Good to hear! I built mine earlier this year with my two sons (15 & 18), and it was a great experience for us all.

Ned

Congratulations, and great colour choice!

I've had my 420R kit about 6 weeks, on the final stretch, just interior, rear arches, fluids, IVA bits and 1st start to go. I have a lingering sense of guilt each time I email/phone Derek, but in fairness that's what he's there for, we wouldn't have to bother him half as much if Caterham bothered to update the build manual etc. Even so, i think I'll probably post him out few bottles of wine or similar when I'm done (not sure flowers would go down so well).

I'll keep an eye out for your posts.

Chris

Fantastic! 

I am going to be doing much the same in March 2016, when my kit build Superlight Twenty is hopefully going to be delivered .

my son Tom was around for my R500 build in 2008/2009, but as he was only just three at the time he only really got to watch the build.

now at a much more mechanically cable 9, he is much more interested, so it will be fun to build it together!

your 420R looks superb, and looking forwards to all your posts on the fun challenges of a new Caterham build!

good luck and enjoy!

nigel.

I am sure it will be great fun and a very rewarding experience for you. I only wish i could build one. Maybe one day ill have to settle for re-building mine!

Hi All,

Hope you don't mind me asking a question on this thread.  We sold J889 (back to the original builder) over a year ago because of the arrival of our first child - George, who is now a little over two.

So, my question is: what is the youngest age you think a boy would be able to enjoy helping and understand what they are doing when building a new 7 from kit?  Not knowing much about children(!) my guess (well, desired answer!) is probably around age 7...but I'm sure the people of blatchat will have more to offer....

Please let me know what you think and thanks in advance!

Ross

Hi Ross,

as I mentioned above my Son Tom was 10 for her build of my Superlight Twenty back in March of 2016.

He did get quite involved with build, with some small supervision he fitted the radiator and steering rack on his own, he is capable now of left and right hand threads, and with some guidance used the torque wrench too.

However like most 10 year olds his attention span is limited, so he often got bored, and was more interested in going online on the Xbox to play with his mates.

This time surprisingly my daughter, who was 6 at the time, seemed to get more involved and got hands on to the build, she helped assemble the roll bar, the seats and the steering column too, if fact she got more enjoyment out of it than Tom did.

Whatever it is a great experience for them, and I was asked by my children's teacher if I would do a talk and overview of why and how we built it to the rest of the class, which I really enjoyed.

I still think most of Toms class buddies did not really believe we built a car, and even less that Tom and Lucy bolted a lot of it together themselves!

Have fun with it! 

Thanks Nigel!  Anyone else have thoughts?