Build Day 27- Sill Protectors, Fusebox Cover, Interior Carpets, and Harnesses.

Day 27- Sill Protectors, Fusebox Cover, Interior Carpets, and Harnesses.

To start we continued to finish fitting the sill protectors, but, in addition to the steps previously taken we applied some silicone sealant under the sill to stop squeaking when any force is applied causing movement. (We have however, a few weeks later, that the RH sill has settled and has stopped making a sound whenever pressure is applied, which would have driven us insane every time we got into the car.)  

Fusebox Cover

This took a lot longer than expected due to it being oddly confusing as to how the panel fits in relation to the fuse box. However eventually after a small strip of Velcro and a couple strips of IVA trim to stop vibration noise it was eventually in.

Small strip of Velcro along front edge. I believe this is an IVA requirement (according to the build manual). 

Small length glued in place.

Tidied the 12V Socket wiring, the smaller plug is not used.

Interior Carpets

This got a little messy as the spray adhesive is hard to control. After warming the can in-front of the fan heater we started with the rear bulkhead carpet, then the tunnel carpet, then fitted a couple of the boot carpet pieces, (namely the forward triangle pieces, and the rear rectangle piece). We found that excess came off fairly easily with a little WD-40 on a rag, and that the solvent designed for the adhesive worked a tad too well and started removing paint.

A bit of a stringy mess. 

It was at the point of completion that we realised that the bulkhead carpet only had trim on the LHS and not the other, so we will email Caterham to see what the best remedy is to the situation. (In the end they decided that they would remove the carpet and glue at the post build inspection and then replace it with the correct one.) 

                              

After the carpets were in we cut the Harness bolt holes into the vinyl strip along the chassis tube under the roll-over bar.

A small Stanley knife worked a treat.

We decided that if we ever needed to remove or replace the rear wings it would be much simpler if we attached the corner carpets with Velcro instead of with the impact adhesive.

Harnesses 

This was done for aesthetic reasons more than anything as we knew we would have to remove then later anyway for the boot cover fitment. We quickly found that the bolts were too long to screw in under the roll-over bar due to lack of clearance, and even using the either set of bolts, as there to two varying length of bolt in the Luke boxes. In order to fit them we had to cut roughly 10mm of the end of the bolt for it to fit. 

Later turned out that Caterham suggest fitting the harnesses before the roll-over bar, and thus technically before the rear suspension, and along with the boot cover and interior trim. 

Also now we have done the post build inspection (22-01-2016) it turns out that they didn't agree with our arrangement as they have spent a 1/2 hour changing the bolts!?!?!

We felt that the fitment of the harnesses would be better if we substituted the cardboard washers with rubber ones as we feel that the card ones would degrade quickly in wet weather. Also we don't see much point in the metal rings, that we can only presume are for inserting into the boot cover, but would be crushed under the bolt head. Also in order to reduce the amount the vinyl strip creases under the rotation of the bolt we applied silicone grease around the hole. 

Just remember the red buckles attach to the tunnel and the handle points downwards. 

We'll have to see what Caterham thinks of the way we have done this...