Friday 21 March 2014

Build Day Twenty Five - Decals, Stone Chip Protection Film and Odd Jobs

Today was all about the new decals and the Stone Chip Protection Film.  The guys arrived about 8:30 this morning and got straight down to business.

Table laid out with Decals, Andy and Ed getting down to business.
Table laid out with Decals, Andy and Ed getting down to business.
The bonnet and nose cone were put on the car so the guys could line the up the stripes.
R500 with Bonnet and Nose cone on ready for decals and stone chip protection film.
R500 with Bonnet and Nose cone on ready for decals and stone chip protection film.
I removed the carbon stone chip protectors so that they could get film applied to them too.  The guys cleaned the paint of any residue, dust and so on with meths, and then applied the stone chip protection film.
Andy applying the stone chip protection film and ensuring there were no bubbles.
Andy applying the stone chip protection film and ensuring there were no bubbles.
You can only just make out the edge of the film - very happy with the finish.
You can only just make out the edge of the film - very happy with the finish.
Once the rear wings were done, it was onto the main triple stripe down the centre of the car... Starting with the bonnet.
Andy and Ed making sure the bonnet stripe was straight.
Andy and Ed making sure the bonnet stripe was straight.
Applying the bonnet decal.
Applying the bonnet decal. 
Bonnet decal applied.
Bonnet decal applied. 
Ed lining up the nose stripe.
Ed lining up the nose stripe.
The boot stripe went on next.
Mactac semi Fluro Orange Boot stripe applied.
Mactac semi Fluro Orange Boot stripe applied.
Then it was onto the side stickers.
Semi Fluro Orange side stripe with white caterham font.
Semi Fluro Orange side stripe with white Caterham font.
White Caterham Font.
White Caterham Font.
Next up - side stone chip protection film.  I went with the full height film which should eliminate most of the road rash from the sides of the car.  Again the finish is very good, and only the trained eye would know there was a film over the bodywork, so very happy.
Caterham R500 sides covered with Stone Chip Protection Film.
Caterham R500 sides covered with Stone Chip Protection Film.
The guys left about 2 hours later - which was quite surprising how much they got done in such a short period of time.  I had a quick tidy up, a bit of lunch and then done a few odd jobs that I'd been meaning to do.

Many owners suffer from badly stone chipped front wishbones, and after reading a post on Blatchat about continually touching them up, hammeriting them and so on, the most logical (and easiest in my opinion) solution was to cover the front of the wishbones with some black electricians tape.  Great thing about this is you can hardly see it once it's in place, and to replace it for new tape it will take seconds.
Attaching black electricians tape to Caterham aero wishbones.
Attaching black electricians tape to Caterham aero wishbones. 
Black electricians tape in place on wishbones to protect the leading edge from stone chipping.
Black electricians tape in place on wishbones to protect the leading edge from stone chipping.
After fitting the tape to the front wishbones, I moved onto the steering universal joint.  I've seen on some other blogs it had been mentioned that it was quite difficult to get the bolt through.  So I sized everything up and test fitted it before I tried the installation, and found there were no issues.  I noticed there was a recess on each of the splined ends of the steering rack and lower steering column - for the bolt to pass through, so lined up the UJ holes for this and the bolt passed through easily.  This fixing needed tightening to 11nm.
Fitting steering universal joint to Caterham R500.
Fitting steering universal joint to Caterham R500. 
I then tightened the upper and lower steering columns using the clamp plate.  The bolts were torqued to 14nm, then the grub screw was fitted followed but the retaining nut.
Upper and lower steering columns clamped together.
Upper and lower steering columns clamped together.
Popped to the dump to ditch a few bits, and popped into halfords on my way back.  The Seven on the front grille was black and didn't really stand out which I wanted it to. I'd been um'ing and ahh'ing for a few days as to what colour to go for, silver, blue, white, orange - I eventually decided on silver.  So out with the masking tape and the grille was ready for spraying.
Caterham Seven Grille masked ready for spraying.  The yellower masking tape is some tamiya masking tape had spare after using on previous remote control car bodyshells.
Caterham Seven Grille masked ready for spraying.  The yellower masking tape is some tamiya masking tape had spare after using on previous remote control car bodyshells.
I then sprayed on three light coats of silver smooth finish hammerite.
First sprayed coat of smooth finish silver hammerite on Caterham Seven Grille.
First sprayed coat of smooth finish silver hammerite on Caterham Seven Grille.
I left about an hour between the three coats (instructions recommend 15 minutes), so it was ready in the early evening if somewhat tacky.  I decided to remove the masking tape as I wanted to see what it looked like once fitted to the nose, and once again today - very happy..!
Silver Caterham Seven Grill in R500 Carbon Nose Cone.
Silver Caterham Seven Grill in R500 Carbon Nose Cone.
Tomorrow should be the fitting of the exhaust, any other odd jobs I can get round to, and most probably starting the Post Build Check essay - there's plenty for Caterham to do, and frustratingly most of which is/was out of my control.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Thanks for your comments, I'll check out what you've written and add it provided it's useful informative and not spam.