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!

Days 17 & 18: interior panels, knee panels, sill protectors, and front wings

I wanted to complete the rear axle this weekend, but the lack of two small bush spacers prevented this. The radius arms that hold the live axle in place are mostly just fitted with M12 bolts, but the upper front arms need a 12mm OD/10mm ID spacer, and I didn't have one. So... the inevitable call to Derek.

So, two days spent working hard on the cockpit interior.

I bought stainless steel sill protectors, which are fitted between the unrivetted skins. Not a difficult job, but plenty of chances to scratch the lovely green paintwork. I just about got away with it.

RH sill protector fitted, with rubber trim in place

LH sill protector in place, seen from inside above

Once the sill protectors are in place, it was the knee trim panels. These are odd shaped, and seem pretty pointless to me, but they are required. They are also pigs to get into place without scratching anything, and removing skin from your fingers. There's a circular hole on each one, and on the driver's side this allows access to the Onboard Diagnostics (OBD) port, which I am going to experiment with at some point.

I taped on a guide for the holes, as once the knee trim panel is roughly in place, you've no idea where the holes sit

Then, it's a simple job of finishing off all the empty rivet holes, and including more rubber trim, which actually finishes things off nicely.

Endless riveting, but my beast of a riveter works well

Tried to get a neat finish where the panels, sill protector and rubber trim all meets

Cycle wings

I chose not to follow the Assembly Guide here, but instead to use bonded 'Bighead' stainless steel cable tiewrap fittings. I used Plexus Adhesive MA300 two-part adhesive, which does feel very solid.

Bighead fixings taped in place for fit. (The one at the top is just to show how they look)

Bonded, and feeling very solid

 Once these are bonded, they can be simply tie-wrapped to the cycle wing brackets. IVA trim all the way around, of course, but these was easily done).

Two extra things I did:
- painted the underside of each wing with rubber paint, to prevent stones causing crazing in the gelcoat
- taping neoprene tape to the cycle wing brackets, to make them more grippy

Sticky stuff, but once dry it feels convincing

Day 16: rear axle installation

Having bent my back trying to put the diff inside the rear axle, I was foreman mostly for this job, while my son did the heavy lifting.

The main thing to worry about is scratching things, dinging the axle into panels, and all the many sharp edges on the axle as you put it in place. My advice: cover everything you can with pipelag.

Rear axle from LHS

Once the axle casing is resting on the pipelagging covering the chassis members, then it can be swung up 90deg to the horizontal, and attached to the propshaft. Simple job, though torquing up takes a bit of a root around to find the right socket set extension.

Looking down through the cockpit onto the prop shaft (bottom) and diff/axle casing (top).

The panhard is fitted to the chassis next. Easily done. No clue when the other end should be fitted - apparently it's not mentioned in the Assembly Guide.

Next, the rear dampers are fitted. One major learning - there are two different sizes of bush for these. Both fit into the damper, but the internal diameter differs. Just check the bolt before you fit it in.

We found supporting the rear axle on axle stands was quite useful, and prevented damage to the chassis members

Gently tapping the top of the damper into place, before fixing with bolts

Rear right damper fitted. Without the car sitting on its wheels....

... the axle fittings are worryingly close to the chassis members (to which wiring is attached).
Chassis-end of panhard rod just visible on LHS of photo

Very much a 2-person job, but nothing complicated or confusing. Very satisfying hour or so's work!

The front wheels are now on, and sitting on ramps, to put a bit of stress and weight into the front suspension.

Front wishbones looking much more horizontal now!

Day 15: Handbrake and differential

Having pretty much completed the front of the car (save for the cycle wings and indicator repeaters), it's time to attack the back.

First job was to fit the handbrake. On the face of it, this is easy. But a couple of tips:
- the handbrake is much narrower than the gap between the two brackets. You need to nip up the nuts and bolts so that the gap is drawn together and the handbrake doesn't wobble
- the electrical connections both turn on and off with the switch. Tested with a multimeter
- I put some heatshrink around the lower connector, as it was very close to the chassis (and would have shorted)

Looking at the RHS of the main handbrake, you can see 1) the white connector for the handbrake warning light, below that 2) a bit of heatshrink around the other terminal then below that 3) the red earth connector

Handbrake assembly from above

Second job was to fit the differential into the rear axle casing. This is taken from the Suzuki Jimny, but the rear axle is then comprehensively tweaked, re-welded, etc etc. In doing so, various slots and rebates are cut, to allow the diff in.

Now, that's the theory. In practice, my diff didn't fit at all. There is only one way in: with the ring gear (the biggest gear wheel) dropping into the deeper part of the axle casing. But the rebates had not been cut too well, and it jammed.

So, after a big head-scratch, out came the Dremel, and two small areas were ground back by less than 1mm.

The rebate on the LHS shows where my attempts to fit the diff started to scrape the casing...

So I took the corner off with the Dremel...

On both sides..

Hey presto, the diff dropped in perfectly, and was easily torqued up. The breather feels insubstantial, but is easily fitted.

All fitted together, with gasket leaching out between the two (probably put a bit too much on)

Day 14: steering column

I should have sorted this out after the engine installation, and before the radiator, intercooler and general plumbing. It's not impossible at all, but getting spanners and torque wrenches into the right places is trickier.

It's a good idea to leave the steering rack quite loose, as it does need a bit of tweaking to make sure the column and universal joint (UJ) are nicely lined up.

From R-L: steering rack, universal joint and clamping bolts, steering column (econoseal cable connector visible, not joined up yet)

The steering column finds it way through the engine bay easily, through it will mean a bit more cable-tying to ensure there's nothing touching the column by the RH side of the engine.

The upper steering column fitted fine through the dashboard, but here's some things I found that helped:
- make sure that the upper and lower columns go together easily before you put anything onto the car. The inside of the upper column was rather rough, and needed a bit of cleaning
- I found that gently holding the top of the upper column with a pair of grips (with padded protection) worked. Holding the spanner and twisting back and forth with gentle pressure meant the upper column appeared through the lower bush and located onto the top of the lower steering column
- put your car keys in and turn to "II" position, to disengage the steering lock (before you snap it off!)

The upper bush (which fits into the dashboard) was a pig to get in. I sprayed a lot of rubber lubricant in, but it was very resistant to go in. In the end, it was more brute force than anything clever - but it's a fragile fitting, so be careful.

Finally all in place

The clamp is easy to fit. Yellow witness marks courtesy of Maybelline yellow nail varnish! (Because the car is worth it)

Day 13: more plumbing, intercooler, radiator, header tank

After a weekend off, I was itching to get back on the car this evening. Apart from the steering column, the front end of the car is now complete, which is a great feeling.

Header tank fitted, and connected up. Mysteriously, the Assembly Guide is very keen on inserting clips onto the degas hose (think de-gas, not Degas the artist), but doesn't actually instruct you to connect them up to the header tank itself.

I fitted the intercooler as instructed. But... my chassis is slightly proud in the middle of the cruciform weld. As a result, the middle of the intercooler does 'ground' onto this. To save any bent aluminium, I put another spacer washer underneath, to lift it another 1/8" or so.

All the main pipes to and from intercooler and radiator are very easily sorted, and very satisfying. Though without my set of hose clamp pliers, the job would be very tricky I'm sure.

Finally, a bit more cable tying and now the only thing to be connected up are the battery cables.

Everything connected, apart from battery terminals

I couldn't resist fitting the front wheels

Day 12: front brake hoses, header tank bracket, rollover bar, general plumbing & cable tidying

A really productive day today. Chris from the Dartford factory came over to fit the rivnuts for my header tank bracket, which had been left off in manufacturing. Although I thought I could do i I'm very glad he came over nevertheless.

Once the header tank support bracket was fitted, I could move on and complete the rest of the cooling system. BUT... I think Chris might have gone home with the tank bracket itself (the small golden coloured plate that fits onto the cross piece). Ah well... another email to Derek.

Chris generally looked over the car, and was extremely complimentary and helpful, giving me a lot of insider tips, which I shall try and put down here. He builds these cars for a living, after all.

1. Front brake hoses

The Assembly Guide is hopeless here. But here is how the Caterham mechanics do it:

 a) everything you need will be in the Goodrich brake bags, apart from the 3/4-3/8 flat washer from the front suspension pack. Nice feeling!

b) the brass washer must be seated evenly. If it's not properly seated, the brakes will leak

c) nicely seated, and tightened up with ring spanner

d) this is the order that the cable fits from inside out: locknut, spring washer, aluminium skin (where my thumb is), flat washer from suspension bag (on the outside of the aluminium skin), nut, fitting on the braided hose

e) fit the hose so that the natural curve goes out horizontally and then points towards the back of the car

f) hose tailing nicely towards the rear of the car

g) making sure that the hose is not twisting at the skin end, and holding in the middle of the hose between thumb and forefinger (not shown here) pick up the outboard end and turn towards the caliper

h) taking firm hold of the narrow locknut to stop the hose twisting any more, screw the hose into the caliper fitting. If you get this right, you get the curve perfect

j) this is how it should look. No chance of hitting the damper, or any other bits of the suspension

Lastly, the brake pipe is located onto the end of the fitting pushed through the skin, and everything is tightened up with the brass-coloured nut

I hope this is helpful to other builders.

2. Then, onto general plumbing:
- hoses between heater and engine
- hoses between engine and radiator
Without the header tank, I can't finish off, but there enough there to get everything neatly tidied up and clip what's necessary to the frame.

All electrics are tidied left and right, and under the ECU, apart from the main battery cables, which are still floating free 

3. Lastly, the rollover bar, which went on with no problems.

I like my mahogany-looking bit of plywood in the boot :-)