Below are pictures which are not necessarily part of the build process. If you want to see all the images on this site, you can go here to get an index of them. Be warned, there are a TON of thumbnails.
The following pictures are part of the delivery and inventory stage of the build. I picked up the crate around 5pm, got it to the house at 6:30pm, and finished unpacking around 11:30pm. Those crates are NOT easy to take apart!
Incidentally, I do not recommend using the method pictured above to unload your chassis from a flatbed truck. I underestimated the weight of the chassis and my help and I were not able to safely move it by hand from that bed height. If you can, rent a small crane device, cherry picker, etc. and it will go much more smoothly. But whatever you do, TAKE YOUR TIME and make sure you don't bang anything up. (The chassis moving shown above took about two hours and miraculously did not cause any damage to anything.)
After unpacking the crate and disposing of the crate wood, the next step is to inventory the whole thing. Given that Ultima Sports is in the U.K., it's a good idea to ensure that all the pieces which were supposed to have been shipped actually made it, to avoid delays further down the road.
The Ford 302 I am putting into the Ultima was originally destined for the Ford GT40 replica I was hoping to build. However, since that project was cancelled and it would be a horrible waste of money to sell this perfectly good engine, I have decided to use it here. The guys at Ultima Sports were kind enough to alter the engine mount placement on the chassis and reverse the cooling system flow (Ford flows reverse from Chevy) so dropping in the Ford motor should be relatively straightforward.
This engine is not a stock 302. Rather it has been bored and stroked to 347ci. On paper (computer actually) it should put out around 450hp and a similar amount of torque. Once I have the real results I'll throw up a scan of the dyno chart.
On March 8, 2003 Alex and I went to the Seattle Roadster Show. Primarily I went to see Tom Heltzel, whose 1995 Ultima Spyder was recently completed and on display. He's done a wonderful job on that car; I only hope I can get mine to look as good. The pictures below are of the many other cool hot rods, kit cars and roadsters which were present. Alex took all of the pics.
Tom Heltzel finished his Ultima Spyder in time for the show too. Below are some pictures of that car. Note that I had pictures taken more so I had some examples to work with than to show off the car.
