sidepod along the lower edge of the air intake apeture. Finally, the fuel level senders were inserted into the tanks, taking care to remove the transit pin (if you don't then they won't work and you can't get the damn things out with the tanks fitted - so you've been warned!). You'll find that the threaded holes in the tank will only allow the sender to fit in a certain orientation, so rotate the sender to the the VDO text is facing the inner face and secure in place with the M5 button head bolts supplied, making sure that the cork sealing washer is in place too. That done, you're ready to final fit them.
The chassis rails were wiped clean with solvent and a bead of sikaflex applied ready for the sidepod (less chance of ending up with Sikaflex everywhere this way). The sidepod was carefully put in place and secured using the M5 bolt to the rear of the door apeture. I rivet into the rearmost side flange first (in the rear wheel well), then work back from the front underneath. This is because the foam wedges are pretty dense and can may need to compress a little for a good fit. It helps to have someone on hand to help at this stage to help 'push' the sidepod into place so that the rivets can be inserted into the predrilled holes. I used 46mm shank rivets for this as the GRP/floor/chassis rail 'sandwich is pretty thick.
The same procedure was used for the other sidepod and it's job done :) Finally, some visible progress!
Well, more wiring beckons this weekend. Considering the restricted access that I'd have to most of the loom when the cockpit dash section was on, I decided to test all the wiring prior to final fitting it. Whilst I'd included certain elements on the loom already, I'd yet to test them together. The alarm/immobiliser particularly was worrying me as it's pretty complex! So basically, my list of jobs was as follows:
Right, so first up was the fog light switch. As I mentioned above, these quality switches come at a price, but befit the style of the interior. The blue LED that lights the engraved switch face is really incandescent! Will look amazing at night ;) Anyway, wiring it up was a doddle really, just use the existing loom connections. I had to strip back the loom a bit to get the wiring far enough over to the left of the dash, but other than that, it was a straightforward crimp/solder/heatshrink job.
Which leads me on nicely to a brief note about making connections. Now, if you've ever tried to track an electrical fault on a car, you'll know what a complete pain in the rear it can be - especially when it turns out (as it usually does) to be a slightly dodgy connection, short, or dropped earth. So the sectret is, to make the connections as secure as possible to start with! Belt and braces is the order of the day here. Personally, I make every connection in 4 stages:
This is a time consuming process, but worthwhile considering the alternative, where you're broken down at the roadside in the pouring rain, trying to track down a shorted connection! Every connection I've made to the loom has been done in this manner. Fortunately, the original loom connections are of a similar high standard!
Next up, the rad fan override/heater switch. I've been umming and ahhhing about this one. I wasn't sure whether to use it for one or the other. In the end, I decided to use it for a rad fan override. Why? Well, really because I also decided to purchase another of these switches for the heater! Actually, make that the A/C - confused? You will be! Basically, the way that my heater solenoid works (the device that I installed to replace the mechanical valve supplied by the factory for this purpose), means that it's 'always on'. To stop the hot water flowing through the blower unit, the solenoid need to be fed power - odd, but that's the way it works. The upshot of this, is that any illuminated switch will be permanenently lit when the heater is off?!?!? ie. no hot water flow through the blower. Fortunately, there's an aircon style version available in this particular range of switches, so to me, it made sense to use it as in effect, whenever the switch is lit (hot water blocked, so no heat from blower) the aircon is ready for use. When you want heat, in effect, you turn the aircon switch off so that the solenoid opens and hot water can flow through the blower. What you want to avoid (which is easy to do with the stock setup if you forget to close the heater valve) is having the hot water circuit and aircon working at the same time. This way, I have a visual indicator showing me what's what with regard to the 'hot' part of the system. Got that? Good! :)
So, wiring the rad fan override was again a simple task as it's included on the factory loom. Again, I needed to strip back the loom to get the wiring far enough over on the dash, but once there, it was a straightforward job to connect it up. I just needed to piggyback a feed on the connector for the LED backlight.
The Stack pod came next. The Stack loom was already in place and I'd fed an ignition live and earth to it, so it was a simple case of plugging in to see if it works! Thankfully, it did. The odd oil pressure reading shown in the picture is beacause the pressure sender wasn't connected at the time. For some reason, these need a 5v feed (from the Stack unit) which, as I explained earlier, meant that I had to order loom extensions. The 'Sureseal' connector can be seen attached to the sender. A pain, but Stack know their stuff, so I hope these are an 'improved' version or something?
With the Stack module powered up, I moved on to consider the warning lights. The Stack has two warning lights built in, a shift light and an alarm light. Now, my warning lighting needs are covered by a special LED module which shows Left/Right indicators, Hi-beam operation, ignition/alternator charge warning, Oil pressure warning and Brake fluid level warning. However, I wanted to use the oil pressure warning (the good old oil-can symbol) as my 'general' Stack alarm. So this symbol will light when the Stack alarm light goes on, so I can get a visual reminder (in addition to the lights on the Stack unit itself) that something needs attention. I can set alarms for oil pressure/temperature, fuel pressure/level and water temperature as well as having a shift light, but as I found in the GTR, I tend to do this by ear anyway. So why don't I just drill two more holes in the dash an fit lights? Well, dunno really! First, there's no aesthetically pleasing place for them with all the additional knobs on the dash and second, well, it's more of a challenge this way :)P
The LED warning light module is a really neat piece of kit. It uses a common earth and +12V supply, so you just send appropriate +12V or 0v signals to it for the various functions. However, this is where the alarm light could prove to be an issue. The oil pressure light is usually triggered with an 0v feed (like a standard oil pressure switch) but, the Stack output for the alarm light consists of a +12v and an earth (which you'd need to light the light). I'd was working on the assumption that the Stack would send a +12v to the alarm light then the alarm was triggered, but the earth would be 'always on'. This of course would mean that the alarm light would stay lit regardless! However, I thought I'd give it a go anyway. It was at this point that those clever people at Stack won my undieing devotion - not only does the alarm light function switch the +ve, it switches the earth too! So hey presto, one working alarm light (the oil can) that will light to warn me should any of the Stack alarms be triggered - phew!
The control stalks were reinstalled with their sub-connections, as well as the front/rear lights. This was the first time that all functions of the stalks had been connected together to test their function, but thankfully (after chasing down a wiring short in the rear lighting circuit which I'd made - doh!) everything worked a treat. Indicators, hazards, lights and wiper/washer functions are now all controlled from these stalks. This setup has taken a fair bit of work, but I'm tremendously pleased with the results!! :)
I then moved onto the alarm and immobiliser. Needless to say, I'll be a bit vague here ;) I'd purchased a couple of additional modules for the alarm (as if it wasn't clever enough!), the first, is a dual-zone microwave sensor which can detect, not only movement inside the car, but around the perimeter too. Standard microwave sensors aren't very good in convertibles as they really need an enclosed space to work properly. This system detects 'mass motion' inside and outside the car, so that even with the roof down, if you get too near the car the siren will 'chirp' a warning and stick you arm in, and the thing goes off at an ear bleeding level! :) The second module was a shock sensor which sets the alarm off should you 'bump' into the car! The alarm also controls the central locking. Thankfully, I'd already worked this bit out, so it was just a case of remaking the connections. I took time to work out the best circuits to immobilise and spliced them into the main loom so that they were indistinguishable from other connections. Once all this gubbing was in, the alarm was tested. The head scratching paid off and everything was working as it should - or at least, appeared to be!
Finally, I finished off some outstanding connections and earths as well as running an ignition feed to engine bay. I need this for the pulse generator (which I decided to relocate) and the rear view camera :) It's not arrived yet, but should be here next week. I got hold of a 5m pukka shielded RCA cable with gold plated connectors (ooh, the luxury) which was routed from the hide-away nit position in the drivers footwell, through the passenger luggage pod conduit and into the engine bay. Fitting the cabling conduits into the luggage pods has proved to be a VERY good idea. I thought I'd been overly generous with their size (about 20mm ID), but they've been filled up in no time!
So, about 14 hours of work has gone into the wiring alone this weekend, but the result, is that pretty much everything that could be tested, has been tested - and works! A stage nearer to getting the dash section of the bodywork back on, I'm finally ready to trim it. Gulp!
So it was with some trepidation that I made my way to the workshop this morning, knowing that trimming was on list of jobs to be done this weekend. Ah well, here we go again....
..except, I had more wiring to do :) In the week, I'd started thinking about an interior light. This was partly so that I could drive a +12V feed which I needed for the alarm, but it also seemed to make sense as my Can-Am is supposed to have all the 'bells and whistles'. Thing was, what style of light to go for? I knew that footwell lighting was what I wanted rather than the whole interior - after all, I have no roof for a dome light - but wanted a 'trick' install. So a good trawl of the interweb and eBay threw up a few options. Some were more elegant than others, some were way too 'Max Power' (and yes, I did look at neons :-o) and some were downright 'orrible! I was keen on LED lights as they have a bright output and require little power and ended up stumbling across a 400mm long flexible strip of them.
This, I concluded, would be ideal as I could mount it along the lower dash chassis rail to give an even light across the width of the footwell. The light would be operated using the earth switched door-pin switches that I was putting in. By wiring the LED via a relay, I could also supply a switched 12V feed for the alarm system. The LED strip was a bit delicate, so I ended up mounting it onto a piece of self adhesive plastic that I had left over from the sound insulation. It was perfect for the job as it also insulated the strip from the chassis. The strip was then tested (blimey - those lights were bright!) and fitted to the dash rail with cable ties. I then altered the wiring to include a 3-way switch which allows the interior light to be door switched, permanently on or permanently off. I was concerned that the blue LEDs would be a bit boy-racer, but in practice, they look perfect with the Stack dash and switches which all have blue backlighting (just as well I sprayed the car that colour too ;).
Talking of blue switches, onto the Air-con switch which I mentioned last week. Despite my best efforts to the contrary, I ended up spending 65 quid on three of these aluminium switches :-o Still, they do look the dogs do-dads. I had to rewire the 2-way switch that I had already put in, which drives the heater matrix solenoid, to include an earth for the LED backlight. No problem really, as I re-used original looms voltmeter connections which were nearby (the Stack uses an internal voltmeter from its supply so these connections were free). Just a simple question of making and insulating the connections using the smaller 2.5mm blade style terminals.
Next, was a bit of an impulse buy that I stumbled across when looking for the interior light. Basically, it's an intermittent wash wipe kit! As standard, the ultima doesn't have an intermittent wipe facility, but seeing as this was the one operation of my stalks that wasn't connected, well, it would have been rude not to! The kit, made in Germany, is very well made and comes with decent instructions. It uses a simply timer IC circuit to drive two relays (wipe and park function). A rotary switch allows you to select the wipe interval, either 5, 10 or 15 seconds as standard but this can be increased/decreased by changing the value of one of the on board capacitors. Wiring it up (the components are all supplied un-mounted to the PBC) really took me back to my college days! :) However, when I came to monuting the rotary switch, I realised that due to the height of the relays, it would be impossible to mount it in the dash - grrr!!! Considering my options, I decided to wire some extensions (15 of them!) to the PCB to the switch. It looks a bit Heath Robinson, but it works!! Well, sort of. After wiring it up to the loom in the car it quickly became apparent that something was amiss. Namely, one of the relays wasn't operating. I stripped it down, but it was bu**ered. Bah! I tried to order another kit (it was from clearance stock) later that evening but there were no longer listed on the site I bought it from - double bu**er!! In the end, I just ordered a 12v mini-relay hoping that it fits the PCB. We'll see! Anyway, I decided on a position for the adjustment knob, just above the fuel tank switch behind the stalks. All very neat. The supply to the circuit comes from the intermittent function of the stalks, so basically, I have an intermittent wipe function with adjustable interval - clever eh! :)
So just a bit more wiring to do before I face the trimming (okay, okay, I know, I'm procrastinating really!). Actually, there is another job to do, that of testing the reverse camera.
I sourced this camera from Hong Kong and it's a great bit of kit. It has a ring of infra-red LEDs (for night-time vision) around a 120 degree, wide angle, lens. The camera image is reversed, so that you see the equivalent of what you'd see in a rear view mirror (this miage reversal is important otherwise cars following you look as if they're on the other side of the road!). The whole thing is in a waterproof housing, which is essential given its location in the engine bay. I had to make up a loom adaptor as the camera uses a small DC socket for power. I hacked the end off an old power adaptor that I had lying around and soldered blade terminals to the exposed end. I connected the camera up via the 5m shielded RCA cable that I'd installed last week and.... no image? Hmmm... I was sure that I'd got the polarity of the power the right way round (+ve to the centre of the DC socket and earth to the shroud) but still no image - damn! After poring through the manual for the head unit it transpired that I had to turn the camera input 'on' in the head unit - Doh! Anyway, once done - hey presto! - I can now see what's going on behind me on the fold out screen of the head unit :) Very trick!
So, that's it, no more excuses... trimming.... well, not just yet perhaps :) Before I could put the dash section of the bodywork back on the car, I needed to fit the sidepod trim panels. These sit in the front wheel wells and protect the coolant pipes and cockpit sides from the road detritus thrown up by the tyres. It's a time consuming job to fit these well, but they're strightforward enough. Once again, the use of cardboard templates is invaluable to avoid making mistakes when cutting the GRP. A couple of notes though. Underneath the trim panel, it overlaps the bottom of the sidepod. I trim this edge flush with the edge of the sidepod and seal with sikaflex as I think it's neater this way. Also, as I did with the sidepod rivets, I drilled out the original floorpan side rivets and replicated their positions on the trim panel to save over-rivetting. Secondly, I used the trim panels to route the drain tubes for the aircon and the windscreen gully. The tubes were run through the trim panel BEFORE fitting them otherwise you'll need very slim arms to get them in place afterwards! Whilst I stone-chip painted these panels on the GTR, I decided to leave them as polished GRP this time as I prefer the look of them. Besides, I can always spray them later once they've taken some stone chipping. 'Proper-job' - as they say in the SW of Britain :)
Right, so enough for today - cheerio......
Okay, I know, trimming ;)
Actually, I'm making this sound far more dramatic than it is, but it does take some care to get right, so here goes. Start on a small piece, like the dash pod, so that you can see what you're in for. I dry fit the piece of trim (fine quality black leather in this case) to see how it will go on. It's also important to make sure that you've accuonted for the thickness of the trim to allow for the unit istself (Stack in this instance) to fit. The leather is a good 1.mm thick, so I made sure I had a fair tolerance all the way round before gluing started. Next, as per the build CD instructions, both the pod and the leather are given a coat of contact adhesive and allowed to dry. Then, a second coat is applied and allowed to go tacky. Now, deep breath, I layed the trim flat on the bench and carefully positioned the dash pod above it. Once happy with the position, I dropped it into place so that just the ridge of the piece was glued. It was then carefully turned over and the sides gently pulled over so that they were uncreased. It really helps to have a second pair of hands to do this and thankfully Hels was on-hand to help out (thanks angel x). With care, the edges were wrapped over until everything was glued down. The Stack was then 'squeezed' into place (the loose fit was now a v.tight one with the extra thickness of the leather to fill the gaps) and dare I day it, it was perfect! :)
With the success of the Stack pod, I had the confidence to tackle the main dash itself. Working with the pod had shown me that the leather is far less forgiving than alcontara when it comes to stretching. Also, you can distort the leather grain if you pull it too much. So the dash needed great care. Once I'd marked a centre datum point on the dash and the trim, I started by just gluing a 1" strip, right the way along the horizontal seam. This was carefully stuck down ensuring that it was striaght right the way across the dash. Happy with this, I glued up the dash 'top'. This was again, carefully laid down, smoothing out the leather from the seam forward, to avoid creases. If it does start to crease, stop, carefully pull back a bit (it's contact adhesive, but as long as it's still tacky when you lay it down, you get a 2nd chance....or 3rd, or 4th ;) and replace. It all went down with no real drama and looks great. Now, onto the dash face. Now this was a real PIG! The main flat area was fine and working from the centre out, the leather went on fine. But the problem area was where the lower edge of the flat face curves down and back. The right hand side of the dash was fine after a couple of attempts, but the left was a GIT! I kept on creasing it, despite making several 'snips' in the trim. Still, patience and not panicking paid off and I finally got a fit I was happy with. Thank goodness that's over with! I'd run out of time (it flies when you're trimming!) so couldn't cut the instrument holes out, but decided to make my way home for a well earned drink!
Well, this has to have been the most frustrating weekends of the build so far! :( Why? Well, read on....
Looking forward to a productive day, I made a mental list of jobs to do on my way to the workshop. In order to try and complete something, I made it my objective to get the dash section of the bodywork on. Starting with something simple, I got the sharpest of my blades out and set about cutting the holes in the dash for the instruments and switches. It's amazing how quickly leather (and alcontara come to that) will dull a blade, so a good supply is useful at this point. No great story, just take care not to cut anywhere you shouldn't - and that includes your fingers!!
Next up, I needed to make a modification to the slot I'd made in the dash for my warning lights. Basically, the warning light module comes with a self-adhesive strip which mounts to the dash face, whilst the electronics are mounted behind. This is fine, buy it doesn't look very 'finished' with just a strip of symbols stuck to the leather face of the dash. With no suitable face plate available from the supplier (they do one, but it's just a rectangular piece of ally with some holes in!), I designed one myself using CAD software and got it laser cut from 3mm aluminium. The fit with the symbol strip is perfect and some neat M4 button head machine screws finish the job nicely. I had a whole bunch made up, so expect to see them on eBay soon :)
After some quick cable tidying, I then set about re-fitting the dash section back on the chassis. This was the first time I'd done so since trimming it and re-fitting the sidepods so I was keeping fingers crossed that it would be drama free. Which, indeed, it proved to be. It was tight, no doubt about that as the thickness of the leather that I'd wrapped around the lower edges of the dash made a bit of difference, but it went on all the same. I set about drilling the holes for rivetting, using the tape transfer method on the front bulkhead as I'd inadvertantly drilled them when fitting the ally panel. Still, it all went well in the end and the dash section was skin pinned ready to final fit.
However, this is where the frustration started! Nothing to do with the fitting of the bodywork, it was actually the intermittent wiper function that I'd made that was causing me grief! Before I committed to fitting the dash, I wanted to make sure that all the electrical bits and bobs were there ready to be connected and worked. I'd already done this for the lights/instruments etc. but the only thing left was the intermittent wipe. Basically, the problem was the park function of the circuit. Without going into a load of pointless (and hard to understand detail), I could get the circuit to operate the intermittent wipe - but the park wouldn't work, or I could get it to work with the park, but that would screw up the 'normal' operation of the circuit. I literally pored over this problem for 3 hours, with no resolution. I had the inkling that I needed and extra relay to make and break the park circuit when the intermittent function was in use, but just couldn't get my head around how to solve the problem. In the end, I ran out of time and left the workshop feeling like I'd achieved almost nothing.
So is that where this short and almost fruitless entry ends? Well no. You see, I had a bit of a 'Eureka' moment at 5am the folling morning, coinciding with out son Charlie waking up (he's full of head cold at the moment :( ). The answer lay in the use of an additional relay which only operated when the intermittent function was in use. This relay feeds the park circuit to the motor to continue the wiper movement to the park position once the 'pulsed' feed has finished. After a bit more fiddly soldering, I got it working - hurrah! Feeling elated that I'd solved this problem, I mounted the whole lot in a PVC box to neaten it up and stop it from shorting on other wiring behind the dash. The only fly in the ointment was that after doing this, I re-tested it and the circuit itself had gone up the swanee! I concluded that I'd blown the 555 timer IC, so until a replacement can be sourced (a day or two), it was time to pack up and go home again. Which I did - just in time for breakfast! :)