Project Midnight - 2018 Can-Am Maverick X3 X DS
Project "Midnight"
This post is all about the 2018 Can-Am X3 Turbo R XDS that we built for a customer nicknamed Project Midnight. It’s a 64-inch model. The 64-inch model has certain benefits over the 72-inch model. You can go on trails that you can’t get into with the 72-inch model. The 64-inch model fits into a trailer or a toy hauler easily. Just to let you know that everything that is available for the 72-inch model is available for the 64-inch model too. This model is a lot less expensive to buy. For any part, you can simply go to UTVSource.com and everything will be shipped to your house. It’s that simple.
I’ll jump right into the build and show you what you can do with your 64-inch XDS.
Kicking Off The Build...
Right off the bat, you will notice the Turbo R XDS has got a brand new cage. This is the Fabwerx Baja Aggressor cage. It’s one of my go-to cages every time a customer asks me what I can offer them. We offer all cages but this one is a favorite. Baja Aggressor allows for quite a few options.
This customer decided not to do window nets. Perhaps, he is not going to be driving that crazy and so doesn’t need them. This cage comes with the doors. These doors are supported so that you can even hang on it. I’m a 140 pounds man and I can hang on the door. There are no points on the door that jab into the belly.
Everything is tapped and powder coated to give it a nice clean look. Everything runs dzus tabs and that’s exactly why these cages are expensive.
If you notice the b-pillar you realize it’s boxed, welded, and overly plated which makes it strong. If this guy rolls his car he is going to be fine. He plans on taking his wife and himself on some trails. I’m not sure about his driving level or skill set but I do know that if he wrecks or puts his car on it’s lid, he is going to walk away.
The Fabwerx Roof Rack
The roof rack is curved. It bolts in on 4 spots with the cage. You can even take it off easily. This guy also opted for a Rear Wing which houses a KC HiLiTES Rear Chase Bar. It’s super important to keep that because if you are the guy in the back or the front you need to see this through the dust.
Fabwerx Baja Rear Bumper
This model has got a Baja Rear Bumper with the spare tied down. It can carry a full spare with the weight down low. It’s easy to get in and out. It also ties into the rear radius rod plate.
All the cages will come with a bracket for your lights. This customer opted for the KC HiLiTES Pro6 lights. It’s the standard these days. With this build, you don’t need an additional bracket to put a light on. Therefore, I say, it’s a well-thought-out cage which is very safe and the welding is better than most.
Rear Shock Tower
The customer also opted for a rear shock tower with a double shear brace or a bracket. It transfers the shocks to the cage as well because the bracket overlays the cage and the bolt goes through the cage as well. This provides a very stiff chassis to the car.
Fabwerx Baja Rear Bumper
The Baja Aggressor Rear Bumper comes with a tube clamp that bolts in. This bumper holds the spare and lands on the top two radius bars. This customer already had an S3 radius rod bracket and we went ahead and ordered the ZRP high clearance radius rods for this model. It’s made in the USA, is machined, and comes with FK hardware that is already adjusted.
Suspension
When the customer dropped off the car the wheels and tires were already on it. There was no HCR Suspension.
This is the dual-sport HCR 64-inch stock replacement kit. I had it powder coated in black. You can see everything is tig welded. It’s overlay plated and boxed internally. This arm is not going to give the customer any problems. He is going to rail on this thing. The HCR kit reuses all your stock factory hardware. All your ball-joints and your spherical bearings are going to fit right in. The kit will come with new inner bushings on upper and lower arms.
Tie Rod
We upgraded his car with a new tie rod. This is the ZRP tie rod made in the USA, uses high-quality material, is billet machined with FK rod ends.
You may be wondering about the orange torque check seals in there. These are to make sure everything is locked down. We dab it once everything is done. So, if the bolts come loose the customer will know he needs to check his bolts. This is what we call preventive maintenance.
Flipping the Shocks
We flipped the shocks on this vehicle. These reservoirs are always inside and are quite inconvenient to adjust. We push them to the outside and cut out here (ref. Image below) so when he hits full bump these reservoirs aren’t smacking into his fenders.
We also installed the ZRP shock tower brace. Just so you know, there is no difference in the shock tower brace from a 64 to a 72. This shock tower is made in the USA and comes with nice tool paths from the sheen work.
The Lights
This customer came to us with a few of his lights already on. He had the bumper lights on. We didn’t change the bumper, the winch, or the lights. We did rewire everything for him though. In addition to these lights that he already had, we added the KC HiLiTES Pro6. These are his long-distance lights. KC HiLiTES come with a lifetime warranty.
After the car was built the customer asked for more lights. I recommended him the rigid industry lights. He wanted the side view mirror so I thought why not kill two birds with one stone. The rigid mirror has light in it. It can take a hit, is adjustable and you can see what’s behind you.
The customer also supplied these lights (ref. Image above) for the rear but we also installed the KC HiLiTES Rear Chase Light (ref. Image below). It has running lights, brake lights, amber, and the two center ones are the backup lights.
PRP Seats
Moving on to the inside of the car. This customer wanted super comfortable seats so I went with the PRP GT S/E Model. There are a lot of models out there so make sure you check them all. I went with this for a couple of reasons. It allows for 5.3 harnesses. It has 2 inches across your shoulders and 3 inches across your waist. The 5th point joins in with your latch and link system for quick and easy access. These harnesses can’t pull off your shoulders. These do not wrap around the seat. You can not slip out of these.
It’s easy to take the seat out if you need to because everything slides through. The seat material is marine-grade vinyl and suede black stitching. This is a suspension seat and acts accordingly. It doesn’t have extremely high bolstering but has just enough to hold you in comfortably. No one wants to struggle to get in and out of the vehicle.
Dashboard
This guy already had a lot of upgrades inside his car. It came to us with an already existing full-blown Rockford Fosgate sound system.
When you order The Rugged X3 Package on the website it’s going to come with the x3 mounts to mount on the top of the dashboard. Although it didn’t work for us. You do have a couple of options when installing radios. You can mount the radio kit behind the grab bars. You can even buy a front plate and the side plates to give a nice finish. We went with RM60 car to car communication. It has all your channels and frequencies and you can talk to other vehicles.
Below that is a 696 kit with a driver to passenger communications through your headset or helmet kit. This customer opted for the helmet kit and will install them himself. You can play Pandora or other streaming channels with Bluetooth. You can even take your cell-phone calls. The stop/pause/play buttons are super easy to install as well.
Upon the dashboard, we have an EVO SHOCKER Exhaust which has a shocker button. It creates some noise which is the actuator in the exhaust. You can watch our video to check out the difference between the factory exhaust and the shocker exhaust. We have the clutch kit, the spring kit, the weight kit, and the shocker exhaust system tied into the factory exhaust. His wife might not like the loud noise but he may want to open it up.
So, it comes in off the turbo and attaches to the factory or any aftermarket muffler. When you hit the button this actuator opens the flap and comes straight out from the turbo. If they need the power or a certain decibel rating they can hit the switch to change it back to the stock exhaust.
Assault Steering Wheel
As he is a short guy like me we went with the assault hub adapter and the quick release. He can pull the steering wheel off by taking the velcro off.
Switch Pro System
He asked for this exact system so we gave it to him. We do have it on the site as well. It’s more like a motek of switches. It’s labeled and has a push keypad and it will strobe.
All in all, the car is a really clean build, looks aggressive, could use a few more things but still looks more than enough already. That was it for a walk around our customer’s 64-inch 2018 Turbo XDS. We can’t wait to deliver it to him to see how he and his wife like it.
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