Academy Car Build - Day Thirteen - Rear End and Interior

My last day before going back to.... gulp... work!  So the pressure was on to get as many of the fiddly/time consuming bits out of the way as possible.

First job was to fit the windscreen, and re-attach the heating connectors (which were removed prior to painting).

Windscreen fitted - looking more complete day by day

Yesterday I'd fitted the handbrake cable around the diff before installation, and today the handbrake was fitted, couple of notes:-

• Fit the handbrake connector to the top of the switch
• Use the three holes highlighted to install the handbrake, which will leave it at the lowest resting point

Caterham handbrake fixing points

Next up was the time consuming bit... Fitting the brake lines to the De-Dion tube, then filling the diff with about 900ml oil, putting the De-Dion tube in place then fitting the De-Dion ears, bearings, installing (and shimming) the A-Frame, and then the brakes... Only thing that stopped me finishing is the rear discs are missing, so Derek Howlett has sent a set to be with me tomorrow, which means I should be able to finish most of the rear end off tomorrow evening.

De-Dion, ears, bearing, a-frame, and most of the brakes fitted to the rear end

And finally, getting the IVA trim attached and riveting the interior.  The IVA knee panels were drilled, IVA piping put in place, and then with about 50 rivets and a handful of self tapping screws fitted, the interior is nearly ready for the belts, and seats!

About fifty rivets used for interior panels and IVA trim fixing

As mentioned above, tomorrow is back to 'work', so the next few days progress will be slower... However, I've booked the car for PBC (Post Build Check) with collection on the 12th December, so the car needs to be finished off by then.

I'm pleased with the progress now, as I was feeling a bit 'beaten' over the last couple of days, I was bordering on becoming a feral 'garage person'... The next parts are all things I'm familiar with, (aside from the final few wiring and plumbing bits), so tomorrow I'm hoping to get the rear brakes finished, boot cover fitted, harnesses attached, seats in and hopefully even the cage.

Academy Car Build - Day Twelve - Keeping Cool

Today was all about the cooling hoses, and trying to get the engine bay done (electrics etc)... Andy Morgan sent me this pic from the Facebook Academy group, that someone drew up a while back which is a very handy a pretty accurate schematic.

Cooling schematic for Sigma based Caterham Academy Car (2017)

I have to admit that even with the above schematic, AND plenty of calls to Derek Howlett I seemed to struggle with the hoses, on, off, measuring, cutting, then refitting, then finding the right jubilee clip - in actual fact I was pretty close to loosing my cool for most of the day!  After a fair few hours, bruised and cut knuckles, fingers later (my paper pusher hands are not cut out for engine work! :-)) The cooling hoses are pretty much done, but it seems like I've hardly made any progress.

Engine bay cooling and wiring pretty much complete

In the meantime, Dave (Daytona Coachworx) has made great progress on the wheels... Edges rubbed down, masked, sprayed and lacquered!

Wheel rims rubbed down, masked, sprayed and lacquered

Then a damask and polish and that's one set finished off - in Skoda Glitter black (centres) with Sulfur Yellow Rim bands - they should look (even more) ace when on the car...

Caterham Apollo Wheels with Skoda Glitter black centres and Painted Sulfur Yellow Rim bands

Now it's time for a few well deserved 'beverages' this evening, and tomorrow will be a new day...  I'm going to try and really push on with the rear end, hoping to get the De-Dion in, A-Frame, rear shocks, brakes, and the rear wings on... And any other jobs if I get the time...

However... and facing reality, means I'm not going to get the car finished this week, and with plenty of  Xmas festivities lined up, finishing is going to be take much longer than anticipated which is a great shame.  Bah Humbug! 🎅

Academy Car Build - Day Eleven - A Twelve Hour Slog

A long, long day; twelve hours in fact and, probably another hour typing this post out... I'm beginning to feel the pressure of having to get back to 'work' on Thursday,  so today, Tuesday and Wednesday are going to be full-on days with a view to having the car finished by Wednesday evening...

A (not so quick) trip to the tip, ScrewFix, Halfrauds and Maplin out of the way and the first job was to fit the horns... I wanted to fit these after the engine, as I thought this would give a bit more room (when fitting the engine) and I think it helped. 

Horns fitted and wired up

I mentioned in yesterday's post that I wanted to get the front end finished off as much as possible, so next up was the anti-roll bar... Which was straight forward really...

Anti Roll Bar fitted

After the anti roll bar, next up was the radiator.  I couldn't work out if there was a top or bottom, and it seems identical top and bottom (I checked it numerous times, as the instructions do not mention a top or bottom), and then fitted the fan to the fan arms - the picture in the manual isn't that great, so thought I'd take this one for anyone who may need to visualise how this bit goes together.

Radiator and fan assembly from Caterham Academy Car

Bobbins are fitted to the front of the chassis, then the fan, then the radiator - and this was another part which was satisfying to fit as it looked like another big step was completed.  Afterwards I spent a good hour or so fiddling around with the plumbing to see what questions I need to ask Derek (Howlett) in the morning... I'd say I've around a third of the plumbing and electrics completed already, so hopefully will finish that off tomorrow.

Fan and radiator fitted

Sticking to my plan from yesterday and having as much done on the front end as I wanted to achieve, I wired up the reversing light on the gearbox - there have been a few questions (on the Academy Facebook group) about this and the other two connectors on the gearbox, and for the Academy car this is the right way to fit the wiring, and the other two (white) connectors are redundant.

Correct reversing light wiring on 2017 Caterham Academy Car - white connectors are not used

Now was as good a time as any to fit the gear stick.

Gear Stick Fitted

Next to go in was the handbrake cable - which I've partially fitted to the handbrake already.  And then the prop shaft went into the transmission tunnel.

Handbrake cable and propshaft in transmission tunnel

Now onto one part that I've been dreading - the diff!  It's a bit of a pain to get this in - best bet is to line all the holes up and use long screwdrivers to loosely hold the diff in position whilst you bolt and shim it (as per the build manual).

Trolley jack lifting the diff into place

Shimming the diff took hours - I just couldn't get it to line up...  Either horizontally or if I did that, then it was out vertically...  I was fed up and about to throw in the towel for the evening, but Charlotte called me in for some food and I took a breather for twenty minutes or so... The food done the trick and I went out and tackled the 'shimming'... At first the bottom needed two and one shim, but then after lining it up and re-measuring, it ended up being one shim each side.  The same for the top bolt too.

This diff cage eventually only needed one shim per corner (highlighted)

Now the diff was finally aligned, the three bolts were torqued up, and then the prop shaft was attached to the diff by four cap head bolts.  These need to be thread locked, and torqued to 40nm - best thing I found was to put the car in gear to stop the prop spinning.

With the prop and diff in, the last bit for the evening was to fit the drive shafts.

Drive shafts fitted

I don't get a feeling of immense progress today, but I'm pleased with what has been achieved as the time spent doing these more fiddly jobs means they are at least done and out of the way.  The number of boxes and parts bags laying around are getting more sparse, which means there's less to keep looking through and things should go a little quicker tomorrow and Wednesday.

Academy Car Build - Day Ten - The BIG BIT

Today was all about the big bit... And the Abu-Dhabi F1 of course...  With the f1 out of the way, work on the academy car got underway around 3pm, with Derek and Graham there to lend a hand...  Which was much appreciated too!  

Yesterday I trimmed and fitted the rear water hose (below).

Rear water hose trimmed to size and fitted

Derek and Ciaran came over yesterday to help get the engine in, but after scouring all the boxes quite a few times, it became apparent the engine earth lead wasn't there, so we decided to leave it until today...

I popped down to Halfrauds this morning, and bought an engine earth lead...  Instructions were triple checked, and then the engine was removed from the crate and the three of us, went about jostling it in (it can be fitted with one person I'm sure, but first time you do this, it's worth having at least one or two extra pairs of eyes and hands)...  There were a few things we found that really needed to be removed to make things easier... 

• Remove the throttle body
• Remove the engine mount struts 
• also remove the left hand pulley wheel (when looking from the front of the engine to rear)

1.6l Ford Sigma engine and gearbox going into Caterham Academy car

Worth advising too, is it's handy to use a jack on the underside of the gearbox to help lift it in... Some serious jostling, and a fair amount of time later (about three hours!) everything was in... The parts removed (above) were refitted, and then the gearbox was torqued up... The only reason I've not torqued the engine mounts, is I really need to get a 9mm? hex bit - will get that first thing tomorrow...  Anyway, today's 'job' is done 😁:-

Well happy that the engine and gearbox are in!

Not too sure what I'm going to do tomorrow right now, but it'll probably be the finishing off the front end (horns, brake lines, anti roll bar, radiator), and then perhaps work on the middle of the car moving back, so the handbrake, prop, diff and if I'm doing well for time I'll try and get the de-dion and rear suspension in...

P.S.  Anyone want to buy a 'hardly used' engine crane? 😉

Academy Car Build - Day Nine - Front Uprights

Met up with my dad this morning, then pressed on with fitting the front uprights (which took longer than anticipated) in the afternoon...

Front uprights fitted

All the bolts have been torqued as per the manual, and marked out with a yellow paint marker pen, courtesy of Lauren at Walters and Walters in Royston - thanks 😀

Yellow adding 751 Paint Marker Pen

Tomorrow I'll get the anti roll bar fitted, brake hoses and also the engine and gearbox in...

Academy Car Build - Day Eight - Yellow Friday

Instead of Black Friday, today (for me) was Yellow Friday!  Which started off nicely with the collection of a heap of yellow powder coated parts from G&L Coatings in Hitchin.  The powder coat is the same colour as the stripe on the car (RAL 1016 - Sulfur Yellow) and the parts look amazing.

RAL 1016 Sulfur Yellow Powder Coated Caterham Parts

On the R500, Caterham Midlands had signsuk.co.uk fit Hexis Paint Protection Film, right along the sides of the car to the leading edge of the bodywork and around the wishbone and suspension holes... I thought this would be a great way to protect the lovely paint job, so begged and pleaded with Andy to get Ed to come down (the next day) and fit the same film to the Academy car before I got started with the assembly.  Ed arrived around 11am and got to work...

Ed fitting Hexis Paint Protection film to the sides of the car

With the paint protection film applied, it was time to get the garage into an orderly fashion and crack on!

Work has begun - the garage was organised chaos!

First to go in was the steering rack.

Steering rack in

 Next job was to fit the IVA trim around all the wishbone holes, and then fit the lower wishbones.

Lower wishbones fitted

With the lower wishbones fitted, next job was the upper wishbones, which also requires the headlights to be fitted (through the upper wishbone front mount)...  As you can see I thought it'd be 'different' to change the colour of the headlight bezels from black to the same Sulfur Yellow as the stripes, so these were powder coated, and with the suspension fitted I couldn't resist putting the nosecone on...

First view of the front end - coming together nicely

Tomorrow I'll try and get the front end finished off, and as much other work as possible.  I really want to have the engine and box in by the time the weekend is out, so it'll be full steam ahead.

Academy Car - Day Seven - Pickup(s)!

The Academy Car's paint job is finished!  And I couldn't be happier with the colours... The finish Dave has achieved is quite frankly amazing, you can hardly feel any paint lines where the stripes are, and it's so glossy.

The R500 has been on the receiving end of some geometry work and was ready for collection today - so now I have two Caterham's in my garage!  I would've laughed at the thought of ever owning TWO Caterhams a year or so ago, but hey - the cars are genuinely THAT GOOD to drive, so why not?!? 😊

Two Caterhams in my garage now - lighting not great in picture

The rear wings are still a work in progress, but they should be ready for collection tomorrow, along with the powder coated parts, and then I can start building!

Caterham GRP Rear wings painted Porsche Z12 Voodoo Blue

The final thing before I push on with the build, is, Paint Protection Film... I've managed to twist the arm of the guys at signsuk.co.uk to come and fit some Hexis paint protection film on the sides of the car tomorrow morning.

So the plan is to get up nice and early, collect the powder coated parts, get the sides protected, collect the rear wings, and crack on... Hoping to have the front end suspension all fitted tomorrow evening all being well...

Academy Car - Day Six - More Paint, Engine, Gearbox, Seats and Airbox

Dave @ Daytona has continued with paint job... Today he finished off the lines on the nose cone, and it looks nice and tidy now with no sharp edges where they shouldn't be... Another couple of clear coats have been applied to the nose cone and the scuttle too.

Nose cone band and stripes tidied up and ready for another couple of clear coats

The bonnet (as well as the nose cone and scuttle) were given a wet flat back with P1500 wet and dry sandpaper and after the wet flatting the bonnet looked like this (and it's supposed to look like this after wet-flatting)

Bonnet wet flatted with P1500 wet and dry

Then after the wet flatting, two more clear coats have gone on, and wow look at that shine!  I want Dave to stop now, as it's going to look too nice to race!  (joke!)

Two more clear coats on the bonnet for awesome shine

The bonnet (nose cone, and car) will be be treated with a final P3000? wet flatting and polish and then I can collect the bonnet, nose and chassis (hopefully) tomorrow night! 👍

Work has also started on the rear wings - they are also going to be Porsche Z12 Voodoo Blue.

Caterham GRP rear wings, prepped and ready for base coat

 First coat of wash primer sprayed onto rear wings.

First coat of 1k wash primer on Caterham rear wings

With the anticipation of the car coming to the end of the painting process and ready for building in the next day or two, I decided to put a few more things together that I could whilst the car isn't with me.  The gearbox was bolted to the bell housing, then the bell housing to the engine.  Everything has been torqued up, but I'm waiting for the paint pen to be delivered...

Ford Sigma Engine, bell housing and gearbox are one!

The seat runners are now fitted to the Tillet seats - note the 'motivational print' - all being well that's what will be in my garage, complete in a week or so!  I can't wait to see it finished 😀

Seat runners fitted to Caterham Tillet Seats

I've tried to give myself 'little goals' with this build, and I'm trying to get at least one cardboard box of bits put together with the box being chucked out every evening... Seems to be working out quite nicely at the moment, and the final 'box' today was the airbox parts which went together pretty easily - no instructions required, which was lucky as there aren't any!

Caterham Academy Car Airbox

I finished up around 11pm this evening, had a quick tidy and sort out of parts so everything for the build is in an easy to access place...  Tomorrow will hopefully be collection day, and Friday the build can commence in earnest.

2017 Caterham Motorsport (inc Academy) Calendar

The provisional 2017 Caterham Motorsport calendar was released today, which includes the Academy Championship...

The (provisional) race dates I'll be competing in are as follows:-

• 22nd April - Aintree (Sprint Race)
• 20th May - Curborough (Sprint Race)
• 4th June - Brands Hatch Indy
• 8th and 9th July - Donington (Caterham Festival Weekend)
• 12th August - Snetterton 300
• 16th and 17th September - Rockingham
• 14th and 15th October - Silverstone International

If anyone wants to come and watch, please come and say hi, and as long as I'm having a good weekend, I'll promise to be nice 😀!  I've uploaded a copy of the race calendar below too:-

Provisional 2017 Caterham Motorsport Calendar (including academy championship)

Academy Car - Day Five - A bit of Colour!

Today was painting day!  I love a good paint job on a car, which goes back to my remote control car days from yesteryear, and as such I've spent tens of hours deciding on the paint scheme of this Academy Caterham. 

I settled on Porsche Z12 Voodoo Blue, with a painted Sulfur Yellow nose band, triple stripe, cage and other bits (yet to be finished).  Dave (from Daytona Coachworx) text me a picture of the two paints this morning, and immediately I (thankfully) knew the colour choice was right - as if I'm honest, I've been pretty worried about the colour combination being wrong!

Sulfur Yellow and Porsche Z12 Voodoo Blue Paints

Although this will be a race car, and that wrapping a race car is usually the best choice - I decided that I wanted a better finish (for day one!) and that I also wanted to have the stripe painted, rather than a decal as the yellow over the blue didn't quite have enough 'pop'.   So this morning, knowing how particular I can be - Dave asked me to pop in so we could be 100% certain on the stripe.  We  lined up the bonnet, scuttle and nose-cone and then Dave masked it all up with fine line tape and brown paper for any overspray.

Bonnet masked ready for Sulfur Yellow paint

Four coats of Sulfur Yellow were sprayed on (very thinly, so-as to minimise weight) and to ensure there was enough pigment on the bonnet.

Four coats of Sulfur Yellow paint were used to spray the bonnet stripe

The scuttle was also masked and painted.

Caterham scuttle stripe sprayed with Sulfur Yellow paint

As the Voodoo Blue is darker than the Sulfur Yellow, and would be sprayed over the yellow, the nose-cone was fully painted in yellow, and then the yellow stripes masked (in blue fine line tape) so they wouldn't be painted... Confused?  Yup, me too!  But Dave got it spot on!

Nose cone sprayed in Sulfur Yellow, then masked with blue fine line tape, where the yellow stripes will be! Confusing!

The rest of the stripe detail on the bonnet and scuttle was masked and then three coats of Porsche Z12 Voodoo Blue were sprayed, again in very light coats so-as to minimise weight.

Three coats of Z12 Porsche Voodoo Blue were sprayed in light coats

With the yellow and blue base coats applied, the masking was removed to reveal the stripes.

Caterham bonnet in Porsche Z12 Voodoo Blue with RAL 1016 Sulfur Yellow triple stripe

And here's a picture of the nose-cone (some of the sharp edge around the nose-band will be finished tomorrow) and the way the two edge stripes 'blend' into the nose band, are a copy from Craig Harding's car which was at the Llandow Track Day, and when I saw what he'd done I immediately knew this was the way I wanted to combine a triple stripe with a painted nose-band, so thanks Craig!

Painted nose band and tripe stripe on Caterham Academy nose cone

Then two clear coats were sprayed on and here are the finished article(s)... The picture does not do the colour justice, the shine and pop looks AWESOME!  I'm so happy with it, and I'm thinking I may even prefer this scheme to the light blue and orange of my R500! 😕

Two clear coats applied and the pictures do not do the colour justice - it looks AWESOME

I also collected the bonnet springs and catch mechanisms which have been anodised black at a local metal finishing company (Finko Ltd) so they don't stand out against the dark blue - I think these should be part of the 'black pack' but I'm not too sure how hard wearing the anodising will be...

Black anodised spring and catch mechanisms - time will tell as to how hard wearing the finish will be

I'm hoping to collect the powder coated parts tomorrow, and then Thursday all being well the body panels will be ready for collection from Dave and then I can finally start the build on Friday!