First service; fun in the sun: laps of Goodwood

Thanks to the Surrey Sevens group of the Lotus 7 Club, I took the car around 3 laps of Goodwood's historic motor racing circuit.

The car had its first service (1000 miles) a few days earlier, so I could finally get all the power possible out of the engine, revving it up to the full 8000 rpm. Caterham said the original engine and diff oil came out clean as new, which is good to know.

Here's the video of the laps

First impressions... and first upgrades!

The car is fantastic fun, and it's hard not to grin the whole time you're driving it.
I'm doing my best to stay under 4000 rpm before the first service (1000mi) but 4000 is just where the turbo starts to take off, so it's very hard to keep doing what feels like a short-shift.
As many have observed, the gap between 3rd and 4th gear is too wide, but once I'm able to open up the engine, I'm hoping I'll notice this less.
The ride is firm but comfortable, and the driving position is wonderfully comfortable too in the leather seats.

The seat bolts protrude under the car, and I have caught them on speed bumps more than once. No damage done, and they will come off when I get the Dremel out in the next couple of days.

My two immediate additions/upgrades are for practically and safety:

1. 12v & USB supply

I wanted a 12v cig lighter socket to attach to my Optimate charger. And I want a USB socket or two to charge phones/GoPro etc while driving.

Hidden away under the scuttle (behind the dashboard) is a 2-way multi T-connector, connected to the fusebox and 'always on' - the connector is powered whether the key is in the ignition or not. They are easy to find on eBay:

So I bought one of these from Ultimate Addons on Amazon for about £18. 

"Motorcycle 5V 2 Amp Power Supply 2 USB Dual Ports & Cigarette Socket Handlebar Mount"

There is an inline fuse already there, but as I'm connecting via the car's fusebox, I cut this off, and then made up the other half of the 2-way T-connector. Polarity is black/earth on the horizontal bit of the T, and red/live on the vertical bit of the T.

The most convenient place I could find to mount the socket was inside the strange-shaped fuse box guard. This piece of metal has plenty of room above, in front of the fusebox, and the RHS is open. I fitted the socket using its provided sticky clip-on base (we'll see if that stands the test of time - if not, I'll bolt it on - so for convenience the socket can be unclipped if I need to remove it or the fuse cover.

2. High level brake light

Caterham brake lights are very close to the ground. And when you're driving the car, you can feel that most drivers are way up in the air. Plus Caterham brake lights aren't very bright either... So it makes sense to fit a third brake light under the roll-over bar. Still not very high, but if you make it bright enough, people will get the idea and hopefully not roll into the back of the car.

I bought the sub-loom designed for the job from Caterham - only £9. And the light itself was another cheap Amazon special: 

"Ring Automotive RL097 28-LED High Level Brake Light"

The subloom connects very easily, with easy access from under the RH rear corner of the car (no need to lift the boot floor etc). Simply unclip the multiconnector which connects the rear light cluster, and put the loom 'in between'. The two wires to the 3rd brake light then snake up through the fuel filler cover, and I taped them (with black insulating tape) under the rear rollover bar support up to the top bar.

The light itself is secured with two cable ties, covered in black insulating tape, but in time I might make this a bit more permanent. In fact, I am thinking of changing the rollover bar to a FIA one, so I don't want to drill holes or put rivnuts in it if I'm going to try and sell it on...

All in all, these jobs took not much more than an hour, and are well worth it. The difference in brake light brightness is huge, and adding the power supply in the car just makes things a bit easier too.

Final photos before the car goes off for its PBC and IVA

I've waited a few weeks for a PBC slot at Caterham in Crawley. And I still haven't received a date from DVSA (was VOSA, was DLVA etc) about the IVA check required before the car is legally roadworthy.

So in the meantime, there's been a bit of polishing going on, thanks to Autoglym.

IVA documentation says the '7' should be behind the griller.
But on mine, it is impossible to separate it without ruining the paintwork.
It's painted in, not just clipped in

Small stickers added to the anonymous switches.
Possible IVA requirement - nobody seems to know

I know... the headlights look wonky. Final adjustment will be done pre-PBC!

IVA update:

The car failed on two things:

1. the windscreen washer fused. Apparently the inspector was trying to turn everything on and off in rapid succession, and finally got something to fuse. Caterham are fixing this...

2. the brake balance between front L & R brakes was not acceptable. This isn't something that's adjustable, as a builder, so the factory are going to have to figure this out themselves too

Next IVA date: 3 August. Three months after the end of the build.

Final update:
The car passed its IVA, DVLA took about 3 weeks to turn around the V5, and now the car is finally on the road.
It is huge fun to drive, and is well worth all the admin hassle over the past months!

The hood and doors

Getting the hood on is a stretch, literally. I am going to leave it in place like this for a few days in the hope that the vinyl will relax a bit.

The front-most poppers seem to take the most strain. I've assisted them with some gentle hand-cramps
(Heath Robinson hood hanger seen in the background)

The next job is to fit the remaining two fasteners on each side of the hood. This is pretty easy, and the positions are already marked faintly on the hood itself.

The doors are easy enough, but do take some care. When they say the metal frame inside the doors is hard, they mean it. I broke two drill bits getting through it.

But the doors fit beautifully once they're in place, and all the flaps seal each other up nicely. 

Torquing up

The plan was to torque everything up at the end, as suggested in the Assembly Guide.

But I'm going to go back and edit my blog to point out where this approach doesn't really work.

For example, it's difficult to retighten the rear upper radius arms, as they are completely blanked off by the seats (in any position). The rear damper tops are hidden by my neat carpeting (though you can poke around behind this with an Allen key wrench). Also, the front top dampers are pretty much inaccessible at any time to any tool I can use to achieve a measured torque.

Rather than list them all here - that defeats the purpose! - I will try and point these out along the way elsewhere in the blog.

Day 28: rear lights, boot carpet

The rear lights are pretty simple to sort out. The main issue is cosmetic - getting the lights nicely horizontal and lined up.

Trying to get everything nicely lined up. It ended up better than this, believe me!

 Apart from a blown brake light, everything worked fine when the connectors were clicked together on each side.

Boot carpets next. The contact adhesive can be messy here, so I used plenty of masking tape.

To get the carpet in place on the RH rear corner, around the fuel filler, I needed to remove the aero filler while the carpet was squeezed into place. Otherwise, it was all a fairly simple job, but as usual I plodded and tried to get everything neat and tidy. When all boot carpets are in place, it does look very cosy and smart!

Day 27: rear wings, wing protectors

The engine is starting perfectly every time, but I'm still puzzled by how to get rid of the airlock in the radiator.
Symptoms: top RH (water in) is very hot. Bottom LH (water out) is cold. Bit by bit, I'm filling up the radiator via the top RH plug, and it seems to be taking more water this way, rather than via the normal filler tank at the back of the engine.

Rear wings 1: fitting wing protectors
These are so visible on the finished car that I wanted to get them as good as possible. There's nothing complicated about the job, it's just one of those perfectionist things.

I taped on the rubber piping around the stainless wing protectors, and decided to leave it in place. No real reason to remove it.

Reverse side of stainless wing protector. Rubber piping taped in place

You need to pre-bend the wing protector a little, so that it doesn't warp the wing itself, which is fairly filmsy GRP. I did this first around the car's tyre, but it needed a little more, so I used my leg!

Prebent stainless wing protector

The hardest thing is holding the wing itself, without damaging it. I set up a simple jig on my bench:

The large blue G-cramps hold a straight piece of scrap wood to the bench. The wing is then gently clamped to this using two black plastic quick-grip cramps. The straight edge helps you line up the wing protector snugly against the inside edge of the wing, too. Then, small hand-clamps are helpful to pull the protector down over the wing for riveting.

The riveting was fairly straightforward.

Next, I coated the insides of the wings with liquid rubber, as I did with the front wings.

Smelly, messy, but very effective once it's dry. It feels like a rubber sheet bonded to the inside!

Attaching the wings to the car is fairly straightforward. I recommend cutting the plastic strip before you fit the wing to the car (not the other way around, as the Assembly Guide recommends). That way, you're not messing around with sharps next to the paintwork and can just slide the strip in between the car and the wing.

The film comes off revealing nice stainless steel

Stainless polish is ordered... That exhaust guard should polish up nicely

Day 26: engine start!

The radiator plug arrived in the post today, so there was no excuse not to the start the engine!
I put in 20 l of fuel, and when turning they key, the bubbling and cavitation noises in the tank eventually settled down.
The immobiliser needed to be reset by disconnecting the battery for a few seconds. And it's still a bit hit-and-miss - I wipe the immobiliser fob around the wires surrounding the key barrel for a couple of seconds, and you get the satisfying 'click' and the dashboard red light goes out.

It started... first time! The engine note is surprisingly deep, considering the tiny engine.

There was enough oil already in the engine (which was a nice surprise), so I left it to warm up. Worryingly, the radiator didn't get hot at all, except for the top RH corner (where the inlet pipe is). I need to check if this is OK. There was plenty of heat in the heater, and the engine temperature gauge rose slowly to about 80deg. But somehow the main radiator remained cold.

A real sense of achievement today. Just a few jobs to go, and then off to Caterham for the Post Build Check. I have my IVA paperwork through from VOSA (only took a couple of weeks), so I am all set for the big IVA test.

Day 25: oils and brake bleeding

I intended to start the engine for the first time today. But... shortages got in the way. The bottom LH corner of the radiator is missing a drain plug. I hadn't even noticed it when I put it on the car, it's not mentioned in the Assembly Guide, and Derek at Caterham was surprised it wasn't there, as they usually just arrive in place.

Oh well. So, nevertheless, I filled the gear oil with about 1.3l, and the differential with about 1.5l. The gear oil is easily reached, although the drain hole is very hard to access.

Like many other builders, I made my own tool from a piece of 3/8" steel, gripped by an old 3/8" spanner.

Dremelling off a section of 3/8" square bar from an unwanted socket set 3/8"-1/2" convertor

Gearbox overflow tool. Narrow enough to get between the tunnel wall and the gearbox

The diff oil is best attacked from above, removing the wooden and honeycomb floors. However, now that the rollover bar is in place, I can't remove the honeycomb floor section, so just propped it up (covered in masking tape, as it is very sharp and easily could damage the paintwork).

Filling the diff oil

Brakes
Then onto bleeding the brakes. I went for the traditional 2-person method, rather than use my Eazibleed. No real reason, other than I wanted to work on it with one of my kids, who sat in the cockpit for ages pumping the brake pedal.

Couple of things worth mentioning:
- it takes a long time
- there are two bleed nipples on each front upright. I only remembered this when I removed the front wheels to see why things were not improving. I bled both
- as the bleeding process goes on, the handbrake starts to be able to move, having been jammed on in the lowest position earlier

I think the brakes are due another round of bleeding before I'm happy with them.

So now, I'm just waiting for:
- stainless rear wing protectors (wrong size delivered)
- radiator drain plug

Day 24: seats

LATER EDIT: once you've put the seats in, you won't be able to retighten or torque up the upper radius arm, as the seats cover the inner end of the bolt completely!

I have the standard leather seats, which do look very smooth and comfortable. My kids have been using them as armchairs in their bedrooms since they arrive a month ago!

Ah... the smell of leather

The seats are fairly easy to fit. But things would have been much easier if I'd realised that the seat bottoms (the bit you put your arse on) come out.

Seat bottom removed, which reveals the runners, fixings and makes things much easier

Fixing the four bolts through the seat and out of the floor means getting your allen key into some awkward angles. OR... just lift the seat bottom out!

To try and make the floor a bit more watertight, I put a bead of clear silicone around each washer before fitting. As they tightened up, they ooze silicone out and also up the thread.
Edit: I've read elsewhere that making the floor watertight can cause problems when it rains. If the water can't drain out, then I can see what they mean. But I'll keep it as it is until it becomes a problem - easily fixed!

Seat washers, with bead of silicone sealant

Once it's all done, it looks fantastic!

Nice array of leather, vinyl and stainless steel (some covered on the steering wheel by tape)

Sorted. The yellow stickers were an addition by my younger son. Not sure if they are keepers...

Fitting the Moto-lita steering wheel is pretty easy. I had to move the upper steering column upward a little - which I should have done when I put it in. RTFM.

Next: fluids in, engine start!

Day 23: boot cover, harnesses

Fitting the boot cover is the kind of job that it pays to take slowly. Following the manual isn't difficult, but the order of things seems to be important.

I am fitting 4-point harnesses, so the following jobs needed to be done first:
- carpets in the cockpit
- boot cover, which also means fitting the hood sticks first (if you're going to fit the hood)

The need to fit the boot cover with hood sticks in place means that if you remove them, you run the chance of the cover looking baggy. But I wanted to keep the option.

Measuring up is the key here. I measured about 10x and cut once! Buy lots of masking tape before you start...

From L-R: fixing bolt, popper, bolt, popper x 2, bolt, popper, bolt!

The bolt positions are fixed by the chassis, but the poppers are up to you - the Assembly Guide tells you where to fit them.

Popper base fitted with self tapper, after a pilot hole is drilled in the chassis rail

The popper bases are easily fixed with self tappers. Once you've fixed all this through the vinyl strip already in place (see carpet fixing), then you're ready to fit the boot cover.

Fitting the hood sticks is easy, but they are sharp little buggers, so be careful of your paintwork.

Popper bases on, and harness fitting bolts in upside to mark exactly where they are

I also fitted the bolts the wrong way up (coming up from underneath), so their position is really easy to detect through the vinyl, once you've laid the cover over for measuring up.

Instead of the Durable Dot tool (eventually) supplied by Caterham, I borrowed a tool from a friend who's just finished rebuilding a Healey. It gives much more control - you squeeze instead of hammer!

Fitting poppers into the vinyl boot hood, with a borrowed tool

They squeeze together nicely

Once I'd done with the poppers, I fitted the boot cover, and then located the holes for the bolts to pass through (easily done as the bolts were pointing up through the chassis rail). I used a leather punch to make neat 12mm holes.

If you then remove the hoodsticks, it does look baggy and a bit unimpressive, compared to the nice taught, flat hood you've just created. So the hoodsticks will stay, possibly with some neoprene tape to prevent them grinding away at each other, and the paintwork.

Fitting the harnesses themselves should be a really easy job. They just bolt in place. But, when tightening up the bolts on the shoulder straps - the ones that go through the boot cover - I found they grabbed the boot cover and put an irritating twist in it. It pays to hold the vinyl firmly while someone else torques the bolts up. I even used a pair of pliers, to prevent it twisting under the fitting.

Happy helpers

Harnesses in place. It looks very nice, I have to say!

Next job, seats. After that, fluids in the engine, and press the starter button...

Day 22: interior trim and tunnel top

This is a very satisfying job. The carpets feel great to the touch, and with a few careful sprays of Ever Build Stick 2, the rear bulkhead and tunnel sidewall carpets were easily fitted.
It's quite easy to overspray and make a mess, which isn't easy to clean up, but plenty of masking tape and the yards of bubble wrap lying around are useful! If you do find you've oversprayed, WF40 gently rubbed from a paper towel seems to remove it quite well. But be careful of the WD40 overspray too!

Rear bulkhead carpets

Slightly odd photo, but it's the top of the tunnel

The tunnel top, which feels beautiful by the way, is a bit of a pig to get in. The Assembly Guide tells you to get the handbrake vertical, but that's impossible, without unbolting it. Instead, I removed the heater baffle, which gives you just enough room. I did the following:
1. remove internal heater baffle/plate
2. slide tunnel cover over handbrake in its highest position, at a slight diagonal to where it should end up
3. manipulate the forward end of the tunnel around the wiring loom as it enters the large grommet on the tunnel
4. carefully prise open the tunnel cover where needed to let it slide down the carpets on each side of the tunnel

Day 21: rear brakes, handbrake, speed sensors

The kit arrived a month ago. I thought it would take me two months to build, but I'm very much at the end of the build now. Despite days wasted due to shortages, things have progressed nicely.

Today was finishing connecting up the rear brakes, handbrake cables and starting on the interior.

The rear brakes are supplied with hydraulic fluid via a brake pipe through the tunnel. Then pressure is delivered via a flexible pipe into the RH rear brake, and connected to the LH brake via another rigid brake pipe, mounted on the live axle.

The rigid brake pipe will need a bit of manipulating. But working along, clipping it into place, it just needed finger-bending and settled into place easily.

LH rear brake. Brake pipe visible going off to the RH rear brake. Speed sensor visible on left of photo

Rigid brake pipe fixed to live axle using small plastic clips

The speed sensors are easily fitted, and a few more cable ties keep them neat (I must have used nearly 100 over the car by now...). 

RH rear wheel from behind. From the bottom, you can see the flexible brake pipe, the rigid brake pipe and the speed sensor 

The two handbrake cables are connected easily into the brake drums, and are then taken into the tunnel, crossing over on the way. It all feels very logical and clear. 

Axle from RHS, with handbrake cable visible lying just clear above the axle

Back of the tunnel, from above. The handbrake cables connect to the T-fitting on the back of the handbrake bracket

 Lastly, most of the above pic was covered up by the tunnel plate, rivetted on. 

Day 20: rear suspension

With the arrival of the bush spacers (spacer bushes?) for the radius arms, this job could be completed.

LATER EDIT: I recommend tightening up the upper radius arm right away, as once you've put the seats in, you can't reach the inside end of the bolt any more.

It's all very straightforward, and by magic the differential/prop shaft rise into the right position (just a few mm away from the chassis strut beneath them, but far enough. As usual, everything was smeared in Coppa Slip.

RHS rear axle, with radius arms in place

LHS rear axle, prior to fitting half shafts

Poor pic, but this is the LH end of the panhard rod, viewed from under LH rear

Fitting the axle oil seal requires a special tool, or something found in the garage that will do, to ensure it is driven in evenly, into its proper place. After a long hunt around, I found the least likely tool for the job - the finial off an old garden parasol! Made from some kind of cheap plastic, it was nevertheless exactly the right diameter, and even had a convenient boss on top to whack with the mallet.

Garden parasol finial (next to axle oil seal). A garage essential

Once in place, the half shafts fitted in nicely on each side, and were bolted and torqued up. 

LHS rear brake in place

Next job , rear brake connections

Day 19: finishing off front wings

Now the Bighead fixings are set, and the rubber paint is dried inside the cycle wings, it was time to fix them to the car.

First, setting the indicator repeaters in place was straightforward. Drilling fibre glass neatly is not easy, and I'm glad the holes are hidden behind the repeaters... The hardest bit is getting the heat shrinkwrapped (necessary for IVA apparently) green wire through the cycle wing support and out of the tiny hole at the bottom. Rubber lubricant, and lots and lots of push and pull, and worming it out with a bent paperclip!

Then, thanks to the Bigheads, it was just a case of cable tying the wings on. I'm pleased with this method - they can be removed and replaced without any grief at all.

The short black earth wire was tucked into the cable ties, then riveted to the support.

UPDATE: At the end of the build, getting ready for IVA, I put a small grommet in the holes where the repeater wire (heatshrinked) enters and leaves the wingstay. This isn't in the Assembly Guide, but you should do it to.  

I used plenty of heatshrink to tidy and protect the repeater wires

Doubled up cable ties ready for fixing to cycle wing stays

Under LHS cycle wing, with cable ties in place, and black earth wire nipped up and then riveted

Job done!