richd13

Quality was a bit rubbish, zoomed in on that list

I got this diagram from Tony Mills today, hope it helps some others!

Thanks Alan but I’m really after 13s! Rich

Wanted: set of four 13” 8-spoke anthracite wheels. Ideally 6” all round but open to anything available! Rich

Hi Tony, If these aren’t available until after the 19th when Steve needs them by I’m interested. Sorry to hijack your post Steve! To anyone else out there with wheels to sell please contact me if you have a set of 13” anthracite 8 spokes! Rich

I'm the someone, cheers guys!!

Did you find a solution to this? My factory-standard sigma seems to be doing exactly the same! Rich

Possibly helpful, though not up-to-date enough for the 135bhp sigma is http://www.automobile-catalog.com

Today I finished the majority of jobs on the car: It's almost drivable now! Started with a box from Caterham with a few missing/replacement parts. First off were the wing mirrors, now attached to the windscreen stanchions. Then fitted the replacement upper steering column bush, and the steering wheel, noticing that the front wings can contact the bodywork... A quick call to Derek confirmed that this will be solved when I sort the tracking, phew! Then had a quick trip to my old garage to borrow a 41mm socket, and tightened the rear hubs. Not quite an accurate 275Nm, more like FT. Then wired up the front lights, and connected the battery leads. Switched on the ignition for the first time and saw the dash light up, brilliant! Tested the lights and to my surprise they all worked perfectly! So moved to the rear, which all went smoothly as well. Finally attached the wiper blades after running the motor to park, and put the nose on.

Monday's work in the garage started off by fitting the wheels so that I could line up the cycle wings. Also lowered the car to the ground for the first time! Attached the indicator repeaters and the edge trim to the wings, and bigheads to the wingstays. Then glued them together with araldite. While that was setting I finished off the forward-most boot cover fasteners, attached the fasteners to the hood and then attached the doors. Lots of progress all in all!

Been a bit rubbish at keeping this blog up to date recently, oops! Here is Friday's work. Started with the roll-over bar: bolted in really easily and looks great. Then attached the hoodsticks so that I could start on the boot cover. Put the harness shoulder straps in to attach the cover to the seatback, then started the process of stretching the cover taut and adding poppers. This took ages as I decided to take it all off the car for each popper to make sure I got a good finish. Didn't get it all done, more poppers to do another day.

Got there! Managed to find a nut that almost fit the threads and wedged it on with a couple of ring spanners behind to pull on, sat in the seat and gave it everything! Paul you were correct, I will need a new bush... Thanks for your help guys!

Jonathan - I can slide the steering column up as far as the steering lock part contacting the bush, but the bush stops it going any further. I've attempted to get some rubber lubricant down the side of the rubber part of the bush but not sure how successful that's been. Paul - the defect on the column means I can't actually attach the steering wheel, so wouldn't have anything to pull on with the ratchet straps! Rich

Having to replace the steering column upper due to a manufacturing defect on the wheel boss threads... However, I can't seem to pull it out of the dash with the upper bush in the way - is there a trick to getting that rubber bush out? Thanks, Rich

Very happy with progress today, all visual stuff which makes it look much more like a usable car! Finished off the exhaust first, nice and easy and looks great. Then did the rest of the carpets, with the majority being glued using contact adhesive. Getting the boot floor back in was a complete PITA though, and took at least 45 mins... Then riveted popper bases into the footwells, and attached the popper heads to the rubber mats. Very neat. Attached the transmission tunnel top and the gear knob, then bolted in the seats in to finish off.

Before I could complete the boot carpets I needed to fit the rear wings, scary part! All went fairly smoothly, first riveting the stone guards to the wings, then bolting the wings to the car. Slight hiccup with the radius arms; I had decided to remove them temporarily to fit the wings over the top, but the holes for the radius arms weren't large enough. So off the wings came to open up the holes with a file. Overall very happy with how they look!

Got back from holiday on Sunday, and spent Monday afternoon in the garage. Re-acquainted myslef with where I'd got to, then started with the interior trim. Fitted the scuttle edge trim, then moved onto the carbon sill protectors. Positioned the knee trim panels (eventually...), lined up the edge piping and riveted it all together by hand. Also riveted the transmission tunnel plate, and glued some of the boot carpets.

Finished off the rear end before going away on holiday next week, happy with progress. Sorted the missing washers after hearing back from Derek, along with the a-frame bolt issue. Then lined up the a-frame with the recommended 3 washers on one side and 4 on the other. Then levered the un-needed flanges from the diff to put the driveshafts in, and built up the ears/hubs/discs, finishing by getting the hub nuts as tight as possible by hand with the car in the air.

The rear dampers used schnoor washers on the lower bushes, along with the chamfered washers. The standard mounting for the radius arm is the lower hole - I had no issues getting the bolt through the hole in the interior side panel. The rear of the radius arm uses chamfered washers on both the bolt and nut sides. With the a-frame, only one of the sides was wonky so reversing the bolt to have the head at the winky side meant I could get sockets on both sides, great tip Jim123!

A combination of a few stints in the garage here and there, along with a few hours this afternoon. The rear brake pipes and de-dion tube have been installed, then the dampers. Some of this needs re-doing after an email from Derek confirmed there are some washers missing! Also attempted was the a-frame, though the left-hand rear mount seems to be off-centre preventing me getting a socket on to tighten the nut in the photo. A fellow member has suggested reversing the bolt to see if this gets around the issue, I'll check it out tomorrow. Also for tomorrow (assuming I can get the above sorted) are the axles, hubs and brakes. After that I can move onto the trim and make the interior look more like a car!

Thanks for the advice guys, as it happens Derek has replied to my email even while on holiday, so most of the washer related questions are solved now. It's not a watts link setup and will be mostly for the road so it sounds like the lower mount is the one to go for. With regards to the A frame, my sockets do fit but the bolt threads appear to be off-centre so I can't get the socket over that side. Swapping the bolt over to have the nut at the other side may well work though, I'll give it a try tomorrow! Thanks!

As some of you may know, Derek is away on holiday (disaster!!). I have a few questions that are stopping me getting any further, and would be grateful if anyone can shed light on them. Firstly, do the rear dampers need spring washers for the lower bolts? They're mentioned in the text but not included in the suspension fastener pack. Which of the two holes in the side panel are to be used for the front radius arm mounting? Does the rear mounting of the radius arm require any washers? Also, the left hand rear mount of the a-frame seems to have been welded on slightly wonky, such that I can't get a socket onto the nut. Is this something I could try and twist to re-align, or might I require a new a-frame? If you find time to answer any of the above that would be great! Richard

Took my nephew to the beach today, and the surfboard. Got mildly sunburnt. More succesfully, the evening was spent in the garage. After removing the two sections of boot floor I could get enough of a bend in the dividing beam to get the lower diff bolts in. Only needed one washer on the RHS to get it central. Then to the top bolt: had an initial measure up and decided that two washers for the LHS and one on the right would be approximately central: put those in place and gently tightened the bolt, re-measured and was surprised to find it was dead centre, result! So torqued those bolts, attached the prop shaft to the diff and torqued those bolts too, then called it a night. Will need to find out from Derek if its okay for the diff to be touching the boot floor, or whether I need to drill out the rivets and space the dividing bar away from the chassis with some washers.

Started the day off by reminding myself where I'd got to last week: added the coolant temp pipe to the j hose and riveted a mount for the lambda sensor wire to the driver's footwell. Still waiting on a replacement 5/8" hose to finish off the engine bay. Next moves on the the prep for the diff. Installed the handbrake and cables, then promptly removed them again to get the propshaft into the transmission tunnel. Handbrake back on and started trying to manoeuvre the diff into place. Eventually got it hanging from the top mounts, but that's where it's been left as the lower bolts won't go in - the boot floor is stopping the diff rotating up far enough!

Bit of an odds-and-ends day today, starting with unboxing a newly-delivered trolley jack: now I'll actually be able to get the car off its stands when the time comes! Work on the car included: - fitting clutch hose and accelerator cable - finishing the steering column - rotating the heater face to the correct orientation - more cooling hoses (still need to split the J hose for the temperature sensor and fit a new 5/16" hose between cylinder head and expansion bottle due to having the bottle in the wrong orientation to begin with) - fitting the air intake/filter/trunking assembly Bit of a break for a few days now, I have to go back to uni to give a presentation and then I'm finished there until graduation! And then going over to Manchester for the soccer aid on Sunday, so it'll be next week before I'm back in the garage.