Mucus72 Posted October 5, 2016 Share Posted October 5, 2016 awesome Rob - I agree with Nigel, lovely colour too!Welcome to the best few months you can possibly have in a garage! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockinroyston Posted October 6, 2016 Share Posted October 6, 2016 Good luck, mine arrives in January... I'm hoping for an early December delivery tho... excited & worried in equal measure! so far I've just got the garage to work on... all tidy now, new lights & workshop floor arrives next week... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robjjones Posted October 7, 2016 Author Share Posted October 7, 2016 Thanks @Mucus72, @nigelpugh and @rockinroyston. I've stopped staring at it and started building it. The adventure is underway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nigelpugh Posted October 7, 2016 Share Posted October 7, 2016 Fantastic ! Enjoy! Already seen the updates on your blog!Have fun bonding together!Bet your next question will be how to get the shock absorber top bolts in! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nickh7 Posted October 8, 2016 Share Posted October 8, 2016 I am loving all these build blogs , good to see so many self builds going on Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JNC Posted October 8, 2016 Share Posted October 8, 2016 Tip don't leave the masking tap on to long ! And be careful when removing it from the edges . If it dry's out its a #### to get off . Good luck with the build . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nickh7 Posted October 9, 2016 Share Posted October 9, 2016 Furniture polish the mr sheen type will dissolve the adhesive and make it easier to remove . Spray it on and leave to soak into the tape and you'll be able to rub off the tape . Repeat for any residual. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pugwash Posted October 9, 2016 Share Posted October 9, 2016 One thing I did which is not in the manual was to attach the rear wheel arches using plastic (nylon?) bolts rather than the metal ones provided. They hold it just as tight but in the event one does clip one on something, the bolts go first rather than ripping all the rivnuts out of the body. Mine came from Sevenspeed but i think they are quite widely available. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robjjones Posted October 10, 2016 Author Share Posted October 10, 2016 Thanks again all. Owing to me being a bit previous with the making tape application, I've reversed progress a little. I taped up but hadn't fitted the IVA trim around the holes, came to offer up a wishbone and realised it would be impossible, or at least very difficult, to fit later. Cue removal of lots of tape very carefully (nice tip @nickh7, ta). Then a lot of swearing while I got the trim in place when what I really wanted to be doing was assembling my front uprights.I'm now back to the point I was before but with trim in place and a lot less masking tape applied this time around.Cheers @pugwash for the nylon bolt approach. I like the idea, although the attachment of the rear wings seems a long way away at the moment! I'll make a note though, for when I do get there in March 2020. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
7 wonders of the world Posted October 10, 2016 Share Posted October 10, 2016 Dont use tape !!!Use 15mm pipe lagging, much better protection easy to get on an off and no marking problems either, you can clip them onto all apertures and the chassis rails when your lifting the engine in too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR400D Posted October 10, 2016 Share Posted October 10, 2016 I used thin sheets of craft foam, held in place with minimum amounts of tape to protect the outer panels and pipe insulation for chassis rails. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR400D Posted October 10, 2016 Share Posted October 10, 2016 I used thin sheets of craft foam, held in place with minimum amounts of tape to protect the outer panels and pipe insulation for chassis rails. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nigelpugh Posted October 13, 2016 Share Posted October 13, 2016 Its quiet on this post and your blog for a while Rob?How are you coming along with the build? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robjjones Posted October 14, 2016 Author Share Posted October 14, 2016 Real life has got in the way over the past few days I'm afraid Nigel. It's half term up here, so busy with the offspring. Thanks for asking though. This weekend sees me fitting the uprights, and next weekend is the big "engine in" event. What little time I have had, I've been figuring out and shrink wrapping headlight wiring, as well as finding new, different and incorrect ways to put an indicator into the conical pod. I kid you not. More soon, here and on the blog. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nigelpugh Posted October 14, 2016 Share Posted October 14, 2016 I know that feeling only too well, half term is in a couple of weeks here too, so dont suppose i will be out in my Twenty very much that week either!Good luck with the rest of the build as you get time to fit it in!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robjjones Posted October 19, 2016 Author Share Posted October 19, 2016 So it's a case of one step forwards and two back at the moment. Lower wishbones are in (controversially with the 0-4-0 washer placement) and the upper wishbones are currently being delayed by the fettling required to get the headlight brackets to fit. I'm girding my loins to drill through the mismatched holes in the bracket on the LHS so I can get the bolt through the bracket, chassis and upper wishbone mount - see photo below.In the meantime I've fiddled with the headlight wiring and shrinkwrap lots of times only to take it all off again when the brackets failed to fit, to put it back, to remove it again. Another lesson in trying a dry fit before diving in. This is such a learning experience, despite the setbacks and slow progress, I'm loving it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Jonathan Kay Posted October 19, 2016 Member Share Posted October 19, 2016 Is shrinkwrapping recommended? In 1998 it was just fiddling and believing that it will go...Jonathan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim 123 Posted October 19, 2016 Share Posted October 19, 2016 Re your headlamp bracket fit. If you look at the headlamp brackets ,you will see that the upper most lips are bent back through 180 degrees to slot over the wishbone mount. You should find that, by opening up the fold on the headlamp bracket by a very small amount, everything will fit without modifying the holes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robjjones Posted October 19, 2016 Author Share Posted October 19, 2016 Jim. Thank you.It seems so obvious now. Your little tip has saved me from making an arse of the upper wishbone suspension mount with a drill.I am, sir, forever in your debt.Rob. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim 123 Posted October 20, 2016 Share Posted October 20, 2016 Glad to be able to help Rob. If you are not planning to do so, and help avoid your neighbours being disturbed by streaming profanities from your garage, I'd suggest you fit the headlamps and indicators to the brackets before offering the brackets to the wishbone mounts. It is a lot easier to route the associated shrink wrapped wiring through the headlamp mounts whilst the gubbins is on your bench. After you thread the wires through the grommet on the wishbone mounts, do a double check to make sure no wiring gets pinched as you put the headlamp mount into position and bolt it all together. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robjjones Posted October 20, 2016 Author Share Posted October 20, 2016 On it Jim, as they say, like a car bonnet. I've read a lot of blogs where the headlights are mounted by the builder after they have mounted the bracket to the chassis and the engine has gone in. It doesn't make sense to me, but I guess the thinking is that the headlights are out of the way of the swinging engine/gearbox.When I thought about this, I preferred to take the chance with any headlight/engine interface to save exactly the nightmare you describe, of trying to get the wiring through two grommets in the bracket with no way of pushing them directly through, and half-arsed plans to pull them through with string.I'll have them on this weekend, just in time for my uprights to arrive (they're out of stock at the moment). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pugwash Posted October 22, 2016 Share Posted October 22, 2016 Rob, when I built mine in 2012 the manual suggested that the brackets went on with the suspension and the lights sometime after in the way that you say you have read in some blogs.The key trick that CC told me at the time was that plastic sleeving that comes as standard around all the wires from the headlight does not need to go all the way down inside the bracket. So what I did was before fitting the bracket ran a mouse line of a long piece of single electrical cable through the bracket and then left it with a knot tied in each end. When it came to fit the headlight, I cut the plastic sleeving so I had at the headlight end just enough to go from the headlight to the entry point on the bracket and positioned that over the cables next to the headlight bowl. I then, one at a time, taped the headlight cables to my mouse line and drew them through one at a time. My mouse line was long and I taped the cable into the middle of it so i could gently both pull and push it through. Clearly something you can't do with string. Once one was through, I untaped it and then repositioned my mouse line for the next run. When they were all through and I was happy with how much slack I had in the right places, I simply pushed the end of the sleeving at the external end into the grommet just enough to keep it in place. I might have used a blob of silicon sealant to secure, I can't recall. At the under bonnet end I cut about the right length of sleeving off the spare and put that over the trailing ends and again pushed it into the hole where the grommet is and secured it. Then just fitted the multi plug. Of course you could use heatshrink instead of the sleeve.I can't recall if it's an IVA requirement for it to be sleeved all the way or not but this way it looks like it is even if it's not. Inside the bracket it's protected by the bracket. Was not an issue for my IVA. I recall the fitting of the headlights being fiddly more because of checking everything was in the right order (don't forget everything has to go through the securing nut too!), but getting the cables through the bracket was quite straightforward. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR400D Posted October 22, 2016 Share Posted October 22, 2016 I found it best to remove the Caterham sleeving and replace with heat shrinkable tube. Once shrunk on that goes through the bracket all the way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robjjones Posted October 23, 2016 Author Share Posted October 23, 2016 Pugwash, thanks for the detailed description of your method. I can see that's a workable solution, much better than my half-imagined, half-arsed approaches. There are many ways to skin a cat, it seems.However, my brackets and lights are now mounted and, barring the bloody things not working when I wire them up, they are not coming off the car again. Onwards to a complete front suspension! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robjjones Posted March 3, 2017 Author Share Posted March 3, 2017 I've been busy over the winter. Here's the latest milestone. Not too much more to do now, aside from poppers and carpet and, uh, fibreglass bits. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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