Track rod ends Had my 1000 mile bolt check completed & everything was fine apart from the tracking which they adjusted & there was a noticeable improvement (ive only done 400 miles in it lol the project manager had completed the other 600...). Had a quick look at the front suspension when I got back & one trakrod end has a lot of thread showing & the other one has none? Can this be right? I would have thought they would be identical? I know they started off as identical when I pu
New mirrors arrived & been fitted... when it stops raining I may get to test them out :-( went for the convex glass & from my driving seat in the garage it actually looks like they may be of some use... only time will tell... Sustained my first Caterham injury (to me), sunny day plus shorts plus new doors flapping about = burnt leg on the exhaust.... I need to review my car exit technique on the rare warm days! bloody hurt
Been putting off this job for ages as the thought of duradotting the roof was just too hideous to contemplate... but as the rain looks like it will never stop I finally decided to do it... Rolled out the roof & what a surprise most of the dots were already on! result! it still took ages to do the doors etc... I have to say doing the soft goods has been the least favorite job of the build really. All done but didn't get the vote of approval from the project manager & admittedly it did loo
Picked up the car from Caterham which was a bit of a low tech 'here are the keys & see you later' affair. Car sounded great! and everything seemed to be in order! so set off in bright sun shine but then hit the M25 & the clouds & rain soon appeared. It has to be said driving a Caterham with zero miles on the clock in the rain with no doors or roof (on the M25) is not the best way to spend your first few hrs with a new toy! The wind & road noise above 70mph was just ridiculous so
Got the call I wanted & it passed the IVA! Have had a few issues with Caterham re costs & stuff tho... still in discussions... As luck would have it I was in Brighton for a meeting so on the way back popped into Caterham to pick up all the docs & meet Michaela whjo went through everything with me. All off in the post this morning! So my car was looking a bit dismembered & was sitting in the rear car park looking a bit sad. Unfortunately the 310 up grade hasn't happened yet due to
& there it was gone... lots of cheery tales about how rare it is for an amateur build to pass the IVA test first time... great! My tracking was so 'all over the place' it didn't really want to go up the ramp LOL! Glad he had a winch... So just a waiting game now & I'm dreading the 'you appear to have..... & it will cost you XXX to rectify' e-mail from Caterham...
So that's it finished! Went around all the IVA stuff & did a few last minute jobs like screwing in the interior side panels & then washed it lol... So last post for a while! to do: Car picked up 27th March by Caterham for PBC & 310 upgrade IVA booked for 20th April :-( & then the registration process begins...(on the basis it passes the IVA) Due to me needing to actually do some 'real work' I'm leaving the doors & hood for when it gets back. Also I didn't under seal the front
Well maybe not LOL but a couple of duradots to hold the front on the windscreen & this will be a lot quicker than getting the top on when randomly parked up... Update) Just got a date for my IVA & its not until 20th April which is a bit disappointing. However I couldn't have started the process much quicker as DVSA require a photo of the complete car before they will press the final green 'book it in' button. If I'd known that I would have put the wheels nose cone & bonnet on a bit
Great day today! Finished off the headlight wiring & everything worked first time! for some reason the headlight keeps popping out of its clips on one side every time I touch it. I've re inserted them about 6 times now & given up... Caterham can sort that one... Put on the nose cone, struggled to get the last clip in but got there in the end Put on the bonnet & it looks great. Did notice the air intake doesn't line up with the holes at all well so I'm going to have to re drill the ho
Had a few hours in the garage & put the front wings on. Tried a new method of lining up & it seemed to work.... 1) Ground the paint off the wing stays where the bonding was going 2) Drilled a hole for the earth near the top of the stay underneath 3) With my electric glue gun temporarily glued on a cable tie in the centre of the wing stay & marked a distance of 80mm from the wing stay with a piece of masking tape 4) applied glue to the wing stay, Plexus MA300. This is is what I bough
Well after the engine start success I wandered around in the garage in a bit of a dream for a few hrs & didn't manage to achieve much. Got most of the rear lights working Brakes, indicators, side lights, number plate fog light... & completely forgot to check the reversing light... on the list for tomorrow. Update: Reversing light... tick! Took all the engine mount bolts out & put in the missing washers... Finished off the scuttle trim which has been half hanging off for a while... St
It started fine! Plenty of oil pressure on turn over & when running Electric fan kicked in & I didn't need to top up the water at all so it looks like I filled it OK. Cant get it to tick over very well (at all) & its running pretty rich by the smell of it, I assume this is a post build check thing? I suspect I have some leaks around the exhaust collector but difficult to tell in the garage with all the racketWD40copper grease burning off things... I assume this will s
The day didnt start well... I'd been wondering about the torque on the rear bolt that attaches the radius arm to the Dion tube. Sent a picture to Derek & he confirmed it was 81nm (which is not really what the manual suggests) but he also pointed out I needed two chamfered washers, one each side... I scurried to the manual & this is not even mentioned... Derek agreed to a photo spot the ball on my set up to make sure nothing else has slipped the net. Soon discovered that I'd also left off
Been on my list for a while but needed to tick it off... took 3hrs & a bit of faf! 1) Disconnected the seat belts... & fitted the hood sticks 2) Put a slit in the cover & removed the bar 3) drilled out holes in the top edge of the cover to line up with existing holes & loosely put back all the bolts 4) 2 at a time put in the duradot connectors. This involved taking off the bolts each time... a very dull process! I also put the wrong backing bit on a couple of them & had to dr
Actually got some work done on the car on a weekend & put on the rear wings. No major issues but a small amount of damage :-( In my head I decided to put the wing protectors on before I fitted the wing. Abandoned this idea as juggling a floppy painted wing & non co-operative rubber trim was a pain to say the least! So on wing (one) I fitted the wing firmly & then half fitted the wing protector. Then removed the wing & completed the rivets next to the body work. I removed the radi
Not updated for a while as my computer crashed just as I was about to save my blog which was some what annoying! going to save as I go along next time... So this covers about 2 days of work spread over a few sessions. Rear ARB, now done, Caterham now no longer use the hex extender... put the car on the Dion tube & torqued up all the rear bolts. I was surprised how little the suspension deflected but checked with Derek & this is normal Interior, this is now all done. Only issues I had we
Suffered a bit of a hold up.. Without going into the whys & wherefore's my front ARB had the wrong sticker on it (orange) so I used an orange bush... this bush was meant for the rear ARB & I should have used a red one.. (obviously) A few conversations with Derek which wavered dangerously toward me having to drain the cooling system & take off the front ARB... we reached a compromise... The orange ones will remain on the front & may possibly (or may not) degrade quicker than the
A bit of progress made today. Built up the disc & hub, 4 bolts (short heads) with loctite to 35 nm. This isn't in the manual (that I saw) which is why I left it off LOL. The bolts are non metric... the braking system does seem to involve a few non metric fixings... Took brake calipers off & added the spacer that I missed out. This had a knock on affect as the brake pipe now didn't align as well as it did. Got there in the end but I was verging on stripping the brass connector a few time
So had a few random 3 hrs sessions over the last few days so a quick summation... Dion tube: Brake line attached & built up the ears & stuff. Can I just thank Andrew Bissell & his fantastic Blogg! I have to say without this I would have ground to a halt really really quickly. The photo's with the bolts for the ears & brakes is invaluable. I have used his blogg for lots of things but this bit saved the day. http://caterhamsevenbuild.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/build-day-11-rear-wheels
Suffered from displacement 'top bolt' avoidance today but in the end crept into the garage... Previously had an e-mail from Derek confirming my bottom spacer arrangement was 'fine' & not an issue.. so no excuses not to continue... After dropping a few spacers covered in copper slip into my eyes I finally got 2 in a side, any attempt at putting a 3rd in wasn't going to happen & they seemed to fill the space. Access was a nightmare & this job comes under the heading of 'annoying'... Fi
After two days of meetings in Cardiff I got back at 5pm & needed some R & R so decided to go for the other elephant in the room & attack the diff on my own... Decided to go for using the crane hoist to take the weight of the diff. Thought it would help to level the diff on the crane. It soom became apparent that this wasnt going to work as I couldnt get the angle on the top bolts with ths straps in the way. Reverted to attaching by the rear of the diff & then using my trolley jac
My Red Cross parcel of a new radiator & a bag of random bolts arrived from Caterham so a power e-mail session in the morning & then hot footed it to the garage... Front suspension.... finally done... correctly this time.. replaced special bolts with new ones & two new spacers. Did them up to the correct torque this time.. Front brake pipes done but not tightened yet... pretty sure they are OK but want to double check. Radiator... in & connected just leaving a few random pipes tha
