Caterham Blog

It’s the final shove in the The Big Push – Day 5! We’re pretty much finished now. Everything is installed, attached or bolted down. With the exception of some wiring for the front repeaters it’s all about tidying things up and getting all the finishing touches done for the IVA test. So lets get on…

Day 4 of The Big Push – Phew! This is getting tiring! I’m glad I decided I needed to take some time off to get this knocked out. While I’m not getting as much time on the car as I hoped, I am making progress. All that’s going to change today… no distractions, no excuses! Front…

Day 3 of The Big Push – a Friday! I was hoping to get a lot done today but instead of a Big Push it turned into more of a Gentle Shove. Still… progress was made. Today I wanted to get going on the spacing theory I’d formulated for the Front Wings and Wing Stays.…

Day 2 of The Big Push!… and I’m also getting close to pushing the button on putting a date in the diary for the PBC (Post Build Check) back at Williams and then of course the government IVA (Individual Vehicle Test) test too. If I’m really, really lucky it will have passed both before Christmas.…

This is the final push… 5 days to work on getting the car finished… surely it won’t take THAT long! It’s Thanks Giving week this week, which means my US work colleagues will be taking at least this Thursday off work and probably a day or two either side of it too. Normally that’s a…

Another short day I’m afraid, just an hour today. LHS Indicators After all the “mucking about” yesterday with the LHS indicators not working I thought I’d give them another go this morning. I took the bulbs out from the  two indicator pods and was determined I’d go through the whole thing methodically. The first obvious…

A big gap in progress this time. I had a business trip to Florida and California along with prep for the trip and recovery/catchup when I got back which pretty much knocked out 3 weeks on the car. There’s still lots to do on the car I think, with lots of tidy-up but just a…

Having left the boot unfinished, after fitting the boot carpets, it was time to get and finish fitting the Washer Bottle and therefore the boot. Some Fuel .. but first some fuel. We had put enough fuel in the car to get it started, but it was going to need to be fully filled for…

This was one of those jobs I’d not been looking forward to. Definitely not a “bolt them on an forget them”. The rear wings were going to need some fettling… and expensive-to-replace fibre-glass fettling at that! The car arrives in its kit form without the rear wings attached. They’re a big part of the aesthetic…

Ok, so now I’m happy that the engine is running ok and the coolant system is doing its job for the moment. Now onto some more cosmetic stuff at the rear of the car. Boot Floor For such a well put-together kit that Caterham produce, the ply-wood boot floor jars a little. The cover for…

It was going to be “back to the coolant system again” today. I had left the car at the point where we’d started the engine but were worried about the coolant temperature getting well over 100C, something like 105C. We then chickened-out,  turned it off and decided to ask Derek. So I emailed Derek and…

After the euphoria and relief of getting the engine going yesterday we thought we’d have another look at what might be causing the coolant temperature to get so high. We only had an hour or so in the morning but couldn’t resist another look to see if we could find any obvious air-locks. Little did…

It’s not that I’ve been terribly worried about the prospect of starting the engine… but… I certainly didn’t want to have missed something stupid and to then screw up a very expensive lump of aluminium and steel. Today I also had another pair of hands and a tripling of brain power on the project… my…

After feeling quite pleased with my progress to date I’d got to the point of thinking about applying for an IVA test. From what I can tell the process goes like this: Fill out forms 1c and 4 Collect photos of build Get a copy of your invoice Submit two forms, photos and invoice through…

An odds and ends day… but a big one… something to sit on! Having got the passenger compartment carpets installed is seemed only right to have a go at getting more of the finer things in life installed… harnesses and seats… Whoa we can move the seats out from the lounge! Transmission Tunnel Top I…

Whoa boy… you’re getting ahead of yourself! At the end of the last post I said it was time to start thinking about starting the car. I “could”… but… I’m still unhappy about putting fluids in the car and I clearly hadn’t quadruple checked the quadruple checking I’d been doing!… I need oil and water in…