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richd13

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Blog Entries posted by richd13

  1. richd13
    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.
  2. richd13
    Nice relaxed day today after wrestling with the engine and gearbox yesterday: attempted to make sense of the engine wiring instructions in the build manual but no luck, so decided to fit the exhaust primaries and collector instead. Took time out for a bike ride and to clear some of the empty boxes from the garage floor as well.
  3. richd13
    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!
  4. richd13
    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!
  5. richd13
    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.
  6. richd13
    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.
  7. richd13
    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!
  8. richd13
    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.
  9. richd13
    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.
  10. richd13
    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!
  11. richd13
    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.
  12. richd13

    Build Day 0

    By richd13,

    Technically three days' work, but the garage is now clear and ready for the kit to arrive on Friday!
    The photo appears to be uploading the wrong way up though...
  13. richd13
    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.
  14. richd13
    Back in the garage today after a nice relaxing bank holiday weekend.
    Started with the wiring from the engine and gearbox install last week: connected up the reverse light switch, loom connections and starter motor/battery leads. Also took the opportunity to attach the gear stick and fuel line as per the recommended build sequence.
    Then started to look at finishing off the steering, but couldn't get the upper column to pass through the lower bush without disrupting the plastic inner piece; after checking it against the upper bush supplied loose that end doesn't seem to fit through so will ask Derek's advice on how to fit it tomorrow.
    After that I started to tackle the cooling - the radiator, header tank and most hoses are now fitted, just the heater valve/block/header/tee piece still to go.
  15. richd13
    They're in! 
    Engine and gearbox are successfully installed in the car, after a long but rewarding afternoon. Feeling quite relieved as this feels like a major milestone in the build.
    Tomorrow will be spent sorting out the wiring and cooling, with a break from the car with a bike ride on the cards.
  16. richd13
    Half day today; fitted the front anti-roll bar, read through fitting the engine and installed the washer head, pipe and bottle.
    Then removed the bell housing from the engine and attached to the gearbox, and added the U-shaped hose to the engine. Engine bay is all taped up ready for attempting to get the engine in tomorrow!
  17. richd13
    Productive day today; after fitting the correct bushes in the LH upper wishbone I fitted that to the car, then proceeded to add the damper unit, upright and wingstay, and torqued all the fixings.
    Then after wiring up the newly-arrived second headlight, I repeated for the RHS of the car. All that's left of the front end for tomorrow is the anti-roll bar, for which I need to go and buy some threadlock. Then it'll be onto prepping the engine/gearbox!
  18. richd13
    Started the day off by fitting the steering rack, nice and easy. Then moved onto the front suspension; both lower wishbones in without too much difficulty, so far so good...
    However after reading that the uppers needed 1/2" OD aluminium bushes inserting and foolishly deciding on the advice of ~20 year old blog that the only way these would fit was to use a vice, the bolts would then not go through as the bush was compressed too far! I suspect that the 12mm bushes are actually the correct ones as they go in far more easily, but will check with Derek tomorrow. He has already said he will send out new bushes.
    So instead I moved onto the lighting, only to find that my headlights don't match: I have an older one and a new one, so again on the phone with Derek and he's sending a second newer-style out. Proceeded to get the LH light wired up and left it there for today to fix a couple of bits on my brother's car before its MOT tomorrow, and put some new bars on the mountain bike.
  19. richd13

    Unloading the Kit

    By richd13,

    So on Friday, my friend Scott, my Dad and I made the 400 mile round trip to Dartford and back to collect my kit - many thanks you two, couldn't have done it without you!
    It's now unloaded into the garage and I've checked through most of the boxes to be pretty sure I've got all the major components, though no doubt I'll find something I haven't been given! After a pretty chilled weekend I've got the trim attached around the front apertures and sprayed waxoyl into the grot traps, and dug out the parts for the steering rack and front suspension fitting ready to start properly tomorrow.
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