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The Caterham Build


patently
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Is there any market in building these for other people? I doubt it :(

Not allowed, sadly. The application for the IVA test needs to declare that it is a private amateur build. They check, too - Caterham advise you to take plenty of photos of you doing the build personally.

MrMe - Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha...... as if!

I spoke too soon about bolts - one on the NSF suspension has been a bit of a pain. You have to squeeze pairs of washers covered in coppaslip into the fixings either side of the suspension arm. Difficult, especially when the gap seems to be about 1mm too short! Got there in the end though :grin:

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ARB is now done. The minor injury was while fitting it, which requires you to push it into sockets at either end. The first end goes in fine, as you can wave the bar around as much as you like. The other end is harder, as the ARB is fixed at the first end. So you wiggle it about to get it to pop into place, then you wiggle a bit harder, then you push, then you wiggle again and slice the side of your finger on the edge of the aluminium bodywork. Then you pop back inside to stop the blood and wash the muck off your hand so that you can replace it with Savlon!

After that I used the soft hammer to persuade it home, instead of the even softer fingers. James May may have dismissed it as "the tool of a pikey" but it worked for me.

Then popped the brake callipers on, easy once I'd found all four and waved them around to see which two obviously fitted and which two obviously didn't. I'm guessing the latter two are for the rear...

Finally, I started thinking about the brake lines, and realised I'd already used up the washers that should be for the brake lines. Bugger. The washer I need is in plain sight, but firmly seated behind a bolt. Naturally, the bolt in question is the one that was an utter bitch to get on.

Tried undoing it, except that its the upper shock bolt that is now supporting the weight of the suspension. Took the weight off the suspension with a jack, which helped, but there was no way it was coming off easily. You see, clearance is slightly "restricted" (Caterham's phrase) for this bolt. I think this is a technical term, meaning "non-existent". The manual advises that you gently bend the body panel to allow access; this would be fine, save for the minor fact that you'd need to bend it about an inch away in order to get a ratchet spanner in there, and the maximum the panel is willing to bend is about 0.01mm.

So I'm going to have a bath and pick up some more washers in the morning. :grin:

Total time today 6 hours, including an hour or so fussing around the boxes looking at all the nice shiny things in them.

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Thanks Busby.

Finished off the front brake callipers, pads, and hoses this morning. A little fun with the hoses, as Caterham supply the chassis fitted with the brake hoses ending at a union which you attach to the braided flexible hoses through a hole in the body. They bend them to fit, so that one lines up perfectly with the hole and the other needs to be half-straightened out and re-bent so that it ends somewhere in the vicinity of the hole. Or that's how mine came, anyhow.

That means the chapter called "Front suspension" is done! So I thought I'd best tidy up all the rubbish and put the tools into order before I lose them all. The "James May" filing process, in other words :grin:

Next chapter is called "Gearbox" and looks ominous...

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Patently. Just an idea before you get to far ahead. How about fixing a camera in a point overlooking the build, take a pic at the end of every day's work ? Make one of those 'time frame' slideshows at the end ? Get my drift ? +++

Great idea but 1 pic a day, that's what we've had so far on this thread and it isn't enough...

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Patently. Just an idea before you get to far ahead. How about fixing a camera in a point overlooking the build, take a pic at the end of every day's work ? Make one of those 'time frame' slideshows at the end ? Get my drift ? +++

Already happening. Plenty of work involved in organising the images, but it will happen. +++

Drinks - will post some more soon ;)

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WE WANT PICTURES!!!! :)+++

:grin:

Here we go. First, here is the upper shock mount, or (as I call it) bastard bolt:

post-6686-137914475136_thumb.jpg

Note the cunning placement of bodywork behind the head of the bolt so as to (a) prevent the bolt being fitted or removed and (b) prevent access with any tool other than an allen key. Turn 60 degrees at a time.... slowly but surely gets you there!

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The ARB then snaps into place in the suspension, and the bushes bolt onto the chassis:

post-6686-137914475144_thumb.jpg

Much wiggling is needed. Fortunately this yields some blood, which is an excellent lubricant.

post-6686-137914475148_thumb.jpg

(pic is the day after... it looked much worse at the time. Honest ;) )

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