Caterham Blog

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…

Another Sunday and today is a half day on the car. I was hoping to get the rear suspension all fitted and hopefully even get the wheels on! A-Frame Not much to this one. It’s a bit of a faff if you’re on your own though… the A-frame didn’t want to sit anywhere sensibly for…

After time for reflection over night and some blog reading… Handbrake Cable… Again Having seen a couple of pictures on other people’s blogs, it was clear that the handbrake cable adjustment screws should be located in the clip on the RHS of the diff. I’m not sure what I was thinking that it stay in…

Another one of those bitty weeks. Not much time to really get my teeth stuck into anything but got a couple of odd jobs done. Earth Leads First off was a go at the battery earth leads…. There are three leads that I needed to take a look at: Battery to engine Chassis to engine…

Ok, so this post is a bit of a cheat. I actually put the prop-shaft and differential into the car yesterday… but it seemed to make sense to lump all these activities together in a single post. Accelerator Pedal Before we get to that though, and just to get me going today, I decided to…

This is a post from the future and a rather technical one at that – so stop reading now if that’s a big turn off for you 🙂 Having got the engine running I thought it would be a useful addition to the blog to have a diagram of the engine water and oil plumbing.…

Now back from the US and the after effects of hurricane Irma… I have some more time to get on with the build. I’d left the project at the point where I really needed to get on with the engine bay plumbing and I’d laid all the hoses out in the engine bay prior to…