Well, I've got a month to go before I plan to have the car SVA'd, which is in fact a year later than my original target! :-o Still, it's been a VERY busy year. Not quite there yet though, so on with the build.
Today's jobs started with the final bonding of the side scoops. I'd bonded them in place a week earlier, but now had the task of filling around the edges with a neat bead of sealant. To do this, I carefully masked up both scoops and sidepod apetures to give a consistent 3mm gap all round the scoop. Once done, I carefully ran in a bead of sealant and smoothed it out where required with my finger. Spraying your finger in WD40 stops the bond'n'seal sticking to them and smooths it out nicely. The trick was now to let the sealant cure enough so that I could remove the masking tape without it ribboning, but not letting it go too far! About 1/2 a day with some help from the heaters should do it. Gulp!
With the side scoops curing, I moved onto a job that seems to have taken ages. I decided to fit an oil cooler a few weeks back when I thought more about the oil temperature sender placement. Basically, the most logical option was to fit it to the sandwich plate extension ring that's used when fitting an oil cooler to a small block chevy. The ring was simply drilled and tapped for the 1/8th NPT sender taking care to fit it low as the ring is recessed into the block somewhat. The extension ring, sandwich plate and filter where then fitted to the block along with the temperature sender. This obviously then required that I fit an oil cooler (unless I looped the sandwich plate back into itself which seemed pointless).
I had planned on fitting a 235mm 25 row cooler which I'd sourced from a local supplier and whilst doing so, I opted for -12 fittings which are larger than the factory supplied -10 setup. The theory was that the larger hose bore would mean that the oil would be slower through the cooler, therefore more thermodynamically efficient. All well and good in theory, however, I hit rather a large snag when I found that it's impossible to fit a pair of -12 fittings side by side on the sandwich plate!! :( So, a rather frantic trip to the supplier (who thankfully were late closing) and I changed the whole lot back to -10! Once back in the workshop, I set about fabricating the oil cooler mounts from 3mm ally plate. Some fettling later and the oil cooler was fixed in place with an angled bracket at one end and through the sidepod into the rear wheel well at the other. I made up the braided hoses using the 120 degree hose ends and straights and fitted to the cooler and sandwich plate and another job was ticked off my 'to do' list.
By now, the sealant had cured enough for the tape to be carefully removed. Thankfully, it came away leaving a nice neat beat of sealant right round the scoop. No way that sucker is going to fall out!
Unfortunately, Hels and Charlie are both unwell (and I'm stuffed full of cold), so rather than get stuck into another major task I opted to do a little one and call it a day. With that in mind, I fitted the throttle cable linkage to the carb and final fitted the cable to it. If you use the teflon version of the throttle cable, you may need a slightly larger rose joint to get the threaded end through. Fortunately, I had the smaller version lying around so I just replaced the original, cut the nipple from the end of the cable and threaded it through. It was secured with the locknuts and a solderless nipple on the cable end. I now have a working throttle :)
So that's it I'm afraid. Not a very interesting update and not really indicative of the amount of work involved. But pictures of me facbricating brackets aren't exactly enthralling to see! Anyway, you can get a flavour of the end result at least. I'm off to dose myself up with flu'n'cold remedy.
Well, the job list is slowly getting shorter, so off I went to embark on tidying up a few more loose end.
Start with something easy. The Getrag box master cylinder position means that the clutch pipe can be a bit of a stretch. The factory supply a short extension piece for the main pipe to address this (I had to buy a male to male 3/8th NF adaptor though). The pipes were connected together and attached to the master cylinder. Told you it was easy!
Next up the gearbox breather. I'd had a bit of tooing and foring with the factory regarding the pipework, but it seems that they vary the way they attache the pipes (for no apparent reason?). I'd originally been sent a pair of hoses with female 3/8th hose ends at one end and banjo connectors at the other. I'd been expecting 3/8th female hose ends at both ends so that they can be screwed onto male-male adaptors which screw into the original bungs (once they're drilled and tapped that is). Anyway,it turned out that the reason they send out banjos for the Getrag is that the top bung sits directly under a chassis rail. This way, you can get a 90 degree takeoff in the limited space available. I really should have set aboot fitting this before putting the transmission in place as it's a lot easier to get the top bung out! So I wasn't really looking forward to this job. I started with the side bung which was removed, drilled with an 3mm pilot hole, then widened to 8mm and finally tapped with a 3/8ths NF tap. A male/male adaptor was screwed in which allowed me to attach the breather pipe. Some setups use the bottom bung for this, but I thought that a bit bizarre as the pipe will them permanently have gearbox oil in it rather than just coming into play when the oil expands? Anyway, side (feed) and top (return) for me.
The top bung was a bit more tricky to get out. Thankfully, it had already been out once so wasn't in too tight. I just removed the rear gearbox bracket bolts and the exhaust silencer rubber bushes and lowered the transmission on a jack. I had to be careful not to stress the headers as the exhaust was still attached. I got the gearbox low enough to get the bung out - phew! This was again drilled and tapped, but this time for the bajo bolt. I decided that for future maintenance, I was better off grinding down the sides of the bung so that it can be removed with a spanner, rather than an allen key, given the limited access from the top. The whole assembly was installed and tightened and the gearbox jacked back up into place. To say it's tight between the banjo bolt and the chassis rail would be an understatement!
Before fixing the breather tank, I had a play around with the layout a bit as I'd opted not to buy the factory rocker-cover breather box and had sourced a really nice stainless steel one (at a 3rd of the price!). This version also has a breather vent and filter rather than just an overflow. Looks more trick too! Being the cylindrical style, mounting it to the usual chassis rail meant getting it quite close to the silencers. In the end, I decided to mount it centrally on the silencer bracket. I hoped that it would fit OK under the canopy in this position, but needn't have worried as later (after re-fitting the canopy), it fitted perfectly in the 'bump' of the canopy, with about 10mm clearance above the filter. Once I'd fitted it, I then rivetted the gearbox breather tank to the top chassis rail.
So finally, I was almost in a position to fit the rear canopy. I started by marking up for the rear wing - however, I had to scratch that plan as I discovered that I had no mounting pylons after unwrapping the wing!! :( I decided to move onto getting the canopy on the car so that I could fit the exhaust grill. The tips were fitted to the silencers (they can be tricky to get on due to the mounting flanges warping after being welded to the silencers, but wiggling them about, starting at an angle, will do the trick) and roughly positioned. The canopy was then put back on and the position of the exhaust tips adjusted in the apeture so that they were at an equal height and distance from the top/sides. This can look a bit odd when the canopy is removed, but the point is to get them looking 'right' when it's all clipped down in place. The grill was offered up to the tips (taking care not to scratch the paint as the edges are very sharp) with an equal overlap all round and the position of the tips marked by taping the aluminium rings to it. The grill was then removed and the holes cut using a variety of snips.
Whilst re-fitting the canopy, I found that the latches wouldn't close properly? I can only assume that the GRP has 'moved' a little? The mounting rosejoints were fiddled with until I got a decent fit. Th, with nice even panel gaps all round. It's a really fiddly process and should really be done with 2 people if you want to retain from sanity! The hinge strikers got a bit butchered in the process as they had to be lowered a fair bit, so I've asked the factory for a new pair! Final fitting this took an age and really bugged as I hadn't accounted for the time it took. Still, it's vital that it's right.
Finally, the canopy was removed so that the rear grill could be bonded into place along with the intake grill. I have heard from quite a few Can-Am owners that they've blocked this grill off as you tend to get a fair amount of heat was from the engine bay out of it, but for the time being I'll leave it be and see how it goes?
So with the buggering about with the canopy, I felt a bit cheated on the progress, but I managed to tick 5 jobs off the to-do list, so not bad :)
Managed to get some 'homework' done lasst night to save me some time in the workshop today, namely, the edging of the light pod covers. Here's how I did them.
First, I ran a strip of PVC electricians tape around the edge of the cover on the EXTERNAL face, to give me an equal edge all the way round. Then, I flipped the cover over and stuck another strip of tape to the INTERNAL face, following the inner edge of the first piece of tape. The result, was a masked area that was of equal width all the way round the cover. Using PVC for this is the best way of stopping the black primer from bleeding which is what masking tape would do. It's vital to do it in one piece if at all possibe. It's inevitable that you will get a tiny bit of bleed where the two ends of the tape meet, but you can carefully scrape it off with your fingernail before it completely cures. With the edge masked off, the small bottle of primer was given a good shake and applied using the applicator supplied. Try to get it on in one coat if possible and hold the cover up to the light to check for good coverage. Once the first coat has dried (about 5 minutes) you can touch up any thin areas being careful not to wipe off the first coat. Once done, the second coat was left to touch dry (about 15 mins to be safe) and the PVC tape removed. This avoids any chipping that may occur if you leave the primer to completely cure before removing the masking. The covers were then left overnight somewhere warm to completely cure. Very pleased with the results which are perfect.
So on to the workshop for another job-filled day. The first objective was to get the rear canopy final fitted. To do so meant fitting the heat shield material and then the wing. First, the heat shield.
The material was laid out over the inside of the canopy and the positions of the grills marked once I was happy that the mat was in the right place. The heatmat was then trimmed to allow for the grills and all edges taped using the foil tape supplied. I find the easiest method of doing this is to measure the tape length and cut, then fold the tape in half lengthways, open it up again and remove the backing, then stick to the mat using the fold line as your edge guide. This gives a consistent width of foil tape along the mat edge. WIth the edges taped, the mat was dry fitted once more and once happy with the position, about 6" of the front edge was glued up with contact adhesive and stuck down working from the centre (where the canopy bulge is) out. The rear half was then folded back and contact adhesive applied to the rest of the material. Finally, carefully, the rear half was also bonded into place.
That done, I could move onto the fitment of the rear wing. First, the components were laid out so that I could check the distance between the pylon base fixing bolts as they come in 2 variants - 138mm or 142mm apart. Mine were the latter. This distance affects the position of the holes that need drilling in the canopy deck (see diagram). Next stage was to determine the centreline of the car. I did this by using my camera tripod to take a centrepoint between the rear wheel arches. I marked an approximate 'centre' on a piece of tape, then placed the tripod on either side of the canopy, butted up against the wheelarch top edge, making sure the tripod was perfectly vertical. I then measured from the tripod shaft to the centreline from either side. As it was, I was only 2mm out from my 'guesstimate' of the centreline :)
I then needed a second centreline at the rearmost point on the canopy. To do this, I used the inner pair of rear lights as a reference and took the centrepoint between them. I then used some electrical wire as a plumbline between the two centrpoints which was then the datum for my pylons.
The next stage is to determine the positon from the rear edge of the canopy. This is 195mm for the 142mm spaced pylon mounts and 199mm for the 138mm mounts.
The rear pylon mount holes are then positioned 419mm from the centreline on either side of this point, with the front holes 142/138mm forward of them at a tangent to the horizontal to ensure the pylons are square. I used a straightedge between the points (masked to protect the paintwork!) and checked that it was equidistant from the rear edge at either side, with the centre coincident with the 195/199mm position. Finally, after double checking everything, I drilled 8.5mm holes in the canopy and hoped for the best :)P
The pylons were then temporarily fitted and the wing placed on them to check everything fitted. Thankfully, it did :) For reference, the rose joints are fitted to the inner faces of the pylon
The wing was then removed and the pylon support brackets fitted from underneath and secured using the nylocs supplied. The canopy was then flipped over to drill for the lower support bracket hole. This hole goes into a foam filled GRP support (providing you've got the pylons in the right place of course ;). A hole was drilled through the support bracket on either side, right the way through into the wheel well. The bracket is secured with a nut and bolt and the nut is effectively 'blind' as it's within the foam support. By drilling all the way through, you can then widen the wheel well hole to get the nut on and finally blank with a suitable grommet. I inserted the nyloc into a socket and secured the washed in place with tape. It was then carefully inserted into the hole and secured to the bolt. Be careful pulling the socket out to avoid it pulling off the shaft into the GRP void!
With the pylons and brackets secured, the wing could be attached using the rose joints supplied. You may need to fettle the rosejoints a bit by grinding away the outer edge a little as the machining on the pylon is rather conservative. he last job was to fit a rubber strip to the trailing edge of the wing to make it SVA compliant. This looks as if it may err.... fall off shortly after the SVA ;) I didn't fit the wing on the GTR (the factory did), so I found this job very satisfying - albeit rather intimidating at first :)
Now that the wing was ready, the canopy was re-fitted. This also allowed me to finalise the exhause tip positions (which I'd left loose) so that they were central to the grill holes. Don't be tempted to attach the rings before this point as they will allow you a bit of freedom to get perfect alignment with the tips, even if they are slightly offcentre of the holes in the grill. The tips were centralised and the mikalor clamps tightened - lovely. The rings were bonded in place with bond-n-seal (sika) and wired up to cure.
Now that the sika was out, it seemed like a good time to bond in the headlight covers that I'd prepared last night. The light covers had already been dry-fitted prior to painting, so the headlight apetures were masked up with PVC, cleaned and a thin bead of sika put down. The covers were then carefully dropped into place and taped down tightly with gaffer (duck) tape. I used gaffer as it doesn't stretch. They were then left to cure. I will finish them off with a bead around the edge once they're secure.
Well, it's almost looking like a car now! So the final bit of bodywork to go on was the doors. But first, the nightmare of trimming!
I'd mulled long and hard over whether to go for leather or alcontara and had opted for leather on the basis of it being less prone to fading (open top car exposure to the sun) and easier to wipe dry (open top car exposure to rain!). However, trimming in leather is MUCH harder than alcontara as it's so resiliant to stretching :( I'd had some experience of this with the dash, so wasn't looking forward to the door trims very much with the dished section of the door looking like it would be challenging. It was!
The datum point for the leather is the top seam, which lines up with the dash (in theory). So I started by gluing up a narrow strip of the leather trim and door and bonding it in place, taking care to keep the seam nice and straight. That done, I worked the leather over the 'top' of the door and into the side window channel. I'll trim this short later to stop water from cappiliarying up into the leather when it rains. I contemplated doing the rest bit by bit, but the risk is that you stick it down only to find you have too little 'give' when you get further down the panel.So the only option seemed to be to do the rest in one hit. You can't work from the inside of the dish out, as the outer edges can 'pull' in, which would look awful - especially the leading edge. So cue much cursing, pulling and pushing to get the trim bonded down. Eventually, I managed to get both doors about 90 percent done, with just the central hole to lap over. This is proving to be rather resiliant to my efforts, so I need to look at ways of stretching the leather a bit to get it over - probably by steaming the leather into submission which is, I believe, how the professional trimmers do it? Other than that, I'm stumped?
Besides, I'd run out of time and Charlie was driving Hels mad, so I had to make my weary way home. Still, I'm a step closer and my VOSA SVA application is ready to go back. This will give me an SVA date to shoot for to get the car finished. At least the end is in sight now!
It's been an age since I've had the chance to update the build as I've been monster busy at work. So if you're keeping pace with my progress - apologies for the wait! Anyway, back to the build....
Right, another day of odd jobbing in order to get the car ready for the SVA. So what to tackle first....
Well, after exchanging some emails with the factory (who helpfully confirmed that the leather trim on the doors is a pig of a job), we both seemed to conclude that hot leather was more likely to play ball than cold. So I snuck out of the house this morning armed with a steam iron, hairdryer and an old tea towel in order to try and 'persuade' the door trims down. It's a tricky task, as I has to peel back the leather again, which was pretty well glued down from my first attempt, re-glue, steam and stretch. After alot of effort, I got the trim as good as it would get. The only issue is that it was impossible to stop it from scalloping along the lower edge. I still have no idea how you'd get this striaght, other than sticking the edges down, then gluing up the middle? Anyway, it's as good as it's going to get and I'm happy with it :)
With the doors trimmed to my satisfaction, I could finally re-fit the hardware to them, that is, the locks, latches with central locking mechanism and interior opener. Replacement was striaghtforward enough, once I'd remembered how the latches worked with the opening handle! I was a bit concerned that the central locking might be problematic, but they went in without a fuss - albeit with a lot of GRP splinters in my fingers! :)
A quick note, take care when first closing the door after refitting to the hinge, to make sure the front edge misses the cockpit bodywork otherwise you can scrape it. Drop the door carefully on the hinge (easier with 2 people for this operation) and drop the strengthening plate over the bolts inside the door. Loosely fit the nylocs until you're happy with the position, then finally tighten. I had trouble getting the doors to latch which was odd, but realised later that this was partly due to the cills not being finally rivetted down. Now that the doors were on, I could check the shutlines agains the sidepods and finally rivet into place to give a flush fit between sidepod and door. With the cills rivetted down, the doors shut more easily. They are still tight due to the thickness of the leather trim along the bottom edge. Given the scalloping issue of the leather trim, it may be easier to trim it off along the edge of the return, but it's too late for that and I'm happy with the fit (and I'm VERY fussy ;).
That done, I could wire up the central locking and with baited breath, give it a test. I pressed the alarm keyfob and........ CLICK :) Wooohooo! It works. Well, actually it only works on one side? Further investigation (and this is tricky given that you're working upside down inside a door with a mirror and a torch!) showed that the plastic arm that actuates the lock barrel was fouling against the central locking solenoid on the driver's side door. I removed it (more than once) and spaced the solenoid away until the arm cleared. That done and it worked a treat. Felt very chuffed with myself that this electro/mechanical system works especially with the complexities of the alarm system to contend with.
Given that I was in the mood for more electrics, I moved onto the mirrors. The cables were threaded into the aluminium mounting posts with the end just by the hole in the post stem. You can't pull it through yet as you need to put it into the door first. To make it easy, I wrapped some tape round the end and left about 20mm sticking through the hole which I stuck to the mounting post. I then put the post in the door(make sure you get it the right way round - the cable should exit the top of the post towards the front of the car), secured the bottom with the button head bolt and unstuck the tape, allowing me to pull the cable out. Simple eh? ;) The mirror shrouds were then secured with another button head in the top of the post. The mirror mounts were prepped by fettling the inside a bit to make them fit over the motors properly. The factory bond these on with sika, but I opted (again) to drill them for self tappers which screw into the motorised mount. The mirror glass is then secured to the mounting plate with velcro provided. The motors and switch were wired according to the manual (all the wires were in place this time) and it all worked first time! Another job done.
So, doors on, locks in, mirrors on - blimey - it looks like a car! Out of time again, more next week.
