Sunday 17 January 2016

Carbon Interior Install - Day One - Prep

Before I finalised my R500 order, I was offered a test drive of the 620R at Donnington Park by Doug Parker, the sales rep I was dealing with throughout my purchase.  Laying eyes on the 620R in the metal for the first time, a couple of things caught my eye.  One being the beautiful carbon seats, and also the carbon interior panels.

Those of you who have followed the build will know the story about and the lengths I had to go to get the 620R seats, but after a 'fair battle' I got them... Which I'm very glad to have pushed so hard for as they are very comfortable and look, how can I say?  Well, they look the nuts!  

I'm at a stage with the R500 where I'm really trying to shave weight off it, without removing anything unwanted that may take away from the overall look - I guess you could say I'm aiming to keep the form before the function.

Anyway, having had to humiliate myself for the last couple of years in an R500D without carbon interior panels, I discussed this with Simon Lambert and asked 'nicely' if I could purchase the interior panels and fit them myself.  He asked some questions, and very kindly said I could be one of the first (if not the first) customer to purchase the interior panel set, as this is something Caterham will be offering as an upgrade on their parts site - cost is £900, mind you.

I think the 'standard' cars these panels appear in are the 620R and now the soon to be delivered, Superlight Twenty kits... So in a nod to potential customers, and owners alike here is my diary about stripping out the interior panels and fitting these beauties:-
Caterham carbon interior panels, first picture after unpacking
Caterham carbon interior panels, first picture after unpacking
So on with the show - he comes the 'juicy' stuff...

Carbon Interior Install - Day One - Prep
Starting at the rear of the car I removed the upper four point harness sections and the newly fitted boot cover.
Upper harnesses and boot cover removed
Upper harnesses and boot cover removed
With interior space a premium in the Seven, and getting out of one when half way in the footwell being a touch 'tricky' I decided it best to remove the exhaust, to avoid accidentally stepping on it whilst climbing out, and to give a little better access.
Exhaust and Cat removed
Exhaust and Cat removed
Next out of the car was the seats - real easy to remove.  From the underside of the car there should be four bolts for the drivers side (if you have moving runners) and four cap heads for the passenger side (with fixed runners). The seats just lift out with a bit of a wiggle, keeping note to ensure the lap straps of the four point harness are being eased though at the same time.  With the seats out, the next part to remove was the lap straps from both sides.
Both seats and lap straps removed
Both seats and lap straps removed
The next obvious part to remove / loosen was the tunnel cover.  Starting off with removing the gear-knob which is nice and easy, just undo the grub screw and turn the gear-knob anti-clockwise and off it comes.
Removing the gear-knob is very easy
Removing the gear-knob is very easy
As I've got a heater in my car, the heater vents restrict the movement of the tunnel cover.  There are two bolts either side, welded to a strip of metal holding the heater vents in place, so this needs to be removed.
Heater vents partly secure tunnel cover in place
Heater vents partly secure tunnel cover in place
To remove the heater vents, you need to loosen these two nuts either side of the heater unit under the bonnet, then push the bolts through and the metal strip with the bolts attached will be loosened on the inside of the vehicle making it easy to remove.
Removing these two nuts (both sides of the heater) will allow you to remove the heater vent panel
Removing these two nuts (both sides of the heater) will allow you to remove the heater vent panel
Having not full adhered the bottom of the carpet behind the drivers seat, seemed to be a bit of useful 'foresight' as this fuel filter? needed loosening - which was dead easy, but you needed to remove the offside rear wheel to get decent access, however it was just a couple of bolts and washers and it was free.
Fuel filter needed loosening off it's mount
Fuel filter needed loosening off it's mount
Now time to remove the carpeted section.  With a bit of gentle pulling, it came free surprisingly easy from the rear bulkhead.
Removing carpet from rear bulkhead was straight forward
Removing carpet from rear bulkhead was straight forward
With the carpet removed you can see where adhesive was and wasn't sprayed! 
Carpet removed from rear bulkhead shows where adhesive was used
Carpet removed from rear bulkhead shows where adhesive was used
With all the prep work done, it's time to get onto the panel removal.  It appears that the panels with the rounded section are like a keystone holding the sides and the rear bulkhead together, so it made sense to remove these first.

I used a 4mm (metal) drill bit and got to work with the drilling.  Some time later and about thirty five rivets removed, the panel is free - and I was left wondering holy fcuk what have I got myself into here?!?
Rivets drilled out of first panel and removed
Rivets drilled out of first panel and removed
 Now onto the 2nd curved panel, probably an hour, and some more swearing later - it was also free.
Rivets drilled out of second curved panel and also removed
Rivets drilled out of second curved panel and also removed
Having burnt through a couple of drill bits, drilled out probably seventy rivets and removed the two easiest panels I was pretty tired and decided to call it a day.  At the end of the first day, the garage looked like this!
The garage at the end of day one!
The garage at the end of day one!
So with the garage looking like a bomb had gone off, and much less progress made then anticipated - there was only one thing for it!  Yup, close the garage, get drunk and whinge about a project you are beginning to think will beat you.

4 comments:

  1. Boot carpet!?
    If you're on a weight saving mission, that's got to go. There should be no carpet anywhere when you're finished. ;)

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    Replies
    1. The boot carpet is partially going, as there were carpet panels stuck to the rear of the bulkhead, but as the carbon bulkhead is carbon it'll look 'dark' in the boot, so no need to refit those. The tunnel carpets will go back on too (have removed them during this refit) as they are good for stopping you burning your leg on the tunnel in the summer.

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    2. I can understand the tunnel carpet. Mine has none, and it can get warm, that's for sure.

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  2. This is excellent Daniel - I'm doing a major rebuild of my car next year and these interior panels are on the shopping list for sure!

    I'm sure you already know but if you use a pin punch to knock the centre out the rivet before drilling it makes life a great deal easier, on you and the drill bits!

    ReplyDelete

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