Friday 30 December 2016

Academy Car - Shakedown (first attempt)

Today was the day I'd been looking forward to, for quite some time... The first drive in the Academy Car at Mallory Park...

Andy Morgan was also attending, and we both left early so as to miss the traffic (about 5am) and after driving in freezing fog for two and a bit hours we arrived at a near zero visibility Mallory Park around 8am.  Briefing was the usual, but we had to wait until further notice before any sighting laps got underway... And we waited, and waited and waited - no sign of the fog clearing and the day was eventually cancelled around midday - the picture below is of mine and Andy's Academy cars around the same time...
Mine and Andy Morgan's 2017 Caterham Academy Cars - picture taken around midday - extremely poor visibility
Mine and Andy Morgan's 2017 Caterham Academy Cars - picture taken around midday - extremely poor visibility
As we were preparing to leave, a chap called Louis (who's been reading the blog and also has a Seven) came to say hello and we had a good chat for a while, then a few minutes later James Batchelor (has an R500 Duratec) came and said hello too...

After nattering away with Louis and James for a good hour or so - the weather cleared (or nearly cleared) and with only our cars left in the car park, I thought it'd be rude not to have a quick go...

Even after that very short run, my initial feelings of the car are:-
  • very light steering feel
  • slllliiipppyyy open diff
  • non existent braking (hope they improve once bedded in) 
  • and a serious lack of power!   
The next shakedown attempt is scheduled for Bedford Autodrome on 14th Jan - I've ordered a 'no fog' pack too.

Thursday 22 December 2016

Academy Car - Collection Day

A couple of days ago Dan Piper (Caterham service manager) let me know that the car was ready for collection, and we agreed I'd collect it today... Having thought that Xmas traffic would be a bit of a nightmare this morning, I decided to head down last night and 'glamp out' in the camper van for the evening... All went well, aside from Gatwick airport seeming like it was right next door!
My 'home' for the night!
My 'home' for the night!
Needless to say, with aircraft taking off (seemingly most of the night and right next to me!) I didn't get much sleep, but it was worth it to see the car for the first time, complete and in the metal! 
First sight of my completed 2017 Caterham Academy Car
First sight of my completed 2017 Caterham Academy Car
The first 'shakedown' track day is booked for the 30th of this month at Mallory Park, so all that's left to do now, is get the car home and enjoy the Xmas festivities 🎅🎉

Tuesday 20 December 2016

Academy Car - PBC done and car ready

Having lost the energy to complete the final few bits on the car, I had prepared myself for a rather large PBC (Post Build Check) bill, but to be fair it wasn't too bad... I gave the go-ahead last week, and the car is now ready for collection..!

Whilst the car is at Caterham Gatwick (and considering it's a fair drive for me to get to Gatwick) I decided to get the car setup on Caterham's laser alignment system.
My 2017 Caterham Academy challenger - ready for action
My 2017 Caterham Academy challenger - ready for action
I'll be collecting the car on Thursday, and all being well will be out on track on the 30th December.  Cool.

Monday 12 December 2016

Academy Car Build - PBC Collection

Around 11am this morning John from Caterham Crawley arrived to collect the car for it's PBC (Post Build Check).

Rolling the car out of the garage for the first time, subsequently it was the first time I've seen the car outside in the daylight, and although the rear tyres look incredibly skinny in those arches; I'm very happy with the colour scheme and paint job - so thanks to Dave and the team at Daytona Coachworx for such a great paint job.
2017 Caterham Academy Car in Porsche Z12 Voodoo Blue with Sulfur Yellow Highlights - Going off for it's PBC
2017 Caterham Academy Car in Porsche Z12 Voodoo Blue with Sulfur Yellow Highlights - Going off for it's PBC
I'm well aware of a few bits that I've not done, fill and bleed the brakes and clutch, fit doors and wing mirrors and a few other bits, but on the whole the car is pretty much complete - I hope my PBC bill won't be too horrendous!

Saturday 10 December 2016

Academy Car Build - Day Twenty Two - Intro and First Start

After spending a fair amount of time yesterday trying to get the car started, I decided to give up and go to bed - after all it was about midnight!

So early this afternoon I put a post on the Caterham Academy Facebook page, about any ideas why it wouldn't start... Pretty simple really - not enough fuel! ha ha 😭!  Another twenty litres went in, and I was confident it would start, so took this video:-


Tomorrow is Charlotte's birthday, so can't really do anything on the car and Monday Ian (from Caterham) will arrive to collect the car for it's PBC.  There are a few bits still to finish off, but I've had my fun in the build process, so will leave it up to Caterham to finish the rest...

...I'll certainly be consuming a few 'celebratory' beers 🍻 tonight - WELL HAPPY! 😀😀😀

Friday 9 December 2016

Academy Car Build - Day Twenty One - First Start?

There were a few bits left to finish the car off, but for some reason I'm just not motivated to complete the final few bits...  Having to give myself a good push, I took the car off the axle stands and set about fitting the rear wing lights.

I find it best to fit these when the car is on the ground and you can check it's level with spirit level.  As long as the boot is level, the rear wings should be too, so offer the lights up with a small spirit level top and then using a very small drill bit drill through the mounting holes in the rubber of the light and through into the wing.
Level up rear lights with a spirit level prior to drilling the holes in the wings
Level up rear lights with a spirit level prior to drilling the holes in the wings
Remove the rubber light block, open up the pilot holes with a 4.5mm drill bit (was best size for me) and then fit the rear lights.
Rear lights fitted to my Caterham Academy Car
Rear lights fitted to my Caterham Academy Car
There were plenty of other jobs to do, but I really wanted to try and get the car started tonight, so in went the engine oil (about 4 litres so far) and about 4.5 litres of 50/50 coolant / water mix.
About 4.5 litres of 50/50 coolant / water mix went in
About 4.5 litres of 50/50 coolant / water mix went in
Now for some petrol!
I added about five litres of petrol
I added about five litres of petrol
Next stage prior to starting was to get some oil pressure, so wanting to 'capture the moment' I filmed this video:-


With the oil pressure up, I re-connected the inertia cut-off switch and tried in vain to start the car... It just wouldn't fire up - and after looking at the connections and double checking everything, I can only assume there's either not enough petrol in the fuel tank, or the immobiliser isn't disabling (which seems the most likely option).  

Will try again tomorrow - hopefully the result will be better than today's effort!

Thursday 8 December 2016

Academy Car Build - Day Twenty - Wheels and Wings

Another five hours completed tonight, and the car is bordering completion.  I started off by tidying some cooling hoses, wires and connecting the battery.
Engine bay hoses and wiring tidied - battery also connected
Engine bay hoses and wiring tidied - battery also connected
Next up was to fit the steering column, and then the steering wheel.  I had to partially remove the drivers seat to get the steering column in, so will refit that tomorrow night.  With the steering column in, all steering bolts and clamps were tightened and the first of five wheels was fitted.
Steering wheel in - first of five wheels to be fitted this evening.
Steering wheel in - first of five wheels to be fitted this evening.
Another fiddly bit next - routing the side repeater wire through the wing stay - I found a bent paperclip worked well to hook the wire out from the tiny hole on the wing stay.  The green wire also needs heat-shrinking with black wire and cable tie-ing around the rear upper wishbone.
Hooking the indicator wire out of the wing stay with a paperclip
Hooking the indicator wire out of the wing stay with a paperclip
I then measured, aligned and bonded the wings using Teroson 9220 (which is how the factory bond the wings in place).  With the Teroson curing, I carefully fitted the wheels, nose-cone and bonnet to see for the first time what the car will look like when finished.
2017 Caterham Academy Car with wheels fitted - very nearly finished
2017 Caterham Academy Car with wheels fitted - very nearly finished
Tomorrow I plan to finish the car off, and the bits left to do are:-

  • Refit and tighten drivers seat
  • Remove axle stands
  • Fit rear wing lights
  • Torque front suspension
  • Fit doors and mirrors
  • Complete any final IVA bits
  • Fit front grille, and nosecone badge
  • Fill with oil and coolant and try to start it :-)
I've decided not to bother with the clutch and brake fluids, as I just don't have the energy (or the free time) to fill and bleed these before Ian collects the car this Monday for it's upcoming PBC.

Academy Car Build - Day Nineteen - Breathing In and Out

As I write this post, I've finished day nineteen of the academy car 'build'... It's twenty past midnight, and today's 'session' was a good six hours.

So here's what I managed to complete this (yesterday!) evening...  Firstly I sorted out the front brake hoses which I hadn't fully attached to the car, and also I'd missed off a spring washer from the top suspension bolts, so fitted those too.

As I was working on the front of the car I decided to 'bite the bullet' and fit the breather bottle.  There aren't really any fitting instructions for this, so I've kinda done my own thing (which I think is right, but I'll find out at the PBC (Post Build Check!))  The first part of this is to position the breather bottle with the holder and the blanking plate behind the battery, where the heater would go and then mark out where to drill holes to rivnut the bottle holder into place.  The factory way of fitting the blanking plate, is to remove some of the rivets along the scuttle and then slightly prise out the scuttle edge and pop the blanking plate in underneath... The picture below is of the breather bottle holder, rivnutted into place.
Caterham Oil Breather Bottle holder rivnutted onto blanking plate
Caterham Oil Breather Bottle holder rivnutted onto blanking plate
Don't make the same mistake as I did though - once you put the blanking plate in place, you'll soon figure out you have to rivnut through the front of the scuttle too...  With my work undone, and then redone, I gave the rivet holes a little drill out, and then readied the new rivets.
Oil breather catch tank / bottle holder ready for rivetting into place on 2017 Caterham Academy Car
Oil breather catch tank / bottle holder ready for rivetting into place on 2017 Caterham Academy Car
 And with the rivets, riveted! the blanking plate and breather bottle holder are in place.
blanking plate and breather bottle holder rivetted into location
blanking plate and breather bottle holder rivetted into location
Energy for the evening was courtesy of Pizza Hut - probably about 10,000 calories which isn't good for my waist line, but 'I earned it!'  To be fair I don't think I ate more than a third, but even so - it wasn't as good as I remembered them tasting!
Pizza Hut Meat Feast with Chillis
Pizza Hut Meat Feast with Chillis
Full of pizza energy, I fitted the breather bottle, and then drilled out the holes for the breather pipes and secured them to the breather bottle.
Oil breather bottle with breather pipes fitted to Caterham 2017 Academy Car
Oil breather bottle with breather pipes fitted to Caterham 2017 Academy Car
With the breather bottle finally fitted, next up was the airbox.  It seemed like I needed to cut a little bit off the hose from the airbox to the throttle body, so I carefully cut off about 5mm, and the fit was much better.
Air box (and filter) fitted
Air box (and filter) fitted
In my building frenzy, (and this was a few days ago) I ham-fistedly snapped the wheel speed sensor cable...  Not to worry, these connector blocks come apart relatively easily (when you know how), the wires were soldered back onto the connectors, and connectors pushed back in - job done.  Picture is more for reference as to which colour wire goes into which hole, but it was a half hour job, that I could've done without!
Cable snapped on my wheel speed sensor, not to worry, I've fixed it
Cable snapped on my wheel speed sensor, not to worry, I've fixed it
And finally for the evening - the exhaust.  Firstly it's worth fitting a load of masking tape around the aperture so as not to scratch / scuff your lovely paint (if you've had your car painted that is!)... The primaries didn't seem to match up with the part numbers in the manual, but it's not that hard to fit them - they go in with the rear pipe first, moving forward one by one.
Primaries inserted and fitted from left to right 
The catalytic converter is then fitted to the primaries, along with the guard, and a bit of IVA scuttle trim around the leading edge, and then the exhaust locates into the rear of the cat.  Job done.
With the exhaust now fitted, the car is agonisingly close to being finished
With the exhaust now fitted, the car is agonisingly close to being finished
I am sooooo close to finishing... I think there's only the following bits left to do:-
  • Fit steering wheel
  • Connect battery terminals
  • Fit wheels
  • Bond front wings and wire in headlights
  • Attach rear wing lights
  • Front suspension torquing (when car is on level ground)
  • Some IVA and weather gear stuff
  • Fluid Fill
  • And then hope it starts!
I'll try and get everything finished off tomorrow night and with any luck I'll be able to start it before Ian comes on Monday to collect it for it's PBC.  I've a fairly 'busy' weekend coming up, so my last chances to work on the car will be Thursday evening, Friday evening (if I'm lucky) and perhaps a little bit of time on Saturday morning...  

Tuesday 6 December 2016

Academy Car Build - Day Eighteen - Rear Lights

A bit of a disappointing evening, but I've been beavering away on the car every night for a couple of weeks now, and I didn't really have the 'motivation' tonight.  However, I pressed on with finishing off the wiring of the engine, helped by the following picture from Derek Howlett.
Caterham Academy Car - Starter Solenoid wiring instructions
Caterham Academy Car - Starter Solenoid wiring instructions
With the starter solenoid wired, I attached the fuel hose and connected the remaining wires up, then moved onto wiring up the rear lights.  These had to be reconnected as the connectors were removed prior to painting.
Rear Lights fitted to Caterham 2017 Academy Car
Rear Lights fitted to Caterham 2017 Academy Car
The rear wing lights will be easier to level when the car is on the ground, so I'll do those at the end of this week... But, I'll have to 'dig deep' tomorrow night, for a big push - where the manifold, exhaust, breather bottle and hopefully the steering wheel will be fitted.

Monday 5 December 2016

Academy Car Build - Day Seventeen - Rear Wings

Dave from Daytona Coachworx popped over this evening to mask up the spare nose cone.
Dave from Daytona marking up the stripes for the spare nose cone
Dave from Daytona marking up the stripes for the spare nose cone
Dave's taken the nose cone back to his bodyshop to finish off the spraying, along with the grille, both of which he'll be finishing off in the next day or two.

I've fitted the IVA piping and the rear wings this evening.
Rear wings fitted to 2017 Caterham Academy car
Rear wings fitted to 2017 Caterham Academy car
Tomorrow night I'll need to roll the car out of the garage to get some xmas decorations out from the eaves, so the wheels will be on, and I'll get the first 'real' look at what the car will look like when finished... I couldn't help, but give myself a 'sneak peek' this evening, so I fitted the nose cone and bonnet and then took this picture:-
First real look at my car - I'm chuffed to bits with how it's looking
Tomorrow evening I'll fit the rear lights, steering wheel and will bond the front wings on, and if there's enough time I'll possibly fit the exhaust too.

Sunday 4 December 2016

Academy Car Build - Day Sixteen - Cage, Side Intrusion Bar and Rear Shocks

We managed to get back from Harrogate around 3pm today, so I got to work on the car around 4pm, with another five or six hours work completed.

As part of the 'colour scheme' I thought that the side intrusion bar would look best if it was the same colour as the body work (rather than black or sulfur yellow like the roll cage), so that it blends in.  I was going to get it powder coated (as I did with the roll cage), but wanted an exact match to the Porsche Z12 Voodoo Blue body panels, so Dave at Daytona Coachworx sprayed it up for me.
Caterham side intrusion bar painted in Porsche Z12 Voodoo Blue
Caterham side intrusion bar painted in Porsche Z12 Voodoo Blue
The roll cage was located in place on Friday evening, so that needed securing.  I spent a fair bit of time messing around with the alignment and figuring out what order was best to fit the side intrusion bar at the same time.

Some of the interior panels needed final riveting after the cage was fitted, so those bits were finished off, some time consuming IVA trim fitting on the knee trim panels and fuse holder, then the cage was tightened.  I figured out it's best to bolt the side intrusion (top mount) reasonably secure, before torquing the roll cage as then access to the top bolt of the side intrusion bar is a bit easier.

Some additional riveting on the boot cover was needed to finish that off, and the rear suspension was fitted.
Roll cage, colour matched side intrusion bar and suspension fitted
Roll cage, colour matched side intrusion bar and suspension fitted
As you can see from the picture above, the car is really taking shape.  Having tidied the garage at the end of the night, it became apparent how little is left to finish the car off which is really encouraging.

I've a few more questions for Derek Howlett in the morning, and then tomorrow night I'm hoping to get the rear wings, steering wheel, manifold and exhaust fitted (time permitting).

Friday 2 December 2016

Academy Car Build - Day Fifteen - Seats and Cage

Another five hour stint this evening, some of which was undoing what I'd fitted yesterday (and today), but you live and learn!

First thing I wanted to complete this evening was the Schroth Six Point harness.  Having spoken to Derek Howlett earlier in the day, he emailed me the workshop guide for fitting these harnesses.  Using the guide the harness was fitted, that was after drilling two 11mm holes for the two lower two straps at the rear of the lowered floor.
Schroth Six Point Harness fitted
Schroth Six Point Harness fitted
With the harness in, I fitted the drivers seat, then realised I'd not fitted the radius arms... So both seats came back out, and then radius arms were attached.
Radius Arms Attached
Radius Arms Attached
With the radius arms in, it was time to put the seats back in... After re-fitting the seats, I then realised that I had to fit the tunnel cover 😢... So seats were out again, tunnel cover fitted, and then seats were put back in for a third time!
Harnesses, Radius Arms, Tunnel Cover and Seats fitted (in that order! eventually!)
Harnesses, Radius Arms, Tunnel Cover and Seats fitted (in that order! eventually!)
And finally... The roll cage!  This was a part I'd set myself as a milestone in the build, and it was really satisfying to get the cage fitted (with Charlotte's assistance of course!).  It's been powder coated Sulfur Yellow to match the stripe of the car, and looks really smart - but due to the colour change, a new MSA-FIA sticker was required, which I'll fit on Sunday along with the roll cage bolts.
Sulphur Yellow Roll Cage fitted to my Caterham Academy Car
Sulphur Yellow Roll Cage fitted to my Caterham Academy Car
Tomorrow we're off to Harrogate, so this will be a 'day off' from building which will be 'refreshing'... I'll try and get back at a reasonable time on Sunday so I can crack with probably attaching the brake lines, the rear shocks, rear wings and if I get time the side intrusion bar.

Thursday 1 December 2016

Academy Car Build - Day Fourteen - Brakes, Boot and Belts

Back to work today, so the progress on the car was limited to four hours this evening.  During the day I spoke to Michaela at Caterham South who helped me through the IVA paperwork - which once she'd gone through everything was actually quite straight forward.  So that's completed and in the post, now it's the wait for the confirmation of application and test date...
IVA Paperwork and supporting info, completed and posted to VOSA today
IVA Paperwork and supporting info, completed and posted to VOSA today
Work on the car didn't start until about 7:30 this evening, but I still put in four hours of progress.  First job was to bolt the discs to the hubs, and then fit the rear calipers and pads.
Rear brakes assembled and fitted, just pipework fitting and tidying needed
Rear brakes assembled and fitted, just pipework fitting and tidying needed
Next up - boot cover, but to get it nice and taught for marking the press studs up, the belts need fitting, and to fit the belts the holes for the bolts need to be cut out - Charlotte did a good job on this whilst I was pressing on with other things.
Seat belts and boot cover in place ready for marking up for press studs
Seat belts and boot cover in place ready for marking up for press studs
With the boot marked up, that had to come off, holes cut (using a punch tool) and then the press studs fitting with the supplied fastening tool. Then the boot cover was re-fitted.
Boot cover and belts fitted
Boot cover and belts fitted
The passenger side belts are very similar to the ones on the R500, so those were easy to fit, but the Schroth harnesses, don't seem to have enough bolts, so I'll speak to Derek Howlett in the morning and check the fitment of these and request additional bolts.

I couldn't resist finishing off the passenger side, so the seat had to be fitted.
Tillet passenger seat fitted
Tillet passenger seat fitted
So I nearly got everything finished that I wanted to this evening.  Hopefully I can get the Schroth belts sorted tomorrow, the drivers seat in and the roll cage on.