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

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.

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

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

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.