Thursday 13 March 2014

Build Day Eighteen - 96 Rivets, Pizza and Problems

Tonight was the night to fit the carbon stone chip guards, carbon rear wings and rear lights.  I was really looking forward to this as I know there'd be a dramatic change to the look of the car once the rear wings were on.

Lee came over to lend a hand - I had everything prepared last night so it was straight to work.  We did a trial run of fitting the carbon stone chip guards and we realised they were both the same size, which on initial inspection you'd think would be right, but as the rear wings have a different leading edge it'd mean (had we fitted them) the stone chip guards would finish at different heights.  After looking on the net there are some different versions of these stone chip guards, so it appears I've been sent the wrong ones - will double check this with Derek at CC tomorrow.
Symmetrical Carbon Stone Chip Guards.
Symmetrical Carbon Stone Chip Guards.
Just took a quick look on the Caterham parts site, and I'm now certain I've got the wrong ones - VERY glad we didn't go ahead and fit these, as it'd be an expensive error to make.
The correct Carbon Stone Chip Guards for the R500.
The correct Carbon Stone Chip Guards for the R500.
So we had to change the plan for the evening... Onto the radiator and cooling.  We got the radiator, cowling and fan out, located the radiator mounts and then started the aimless task of finding the bolts to bolt it all together.  Aimless wasn't the word, looked through all the bags countless times to try to find the bolts and the only parts bag that resembled anything remotely correct was labelled as the R400 cooling parts bag - then it twigged, the R500 is factory build only (I had to practically beg to have it supplied in kit form) and I assume the guys at the factory thought the R400 bag would suffice.  Needless to say we gave up on that.

R500 radiator, rear cowling, fan and mounts - but where are the fixings?
R500 radiator, rear cowling, fan and mounts - but where are the fixings?
An energy boosting Domino's to gather our thoughts.
An energy boosting Domino's to gather our thoughts.
After we'd chowed down on about 2 million calories of pizza and chicken (which was the only thing we'd actually achieved in two hours) - I decided the only other job we could finish tonight was to get cracking on the carbon sill protectors and riveting up the interior panels.

So on with the knee trim panels, and then the rubber piping.  Some have mentioned it was quite tough to get the knee trim panels in place, I'd say more of a fiddle than tough, but both did require a little force.  We found that the drivers side was a little more difficult than the passenger side, but by removing the multi-pin plug the panel slotted into place quite quickly.  All of the holes needed re-drilling though - how the pre-drilled holes are that far out beats me.
Drivers side knee trim panel in place - note multi pin plug we removed and replaced to make the task of putting the knee trim panel in much easier.
Drivers side knee trim panel in place - note multi pin plug we removed and replaced to make the task of putting the knee trim panel in much easier.
Passenger side knee trim panel in place along with rubber piping.  You'll see the blue bullet connectors I fitted to make removal of the heated windscreen as rapid and easy as possible.
Passenger side knee trim panel in place along with rubber piping.  You'll see the blue bullet connectors I fitted to make removal of the heated windscreen as rapid and easy as possible.
So Lee held the piping and panels in place whilst Ibdrilled through the rivet holes, rubber piping and sill protectors.  We then fitted all the rivets, ready for a Bicep busting 96 rivet workout.
96 Rivets ready for riveting.
96 Rivets ready for riveting.
Did I say bicep busting..?  No chance - I'd rather spend some cash on a tool to make my job as easy as possible.  I don't have a compressor so done a bit of research when I was on holiday and found that you can buy an automatic rivet tool that fits into any power drill... Superb!  Here is a video of a very similar tool to the one I purchased - made riveting 96 rivets a sinch, no arm pump and all done in  under 20 minutes.


The drill rivet attachment in action (you have to hold the blue chuck to make it work, but that hand was taking the pic)
96 rivets done - in under 20 minutes and no arm pump! Awesome.
After that lot I had a quick tidy up, and decided to sort out what I can do over the next few days.  I think I'm going to fit the carpets and the harnesses tomorrow (Friday) evening. I really hope that Derek at CC can get me the radiator fixings and correct carbon stone chip guards for delivery on Saturday as I've really got to get the rear wings on before Monday as the decal guys are due to fit the decals and the stone chip film, and they said it'd be much better for them if the rear wings were on.

So as I finish writing todays blog post I'm left thinking I may have cut myself short time wise... The car is being picked up by CC on the 24th March (a week on monday) and I'm left with some complicated pipework to work out and fit, fill and bleed the brakes and clutch, fill the gearbox and engine with oil, fit the exhaust, seats (if they arrive), steering column plus the front cycle wings and indicators.  All in six evenings and two weekends.

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