Britspud

Many thanks for all the comments 🙂 Good to gauge the norm!

Hi All - Happy Easter to everyone ... anticipating that squeezing into my Caterham will become even more challenging by end of Monday. Good Job I went for the SV 😉 So question; I bought a genuine Caterham vinyl half hood. I've installed it as instructed and when it's on it gives a nice shape and seems taught. Now I've not driven the car yet because the build is still in progress, but it does seem very floppy ... I can run my hand over it and it bows a lot. Which makes me think it'll be a flapping nightmare when underway. I've done it up tight as I feel safe to do. Feels like it needs to the hood sticks, even though I know it doesn't! Is this normal?

One thing I would say John...from the pics, it's hard to make out (and forgive me if this is a patronising question as I am the least experienced builder possible!) ...but have you used Nylon nuts for the g/b mount bolts?

Hi John, Wow quick progress! 🙂 I had the same concern with the gearbox and it's proximity to the tunnel ... I contacted Lee at Caterham about it and he said it's normal that they're very close...but not touching. My gearbox touches the heat insulation on one side, but only just and isn't (as far as I can see) touching the metal. If yours is, I'd raise it with Caterham. Particularly before drilling any slots in the mount. Mine is an SV by the way....I don't know if the tunnel is a different size for S3 cars. Is yours an SV? Thanks, J.

Hi John....congrats, the start of the excitement...I'm still building my 360R and it's amazing. Loving it. You're asking all the same questions I did 😉 And I also feared big steps like installing the engine (which turned out to be not too big a deal for me) and fitting the Diff (which was difficult/frustrating). Truth is once the engine and diff are in, most of the rest can be done by one person on their own. And that meant, for me anyway, that the progress was swift. I'm now probably about 10 sessions away from being ready for PBC...and it'll be a sad moment when I don't have anything left to do 😉 My biggest tip for new builders is...don't be impatient and make sure everything is masked up with cardboard if you're working with heavy metal things near paintwork. It didn't damage my paint having cardboard on it...but I did scratch the rear paint around the boot when fitting the roll bar because I didn't bother masking it all. I was so angry with myself! I also sheared a bolt in the dedion tube when attaching the ears... a moment of carelessness/distraction and not wanting to wait for a tap to clean the thread first. Stupid!! Enjoy it 🙂

Ok thanks a lot 🙂

Thanks James...another interesting solution.

Thanks Alastair ... I must apologise as I have studied your blog and been guided on many aspects of my build by your write-ups, but obviously failed to notice that you had covered the same issue! Interesting choice, cutting the beam. Did you also find that it was touching at the back of the Diff, up against the boot floor?

Thanks Simon...again, I'm hoping for people on here who may be able to comment: a. Is this something that is normal amongst the kit builders here when they installed their Diffs on a Duratec car? b. And if so, did they just do the above suggestion from Caterham (bend the beam/insert a spongey pad) or did they do something better/different? Thanks, J.

Hi Simon - yeah I do get it...but this one could have massive NVH consequences. I'd have thought the Caterham engineering team might have had a think about this if it's as common as they led me to believe. Mainly though I was hoping someone might have a better solution. Some of the brilliant blogs that I've depended on (Purple Meanie, Chris Collins, Tigger and many others) don't seem to have mentioned it, and I presume they didn't encounter this issue. So I thought this was something unusual to my car. But I'm told that this is a usual thing. Cheers, J.

Hi All, One of the things I came across during my build while fitting the diff (360R SV with BMW/Titan) is that the rear diff cage comes up against the boot cross member and the front of the cage touched the non-structural metal beam running across the back of the bulkhead. Caterham build support team told me just to bend the bulkhead beam upwards (with pliers!) to fix the problem at the front. And to put some spongey rubber between the diff cage and the boot floor cross member! Which I did do...but was slightly worried/disappointed that this is an official resolution! Is this a common thing ? And is there a better resolution to it than the one described by the Caterham team? Thanks.

Hi Rhys...interesting. Did you drive the car/experience the noise before you installed the killmat? Or was it installed at build stage? I'm just getting to the carpet install part of my build, and have been considering putting some deadening mat on the bulkhead and boot floor. Thanks, J.

Amazing well done! They ignored my e-mail, but maybe I'll try again with your method 🙂

Hi Graham...I learned from other's mistakes!! My wife hit her shins on them when I first got the car on those wheeled stands...the language was educational, as was the implication of blame towards me. Thus, the lagging 😉

Amazing, well done. They didn't respond to my message...you must have a mole in the org!! 😉

Hi CAT170 - thank you. it would be handy...if you're still ok, I will message John and take him up on his very kind offer 🙂

Hi All - does anyone know where I can get spares of these please? Ta.

It shouldn't be that bad a job...I've read on other threads the sequence. The thing that worries me is getting the top damper bolts back in again...I remember that being a right pain in the @rse. Anyway, thanks all...sounds like I will be doing it!!

Ok many thanks 🙂

Thanks SLR...ah really? Well in that case, so be it! Is that because the roll bar points also come down on the strip, holding it on either side??

Thanks P7 ... well I guess that's me taking it all apart then! Unless of course I can cut slits into the holes allowing me to just undo the bolts a bit and slip it under and onto the bolt stems.... 😉

Hi All - me again...you can tell I'm getting near the end of my build!! Well it feels like that anyway... So when my kit first arrived, I read in the manual that the roll bar had to go in before you could fit the rear suspension. I saw no reason to wait, and it was one of the first things I did...a job done and a big box gone! It's a track day roll bar with the cross struts..and I also remember reading that the harness shoulder bolts on the far left and right hand side are too long to fit after the roll bar is attached. So I duly also fitted the shoulder harness straps before putting the bar on. Months later and the rear suspension is all fitted. I then read something that made me think that I should also have installed the bulk head carpet before because of the vinyl bit at the top which also goes under the boot cover and harness bolts. I'm away from the car at the moment but have attached the below pic, which was just after I'd fitted the roll bar and top harnesses. You can see the bolts on either side...which I'm pretty sure I won't be able to completely remove in order to lay the carpet strip along that member. Am I over thinking this? Or am I indeed going to have to remove the coilovers and loosen the roll bar in order to fit the bulkhead carpet? Cheers all.

Yours even looks like the same colour as mine!! Volcano? 😉

Many thanks Tim and Landy 🙂 Much appreciated 🙂

Hi Tim - yes well this has perplexed me also. Obviously lots of people have these half hoods and I imagine many want to keep the hood sticks as well to leave the full hood option...after all, if you get caught out in a real rain storm the half hood won't be ideal. It sounds though like there's something wrong with mine...probably caused by me!! 😉