Hood Stick removal and Boot Cover Replacement with Guide

After the car weighed in at a considerably 'tardy' 575kg (with 16.1kg of fuel) last year, I seem to have caught the 'weight saving' disease that many seven owners are also infected with... So last year I made the decision to try and remove as much unwanted 'stuff' with a view to still keeping the car looking nice.

A few bits and bobs were removed, and having changed to an aero screen (with no intentions of ever putting the screen back on) I thought that the next quick and easy weight saving would be to remove the hood sticks and replace the boot cover.

I ordered the new boot cover towards the back end of last year, but as the car hasn't been with me for the last couple of months I couldn't remove the hood sticks and fit the new cover, so as part of my 2016 prep here is the removal and new boot cover refitting guide.

Now onto the Hood stick removal and boot cover refitting guide.
This guide is just the way I found it worked best, and I'd suggest reading the whole post before committing yourself.

Firstly undo all of the poppers on the boot cover and velcro around the top of the roll bar as per the picture below which should give you good access to the hood sticks and inside of the boot.

Getting access to the hood sticks

Removing the hood sticks is actually very straight forward.  Literally undo these bolts on both sides, and unscrew the two self tapping screws holding the nylon fabric strips into the inside boot lip and the hood sticks are free!


Removing hood sticks is only a matter of undoing two bolts and two self tapping screws

With the hood sticks removed - there's only one thing to use... The 'new' suitcase scales!  The hood sticks weighed in at 1.5kg, so not a bad power to weight saving for just a few minutes work.  Time to store these along with probably another 50% of a Caterham I have in 'spares' in the loft! 


Caterham hood sticks weighed in at 1.5kg

Now remove the top harness bolts - if you've not built your car it's worth mentioning these are longer than you may think!  The four self tapping screws for the poppers also need to be removed, and that's the boot cover freed.

Remove the harness bolts and self tapping poppers.

Now, and I hear the drum rolling... Here come the kitchen scales for the first time in 2016!  Time to weigh the old boot cover.  The reason for weighing this is there is more material to allow for the hood sticks, and the new boot cover will naturally have less material and I wanted to see if there was any substantial difference.

The boot cover (for cars with hood sticks) weighed in at 832g

Before refitting the new boot cover, I wanted to weigh this too.  However, and strangely enough the boot cover is supplied with a metal strip which needs removal - I'm unsure why it's there in the first place, but that's just the way it is.  So for those of you who are perhaps building your car and fitting your first boot cover, yes you do need to pick away at the stitching of your lovely new boot cover to be able to remove the metal strip.  I removed the stitching on the passenger side of the boot cover, slid out the metal strip and superglued the black plastic edging together.

Removing the metal strip from the passenger side of the boot cover

With the metal strip removed, the only thing to do now was to count out the number of fasteners (for a fair test) and to weigh the new cover in!  The new boot cover weighed in at 578g which is a MASSIVE saving of 254g, but added to the hood sticks that are now off the car it's a combined weight saving of 1.75kg which equates to 'around' an additional 3.5-4bhp / tonne.

Caterham boot cover (no hood sticks) weighed in at 578g (inc fasteners)

The next step is to align the leading edge of the boot cover with the top of the rear firewall (behind the seats).  Mark the boot cover where the holes need to be cut for the seat belt bolts and the popper fasteners (I used a paint marker) .  It's worth triple checking the holes, by lifting the front of the cover and replacing quickly in a flicking motion which like one of those flip books and gives the impression of the marked area over the holes.

Leading edge of rear boot cover marked up ready for holes to be cut

Now to cut the holes... and the only tool I've got to cut through the boot cover is this derisory punch tool contraption (see below)... I really don't know of a better solution, but this does work - if somewhat, how can I say... 'tiresome' on the hands... It really is hard work punching through the double thickness material, and you need to punch four holes (on the largest setting) for the seatbelt bolts, and using the next size down a single hole for the popper fasteners.

Using punch tool to cut holes into the boot cover

With a hand as red as an embarrassed teenagers face, the holes should be cut in the front of the boot cover.  It's now worth fitting the front of the boot cover to the car, and fully tightening all the bolts, so that everything is nice and secure for the next step.

Front of boot cover fitted

With the front of the boot cover snugly fitted it's time to mark up the rear of the boot cover for the poppers.  Ensure you pull the cover as hard as you can, and then with your finger push on the outer of the cover which will make the male part of the popper protrude into the cover material.  You can quite easily feel the centre of the fastener and again mark the boot cover with a paint marker.  It's worth double checking your markings (using the 'flicking' method I mentioned above) before you start punching your holes out.

Rear of boot cover marked ready for hole punching and poppers to be fitted

Once you've marked up the boot cover and double checked your markings, remove the boot cover from the car and get the hole punch ready for action!  Using the third largest setting on the punch tool, punch through the boot cover to make the holes for the poppers to be fitted.

With all the holes punched, and no doubt a sore hand again! You'll need to get the dot fastener tool out.  Put the fastener in the rounded part of the tool, and the socket in the top part (as pictured below) then the metal into the brass section of the fastener then using a metal hammer a couple of light to medium taps and it'll be all secure.  Repeat for all poppers.


Fitting the poppers to the boot cover using the dot fastener tool

Now the boot cover should be ready for fitment.  Simply fit the harness locating bolts, the male fasteners on the leading edge, then 'pop' the rest of the cover in place, and it should look something like this:-


Caterham R500 with new boot cover (without hood sticks)

In summary, and if I done it again I'd probably just remove the hood sticks, and leave the old boot cover as the hood sticks equate to the majority of the weight saving... Plus, the new boot cover was £276 (I think) from the Caterham parts site, so over £1 per gramme saved!

 

Next post will hopefully be the carbon interior refit!  I can't wait to get stuck into this one... The only hold up is the final three panels which should arrive tomorrow :-)



2016 prep part two - wheels

So I've decided to bite the bullet and get the wheels done... The 'road' wheels were loaded into the mini last night and I took quick trip over to Mint Alloys in Silsoe, Bedfordshire. 

The guys up at Mint Alloys are always really friendly, the price and turnaround time is also good so I'm happy to be using them again.  I'm getting the wheels repainted in Skoda/Jaguar glitter black which is the same as the track day wheels I had done last year... 

 

Caterham R500 13" alloys loaded into the mini ready for dropping off at Mint Alloys

The wheels should be ready at the end of this week, and then I'll need to drop the 'bombshell' on Dave at Daytona coachworx that he'll have another set of wheels to paint with orange rims! :-)

2016 prep part one

A bit of a boring post, that is only if you thought some of others were of any interest!  So on with the 'prep', some more essential than others, but in all honesty all of what I'm doing over the next month or two is clearly a 'necessity'!

1. Flat Battery
I tried to fire the car up when it returned, but it wouldn't turn over, so thought I'd give the CTEK battery conditioner I got for Xmas 2014 a try.

It comes supplied with some eye connectors that I fitted to the battery a while back, and have the connector neatly tie wrapped in place for ease of use.  Plugged it in, and the first orange light (l/r) was on, but after just an evening all the lights were illuminated meaning the battery was back in good condition.

CTEK Battery Conditioner.

The car turned over quickly and instantly, and the rumble of the exhaust was a great noise to hear again!

2. Headlight Glass Replacement

I think this happened on track at Snetteron last year, but strangely enough it's on the same side as the first cracked headlight and almost in the same position.

My 2nd cracked headlight, on the same side and almost the same position as the first one

The fix is pretty straight forward, but as the design of the carbon headlights is to adhere the glass to the outer part of the headlight using silicone, it makes it somewhat more time consuming than changing the glass on the original Caterham lights.

I simply unscrewed the three grub screws, unclipped the connection blocks and removed the lights.  Then cut through the silicone until the glass was free from the carbon outer.  After removing any excess silicone, it was time to fit the new glass.

I ran a decent bead of black silicone on the inside of the carbon, and lined up the top hole of the carbon shell with the top of the glass.  Checked the front to ensure it was level, and left it to cure overnight.

New headlight glass siliconed into carbon headlight, left to cure overnight.

First thing this morning, and the silicone had hardened as expected  Fitting the headlight glass section back, is just a case of pushing the headlight into place, the sidelight, covering with he rubber mount and attaching the connector block.  Then screwing the three grub screws in secures it in place.

New glass fitted to Caterham Carbon front Headlights

Two jobs done.  Now time to get cracking with some more 'juicy' mods.  First up, removing the hoodsticks and fitting a new boot cover.

It's Arrived

Happy New Year to everyone, this is my first post of 2016 and of course the post you've all been waiting for; I know...  Well I'm pleased to say... It's arrived - the delivery of the Blue, Orange and White.... Tamiya polycarbonate paints! I need to spray up the body shells for my 1/18th scale RC car!  The plan is to spray the shells blue, with an orange triple stripe down the centre and sides also spraying the model designation into the sides, so hopefully a decent replication of the Caterham's colour scheme - more on that when they're finished.


Tamiya Polycarbonate paints, Blue, Orange and White.

Not only did I receive my blue, orange and white Tamiya paints yesterday, but the Caterham was delivered back as promised!  Now that is something that is blue, orange and white too - but seeing it again was a 'special moment'!  I really cannot wait to drive it again, it feels like I've not seen it for months (I think that's because it's been gone for months)... but there are a few things to do first...


The Caterham R500 is back!

With a lot of help from Simon Lambert, Mick Atree and the guys at the factory Caterham have replaced the gearbox seal with a genuine Ford seal, sorted out the leak from the diff and also fixed the issue with the ignition part of the loom.  I'm very, very happy, borderline ecstatic to see the car again and have a whole heap of things that I want to get stuck into so I'm  'ready' for the 2016 season.  I'll bullet everything below and go into a little more detail with some pics where possible.

• Road Wheels Re-spray
  I'm going to get my 'road' wheels repainted in the same 'Skoda black' :-) as per the track wheels (in the picture above)  I'm not sure if I want to get the orange stripe painted in as this was quite pricey, but looks cool - I'll probably be left with 'no option' in my mind, but to bite the bullet and get the orange rims painted too!
• Polishing the Exhausts (again!)
  Staying true to my 'polisher' status, the manifold, downpipes and cat bypass pipe(s) will be removed and polished up, using my buffing wheels and compounds.
• Rear Wheel Arch Repair
  One of the rear carbon wheel arches has a very small crack in it where Lee (my business partner) clipped it with his X5, so I'll get that repaired, and also where I made the carbon battery housing, a bit of carbon epoxy got stuck to the other rear wing, so I'll get that rubbed out too.
• Replace ANOTHER headlight that's cracked
• Just before the car went off to Caterham,  I noticed another headlight glass has cracked - and strangely enough it's pretty much the same area as the last one that broke and the same side... Fortunately I bought a two of the headlight lenses when I replaced my last broken headlight, so I'll be fixing that.

Another cracked headlight glass

• Fit my lovely new carbon interior panels!
  With a view to reducing weight, and getting a 'cooler' look, I badgered Caterham enough to let them sell me the interior panel set that comes in the 620R and Seven 20 edition!  I think I'm the first to have this set of panels and I'm really looking forward to getting these fitted... I'll create a full detailed fitting guide and so on...  There are five panels in total, and this will be a good project to get stuck into over the next few weekends.

  

  A couple of the new Caterham carbon interior panels and rivets

• Remove the hoodsticks and replace boot cover
  Carrying on the weight saving theme, I'm going to remove the hood sticks (as since change to aero screen - there's no going back!) and I'll also be fitting a new boot cover designed for cars without hood sticks.

I'm sure there's a few other bits that'll crop up, but there's certainly plenty to keep me occupied for a few weeks!  Watch this space...

Santa's Been!

With the R500 having been at Dartford for the past few weeks, I've not had any real content to write about.  I've been in regular contact with Simon Lambert over the last four or five weeks and he has been extremely patient with me and has kept the information coming about my car... And, on that note, the gearbox leak is fixed (TBC! :-)), the diff leak is fixed and also the issue with the wiring loom is sorted... Unfortunately everyone who ordered their kits wanted them before Xmas (how dare they :-)) , so I'm having to wait until 5th Jan to get my car back - which is fine by me as I'm a little 'short of space' in my garage, but more on that later...

Now that most of the festivities (and meeting up with the outlaws) are out of the way, I feel a little more 'enthused' to write a post...

Santa was extremely good to me this year, and in typical 'petrol head' fashion I thought I'd share my latest goodies... So with the on topic items first...

An ELF beard hat!  Now I like a blat, but in an ELF beard hat, with ears... hmmm, not too sure this'll get used!  I'll vouch for the beard hats though, the beard part obviously fits under your chin and as a result they're great at stopping the hat flying of your head!

An ELF beard hat

A couple of Caterham 13" wheel centre caps (as I lost one and wanted a spare) along with five centre cap badges as I'm feeling the need to change my 'road' wheels to a different colour... More on that in the next few weeks.

Caterham 13" Wheel Centre Caps and Cap Badges

Now slightly off the 'Caterham' topic, but hopefully still enjoyable to those fellow petrol heads...  I don't think Christmas could be Christmas without a decent sized LEGO Technic to build - this year I got the 42039 Le-Mans Racer which took around five hours to build and was a good way to fill an otherwise boring boxing day.

LEGO Technic 42039 Le-Mans Race Car

On the small scale car theme, I was also lucky enough to receive an RC18B2 / T2 kit... This is quite an old kit (in terms of release date and now is only available in a ready-to-run format, which is a shame) but I was given the kit form to build - which is great, and will help me get through these last few days until the Caterham returns home!  I'm also aiming to replicate my Caterham's colour scheme of light blue, orange triple stripes and using a friends vinyl cutter I'll also try and get the model derivative masked and sprayed into the shell in white too - should look good once finished, and will post pics of them when completed.

Team Associated RC18B2 and RC18T2 kit

As an avid EVO reader, my girlfriends mother always buys me a six month subscription for xmas and the same for my birthday (which is great!), but rather than a picture of the magazine, I found these little gems towards the back of the advertisers section.... A bluetooth tyre pressure (and temperature) monitoring kit... Should be great for track day action, and I think these will be making an appearance on my birthday list - gotta try em out!

Snooper / Tyre Pilot Tyre Pressure Monitoring Set

Oh yeah, and I nearly forgot... Santa (well I) also treated me to a new car... Along with a new blog domain, but no dry weather to get any good pics / post anything interesting... yet......  

The domain is www.ferrari458.co.uk and I am hoping to get some nice pics, write some informative posts, get some interesting videos yadda, yadda, - perhaps a back to back track day comparison with the R500 would be good?!? - I just hope the gearbox doesn't leak on this one :-)

Ferrari 458 italia in Grigio Silverstone grey with black roof

The R500 should be back with me on Tuesday the 5th Jan, and I'm very much looking forward to seeing it again!  Not only that, there are a number of upgrades I've got planned, so 2016 is looking like it will be a great year!

Thanks once again to all the blog readers - I'm hoping to reach the 250k+ reads next year... Wishing you all a happy, healthy and prosperous 2016. 

The Final Collection? and First Update - Already!

Ian from Caterham arrived around midday on Monday to collect the car, after he'd dropped off 'someone' else's kit!  Hopefully this will be the final collection for my issue, as I'd really like to have the car back and be leak free once and for all!

The Caterham collection van - my R500's second home!

Simon Lambert has come back to me today to say that Mick Atree and James have been working on my car already and their eagle eyes have been hard at work - which is very reassuring to hear.

They found an obvious issue straight away... Apparently the seal that CC Midlands had sourced was not an OE Ford part, now this would be normal for them to do with a service item as it's something they don't hold stock of and would naturally have been given the assurance by their supplier that it was the right part to use... and now comes the big however... Once the removed seal was compared with the genuine Ford part it proved quite different.

So the seal has been changed to a genuine Ford seal, the prop shaft has been balanced and according to Simon the static running is also proving positive too!  Happy days...  I would sign off there, but...

...Mick and James have noticed the diff is leaking! So that's their next job... Now I can sign off!  Will post with more updates as and when I get them...

The overall feeling is we're getting there, so I'm happy!

What Shall I do Poll Results and 'THE decision'

Thanks (once again) to all those that voted in my poll about what to do next, and I'm pleased to announce I've made a decision about what to do!

Below are the poll results... and this is where we're at, results (based on todays date) are as follows:-

There have been lots of comments of (as always) varied opinions, a few emails and so on, but... and thankfully the majority of the voters went with what I'd already 'pre-chosen' to go with.  I'll go into a little more detail below about my reasoning.

Starting with the lowest scored option first:-

Last: 46 votes / 20% - upgrade to a 620R

• For:- Faster, extra bhp, torque, newer and hopefully a non leaking gearbox :-)
• Against:- Couldn't build it, probably another ten or fifteen grand!

Third: 52 votes / 22% - to ask for a refund

• As the car is eighteen months old, I think this was a bit ambitious and perhaps more a 'cry for help' than a genuine desire to get rid of the car... After all I built it, it's my first car build and I feel somehow 'connected' with it... It's special (to me), and I want it to be the best it can be, hence losing the plot when the box was leaking again.

A close second: 66 votes / 28% - upgrade to a Sadev Sequential

• This was the closest 'next option' for me too... I seem to get the most pleasure out of the car on track, and why not go for the sequential gearbox?  Well there's a few good reasons, firstly it was in the thousands to upgrade, secondly it wouldn't have been the spec I built, and thirdly this would no doubt take away some of the 'analogue fun' of blatting on the roads and general hooning around.

Number one: 69 votes / 30% - Stick with it and get the gearbox re-worked

• THANKFULLY... the majority were thinking the same as me, and this is what I'm going to do! I'm extremely grateful for everyone that voted, as this has helped back up my decision as the right thing to do....

Caterham will collect the car on the 23rd November, and take it back to the factory in Dartford.  They will give it a full inspection, get the gearbox out, re-work it (or replace if deemed necessary) and seeing as I don't have plans to use the car over the next few months, they can take their time....

...Having said that... I've had my eye on a set of carbon interior panels that from Westermann Motorsport which I'd love to get fitted during my time off over Christmas.......  Hmmm, and I might get my 'road wheels' repainted... Anyway.............

I'd like to say a big thanks to Simon Lambert for coming back to me with a lot of answers to my questions, and helping to (hopefully) get the show back on the road...

I'll post again when the car is collected next week - watch this space...