Tuesday 17 June 2014

Carbon Rear Light Blocks and Clear Indicator Fitting

During the long days, weeks and months between Caterham collecting the car and eventually getting it back to me, I decided to buy a couple of upgrades to keep me 'into' the process... I ended up buying a pair of carbon headlights, rear light blocks, reverse and fog light blocks, hand brake lever and tax disc holder.
Caterham Carbon upgrades.
Caterham Carbon upgrades.
There was an issue with the headlights - basically they arrived quite badly scratched, so I sent them back to the manufacturers (in Germany) and asked them to re-lacquer them to an acceptable standard.
Caterham Carbon Headlight Bowls - with some of the scratches highlighted.
Caterham Carbon Headlight Bowls - with some of the scratches highlighted.
They came back, and initially I was happy with the new finish - BUT, in the daylight, they still looked  a little scratched and dull plus there were visible differences between the colour of them and the front cycle wings.  I took them to a local carbon manufacturer, and he suggested there wasn't enough lacquer on them which is why they looked the way they did, and recommended a local body shop to add lacquer.  Needless to say they are now at the body shop being lacquered, before I finally fit them.

Onto the bits I could do...
Last night (Monday) I decided I to fit the clear indicators, and whilst I as at it thought I may as well fit the carbon rear light blocks I'd purchased too.

First job was nice and simple... Clear front indicator kit.
Basically the instructions are - unscrew the existing indicator lenses, remove bulb, replace with orange bulb, then replace indicator lenses with clear ones... Easy!
Clear Indicator Kit Ready for Fitting.
Clear Indicator Kit Ready for Fitting.
As I had the scales out to discover the weight saving of the carbon bits versus the original parts, I thought I'd weigh the standard indicators against the clear ones to see if there was a difference in weight.
Standard Caterham Indicator Lenses with Bulb - weighing in at a massive 32g.
Standard Caterham Indicator Lenses with Bulb - weighing in at a massive 32g.
Caterham Clear Front Indicator Kit - Surprisingly lighter than the standard part at 26g.
Caterham Clear Front Indicator Kit - Surprisingly lighter than the standard part at 26g.
So the before pic:-
Caterham R500 Front with standard indicators illuminated.
Caterham R500 Front with standard indicators illuminated.
And the after pic - now all of 12 grammes lighter too:-
Caterham R500 Front with clear indicator kit fitted and illuminated.
Caterham R500 Front with clear indicator kit fitted and illuminated.
Next job was to fit the rear clear indicator kit and carbon light blocks.  The picture below is of the rear end with standard indicators and light blocks..
Caterham R500 with standard rear indicators and light blocks.
Caterham R500 with standard rear indicators and light blocks.
Starting off with the carbon reverse light and clear indicator kit for the fog light.
Caterham Carbon Reverse Light and Fog Light Mounts.
Caterham Carbon Reverse Light and Fog Light Mounts.
The standard mounts were fairly easy to remove.  Unscrew the indicator cover, then remove the reflector... I found that when removing the reflector the positive wire was very loosely fitted which ended up breaking off, which wasn't a great problem as the cable needed cutting to get the connectors through the central hole.  Then simply remove the screws holding the mounts in place.

Indicator blocks removed and weighed in at 66g each.
Standard Caterham reverse light mount - 66 grammes in weight.
Standard Caterham reverse light mount - 66 grammes in weight.
Picture of carbon blocks below weighing in at 42 grammes each.  The manufacturer's website states that they are a diminutive 48 grammes each - which sounds amazing, but in actual fact it's only a 24 gramme saving per unit (total saving 48 grammes) and for £100 I don't really think it's money well spent in terms of weight saving, but hey they look cool - which is what I really wanted them for, so I'm happy.
Carbon Caterham reverse light mount - 42 grammes in weight.
Carbon Caterham reverse light mount - 42 grammes in weight.
I noticed that the offside mount wasn't quite horizontal, and fiddled around with it thinking that the mount was wrong, but it turns out the nuts in the bodywork are slightly wonky, so out with the dremel to open up the mounting holes and then it fitted great.  I then threaded the cut cables back through the central hole of the carbon mounts, and then screwed the mounts in place.  Once in place I soldered the two cables together then applied heat shrink tubing (approx 3mm heat shrink diameter).
Carbon mount in place with wiring threaded through, soldered and heat shrunk ready for fitting to the reflector.
Carbon mount in place with wiring threaded through, soldered and heat shrunk ready for fitting to the reflector.
As the brass eyelet was extremely weakly fitted to the bullet connector, I took a trip down to Maplin to buy some tiny screws to screw the eyelet and cable into position.
Tiny screws and nuts for tightly securing the eyelet connector.
Tiny screws and nuts for tightly securing the eyelet connector.
Eyelet connector securely fastened to reflector / bulb mount.
Eyelet connector securely fastened to reflector / bulb mount.
Then it was a case of sliding the reflector over the long hex bolts inside the mount, then fitting the bulb, lens and screwing it into position.

Reverse light completed, now onto the fog light - which is the same process.
Caterham Carbon Reverse Light Mount.
Caterham Carbon Reverse Light Mount.
Next up - Carbon Rear Light Blocks.  I thought these would be straight forward, but they're a bit of a faff due to the connection block - so this is what I done.  I'm not saying mine is the right way (or the wrong way) but it seemed to make the most sense to do it this way...

Firstly I removed the standard indicator cover and loosened the rubber light block.
Indicator cover removed and rubber light block loosened.
Indicator cover removed and rubber light block loosened.
It's worth noting that the P21/5W stamp is always positioned closer to the centre of the car - the picture above is of the nearside, and the picture below is of the offside and as you can see the offside is the same unit, just mounted upside down.
Caterham offside rear light block with cover removed.
Caterham offside rear light block with cover removed.
Next stage is to remove the grommet from the bodywork inside the rear arch and disconnect the connection block.
Rubber grommet removed showing light connection block.
Rubber grommet removed showing light connection block.
Once the connection block is disconnected everything pulls through the holes quite easily.  I then removed the black plastic sheath covering the indicator wiring.
Rear light block removed, with plastic sheath removed exposing indicator wiring.
Rear light block removed, with plastic sheath removed exposing indicator wiring.
I then cut the wiring about two to three inches from the connection block end - this is to enable you to remove the metal bulb unit from the rubber block and then to be able to thread the wiring back through the carbon block.
Metal bulb mount removed from rubber block and wires cut ready for soldering back together.
Metal bulb mount removed from rubber block and wires cut ready for soldering back together.
I then decided to line things up as a dry fit, and I noticed the foam strip wasn't really positioned well.
Carbon rear light blocks with original poorly fitted foam strip.
Carbon rear light blocks with original poorly fitted foam strip.
It seemed like a good idea to redo the foam strip, so I removed it with some methylated spirits on kitchen roll and a bit of elbow grease.
Carbon rear light block with foam strip removed.
Carbon rear light block with foam strip removed.
I couldn't find any foam tape that was about 2mm wide, so I carefully cut my existing foam strip, and then fitted that - which I think was worthwhile.
With my hand cut foam strip applied.
With my hand cut foam strip applied.
So this bit is IMPORTANT... Make sure you thread the wiring through the light block, add the relevant heat shrink tubing (3mm for small cables and 10mm for black longer section) as otherwise you'll end up soldering it all together and either not having the heat shrink in place to shrink, or worse still (like I found out) not having the carbon light block attached which is extremely irritating after you've soldered the lot together - trust me..!
Indicator wiring, soldered, with heat shrink and threaded through carbon rear light block.
Indicator wiring, soldered, with heat shrink and threaded through carbon rear light block.
Its's worth mentioning that there are two green cables, but they're easy to identify as one has a blue line in it.
The finished assembly ready for lights, weather proofing and fitting.
The finished assembly ready for lights, weather proofing and fitting.
Next job was to fit the new bulbs.  The orange one goes to the outside (indicator) and the LED one in the mount next to the P21/5W badge - the picture below is of the nearside unit.
With orange indicator and LED brake / light.
With orange indicator and LED brake / light.
Then I applied a small amount of silicone in the wiring hole to minimise any water ingress with the next stage being to fit it all back together, which is basically a reverse of taking them off.  
Wiring hole with silicone to minimise any water ingress.
Wiring hole with silicone to minimise any water ingress.
Before refitting, I weighed both rubber and carbon light block units to see if the manufacturers claims were true... Their claim was a weight saving of 269 grammes each which isn't entirely true as can be seen below, but they are 200 grammes lighter (each) than the rubber blocks which is a 400 gramme saving for the two.  Added to the weight saving of the reverse light, fog light and clear front indicators I've shaved off nearly half a kilo and added plenty more carbon loveliness, so overall I'm happy with the upgrades.
Caterham rubber indicator unit weighing in at 442 grammes.
Caterham rubber indicator unit weighing in at 442 grammes.
Carbon indicator unit nearly half the weight at 248 grammes.
Carbon indicator unit nearly half the weight at 248 grammes.
Here's a close up shot of the fitted carbon indicator block with clear lenses - I think they look really good.
Carbon rear indicator block with clear lenses fitted.
Carbon rear indicator block with clear lenses fitted.
And some before and after shots of the lights in action.
Carbon rear indicator and lighting mounts fitted to Caterham R500.
Carbon rear indicator and lighting mounts fitted to Caterham R500.
Standard rear indicators illuminated.
Standard rear indicators illuminated.
Clear rear indicators illuminated.
Clear rear indicators illuminated.
Standard rear lights including fog light illuminated.
Standard rear lights including fog light illuminated.
Clear rear lights including fog light illuminated.
So that's it for the upgrades for now.  I'm hoping to get the carbon headlight bowls back middle next of next week and will do a post about fitting those as and when.  

In the meantime I hope the weather stays good for plenty of evening blats and on Thursday (19th June) I'm off to Curborough Sprint Course, for my first track event - I hope it stays dry!  

1 comment:

  1. Ok, I'm a little concerned now that you've gone to a place that you can't get back from. I know that there isn't a great deal on TV at the moment but spending the night in a garage with some scales and carbon fibre parts is just plain wrong. You'll be telling me next that you're on a Super Noodle diet or have changed from wearing boxers to tangas to keep weight down in the car. Please, I love the techie/geeky content of this blog - but I see pictures of scales in here again I'm going back to watching videos of cats on YouTube.

    ReplyDelete

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