Ultima Can Am Build: A Mini-Diary

[356Speedster]

I'll try to keep this thread updated as I progress, but no doubt I'll fail miserably! While the Can Am will mostly follow the factory standard, I am planning a few personal touches of my own, which fellow builders may / may not find interesting. So, starting at the beginning……. I got my chassis at the end of June and started the build in early July. 6 weeks in and I'm fully panelled, the pedals, master cylinders, radiator & side pipes are all in. This week is all about the suspension & brakes – I can’t wait to get those big APs fitted!

As you’ll see, I’ve got put heat / sound proofing inside the double skin areas, as well as on the side panels. The front / rear bulkheads are both covered in gold reflective film and there’ll be more use of that in the future. The side radiator pipes are lagged too. Basically, I’m looking to manage as much heat of the car as possible, to make it more comfortable to drive. In order to compensate for lagging the pipes (as yes, I know these to aid in engine cooling), I’ve uprated the Pacet fans, fitting the largest I can to the factory radiator.

Rather than waffling any more, here’s a few pics. Time to order the remaining factory parts (except the body, that’ll have to wait until fitting time).

Enjoy & feel free to comment / discuss as I progress! Mark

[UltimaCH]

Looking good and I love the gold reflective stuff. It gives the panelling and visible parts a feeling of rocket and satellite science work. What is with the fiber glass panelling up front? Real or adhesive to the alu?

[356Speedster]

Thanks! The gold reflective stuff does look good and as you say, gives it a nice aerospace look. I'm not planning on having any alloy paneling on show, so everything will be covered one way or another.

Yes, the front of the car is Di-Noc'd. I did price up real carbon for all those pieces but I'm afraid my wallet couldn't afford it That said, applied carefully, it's hard to tell the difference (without close inspection), as an engineer mate of mine found a few weeks ago

[Graham-P]

Hope you're enjoying the build, I bet you're glad to have most of the riveting behind you?!?!?
On the heat elimination side , you might want to look at putting a panel in behind the radiator to block heat getting to the battery compartment and heating up the front bulkhead, plus now is the time to look at sealing the voids that the radiator pipes go through and radiate heat up into the cockpit. You won’t eliminate all the heat from getting into the cockpit (I take it you are fitting air con?) but you should be able to cut it down considerably by thinking about it now. Make sure you seal in the luggage containers especially the rear bulkhead, this stops hot engine bay heat being sucked back into the cockpit via the luggage containers lids, if not they (the lids) ‘pop’ up at over 70 leptons.


Graham

[356Speedster]

Hi Graham... yes, now that I'm done with the paneling, things are much more fun.... I'm fed up of hoovering bucket loads of swarf out of my garage carpet & spending days with my hands covered in black silicon! Cheers for the tips, I've just ordered the remaining parts to get me to the body pre-fit stage, so will certainly watch all those areas for heat mgt.

I wasn't going to have A/C as I'm going the aeroscreen route, but having spoken to a few folks, it seems that it just helps to have it, no matter how much heat mgt is attempted.

[spatz]

looking at your coling pipe insualtion, I would say you will not be able to
get the luggage containers over them......maybe better try now and test it is much easier at this time of the build.

[356Speedster]

spatz said:

looking at your coling pipe insualtion, I would say you will not be able to
get the luggage containers over them......maybe better try now and test it is much easier at this time of the build.

Luggage containers just ordered today The insulation is a rubberised foam and squishes down to just a few mm thick, so hopefully it'll compress enough. If not, I can trim accordingly... that said, I know another Ultima that used the same foam, so fingers crossed it should be OK

[UltimaCH]

Looked through the Di-Noc stuff (3M) and found plenty of different shades of CF to choose from Do you know if its the same stuff as Stig used in his Can Am build? How does it resist to wear and tear?

[356Speedster]

UltimaCH said:

Looked through the Di-Noc stuff (3M) and found plenty of different shades of CF to choose from Do you know if its the same stuff as Stig used in his Can Am build? How does it resist to wear and tear?

Not sure what Stig used, as that's a while ago and I believe Di-Noc is quite new - unless it was an early version / forerunner? I'm using the std 421 spec. Time will tell how resiliant it is, but so far it's pretty tuff stuff

[drivin_me_nuts]

Interesting photos thanls for posting them. I'm a few months behind you and still planning /deciding what to put in my GTR. One question your photos have brought up straight away and that is that you are building in a single garage. How are you finding it? Do you have enough space to work and move around?

(because it's one of the things I can't decide - and that's if I need to higher a workshop/garage for six months)

Please, keep on posting pickies, it give me inspiration/motivation as well

Cheers

DMN

[UltimaCH]

356Speedster said:

Not sure what Stig used, as that's a while ago and I believe Di-Noc is quite new - unless it was an early version / forerunner? I'm using the std 421 spec. Time will tell how resiliant it is, but so far it's pretty tuff stuff

Thanks. Perhaps Stig will chime in if he reads this....

[356Speedster]

drivin_me_nuts said:

Interesting photos thanls for posting them. I'm a few months behind you and still planning /deciding what to put in my GTR. One question your photos have brought up straight away and that is that you are building in a single garage. How are you finding it? Do you have enough space to work and move around?

(because it's one of the things I can't decide - and that's if I need to higher a workshop/garage for six months)

I had the same concern. However, having the dolly has made this a non-issue... so far. I can push the chassis easily from one side to the next (or even outside if the mood takes me!) and have plenty of room. As long as you can get something movable to put it on, I think you'll be fine. Now, when it comes to body pre-fit and the car is full width, this may be a different story!!

[Stig]

356Speedster said:

Not sure what Stig used, as that's a while ago and I believe Di-Noc is quite new - unless it was an early version / forerunner? I'm using the std 421 spec. Time will tell how resiliant it is, but so far it's pretty tuff stuff

I used 3M stuff, though not sure if it even had a name back then

Re. the side pipe lagging - I'd be inclined to remove it. Insulate the cockpit sides and luggage bins from heat ingress (not forgetting the open bits in the footwells) and channel some air into and out of the side scoops to evacuate the heat radiated by the pipes. Insulating the side pipes won't do your engine cooling any favours as they help radiate alot of heat out of the system, especially in traffic (though that's where you get heat in the cabin, but at least you're in an open top car ). This is even more important in a Can-Am where the lower canopy reduces airflow around the engine.

[Stig]

UltimaCH said:

Thanks. Perhaps Stig will chime in if he reads this....

Am I that predictable?

[Steve_D]

Perhaps a little late now but may help the next builder.
Don't drill and rivet the top edge of the ali skin of both the front and rear bulkheads. The body has to sit over this surface and be riveted at a later stage.

Steve

[deadscoob]

Much as Stig has a lot of knowledge, every so often he needs to be disagreed with ;-)

Is it Lee who has lagged his pipes, lives in a country where we can't even dream of getting similar heat, yet has never had a cooling issue, despite lagged pipes?

That was good enough fact for me...

[356Speedster]

Steve_D said:

Perhaps a little late now but may help the next builder.
Don't drill and rivet the top edge of the ali skin of both the front and rear bulkheads. The body has to sit over this surface and be riveted at a later stage.

Steve

Steve - I didn't drill the top of the front b-head, but there's no mention in the build manual about not doing the rear, grrrr!!! That said there's a lot missing from the manual Still at least there's still Stig's site out there

[Storer]

One of the issues with not riveting the top of the front and rear bulkheads is that with just the skin pins/clecos you do not get it as tight to the chassis rail as rivets would do while the adhesive cures.

You can drill out the rivets after adhesive has set.

Just my thoughts anyway.

Paul

[356Speedster]

Storer said:

One of the issues with not riveting the top of the front and rear bulkheads is that with just the skin pins/clecos you do not get it as tight to the chassis rail as rivets would do while the adhesive cures.

That's why I used 4 clamps overnight while it went off Rather that than trying to line up all those rivet holes and transpose to the body, which unfortunately I'm going to have to do with the side pods & rear bodywork

[Stig]

deadscoob said:

Much as Stig has a lot of knowledge, every so often he needs to be disagreed with ;-)

Is it Lee who has lagged his pipes, lives in a country where we can't even dream of getting similar heat, yet has never had a cooling issue, despite lagged pipes?

That was good enough fact for me...

I'm happy to be disagreed with My comment was born out of experience and is merely my opinion. Not sure what engine the OP is going with - that can affect things too. I'd like to think that LS powerplants are a bit easier to keep cool?