Crikey, almost a year since I took delivery of the chassis and I'm still at it! Firework night in the UK today, so let's hope today in the workshop won't involve any fireworks of my own!
After last weekends disappointing progress, I endeavoured to achieve the objective of getting the dash section of the bodywork finally fitted back onto the chassis. I needed to be 100% certain (or as near as I could) that all the wiring connections were in place and ready to go as playing around with them once this section is on is a real pain! Needless to say, I still had more bits and bobs to tidy up and test and as usual, they took ages. Still, I won't bore you with the details, let's get on to some useful stuff!
A couple of small jobs also to do before the dash/cockpit goes back on. First up, I pre-fitted the access panels. These come pre-drilled, so it's simply a case of marking up the access hatches for M5 rivnuts, drilling and inserting. For some reason my panels aren't polished ally? Maybe the factory have changed the spec? They were a bit scratched up too, so I'll probably cover them in carbon fibre although, I've got a nice big sheet of autoclaved CF so may replace them completely. Anyway, job done for now.
Next up, I drilled out the hole for the washer jet. No big deal, just positioned it 50mm from the wiper drive shaft. To make life a bit easier, I fitted it and the feed hose as it's tricky to access when the cockpit is fitted in place. I meant to fit the windscreen motor too - but in my haste, forgot! Ah well, that's one job to be done on my back, feet in the air!
Next a couple of handy hints thanks to some feedback from another Can-Am owner (cheers Brian/Crazyofcookham). It appears, that due to the bolt-in nature of the windscreen of the Can-Am (allowing you to change between 'fly' and full screens), it can be possible for water to collect in the gully and seep via capillary action up into the dash covering. This causes screen misting problems. The solution to this was two-fold (well, I hope it is - I'm making this up as I go along!). Firstly, I trimmed back the leather so that it stops about 10mm from the gully base (I had trimmed it before so that it ended up in the bottom of the gully). This is to stop the water from capilliarying into the leather.
Secondly, I decided to insert a seal along the gully, which would stop water from getting back into the dash top. Scratching my head for a suitable seal, the local builder's merchant came up trumps with some think rubber draft seal. This conveniently was also adhesive backed and proved perfect for the job - result! I put down two runs of the seal, with a channel between which exposes the drain holes that I'd put in previously. The theory is that water penetration is prevented, but any that does get past the first seal can drain away. A simple tip really and one that's retro-fittable, but a good one nonetheless!
That done, it was time to final fit the bodywork :-o It was all pre-drilled, but I took the precaution of dry fitting it again to make sure pipes/cables were out of harms way (I had to move the aircon pipes on driver side to below the return flange on the top of the sidepods). For safety's sake I wired up the alarm and central locking to ensure that they were operating correctly, which they weren't! I'd taken a permanent live (or so I thought) from the old Hazard light switch connection (now on the stalks), but this played havoc with the relay for some reason so that the central locking solenoids wouldn't operate? I re-wired them taking a live from the ignition switch (the central locking module has its own fuse on this feed) and all was well. Once happy, the cockpit was raised up a bit allowing me to connect the windscreen gully drain hoses. Sikaflex was then applied to the relevant rivet faces and the whole lot rivetted down using rivets and washers. The factory supply several rivet lengths, I used 46mm for the rivets directly in front of the access panels and front bulkhead and 48mm rivets for the sidepod trim panels (two layers of GRP and a chassis rail to contend with!). Fitting this was a huge relief after so many weeks of fiddling about. I just hope that everything's OK when I come to wire up all the dash elements!
With the dash bodywork in place, I started to re-fit the latches/hinges etc. I'd taken care to mark these up for the relevant side as well as recording the number/position of the spacer washers etc. to ensure that they went back together as per the factory pre-fit condition. The door hinges were a bit of a pain to re-fit. The issue here being the gas-strut braces. Whilst the near-side went in OK, the offside was a pain (not helped by a mounting panel that I'd put in for some electrical gubbins. These braces run between the hinge and the bodywork to provide a support for the door gas struts (which are only found on the Can-Am) and are held in place with a machine screw at the hinge end and another into the bodywork/chassis at the other. The hing end was fine, but the bodywork end just wouldn't line up! Despite trying to re-tap the hole (not easy now that the cockpit was on), it wouldn't screw in. Eventually, I gave in and put a rivnut in instead!
Almost out of time (amazing how it goes so quickly!), I just had time to fit the ignition barrel, aircon thermostat and motor controls, heater solenoid and warning lights. The one advantage of a dash that looks like swiss cheese is that there's a fair amount of room to see what you're doing and to get your hands in! Frustrating not to have 'finished' the dash, but had to get home to bath Charlie :) Still, it's finally taking shape again and looks a bit more like a car! More news soon....
Well, it seems that winter is upon us. The temperature readout in my car on the way to the workshop this morning was -3! BRRRRR!!!! Best get busy to warm myself up then :)
Having missed a week of build due to business commitments, first job was to continue where I left off with the dash instrument wiring. I final fitted the rad-fan override and fog light switches. Again, these are nice ally items with LED backlighting. They look great and suit the dash perfectly. The LED warning light was wired up and secured to the dash. My laser cut faceplate was also attached over it and looks the business. I was a little close to the two holes I'd made for the canopy warning light LEDs, but trimming the holding bezels for them looked neat. I considered extending the surround plate, but I didn't want it looking too chunky, so was happy with the result. The cigarette lighter (read power outlet) was wired in along with the start switch. Finally, I installed the thermostat and fan speed dial switches for the aircon, with their new turned ally dials - a vast improvement on the factory originals I'm sure you'll agree. At this point I thought wise to test things out - gulp!
Well, the warning lights, rad fan override, A/C (heater solenoid) and fog light switches all worked as intended, as did the power outlet. However, the start button seemed inoperable? At first, I thought it might be the immobiliser playing up, but it turned out to be the starter relay which wasn't working. Luckily I had a spare, so the faulty relay was replaced and all was good :) However, I have an issue with the stalk operation which is causing some odd things to happen? With the ignition off, when you select main beam on the stalks, you get power to the dash!?!?! I think I know the cause and will look to rectify later.
Moving onto the steering wheel area of the dash, I wired up the 4 replacement Stack display switches which look a million times better than the Stack supplied originals. Whilst fiddling around here, I also wired in the fuel tank switch and intermittent wiper interval selector (5, 10 or 15 seconds using the ally knob shown). I also fitted the tweeters for the stereo and the interior light function switch (which is actually by the ignition barrel and mirror switch). The interior lightswitch allows me to select between off/door triggered and permanently on. I had plenty of visitors in the workshop today, so my build order was a little haphazard! I gave the stereo a quick test and can conclude that with just half of the final number of speakers, it's certainly more than 'adequate' :)
A five minute job was to fit the horn, which simply bolts to the ally panel on the side of the radiator box. At the moment, the horn is operated using the original button, but I will change this to use the steering wheel buttons once that's all together!
Now that my extended steering column had arrived (40mm longer than the original to make room for the stalks), it could be drilled out for the crush mount (SVA requirement). The easiest way to do this accurately, is to make a paper template. Invert the column and place the steering wheel mounting face on a piece of paper. Run a knife around this to make an accurate template. Place the template on the crush mount, centring it up and use it to mark the position of the 4 M6 button head machine screw holes. Transfer these positions to the mounting face of the steering column, drill and fit using the M6 screws supplied.
That done, I could fit the Snap-Off quick release hub. This version was for MOMO, so it bolted straight on to my MOMO Tornado steering wheel. It also caters for a pair of electrical connections, so getting the horn to work from the wheel shouldn't be as much of a chore as it was on the GTR!
With the whole assembly in place, with a big breath, I fitted it to the car. This was to ensure that I had enough room between the dash face and rear of the column for the stalks. And you know what? I did :)
I had been concerned that the combined effect of a longer steering column, crush mount and quick release hub would bring the steering wheel too close to the seat, but I needn't have worried. In fact, I consider the position to be perfect for driving and the distance from wheel to stalks is ideal. Turned out nice again :)
That's it for this week. It doesn't seem like alot, but it's amazing how quickly 10 hours in the workshop disappears!