Day 16 (Completed!)

All I had left to do today was to fit the nose to the front of the car, tidy up a bunch of the wiring in the engine bay, fit the bonnet and then get round to fitting all the IVA bolt covers etc to make it compliant for the test. I've still not heard back from VOSA yet about whether or not they are going to give me my suggested date of the 1st October. Either way, its booked to be picked up by Caterham on the 23rd so I needed to get it finished.

I had originally intended to fit all of the weather gear to the car as well but I've since been told by Caterham that they'd simply remove all of this ahead of the IVA anyway so I've chosen to leave the fitting of this stuff until the car is back with me.

Nose

I'd had a read of the Assembly guide the night before to see what it said about fitting the nose to the car.  Strangely though I could find no information on this whatsoever. As it happens its pretty straight forward, there are four Dzus fasteners already attached to the nose and the brackets that they do up into are already fitted to the car. Its simply a matter of fitting the nose to the car and then doing them up. Just before I fitted it, I was sure to stick the new style Caterham badge onto it. There are actually some bolt holes pre-drilled in the nose to take the badge but the new ones simply stick on so the holes aren't actually needed.

New Style Badge

Nose is on!

Bonnet

Again this was very straightforward, the bonnet simply needs to be lifted in place and secured to the car using the various fixings that came pre-attached to the chassis. One thing I did do before I fitted it though was to run some self-adhesive felt along the edge of the nose and along the main chassis rail that runs the length of the engine bay on both sides. This will hopefully stop it rubbing against the paint work whilst on the move.

Bonnet in place

I also ran the car up again quickly to make sure that all of the various instruments were working correctly. I'd noticed earlier in the week that the horn wasn't working. As it happens, on closer inspection of the front of the car around where the horns are mounted, I found 2 stray wires that weren't attached to anything. These were a purple & purple/yellow combination. Thinking that perhaps these were in fact the wires for the horn and not the ones I currently had fitted, I swapped them over. Sure enough the horn then started to work and oh boy is it loud with the bonnet off! I've since double checked with Caterham about the other wires and apparently these are no longer used. They used to be used to power some kind of fan and still form part of the loom but are not required on the SuperSport. I've now taped them up and cable tied them out of the way.

Correct wires for the horn

Adjusting front wing alignment

I'd also noticed that one of the front wings looked a bit wonky. It was centrally aligned with the tyre correctly, it just didn't look like it was located correctly in terms of the horizontal alignment in relation to the tyre. I'd remembered that the guide had mentioned the potential for some adjustment to be needed to the wing stays to get this spot on so I decided to remove the offending wing with a view to revising the alignment. With the wings now held in place with cable ties to the BigHead fasteners, this proved very easy indeed. I cut off the 4 cable ties, moved the wing aside and then gave the wingstays a couple of good whacks with a soft faced hammer to 'reconfigure' their positioning. 4 cable ties to hold it back on and it now looks great. The whole thing took no more than 10 minutes so I'm chuffed that I went with the option of bonding them on.

My only gripe now with the Cycle wings is that the repeaters do look rather crap. I think I might remove those at some point in the future If I can but they will have to remain on the car until after the IVA. I think they look particularly garish on a White car but c'est la vie!

Finished!

And that's pretty much it done for the moment. Think I might give it a polish later in the week but other than that it's good enough to be sent off to Caterham. I'll update again once I hear about how the post build check goes and whether I eventually get my requested IVA date off VOSA.

Day 15 (Full day)

OK, been a while since I updated the blog, mainly because I've been busy with a few other things and as a result work on the car has had to take a bit of a backseat. I managed to get one evening last week to work on it and all of today. Quite pleased with the progress actually so here's what i've been up to.

Indicator Pods

I started by getting to grips with the lights. Both the front Indicator Pods and the front headlights still needed to be fitted. First up it was the Indicator pods. The instructions in the guide are actually pretty good at explaining what to do here. Its best to start by fitting the rubber edging around the underside of the pod. I didn't do this but I think If i were to do it again, I'd probably apply some glue to the edge of the pod before applying the strip. Especially around the back of the pod where the cut away is, the edging likes to lift off. I found the hardest part of putting the pods together was actually getting to the backside of the bolts so that I could hold the nuts in place whilst I screwed the indicator light platforms into the pods from the front. Here is a pic of the solution I found which worked best. To be honest the one I'm doing up isn't that difficult to reach but there is one right at the back which is tough to get a socket onto.

Assembling the Indicator Pod

Front Headlights

With the pods done, I then moved on to fitting the headlights. The headlights come assembled so the first step was to remove the glass and then take off the electrical connectors that power the headlight and sidelight respectively. This then leaves you with the headlight pod with a threaded stainless tube at the bottom. This should be fed downwards, through the indicator pod and through into the hole at the top of the headlight bracket. All of the wires for the headlight pass down through the middle of the threaded tube. Once through the bracket, a big nut screwed on from the bottom holds it all together.

Assembling the headlights

By this point I thought I was doing pretty well and could see that the headlights would be finished imminently. After all, there was just the wiring to do which couldn't be that hard could it?

As it happens, this proved true for one side of the car, each of the wires for the headlight easily finding their way down the headlight bracket tube and into the engine bay. I had one side cracked within about 10 minutes with just the other side left to do before I could stick my feet up for the evening, excellent. I'd agreed with myself that I'd leave the final part of the puzzle (connecting the wires into the econoseal plug) until the weekend.

2 hours later and I was not a happy bunny. I could not, for the life of me, get the damn wires to go through the tube. They'd pass down it easily enough but I couldn't get them to go through the grommet at the far end where they are supposed to exit into the engine bay. In the end, I gave it up as a lost cause and decided I'd see what Blatchat had to say about the problem and also vowed to give Caterham a call in the morning to see how it was normally done at the factory.

The suggestions from Blatchat that came back were both good and varied, the best suggestion appearing to be to cut off the connectors from the ends of the wires (see image below) and then either re-solder these back on once the wires were through or better still, get some new connectors and fit them onto the wires using the correct crimping tool. Didn't stop me having a go at threading some strong cotton back up the tube and trying to pull the wires through though. Didn't work as it turned out.

Not the best approach 

I got hold of Derek at Caterham the following day to get his view on things. Apparently down at the factory they build the whole headlight and headlight bracket assemblies off the car and then, at the point at which the front suspension is fitted, fit the whole lot to the car in one go with it being a lot easier to thread the wires through the final hole with the bracket loose from the car. Apparently the build guide is to be updated soon to reflect this as it will definitely simply things but as Derek kindly pointed out, this wasn't going to be much good to me having already built most of the car.

Derek suggested two approaches to me that would work though. The first being to take the headlight bracket back off the car again with the primary issue here being that the front ARB passes across the top of the bolt head that would need to be removed. Apparently you can undo the ARB brackets and drop the ARB a bit to give you access and I could see how this would work, but In the end I preferred the second approach more (which backed up those suggestions made on Blatchat) which was to cut off the connectors, thread the wires through on their own and then, assuming I'd been successful, put some more connectors on the ends. Derek kindly agreed to send me some more of the connectors in the post so I got on with cutting the wires and attempting to thread them through in anticipation of their arrival.

This exercise still wasn't exactly plain sailing. I managed to get a couple of the wires through on their own but not all would go through at once. In the end I came up with a neat solution which was to pass a couple of sacrificial wires back up the tube from the end nearest the engine bay and using them to pull the wires I wanted back down it again. I could only get 2 wires back up the tube in the end so I bunched the 5 cables I needed to feed back down into a set of 2 and a set of 3 cables. I then soldered the wires together and taped around the connection with sellotape to make sure nothing would snag as I pulled it through. It took some shingling around with the wires and puling them back and forth but they did eventually go through. 

Wires finally through to the engine bay

So those were the bits that I managed to get done during the evenings this past week. Saturday was a write off as I had other things to do which only left Sunday clear for me to do a decent stint on the car.

Cycle Wings & Front Repeaters

The weather was actually pretty good when I awoke and, having heard that crap weather was due by lunchtime, I decided now would be a good time to get the side repeaters and cycle wings fitted so that I could complete the assembly of the econoseal plug and connect all of the lighting at the front into the main wiring loom. First step, drill out the marked holes that were already waiting for me on the wings (came like that from Caterham) using a 5mm drill bit.

Drilling initial holes

The guide then tells you to open up the middle hole to around 15mm which I did with the Dremmel. I'd recommend this approach over using consecutive larger drill bits for the middle hole. I tried this initially and could soon see that it was going to end with lots of cracks and chips to the fiberglass and paint finish so I stopped and opted to sand it to a greater size which didn't take very long either.

Making space for the front repeaters

The front repeater was then simply passed through the holes and was bolted on from the underside. Now it was time to fit the wings to the wing stays.

The Assembly Guide talks you through the steps needed to bolt the wings onto the car and indeed this is the usual approach for self builders with the wings coming pre-marked so you can see where you need to drill. I'd seen on a fellow 7'ers blog though that you could also take the approach of bonding the wings on so as to avoid any unsightly bolt holes that would be needed through the tops of the wings. I duly bought the necessary tools (BigHeads & acrylic bonding agent) during the week so had these ready to go.

The first step was to clean the underside of the cycle wings and the tops of the wing stays with Isopropyl alcohol to make sure the surfaces to be bonded were nice and clean. The bigheads sit directly on top of the wingstays and are then attached to them using cable ties. With these then loosely fixed in place, I could set about aligning the wings with respect to the tyre, a job made considerably easier with the aid of some masking tape appropriate markings to show the central line of the wings. These can then be aligned in relation to the central cut outs in the tyre tread.

Left/Right alignment of the Cycle Wings

The trickiest part of alignment is making sure the overhang at the front is correct. I did this initially by putting my finger on one of the marked holes and then, whilst looking up from underneath, looking to see whether my finger was aligned with where the Wingstay would need to be should I have chosen to drill it. With it aligned, I then looked down vertically from above at the forward edge of the wing and marked a line onto some tape that I had put onto the tyre. With all my visual cues in place, I quickly took the wing back off, made sure my BigHead fasteners were all aligned properly and then duly covered them all in the acrylic bonding agent. I used a 2 part adhesive called BigBond FS Acrylic. It mixes together automatically as you use it to activate it. I gave a good covering over the tops of all 8 of the BigHeads I was using (4 for each wing), then put the wing back into place and pushed down to make sure I got good contact. I then temporarily stuck the wing in place with some more masking tape.

Wing starting to bond to the BigHead fasteners

Within about 30 minutes the adhesive had worked its magic so I jacked the car back up and took the wheels off again. I then used what little adhesive I had left to go around the backside of the fasteners to make sure everything would definitely stick.

Wings bonded in place

Top down view of cycle wing

Now all that's left for me to do is get some polish and see If I can remove the 2 blue dots which look to have been put on with a marker pen. I had a go at a little bit of one and they do seem to be removable which is a relief.

The last activity for today was then to fit the hoodsticks (simple) before test fitting the roof. There are still some fasteners that I need to add to the sides of the car to locate it fully in place but other than that it does seem to fit pretty well. Some of the poppers are quite hard to get on though but I guess the vinyl will stretch a bit over time. Here's what she looks like tonight (albeit with the hood not properly fastened in place)

Very close to the finish line

Next on the list is the doors and the arm rest brackets which I hope to get done one evening this week before doing some final tidying of the wiring and sticking on all the necessary bits and bobs ahead of the IVA. Oh and it could do with a bonnet and nosecone shortly too!

Day 14 (Full Day)

Being a Sunday and having had a late night the day before I was actually quite pleased to be starting on the car by 9am. Unfortunately the BigHeads hadn't turned up in the post before the week was out so work would have to be confined to other parts of the car for now. Turns out there was LOTS to do so I needn't have worried.

Steering Column

On looking at the instructions, I'd been led to believe that this would be another of those 5 minute jobs so I thought it would be a good one to kick start the day. Unfortunately that wasn't to be and it took rather longer than I'd hoped. Fitting the Union Joint to the Steering Rack was simple enough, as was fitting the lower steering column into the other side of the Union Joint. The only issue I had was with one of the retaining bolts that go through the UJ. I just couldn't get one of the bolts through as the alignment was slightly off. In the end I cut a big taper onto the end of the bolt, coated it in Copper Slip and gave it a big whack (several actually) before enough of the bolt came through the other side to get the nut onto it. I then pulled the bolt all the way through by doing it up. Apparently this is quite common so when you get to this job and you are getting frustrated, rest assured that I know how you feel.

At this point you are then told to pass the upper steering column down through the dash, down through the lower bush and onto the lower rack. Unfortunately, despite greasing up the column when I pushed the upper column through the bush, the white plastic inner of the bush came loose and came right out of the hole in the dash - damn!

I tried various attempts to bush the plastic part of the bush back up the column but I wasn't getting anywhere. I couldn't see what I was doing and the plastic inner has a couple of retaining notches which have to align perfectly with the rubber part of the bush it sits in so the chances of getting it to locate were slim to none. Apparently it's quite common for this to happen but its bloody frustrating when it does. Time to search for a solution. I couldn't really leave the inner out of the bush as I was sure that would mean lots of play in the steering which was not something I wanted. Thankfully I worked out a solution quite quickly which I will share below just in case it happens to someone else.

• Step 1 - Remove the upper steering column completely.
• Step 2 - Remove the lower column completely (take it out of the UJ). This needs to be done as it is fouling the hole that you need to insert the plastic insert back into
• Step 3 - Spray the white inner with silicone spray and use your middle finger to insert it back up and into the bush. You can look down the hole through the dash from the top at the same time to make sure the white notches align correctly into the locators on the rubber bush
• Step 4 - Grease the upper steering column and insert it back down through the dash whilst at the same time keeping your middle finger inside the bush so you can feel when you have it central. When you do gently push it through. Hey presto its through the white inner!
• Step 5 - Refit the lower column and then slide the upper column over the lower one as shown in the Assembly guide.

This goes against the order in which the guide tells you to do it in but actually if you started with this approach I'm pretty sure you'd save some time and if you are unlucky enough to pop the white inner out of the lower bush you have nothing in the way in order to pop it back in again!

Once that was done, I then had to fit the upper steering column bush. This is presumably the same as the lower bush although you never actually see that one as it is hidden beneath the dash. The guide says to fit it over the upper column pushing it down into the dashboard tube. Its got two rubber lugs on it which are supposed to locate into corresponding holes in the side of the dash tube. I tried for about 20 minutes using loads of rubber lubricant but could not get the bush to push home into the tube. To be honest I was getting a bit pissed off. In the end I stopped for a bit, had a cup of tea, calmed down and thought about what other ideas I could come up with. In the end, I pleased I did as I happened upon a good one which I strongly advise others using too.

I popped down to B&Q and bought a length of metal tubing. the diameter was 25mm, just wide enough to fit completely over one end of the bush. I also bought a load of M12 washers which could fit over the end of the upper rack. The lot cost me about £8.

Tools for fitting Upper Steering Column

The metal pole I'd bought was over a meter long so I cut it down to size, fitted it over the Upper Column and then added a number of washers over the end. Using what would later become the securing nut, I then did the whole lot up, pushing the bush into the hole as I did so. I had to repeat this procedure 2 or 3 times, adding further washers each time so that I could push the bush further into the hole. It was a job well done but one that had taken over 2 hours to complete.

Improvised Steering Bush Locator

Once that was done it was a simple case of fitting the steering wheel boss, doing the large nut up and then screwing the steering wheel into the holes on the boss. Steering now complete!

Rear Wings

I then moved on to the rear wings. I started off as suggested in the guide by fitting the wing protectors. The protector plates fit to the wing with a rubber bead that runs round the top, outer and bottom edge. To simplify things I stuck the rubber beading in place using tape. This is now on the car but is hidden behind the plate so it won't be seen.

Securing Rubber Bead in place

Flipping the protector plates over, I then stuck them onto the wing, again using tape. Happy that I had the alignment right I then drilled through the existing holes and through the fiberglass wings. It was then just a case of gently riveting the panels on. I started in one corner and then worked my way around. Just be careful to ensure that the rubber bead is tight to the edge of the plate before you rivet each hole.

At this point I tried to test fit one of the wings to the car. I realised quickly that there was an issue. The rear radius arm was in the way. A quick check of the guide confirmed that it was OK to cut away some of the fiberglass so it would fit so out came the Dremel again.

Enlarging Wing Holes

Breaking right through

With the wing then fitted flush to the side of the car I loosely held them in place. Some of the bolts go straight into holding nuts that re fitted to the body of the car. Those towards the back of the car come out into areas such as the boot and below the boot floor and need a nut to hold them on. Additional (Wider) Rubber Bead then needs to be fitted behind the wing, being sandwiched in place when the bolts are eventually done up. The end result looks as follows:

Cut out for Radius Arm

Completed Wing

Rear Lights

It was then time to fit the rear lights, Harriet kindly offering to take this job on whilst I moved on to tidying up some of the wiring in the engine bay. The first step was to loosely fit the rubber mounting blocks to the car having first removed the light clusters that are screwed to them. There is a single hole drilled in the wing already for you. You use that to get the position of the lights right and then drill the additional 3 holes to fit the blocks. Simple screws that go directly through the wing hold them in place. Although this has worked successfully, I do wonder about the safety of having screw heads protruding through and into the wheel arch the other side. Might ask Caterham whether its safe to file off the ends?

Holes drilled, ready to be fitted

Rear lights in place

Wheels & Initial Alignment

Whilst the lights were being fitted, I decided to align the front tracking as best as I could. I test fitted the front wheels and then looked down the line of the car to get a visual indication of whether it was toe in or toe out on each side of the car. They were both a bit out so I adjusted the track rod ends and did everything back up again. Its good enough for now but I'll be sure to get the whole geometry set-up properly once the cars is back from its IVA.

First Start

With the rear arches fitted I then decided to fit the rear wheels as well. This meant that I could now lower the car down and off the Axle stands. Some friends duly arrived for some dinner so I took the opportunity to try and see if the car would start.

Following the advice given in the Assembly Guide, I cranked the engine for about 30 seconds with the Inertia switch disconnected so it wouldn't start. When I saw that the oil pressure was registering I stopped, reconnected the switch and then started it up. Broooooooooom Broooooooom - It's alive!!!

The first thing I noticed was that it was running at a very fast idle (2.5k) so I switched it off and tried readjusting both the throttle cable but also the idle screw. These helped but the car is still idling very quick. Think some more adjustment might be in order but I shall leave that for another day.

Just the front wings and the weather gear to do now and I should be nearly there. Still no word from VOSA regarding my IVA date but hopefully I hear from them this week.

Day 13 (Evening)

Not updated the blog for a couple of days now as I've been back at work this week and haven't had much time to dedicate to the car. That said, I have managed to find a few hours between meal times to complete a few odd and fiddly jobs. Mostly I have focused on filling the car with fluids and getting those systems which needed bleeding finished off.

Bleeding the brake lines

A surprisingly tricky and time consuming job this one and definitely a job that works better if you've checked to make sure that all your union joints are done up properly! My 3 way union located on the Dedion wasn't and so the first time we pumped the brakes we had a nice pool of brake fluid on the floor behind the car. The stuff also has a habit of getting on to everything so be sure to have a bucket of water and a sponge to hand so as to dilute it and wipe it off anything that it later finds its way onto.

This job is easiest if you read the instructions properly and do it like it tells you to in the guide. First step, get a glass (pint glass is good for this) and put about a 1/4 of a pint of fluid in the bottom. Caterham had kindly given me a length of small diameter fuel hose which I assume was meant to assist with this job. One end goes into the glass being sure to get the end of the hose submerged into the fluid. Next step is to start at the back of the car and unscrew the bleed nipple on the calliper. you can see it in the image below, its the light silver bit poking out of the back of the calliper. Unscrew it ever so slightly, put the other end of the hose onto it and then pump the brakes making sure you have filled the brake reservoir so that it is full.

Once fluid starts to flow freely out of the end, close off the nipple and then repeat the process on the other callipers. The guide clearly gives you the sequence in which to do them but its rears first and then the front.

I found I had to take at least 2 trips around each calliper before getting all of the air out of the system. I also found that the hose, though good and getting fluid to go into the pint glass, did flick fluid everywhere when taking it off the bleed nipples so definitely worth having something ready to wipe things clean quickly as it does corrode paint work.

Bleeding the Clutch

Very similar process to doing the brakes however I found this one even more difficult. This is because the bleed nipple exits at the top of the bell housing. The issue is that it doesn't stick out of the top but is instead just visible through an opening in the top of the housing. Its easy enough to undo with a socket (spanner is too wide to get onto it) and easy to get a hose onto it but as you bleed the system, you are forced to take the hose off before you can close off the nipple again.

In the end, I resigned myself to the fact that I would have to fill the clutch reservoir with enough fluid to keep it flowing out of the end of the nipple even after the hose had been removed. I knew this would mean a bit would flow out of the end and down into the bell housing but I couldn't really see any other way of doing it. Oh and be aware that the clutch fluid reservoir is tiny so if you are not careful it will run dry and you introduce air back into the system again.

Anyway, done now and the pedal feels pretty good. Wont know if its sufficient until its on the road.

Filling the Diff

I'd left this job until after the rear axle, suspension etc was on the car before trying to fill it. In hindsight, I kinda wish I'd done it as soon as I'd put the diff in and there was nothing else impeding access to it. As it was, I was forced to take the boot floor up (glad I hadn't stuck down the carpet yet) in order to gain access to it. The main issue though is that the Dedion tube sits only about an inch behind the filler plug and so getting the filler plug out is a bit of an issue.

Part of the tools that had come with the car included a very large allen key specifically for this job. Unfortunately, the head of the key was just too long to make it work within the space available so it was out with the Dremel to make some minor adjustments...

Safety First!

Modified Allen Key

With that done, It was now a very snug fit but I could just about get some purchase on the plug and get it off. It was actually on pretty tight.

I then set about rigging up a way of filling it with oil, choosing to reuse some fuel hose that I still had which I then attached to a funnel. I then cable tied the funnel to the roll bar so that it would hold itself in place. Filling through the funnel was then very easy but a bit slow. It was a tiny funnel and the oil reasonably thick so it took some 20 minutes to get it filled. I was sure to add the LSD additive that Caterham had provided first to make sure I had all of it in there. In the end, I managed to get about 1.1 litres of oil in on top of the additive before oil started coming out of the filler plug. It was then a case of doing the plug up again using the butchered allen key.

Knee Trim Panels and Riveting

Believing I might have the wrong panels I'd gone and checked this out with Derek at the factory. Apparently they are the same for both car types so it was just a case of me not getting them to fit right. I had a few goes at this and couldn't get it to work, mostly finding that the panels seemed an odd shape for the space they are designed for.

Fiddly Knee Panels

There are holes in the trim panel that are already drilled and there are corresponding holes in the side panels of the car already. Its just a case of lining them up before popping rivets into each of the holes. In the end, I did manage to align them on the drivers side. but on the Passenger side, I could only get one end to align (left hand end as you look at pic above). I was hoping that, having put a single rivet into the hole, I would then be able to move the panel around, pivoting it around this point and therefore getting it all to align. I got it close but ultimately no cigar. In the end it looked a good enough fit though so I re-drilled the holes slightly and then fastened them with the rivets. the alignment is therefore slightly different on each side but as these are hidden underneath the dash and are black its really not noticeable or worth worrying about.

Edit  - 08/09/13 - Having spoken to Derek at the Factory, since writing about the Knee Trim Panels, I have realised that I have used the wrong rubber piping. The stuff you see in the pic above is for use on other bits of the car such as around the front cycle wings etc. This means I will have to drill out the rivets and replace the rubber for the correct type at a later point. Oh well!

And that's all I'm going to have time for this week as work is pretty busy. I'm going to attempt to fit the rear wings on and start her up this weekend for the first time if I can. I've also got some BigHeads and adhesive on order which I intend to use to bond the front wings on. If that turns up on time, I may also look to get that done too.

Day 12 (Afternoon)

So today was my last chance to work on the car before I go back to work on Monday so I was looking to make it a productive one. My wife Harriet kindly offered to muck in and give me a helping hand and between us we made extremely good progress leaving a more than manageable workload left to do before Caterham pick the car up on the 23rd September.

Rear Brake Lines

The first thing I did was go back to finishing the rear brakes off. I'd been concerned yesterday that I might've been in danger of doing something silly but confirmation from some kind individuals on Blatchat confirmed that gently bending the pipes into place so they could locate into the calipers was indeed the right way to proceed. In the end I resorted to bending the pipes gently round in a nice arc using a socket to help make the curve nice and smooth. The resulting rear calipers now look like the following and the brake system is now in a position to be filled and bled but that's still to be done and is perhaps a nice job for tomorrow evening.

Rear brake lines fitted

Carpets, Interior and 4-point Harnesses

I started out by fitting the carpet that sits behind the 2 seats. All of the carpets come in one big pack but none of them are labelled so it does take a little while testing fitting where you think they should go to make sure you've got it right, particularly around the boot area where there are several bits to fit. That said, the one that goes on the rear bulkhead behind the seats is obvious enough. Having done an initial test fitting and once comfortable with what went where, I then got out the contact adhesive and started to stick the carpet in place. I started off by sticking the vinyl strip that runs across the top of this piece of carpet to the chassis behind where the headrests would be.

Sticking down vinyl strip on rear bulkhead carpet

God knows how I managed it but shortly after this i noticed I'd managed to spray a bit of adhesive onto my shiny white paintwork on the boot of the car. Needless to say I was not best pleased but I was lucky to catch it early as I was able to rub it off with no signs remaining now of my little mishap. It did take me some 20 minutes though which was time I'd rather not have wasted but there we go.

Having stuck the vinyl strip down all the way around the top bar, I then set about cutting out some holes in the vinyl around the bolt holes already present in the chassis rail. These will later be used to fix the shoulder harnesses to the chassis.

Carefully cutting squares in vinyl

I then went on to fitting some of the remaining carpet panels in place within the boot space. The guide suggests that you don't need to stick the boot carpets down at all but I decided to do some of them around the sides, opting to leave just the main boot floor free of glue. It was relatively easy to get a decent enough finish though I am yet to fully finish off the boot completely. Trying to screw down the plate that protects the fuel pipes leading to the fuel tank was quite a tricky exercise. Mainly this is down to the relative lack of space to get a drill into the area in order to drill the required pilot holes. I did actually manage to get that bit done but still haven't got round to screwing the plate into place. That job will have to wait until another day.

Gluing carpet triangles in place

Boot mostly finished

Whilst I was doing that, Harriet kindly got on to bolting the shoulder harnesses in place on both side of the car. A single bolt and a spacer are all that is needed to fit the harnesses to the top chassis rail.

Not my hands I promise!!

That finished, the interior was left looking a lot nicer but we still had the carpets to fit to the transmission tunnel and in hindsight we did this bit slightly wrong as we'd fitted the lap belts in place only to find they needed to come off again to fit the carpets but hey ho. I had been tempted to use velcro for the transmission tunnel to make removal of the carpets again in the future a little easier. As it was, I didn't get it in time and just wanted to get on with the job so I've stuck it on with Evo Stick but only in a few places so I should be able to rip it back off if needed. By this point, this is kinda what the interior looked like

Harnessed and rear bulkhead carpet in

Before getting too ahead of ourselves and fitting the seats, we decided to split up and tackle separate jobs. Harriet kindly offered to take on the task of cutting and fitting the necessary bits of rubber piping needed around the interior. It needs to be fitted along the edges of the side panels before the panels are later riveted into place. Having done the rubber piping, I then put the carbon sill protectors into place and duly drilled holes through them inline with the existing holes in the side panel in readiness to do all the riveting.

Rubber piping in place and holes drilled in sill protectors

With that done, there was really no point in moving onto anything else without first riveting the side panels in place so I got out the riveting tool and got started. I was actually quite surprised at the amount of force needed to get each rivet into place but other than a bit of hard graft, the job was reasonably straightforward. I've also not riveted everywhere at this point as I still need to fit the knee trim panels and also a bracket which is designed to take the popper which is used by the side screen arm rests which are still to be fitted. Unfortunately, I may have to check in with Caterham again about the Knee Trim Panels as I think I may have been given the ones needed for an SV chassis rather than my S3. Certainly a check on the Caterham parts site suggests these could be wrong so I shall have to double check tomorrow.

The Gun Show!

Whilst this was going on, Harriet continued to cut up various bits of rubber and vinyl needed to protect a few bits needed ahead of the IVA. to start with she dealt with the trim required around the rear lights before finally fitting the vinyl protection needed around the scuttle which runs around the top edge of the dash.

The wife done good!

Oh and apparently I'd made a hash of some of the carpet in the boot so she went and sorted that out for me as well, thanks Hattie!

Harriet doing the business

To finish off the interior and before fitting the seats, we put the transmission 'Tunnel Top' on over the gearstick, handbrake and transmission tunnel. This is one complete piece and simply pushes down into place. By this stage the interior looked as follows:

Interior still missing some seats

Seats

We then moved on to a job which I knew before we started it wasn't going to be easy. The seats come armed with the adjustable runners already on the bottom. To start with, you are supposed to move the seats into their most reward position on the runners so that the very front of the runner is exposed to reveal a bolt hole through which you pass a bolt downwards through the runner and into the floor. Simple enough once you know how but did take us a while to read the instructions. Once the front 2 bolts are in, you then slide the seat forwards and then try and pass 2 bolts down into the rear of the runner, again bolting them through the floor and doing up the nuts from underneath. This is the hardest part as the seats impede access to those holes. You have to get all 'Stevie Wonder Hands' and feel your way along the runner and guess where the holes are. To make matters worse, a couple of our holes weren't quite aligned perfectly so the bolts didn't really want to go through. On one of them, I had to open up the hole slightly from underneath using the Dremel to finally get the bolts to come thorough. Once we'd finally bolted them in place, it was time for a well deserved photo of me getting acquainted with my new driving position.

 

Hmm, something is definitely missing

While I was there, I also noticed a couple of wires hanging down into the passenger side footwell. I've still not worked out what these are for and where they are supposed to be routed. If anyone has any ideas and can shed light on it for me, perhaps be kind enough to leave me a comment so I know what to do with them - thanks.

Unidentified wires

And at that point it was time to leave it and head off for a well deserved Sunday Roast. Really happy with the progress this afternoon and its starting to look nearly complete. Next job will be to start reading the IVA guidance and covering the whole car in tacky bits of rubber and plastic - ahh well, needs must.

Here's a picture of how the old girl looks this evening:

Nearing Completion

Day 11 (couple of hours)

With a jam packed afternoon of sport and some guests around for dinner I was confined to only spending a quick couple of hours on the car today. In fairness though and up until this point i've been working on it pretty much continuously so I was thankful of a bit of a break. That said, I did get enough time to do a few odd jobs, particularly those that had been put on hold temporarily whilst I awaited a shipment of a small number of missing parts from Caterham. 

Temp Sensor Earth

First job took seconds, I simply needed to fit the earth lead onto the submarine pipe. The earth is, I believe, for the temp sensor which is situated next to it. Its a small ring terminal to spade connector. fit it over the threaded bolt sticking out of the submarine pipe and use a nut to secure it. The black/black and yellow earth lead then simply pushes onto it.

Earth connected to ring/spade connector

Air box

The air box had been supplied in the kit but I'd been missing the bolts that hold the box together. With these in hand I fitted the bottom part of the air box onto the supplied rubber bobbins. The panel filter supplied then fits inside the box and the lid is screwed down on top. The final part of the puzzle is to get the supplied hose into the box and then attached to the end of the plenum using a jubilee clip. All pretty straightforward and it looks something like this.

Air Box with panel filter

Filling the Cooling system

Over the last few days I'd been looking at all the various fluids that I'd be needing to get the cat filled up and ready to go (Engine Oil, Gearbox Oil, Diff Oil, Brake & Clutch fluid & Coolant). I'd been eyeing up Caterham's first fill pack but had been hearing stories of people finding that their cars would take all of the 5l of coolant supplied without being properly full. Having completed the routing of all the cooling pipe work a few days previously, I had a feeling it was going to be more sensible if I got a bit more than 5 liters just in case so thats what I did.

As luck would have it, my local motor factors supplies the same Comma Coolant products that Caterham specify supplying it in both the pre-mixed (as Caterham supply it) and concentrate form and had it in stock for collection there and then. In the end, realising I might need more than the guide specifies, I opted for 5l of the Comma XStream G30 concentrate and whilst there also bought 5L of Comma Distilled Water to mix it up with.

Using some empty 2 litre mineral water bottles I then mixed up coolant using a 50/50 mix of distilled water to coolant. The result was a rather nice luminous red mixture which I then started to add to the expansion tank to begin with. I managed to get 5l into it no problems at all, the level dropping all the time as it ran into the rest of the system and it was still taking more. I then changed tactic slightly and took the bung/bolt out of the top of the radiator. Using a very small funnel that I had, I was then able to pour further coolant straight into the top of the radiator, it taking about a further 1 litre in all before seeming like it was full. Lastly I set about backfilling the pipe that runs to the Modine which connects to the top of the Heater Control Valve. Taking it off, I then put the funnel into the end of the hose and started to pour coolant in. This pipe took probably another half litre before coolant started escaping from the top of the radiator (I'd left the bung out at this point). I then reattached the pipe and replaced the bung in the radiator. All in all, about 6.5 litres of coolant have gone into the car and the level in the header tank is now sat on the max line. It will be interesting to see if further coolant needs adding once the engine is run up for the first time. There is a good chance that it might.

Coolant in the Expansion Bottle

Filling Gearbox With Oil

Filling the gearbox came next and I finally had the chance to see whether the tactic I'd decided to employ about filling it from the top rather than from the bung at the side was going to pay off. First job was to get the bolts unscrewed which hold the plate onto the top of the gearbox. With so much of the pipe work/ wiring in place in the engine bay there really isn't a lot of space to work with coming in from that end so I actually resorted to sitting in the car and running my hand up and into the transmission tunnel allen key in hand feeling for the heads of the bolts and undoing them one by one. I'm lucky that I don't have massively fat arms as this was quite easy to do even with the gear level in place.

Hand up the transmission tunnel

Having removed all of the bolts I then carefully removed the top plate, sliding it back in the tunnel slightly to leave a small gap at the engine end which I could use to fill up the oil. I pleased to say that this worked really well. peering directly down into the gearbox with the torch on my phone I was able to get a really nice clear view of the back side of where the filler plug enters the gearbox. It was then a simple case of rigging up a bit of spare coolant hose that I had to the end of a funnel and then filling it up. I was obviously extremely careful not to spill any into the engine bay.

Filling Gearbox

I found a way of being able to look into the gearbox whilst gently pouring in oil to the funnel so that I could see the moment the level in the gearbox came up to the lower lip of the gearbox filler hole. I was extremely careful not to overfill it. It's hard to see from the provided image but with your face close up to the removed plate you can see the back of the filler plug (bottom right of gearbox as you look at it) when using a torch.

Viewing reverse side of filler plug in Gearbox

There had been some speculation as to how much oil the gearbox would take before it would be full. By my calculations I got about 1.05 litres of oil in it before it started to trickle of the lip of the filler plug. (5 speed box).

I then refitted the top plate being very careful not to damage the paper gasket around the top of the box and then did up all the bolts using the hand up the transmission tunnel tactic I'd employed earlier to remove the. So that's that job done.

Engine Oil

Extremely easy job this one. I've got hold of some good quality mineral oil which I duly poured into the  oil filler hole on the top of the engine. In all about 6 litres of oil went into it before it was registering on the dipstick. I'll be sure to check that one again before cranking the engine over for the first time. The logic I've decided to employ with the engine oil is run it on the mineral oil for the first 500 miles to let the rings bed in properly. I will then do an oil change at about 500 miles, change it over to the sem-synthetic that Caterham specify and then at about 1000 miles I will probably switch it over to fully synthetic.

One thing that concerns me slightly is with the Cams. Before I put any oil into the top of the engine, I put my finger in through the filler hole to feel one of the Cam lobes that was exposed at that end. I was looking to see if It had any kind of oil film on it already. It didn't and so I'm a little concerned about cranking the engine over given this is the case. I realise Caterham specify cranking the engine over on the starter to build oil pressure before first staring it but is this sufficient? My line of thinking is why not take the Cam Cover off the top of the head and liberally pour oil over the lobes before first starting it. To be on the safe side I'm going to check this over with Derek at the factory before I do it as I don't want to do anything that would later invalidate my warranty. More on that in a later post.

And that was all I had time for today. I should have most of the afternoon to work on the car again on Sunday so I hope to get some of the interior items done but I might also try and bleed the brake system.