Caterham Blog

This is a catch up post. Things had been busy with work and family stuff so I only had a couple of short periods that I’ve bunched up into one build session. Sept 12th Roll Over Bar Whilst looking for something simple to do one evening I thought I’d have a go at the roll…

This post is a rollup of a few days tinkering. I’m sure many of you will be relieved that I’m not going to spam you with any more posts than I absolutely have to, and so I’ll combine a few together. Sept 5th – Bonnet Arrived (for a while) The bonnet (Americanese: hood) of the…

scuttleToday was a PTO day, for those of you that aren’t up with that vernacular, PTO is “Paid Time Off”, a holiday. When I first ordered the kit from Williams I had planned to take a whole week off when the kit arrived. Work commitments changed waiting for the kit to arrive so I have…

Before getting into today’s session lets have a bit of a recap on progress. Of the 90 tasks I have on the project plan, we have 36 tasks completed. And there are a few tasks on the plan that we’re not going to need to do thanks to Caterham doing them already, like weather gear…

Saturday morning and a chance to get a few hours in on the car. I’d not really had a chance to do anything since putting the engine in last Monday. I had managed to sneak into the garage late one night and fitted the gearstick and gear knob, but that’s more of a treat than…

Big day today, big post… we have a whole day (August Bank Holiday Monday) to drop the engine into the chassis. Will it fit? Will the hoist tip over? Will the leveller work? Will my trolleys work? Will my leveller extensions work, or even come loose and drop off? Will I be able to do…

Back from a couple of days visiting family and had a few hours to get some prep done prior to putting the engine into the car tomorrow (Bank Holiday Monday). Radiator Top “L”-Hose The manual calls for the top radiator hose to be fitted to the engine prior to it going into the car. I…

We were heading out on a family trip this weekend so I had just a couple of hours in the morning this morning to look at two jobs that I’d hoped to finish earlier in the week. But first, the Washer Bottle. I’d not been able to sleep last night and so was pottering around…

Where’s the washer bottle… Couldn’t sleep so thought I’d look at the washer bottle and get a sense of what needed to be done. The build manual talks about fitting the washer bottle in the engine bay. I’d seen the 420R at Williams a few weeks earlier with it mounted on the N/S top chassis…

Nick from Williams called today to say that the track rollover-bar, that I’d ordered, had arrived. So, in between meetings I popped over to the showroom to pick it up. While I was there I took the opportunity to look over a couple of Caterhams one of which had the bonnet removed. I was interested…

Derek had responded to my previous email about the ARB bush colour really quickly this morning and so I had a quick look at the next steps for the ARB. I wasn’t going to be able to do anything today but I at least wanted to familiarise myself with what should happen. I also resolved…

Having got to the front Anti Roll Bar (ARB) installation I went looking for the bushes that fit on the bar and inside the brackets. The manual says to use the bushes that are the same colour as the dot sticker that has been stuck onto the front anti roll bar. Two of the family…

A short session today, I managed to get a couple of hours in between, and then after, my evening meetings. Stool / Creeper Firstly: new toys. I’d read in a number of blogs that a number of builders had got on well with folding stool/creepers. After spending a lot of Sunday bent over the car…

The first task today was a simple one – a call to Nick the parts guy at Williams Automobiles. I’d decided, for better or worse, that I wanted to go with the track roll bar and not the standard one that I had ordered and had delivered with the car. Lindon at Williams had recommended…