Sunday 6 July 2014

A clean and a carbon aeroscreen

With the weather looking great for a blat today, and 900 miles on the clock I thought it'd be a good idea to give the car a pre-blat clean, and to have a go at sticking the aeroscreen on.

I'd ordered myself a new jack as I wanted one with a rubberised pad, so that I wouldn't scratch the chassis tubes when jacking the car.  Done a fair bit of research, and decided on an Arcan 2 tonne trolley jack, that I got off ebay link here if you want to get yourself one.

So I got to get the car jacked up and got ready to work...
Ready for cleaning and an aero screen
Ready for cleaning and an aero screen
Firstly off with the wheels.
Arcan 2 tonne trolley jack in action
Arcan 2 tonne trolley jack in action
With the wheels off I took a picture so you could see how grubby they were.  Lots of brake dust.
Caterham R500 13 inch wheel
Caterham R500 13 inch wheel
I rinsed the wheels down with a hose and then applied the wheel cleaner I use for my daily driver - it's called 'bilberry' which is a pink colour and smells like berries (very nice) but, aside from the aesthetics it's absolutely superb stuff.  I usually use it neat, however, it can be diluted up to 10 times, and is available to buy from cleanyourcar.co.uk by clicking this link.
Bilberry wheel cleaner getting to work.
Bilberry wheel cleaner getting to work.
After leaving the bilberry cleaner to get to work (about 5 minutes) I used these 'wheel woolies' which are like a very soft foam / bristle, and are really good at getting into the wheel nut holes and into any crevices in your alloys.  They are expensive, but make cleaning up your alloys a real joy.  You can get them from theultimatefinish.co.uk by following this link.
Wheel woolies great for cleaning your wheels.
Wheel woolies great for cleaning your wheels.
The wheels were then dried using a micro fibre cloth, and I decided to apply some Gtechniq C5 Wheel armour - which is a product that bonds to your wheels to stop brake dust and dirt sticking to them.  One application lasts about a year, but the product is quite expensive for something you don't really see any immediate difference with after application.  However, I've used it on the wheels of my daily driver and they are much easier to clean now, and don't get anywhere near as dirty, so in my opinion the product is money well spent.  Available from cleanyourcar.co.uk by clicking this link.
Gtechniq C5 wheel armour.
Gtechniq C5 wheel armour.
With the wheel armour applied I cleaned up the inside of the arches, wishbones, and body work bits, then refitted the wheel.  As you can see from the picture below the wheels came out like new - I guess that's to be expected considering I've only done 900 miles!
Caterham R500 13 inch wheel refitted to car after cleaning and Gtechniq C5 wheel armour being applied.
Caterham R500 13 inch wheel refitted to car after cleaning and Gtechniq C5 wheel armour being applied.
Next job - carbon aeroscreen fitting.  Needless to say I'd been bugged by quite a few 'aeroscreen warriors' about why I'm still running a windscreen and so on, so decided to bite the bullet and get the aeroscreen on to see what it was like.  I was really interested to see what (if any) difference there was in acceleration and braking, and at least I'd get my mates off my case!
Windscreen allen bolts removed.
Windscreen allen bolts removed.
During the build I'd fitted (with the help of my friend Andy) some bullet connectors for the heated windscreen, which made the removal process much faster.  It was literally a case of pulling off the windscreen wipers, disconnecting the heated windscreen, removing all four allen bolts and then simply (and carefully) lifting the screen off the car.
Windscreen and 12v master switch removed.
Windscreen and 12v master switch removed.
Fitting the aeroscreen was dead easy too.  Simply put it in place, and refit the allen bolts.  The 12v master switch shroud isn't a great fit, so I'll double check I've done it right, but it seems correct to me.
Carbon Aeroscreen and 12v master switch refitted.
Carbon Aeroscreen and 12v master switch refitted.
Next up, and slightly more tricky was finding the right drilling holes for the mirrors.  I'd noticed that I hadn't had any bolts for the centre mirror, so elected to continue and just fit the side mirrors.  I thought it best to put a piece of masking tape on the aeroscreen, the faff around for a bit deciding on what the best location was.
Masking tape on aeroscreen marked ready for drilling.
Masking tape on aeroscreen marked ready for drilling.
Once I'd decided the best location, I marked the tape up with a paint marker, checked and checked again before I drilled through the screen and took to the drill.  Using a metal drill bit (as these are quite blunt they don't seem to crack or stress the carbon fibre) I drilled through the screen and fitted the first mirror.  I think the supplied bolts are a little too long for my liking, so I'll see if there are some shorter ones around.
Drivers side mirror fitted to aeroscreen.
Drivers side mirror fitted to aeroscreen.
I repeated the process for the passenger side mirror, making sure it lined up with the drivers side mirror.
Passenger side mirror fitted to aeroscreen.
Passenger side mirror fitted to aeroscreen.
With the aeroscreen and mirrors fitted it was onto the removal of tar, flies and other road grime on the car.  Having used a clay bar on my daily driver, I thought this was the best solution to remove the grime without having to use a solvent based tar remover.  It worked perfect, removed all the flies, tar and grime without a snag.
Autoglym clay bar and rapid detailer lubricant spray.
Autoglym clay bar and rapid detailer lubricant spray.
The car was then rinsed and I checked for any stone chips. With the car being very well protected by the stone chip protection film, the paint work is pretty much in perfect order.  However (shock horror)  I found a chip!!
My first stone chip!
My first stone chip!
Having preempted numerous stone chips, the last time I was at my local porsche centre I picked up a touch up stick (as the car has been painted in Porsche Riviera Blue 39e).
Porsche Riviera Blue 39e touch up stick.
Porsche Riviera Blue 39e touch up stick.
A quick dab of the touch up paint and the mark was gone.
Chip covered with touch up stick paint.
Chip covered with touch up stick paint.
With the stone chip covered, the car was finished and ready for blatting.
Freshly cleaned Caterham R500 with newly fitted carbon aeroscreen.
Freshly cleaned Caterham R500 with newly fitted carbon aeroscreen.
So went out for a quick blat, that turned into  a three hour blat!  The aeroscreen makes such a difference to the acceleration it is unbelievable.  As I have an R500 I thought the difference wouldn't be that great, but it's massive.  I can now see what everyone was saying about the aeroscreen - I genuinely can't see the 'old windscreen' ever going back on the car.

Got back quite late, watched Hamilton win the F1 - an altogether awesome 'car' day.

12 comments:

  1. Looks great with the aero screen on now Daniel. You might want to dril a third hole in the centre for the two outside mirrors too. It allows you to fit an Allen key into to adjust the rear view, then tighten so they don't work loose!

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  2. How are things after running the Areoscreen for a while? I'm thinking about going for it as well. Any advice or tips you'd like to share after doing it and running it for a while?
    - rotorwings (pistonheads)

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    1. The main things I would recommend are:-
      1. Doing it sooner - it makes a huge difference in terms of acceleration, top speed and stops a lot of buffeting.
      2. Not running a centre mirror (as it gets in my field of view, but may be different for people with different heights)
      3. Get some decent (ballistic rated) eye protection.
      4. Use it as much as you can!

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    2. Nice!
      Would you recommend going with the standard Caterham kit, or considering some of the 3rd party options (Westerman etc.)?
      How are the vibrations on the mirror? Acceptable?

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    3. I'd go with the Caterham kit (personally) but.... the 620R seats I have fitted make me sit really low, so my setup may be better suited to the clear screen you can get from Meteor Motorsport? However, as this is polycarbonate (I think) it may not be as stiff as the carbon item.

      So long as you drill the third centre hole for the mounting bracket (like Nigel Pugh suggested above) you can get them nice and tight once they're fitted and this also makes adjusting them to the correct alignment much easier too.

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    4. Hi Daniel. I finally have my aeroscreen fitted and I'm really loving the experience so far.
      A couple of questions:
      - I have not yet fixed the aeroscreen down in the middle (where the press studs are). How did you go about this? Is it simply a case of removing the existing press-studs and fixing them again over the top of the aeroscreen 'lip'? The kit came with 2 extra studs, but I am not sure if these are needed?
      - The finish of my areoscreen was not very good. The carbon weave and surface is okay but the edge (where it is cut) is very rough and not even completely round. It's more a series of straight cuts that form a bed. Did you have the same experience?
      Ben (rotorwings).

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    5. Hi Ben,
      - Did you get the aeroscreen from Caterham? Mine was already fitted with the press studs and just 'popped' into place - see picture on this page of my blog http://www.caterhamr500.co.uk/2015/01/my-first-blat-of-2015.html
      - Again is it a Caterham aeroscreen? as, mine was/is well finished...
      Let me know.

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    6. I bought the aeroscreen as new and unused from a well known UK used sevens (and other 'classics') dealer. It is supposed to be a genuine item and does have a Caterham sticker and part number on it. I bought the mirrors as used from the same place and have been happy with those. So yours had female press studs already installed on it, ready to clip onto the male studs on the car? Mine has nothing, but was sent with some 'male' studs...

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    7. Yes the male studs were on the scuttle of the car when it was delivered and the female press studs were already fitted in the aeroscreen. The only thing that wasn't fitted was the side mirrors and the central mirror (which I don't use as I find it too restrictive)

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    8. Interesting. I wonder if you got some special treatment from Caterham, or perhaps received a 'prepared' one for some other reason? The online parts store images seem to imply that they come without the press studs mounted: http://caterhamparts.co.uk/product.php?id_product=171

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    9. I think if you order any form of weather gear from Caterham at the time of ordering a new vehicle/kit, they pretty much do the legwork in terms of fitting poppers etc.

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  3. Thanks for the mention Daniel!! Actually it was Caterhams recommendation, so i cant take any credit for that Aeroscreen mod. And agree with Daniel, best go with the full Carbon Aero option from CC. Its expensive but worth it, and you can always sell them for almost what you paid, and it makes your Caterham more valuable at resale time too!!

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