RS Blog 13 - Making Panel Sandwiches and Some Sides
Getting down to the actual work of putting on the stuff I talked about. Making things permanent and hopefully quiet.
On the right I laid out the steps followed for each panel that will become a sandwich. Goal is to reduce noise, heat and potential vibration sources without adding exorbitant weight to the chassis.
I want to say the floor added 1-2 lbs total, same for rear bulk head and all sides. So maybe 10 lbs in total, I don’t feel like mathing it out or measuring quantities used.
Meanwhile I took the opportunity to improve a few minor items in the foot pedal arena.
Adding grip tape to the dead petal along with all three pedals. I might remove it from accelerator, but figured that is easier later than trying to add it. Gently heat and peal off is simpler than be upside down in Ultima trying to trim around a pedal (or be bothered to unbolt it).
Cool tip I learned awhile back, cut out grip tape to rough size and shape, slap it on the part with minimal effort then trim down to size via a razor blade. Not by cutting, but actually scraping. It won’t cut into the surface and leaves clean edges. A small flat or round file can also be used, but be careful as they will eat your part quickly.
Smooth Pedals
Within the Ultima instructions it places specific emphasis on making the pedals smooth, but didn’t indicate how one could achieve this request.
pedal should be free to move without resistance or excessive sideways movement
I may have found the answer…. cylinder hone. Yeah the thing for engines. They make all sizes?!?!? Including 1/2” ones.
While they aren’t cheap and I effectively used this one up entirely for these two pedal cylinders it was completely worth it to have buttery smooth pedals.
Flexible Cylinder Hone for 1/2" ID, Silicon Carbide with Wire Shank, 600 Grit
Wrap in Bubble and Spray
This was another time consuming effort, however enjoyable. Especially the unwrapping and finished product. If you are wondering why I didn’t use some standard stick on sound deadening it is simple. None of them will get into all the cracks and they are endless frustrating to deal with goo. The sticky goo will stick to everything which is good for application, terrible for the applier. I used it years ago on other projects and just do not like using it. Spray application of Lizard Skin is even and provides very excellent insulation.
It also covers chassis tubing to provide a bit of heat transfer minimization.
Last Few Easter Eggs
This Ultima will have cruise control… I was impressed with Haltech’s implementation on the K swapped FR-S. Ordered and will be finding a mount point for a Toyota style control stalk. Yes the little weird one at the bottom of their steering wheels. Don’t laugh if it works, is simple with two wires and cheap af because like billions were made.
If you are curious the impedances are:
Cancel = 1.5kΩ
On/Off = 0 Ω
-/Set = 630 Ω
+/Res = 240 Ω
Added more grip tape to pedal area for traction and a contrast to bright floor. The floors will be covered in PPF, that is gonna take some more time and is for another post.
