Woo... just what I want to be doing on my birthday, but needs must, and the trailer needs loading and the car needs preparing for the Post Build Inspection.
Suspension Set-up
Before taking the car to Caterham we decided to have a go at getting the suspension set up, with roughly 15mm between the front and back. This turned out to be incredibly difficult due to the rear adjustments put the front out, then the front adjustment puts the rear out. If we had a lot more time then it wouldn't be so bad, but we had a lot to do before we could finish, so we decided to get the difference right and get some advice from Caterham when the car goes in.
The keys for the old Bilstein shocks aren't really big enough for the newer, larger adjustable platforms on the newer shocks.
Fuel Filler Shroud
Caterham quickly sent the correct filler shroud after we asked them for it, so we've been able to fit it tonight.
Held down by two self tappers into the boot floor.
Fuel Gauge
Along with the new bulkhead carpet and filler shroud came the correct fuel gauge to match the rest of the gauges. The correct gauges have red needles, however the fuel gauge fitted had a yellow needle and looks like it is normally from the 620R.
Correct fuel gauge.
Tyre Pressures
The tyres come pre-inflated to between 30psi and 40psi in order to properly seat the tyre on the wheel. For our tyre/wheel combo- 15" Orcus Wheels with Avon CR500 Tyres, we require 18psi of pressure in each tyre, front and back.
Pressure beforehand. Just releasing small amounts until correct pressure.
Loading the Trailer
The big job tonight was fitting the winch into the front of the trailer, and then sorting a power source as Dad's car doesn't have a separate power socket. After the winch was in and working all there was to do was to put the car in ready for the 0530 departure in the morning, in order to get from Cambridge to Crawley for 9am.
My car's battery powering the winch, and being controlled by remote control.
Carr all done and ready to get into the trailer.
While I steered dad directed and controlled the winch.
Plenty of room either side too, in order to be able to get in.
Room to spare front and back, with lashing eyes in all corners and two in the centre.
Lashings on all four wheels then crossed for added strength. Also the cover is to protect the car as water condensates in the ceiling.
Today we aspired to finish the front suspension, however this didn't happen as it was a lot more fiddly than we first thought.
First we sprayed some Dynax inside of the De Dion tube.
Coats well but goes everywhere...
Naturally can't work while ignoring the F1
We then continued to finish the upper and lower wishbones. This continued to be a little fiddly, however with a little persuasion (with a mallet) they slid into place and were bolted as per the manual. We then moved onto mounting the front disks. As these were the ventilated disks and quad piston callipers they lower right in and do not require to be built. We soon found that it would be impossible to have the top and bottom wishbones bolted to the brake uprights and then tighten the special milled nyloc on the underside of the lower wishbone. This was due to there not being enough clearance for any of our sockets to fit on properly. To fix this we disconnected the top wishbone from the upright then tightened the nyloc to the required torque, but to get enough leverage for the torque setting, the disk had to be secured. We did this by clamping two lengths of wood either side of the disk.
Wood in place
After this the top wishbone was attached and all of the nuts tightened to the required torque settings.
The angle of the bottom upright can be seen here. All bolts torqued and marked.
Cycle wingstay fitted to centre of the upright.
Premier Digital Torque Adaptor, can be used to test accuracy of existing torque wrenches or used as a torque wrench itself with a socket set and drivers.
Dad trying to work it... instructions are worse than the build manual...
Just a quick bit of lunch then back to finish the left side of the front suspension.
Finally the finished front suspension
Just a little free time for dad to quickly pose for the camera...
Annoyingly the GoPro ran out of battery without us realising so only the first half of the day.
To finish off the night we decided to fit the brake lines, which proved to be a bit too much today... This was all due to the brake hoses being completely different to the ones shown in the manual. The fittings are not the same and there are fewer parts supplied than described. This discovered we decided to to call it a night and email Derek for help and to enquire as to why the grill in the nose cone had not been painted, despite being, sold, bought and paid for.
Firstly we decided to do the first thing mentioned in the build guide, the steering rack, using the designated fastener pack. Very easy job just a few bolts through the lovely aluminium machined brackets. At this point we did notice that the movement of the steering rack seemed gravely, however we are hoping that this is just it not being moved properly.
Rack with track rod ends fitted, ensure right amount of turns for model.
When this was loosely fitted we moved onto the lower wishbones. These proved tricky as they are tight in the brackets, the instructions are stupidly unclear and the bolts are awkward to get to sometimes. Here is where it gets interesting, the manual says to put no washers between the front mount of the arm and the chassis, and 4 washers between the chassis tube and the back mount of the wishbone. However the general consensus from other blogs seems to be to ignore this (instructions for wide track suspension, standard on SV) and just fit it like the standard model.
Rear of Lower wishbone, 2 in front 2 behind.
Front of lower wishbone, 2 washers behind.
We quickly realised that it would become increasingly difficult to fit the IVA trim around the holes in the bodywork for the suspension and steering to pass through. Around early afternoon we decided to start the long and arduous process of fitting the fiddly rubber trim. In order to keep the trim attached until, and during, the dreaded IVA inspection, we used small amounts of superglue on the inside of the body, as advised on many other blogs. Also manipulating the rubber and warming it makes it easier to handle. It is highly advised that this part it carried out by people with reasonably dexterous hands as it is quite fiddly, as my dad found out as 1. he has huge hands, and 2. has half his right index finder missing, which makes it difficult for him... (or he's just a bit old and blind hahaha)
IVA trim, glued, with taller edge on the inside of the car.
Note around the upper wishbone bracket the body panel is very close at the top and bottom. For the bottom the panel can be gingerly forced outwards in order to get the trim on, and the upper can be stuck on once a section has been cut out of the back. To finish of the day we decided to spray the inside of the chassis with anti corrosion spray. The spray we decided to use was "Dynax S-50 Extreme Duty Anti Corrosion Wax". This was incredibly simple to apply as it is in an aerosol can, and supplied with the application tube and nozzle. Two rivets were drilled out from the underside of the chassis behind the lowered floors. Also it was sprayed through the front mount for the lower wishbones. Finally we lowered the car off of the rear chassis stand and onto wooden blocks on the floor in order to allow the wax to spread through the lower chassis tubes.
Just a quick time lapse of our first full day of building.
