The four months between ordering and collection really flew by, so at 7.30am on the 25th of March, my friend Greg and I set off in the 7.5 ton lorry he had borrowed from his employer (thanks Steve!). We arrived at 9.00 and found Glyn in the parts department, surrounded by boxes and boxes of parts for my kit. The chassis was already outside ready for loading and shortly afterwards all the bodywork was wheeled out on a trolley for my inspection. I was really pleased with the colour and finish of the gelcoat - I couldn't find any blemishes on any of the panels. With the help of Glyn and Trevor (another very helpful Quantum employee), we carefully loaded and secured the kit, which took up nearly all of the floor space of the lorry. It's amazing how many components make up a car, even a small and simple model like the Xtreme. The only bits we didn't take were the seats and the standard exhaust system. Quantum had not yet received the seats from Cobra, so Glyn said he would send them on to me as soon as possible. The standard, black-painted exhaust system was, in my opinion, rather ugly and cheap looking, so I decided to wait for the new chrome performance exhaust which was being developed. After 2 hours of checking, loading and chatting, we had everything on board and after the painful bit (paying for it all!), we headed back down the M5.
Having arrived home safely, my neighbour Rod volunteered to help us unload the kit. First, we carried the chassis into the garage and on to 4 axle stands with wooden planks across them. Rod, who works in the aerospace industry and who restores classic motorcycles to an incredibly high standard for a hobby, was very impressed by the Xtreme chassis. We all remarked that a lot of time, effort and thought must have gone into its development. It really is an impressive piece of metalwork. We then took most of the bodywork up to the spare bedroom and the suspension was stored under my bed (!). The components that would be required early on in the build were stored on the wall shelves and in the corners of the garage. Even without the seats, I still didn't have enough room for everything, so I had to take the large rear boot and wheel arch section to the storeroom at my place of work. Whether by luck or design, the whole rear body section will just fit through a standard doorway, much to my relief. With everything finally under cover, I spent the rest of Saturday cleaning the rather dusty chassis and removing some sharp edges and weld spatter with a file, ready to start assembling on Sunday morning.
The first item to be fitted was the heater assembly. The heater radiator from the donor is fitted in to Quantum's new heater box, which is then bolted to the inside of the front bulkhead. The Sierra's complete heater fan assembly is then attached to the heater box. This was quite straightforward and every thing fitted first time, although access to the nearside fan mounting bolt is rather limited. The demister ducting was fixed to the outlets on the box, then passed through the holes in the sloping dash panel. I used some grommet strip from Maplins to protect the hose from the steel edge of the hole.
Secondly, the pedal box. The pedals, pivot shaft and brake light switch from the Sierra are re-assembled into the new pedal box, then the brake master cylinder is bolted onto the front of the box, with Quantum's modified, adjustable push rod in-between. The push rod has to be adjusted to give a small amount of free play in the pedal, but as this can be done with the box on the workbench, it was quite easy to do. The pedal box assembly is then bolted onto the front of the bulkhead, using 13 bolts into captive nuts and again, everything fitted perfectly - a good start. The throttle pedal, throttle cable and clutch cable were then fitted, to complete the first section of the build manual.
