(Author: ikom Sunday July 3, 2005,
Jul,03,2005Jul,03,2005
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Sunday July 3, 2005
I decide to take care of several outstanding tasks on the ULTIMA first before I tackle any new work today.
The outside panels alongside the edge of the car of the luggage containers are protruding by about 3mm above the outrigger chassis metal and I had been meaning to fix this for a while.
I wasn't sure if this minor protrusion would impact the sill covers when the luggage containers were installed and I therefore left them as received from the factory. Well, they do affect the seating of the sill covers so I use the air saw and carefully trim off the excess alloy - It is a lot easier if done before the luggage containers are fixed to the car. Live and learn.
I finalize the wiring for the overhead monitor and map/interior light, which had been left unfinished from a few weeks ago. It appears that everything takes a lot longer than envisaged on the build or am I just slowing down.
Next, I undo the air conditioning hoses from the HVAC unit and re-insulate them. The original pipe insulation had been sitting in the garage over the winter and the adhesive was not holding up. I had purchased new pipe insulation and had meant to take care of this task.
An hour and a half later, since the hoses needed to be slid out carefully from the luggage containers, re-insulated and put back in without damaging the new insulation, I am finally finished and now feel up to tackling new work.
My son offers to help mask the cockpit section of the body in preparation for undercoating. It takes him at least two hours to completely mask it.
While he is busy masking, I decide to construct a cardboard template for making an additional luggage container in the area just ahead of the right hand factory luggage container. There is some found space within the side pod in this location complete with a factory access cover plate (matching the fuse box access cover on the left hand side of the car).
The idea of using this space for storage came from BigAl1. He had constructed an alloy tray for storage and had showed this tray to us at the 2004 US ULTIMA club gathering last November in Chicago.
An hour later, with a lot of fitting and cutting and taping of cardboard, I am looking at a seemingly workable storage container template.
I will construct an actual alloy version tomorrow since I have the day off from work. It is way too late - 7:30PM - to start cutting and bending alloy paneling and I haven't eaten since breakfast.
