AlastairA

Yes that’s the only place it was touching so far as I could tell - just the aluminium boot floor support.

Hi, Yes I did encounter this (link) and chose to "notch" the non-structural cross beam that the diff was touching to try to avoid vibrations from being conducted through the chassis. My personal conclusion is that this is just an effect of the level of mechanical tolerances involved with a hand built chassis. Ultimately I just decided that it's necessary to make minor adjustments to get the parts to go together and that is one of the wonderful challenges of building one of these cars.

Just to confirm : Short -ve lead to the chassis earth to the left of the battery. Long -ve lead to a Bell Housing bolt (as someone above said - I initially put it on the right hand side but CC moved it away from the primaries to one of the bolts at the middle-top of the Bell Housing). Didn't have any issues with nuts on the Starter Motor though.

Saw your Instagram post of the terrible state of your new radiator after courier delivery - my condolences. Hope you get a replacement sorted quickly.

A heat gun, or good hairdryer will warm up the glue between the handle and metal work - then wrap in a cloth and apply mole-grips. One good twist and off it comes! Linky-link

Photo of radius arm on my 2023 420R:

I removed the powder coat first and then measured the ID with verniers, compared to the OD of the ball. They were a good match so I assume the designer either neglected the depth of the powder coat or intended for there not to be one. Left the sockets without the powder coat and just made sure they were well greased. Confirmed this with CC build technician.

Still available ...! 😄

Thanks both - I think I’ll have to try fettling a plastic wedge to go under the bracket.

I have acquired the Aces Shift Lights which came with a nice mounting bracket. However, the supplied bracket is square and therefore does not accommodate the slope of the scuttle at the usual mounting position. I'm aware that Caterham sell their own version which does allow for the shape of the scuttle - but of course they are out of stock. I've considered using a stand-off with spherical washers either side of the scuttle, but that would mean the mounting point could not be behind the dashboard (the bracket also holds the lights away from the windscreen). Any experience / thoughts?

Hi - yes they are still available.

For sale - a pair of brand new, leather seats for an SV chassis. Perfect condition, perfect to complete your Winter renovation project. Cost from Caterham (excluding headrests) is £1906 - will accept £900 + shipping (est. £40).

Interesting to see the photo's on the other LED headlight thread - they show the Halo design where the low beam LED's are kept on when the high beam is active:

No - looking at the photo below, the DRL's are a linear array across the diameter of the headlight, with LED's facing forward. The main and high beam LED's are housed in the central elliptical moulded plastic and are facing to the rear (so that they are focused and reflected off the rear reflector). Looking really carefully at the reflector, you can see a central oblong area about two thirds of the way up, which shows a refection of the main LED's. Looks like half a dozen or so individually mounted components (difficult to see in the photo) but it gives no indication of how they are mounted.

I'm afraid I don't know for sure if there are independent heat sinks. I looked back at my assembly record and could only find the following photograph of the rear of the headlight assembly. As you can see, it looks like a sealed unit and there are some ribs which must be there for heat sink purposes - however, the important question is how the LED's are mounted internally and what level of thermal conductivity exists through the LED substrate, PCB and mounting method to the outside world.

Good challenge Anthony - it was just an assumption on my part, and because we don't know exactly the OEM part number for the LEDs used within the headlight assembly, it's impossible to be exact. High performance LEDs require heat sinking to ensure the junction temperature is within recommended operating tolerances. It was my assumption that the mounting arrangements of the LEDs would / should include sensible heatsink to maintain the junction temperature appropriately. Generally speaking if the junction temperature is controlled by a PCB & heat sink arrangement, the lifetime of a High Performance LED should be somewhere between 60,000 and 100,000 hours depending on then exact model. If the LED is operated above the maximum designed junction temperature, it starts to degrade the lifetime and the luminous flux exponentially (before complete failure) by up to a factor of 10 for a 50% increase in junction temperature (again sweeping generalisations employed!) So, it is a big assumption on my part that the designed heatsink will not allow more than a 50% increase in junction temperature when both lights are switched on, but even if we allow for a worst case reduction of 10x lifetime, the LEDs will outlast me for a worst case usage model in a 7 (e.g. 5,000 miles per year @ 30mph average speed allows 35 years of LED life driving permanently with both lights on). Apologies for my initial assumption without backing it up, but in reality we will never know for sure without an empirical test!

I don’t think temperature rise would be an issue - my concern is on total current draw. I was going to try and measure the current drawn for each of the dipped and main beam LEDs and check whether the loom and relay could cope with the total. Also thinking of implementing it with a diode rather than changing the switch.

My 2022 420R is not dual burn (LED headlights). It is something I've been considering adjusting though.

It would be fantastic to have a comprehensive guide on how to protect a 7 from such issues. How to thoroughly clean before winterisation; where and how to apply ACF50; how to touch up stone chips, etc. Does such a guide exist? I'm sure the collective knowledge of the club could create the ultimate reference manual.

Paul - I bought mine after reading that heavy rainfall could cause damage to the 420 alternator if the bonnet louvres are left uncovered. There was also a thought that having the windows covered by the shower cap might improve security by preventing inquisitive eyes looking into the cockpit. I therefore chose to use both the full hood and a shower cap on a recent NC500 run. It was probably overkill but did give peace of mind!

I bought the long nose shower cap without realising that it was intended to fit the car without the hood fitted. It's perfect without the full hood fitted and the hood bars lowered - however, with the hood fitted, the shower cap is lifted up. It basically means the bottom edge of the side windows are exposed (see photo below) but it still does the job of keeping the rain out. IMG_5525.HEIC

👍

Apologies - not sure. I’ll have to come back to you once I’ve had a chance to remove the nosecone.

The radiator mounts in my kit were a pair of right-angle brackets. Hope this photo helps:

The registration process involves accumulating a lot of documents - proof of it being an amateur build, receipts for components (supplied by CC), IVA pass certificate, proof of identity, proof of address etc etc. Then the wait .... I had to chase mine quite hard and DVLA seem to be snowed under. I eventually found out that my registration documents had initially been routed to the wrong department and had been languishing for 4 weeks. Finally it was sent to the correct place and it was processed quite quickly.