Lessons learned - read first

BEFORE YOU START:

Unpacking
I made the mistake of unpacking everything from boxes immediately, to make space in the garage. It's pretty hard to do a stock check on first arrival (and there are bound to be things missing here and there). Keeping things in their original boxes at least provides some kind of order.

You might have a bag of 'bits and pieces', which are the last picks from Caterham's bins, after the initial pick. There will be some useful things in here!

IVA bag
It may not arrive with your kit, but it is vital to save yourself some time. Don't be put off with the "we will fix this at the PBC", as it's a lot easier to put the IVA trim on before you make up the lights, or put in the front suspension parts. Also, it's satisfying to do it yourself!

Shortages
Unless Caterham improves its quality control, there will be shortages. You won't find them all right away (see above), but they'll crop up.
My advice: sort out what you need for the weekend's build on a Wednesday night, or latest Thursday, so that you can get anything missing sent to you. Everything I've ordered has arrived next day, but I wasted two weekends by discovering missing things on the Friday night...

Radiator: this is really delicate. The core is soft aluminium, and damages easily, even in bubble wrap. Take off the bubble wrap, have a look at it, then replace bubble wrap (or better) and store somewhere out of the way.

Follow the build order, not the pages of the Assembly Guide!
When you're on a bit of a roll, it's tempting to plough on through the Assembly Guide (AG).
BUT... sometimes you can tie yourself in knots this way. I recommend using the Build Order in the front of the AG.
For example, setting up the steering once you've put the radiators, intercooler and associated plumbing in is very fiddly!

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