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 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 10: radiator

Work is getting in the way of fun, so a very short exercise today.

Fitting the radiator is very straightforward. Make sure the orientation is as in the Assembly Guide, so that the fan electric cable is on the bottom RH corner. You can make a nice job of cable tying the cables to the chassis members, across or under the steering rack.

One tip: the radiator core is extremely delicate. It comes wrapped in bubble wrap but keep it somewhere very safe - it's a boring job to pick away at each tiny aluminium filament to make it look straight again.

Radiator, from LH behind

The radiator is very delicate. Be VERY careful when you store it!

Day 1: arrival and checking over

The car arrived as planned, and Ian from Caterham was very helpful with tips. He also told me that there were no missing parts, except for the hub centre caps! This was welcome news, given the tales of shortages from other 160 builders recently.

The traditional 'car-on-the-lorry' shot

Once installed in the garage, there was no room to move for cardboard boxes, so we emptied almost all of them, and stored the cardboard for use as protection for the paintwork.
UPDATE: It's probably worth keeping the contents of each box together, even if you empty them. Sometimes the picking/packing process is a bit random, and it's helpful to know whether things were boxed together at the factory.

Once everything was checked off, there were some things I couldn't' find. But I'm going to check again, before I call Derek - my new best friend, apparently.

UPDATE: please store your radiator and intercooler in a safe place immediately. The core is incredibly delicate, and liable to little bends and blemishes, which look naff and take ages to unpick.

Looking in the boot space, there is a small plank of plywood which is attached using 3 small self-tappers. The bottom of this is staring straight at the road surface, and the top will get knocked about with luggage etc, so I've decided to protect it with a few coats of stain/varnish.

Raw plywood boot floor

First coat of mahogany stain protector

I've also taped up the outside surfaces of the car with cheap 2mm foam flooring underlay (B&Q), which is going to stop little scratches on my lovely green paint.

Advice to new builders: look through every single box when the kit arrives. There are lots of things in the 'wrong' box, there's a box of odds and ends, and a few unlabelled bags with random small parts in. I'm hoping this all starts to make sense when I start the build tomorrow...