Carbon Interior Install - Day Four - The Weigh In

Thought I'd take it easy this evening and decided to get the scales out (for the 2nd time this year already!)  So on with the weigh in!

First off, and first onto the scales! Are the two curved panels - and they weighed in at 556g (for both).

The two curved panels weighed in at 556g

And the two carbon versions weighed in at 442g, which is a saving of 114g!

The two carbon curved panels weighed in at 442g

Now onto the heavier stuff, where a greater weigh saving should be seen (at least I hope so!)  The two interior panels weighed in at 1.862kg

The two interior panels weighed in at 1.862kg

And the carbon versions weighed in at 1.162kg - exactly 700g lighter...

The two carbon interior panels weighed in at 1.162kg

And the part where I thought there would be the biggest saving - the carpeted rear bulkhead.  I originally went for a carpeted interior for a number of reasons, one of which was that I wasn't too keen on the powder coated and highly riveted finish that the rear bulkhead would normally have.  So I've weighed the carpeted rear bulkhead, which weighed in at 2.310kg

The carpeted rear bulkhead weighed in at 2.310kg

To give a fair test and to compare like for like, I removed all the carpet from the bulkhead and weighed it 'bare' (well with a touch of left over adhesive!).  It weighed in at 1.538kg - so nearly 800g lighter without the carpet.

The bare bulkhead weighed in at 1.538kg

And onto the carbon rear bulkhead - this weighed in at 1.030kg, which is had a kilo lighter than the 'bare' version and 1.3kg lighter than the carpeted bulkhead.

The carbon bulkhead weighed in at 1.030kg

So the combined weight savings by fitting the carbon interior are:-

• Based on a replacement interior for a car with bare alloy panels (no carpets) the total weight saving is 1.322kg - so a 68p 'cost per gramme' saving!
• Based on a car with a carpeted bulkhead, the total weight saving is 2.094kg - which works out to 43p 'cost per gramme' saving... or an even bigger saving if you didn't buy the carpets in the first place!

And finally... The two 'knee panels' came out, and I can't see me refitting them - so that'll be another 'free' 324g saved.

The two knee panels weighed in at 324g

Not only that I've had a good look at the wiper assembly and this seems pretty easy to remove too - and has a 'rumoured' weight of 7kg!  The only problem is the removal will leave three holes in the scuttle - so a new scuttle will have to be ordered, painted, stickered up and refitted.

All in all the total savings from this removal / refit are nearly 2.5kg (including the knee panels) - which should give approx 5bhp / tonne performance improvement.

Next on the agenda is to add all this 'lightness' back to the car.  I'm really looking forward to fitting everything back together and seeing what it all looks like - I'm sure there'll be a few irritants on the way, but looking on the positive side I'm half way there!

Carbon Interior Install - Day Three - The Final Panel

Having drilled out the best part of two hundred rivets it was time to start day three's progress and get the final panel removed.  

I'd got myself into a bit of a 'depressed state' at the end of day two's panel removal, as it was really fiddly inside the drivers footwell, and I really didn't fancy going through that pain again.  If you are attempting this refit and get to the stage of 'why the f*** did I start this?' the best advice I can give is look at those lovely carbon panels you have, and consider every next rivet as an individual task and be grateful that with every 'pop' you're one step closer to finishing! 

The garage at the start of day three - stuff everywhere and no end in sight!

I did push myself a little bit last night, and removed the 'easy' rivets on the passenger side as you can see in the picture below... Onto the hard ones! 

Passenger side interior panel half removed

I don't know if it's because I'm right handed making access to this footwell more 'natural', and although it was still a challenge to get them out, the final few rivets came out a bit easier than those on the drivers side.  I'd suggest removing the rivets from the drivers side first if I attempted this again, to get the hard stuff out of the way first!  Removing the interior panels requires a little bit of a wiggle and some basic 'panel manipulation' aka bending, but they come out relatively easily.

Passenger side interior panel removed!

Two hundred and thirty seven rivets later (yes I counted them!) and both panels are finally removed - I was very happy that I'd got them out... I even went in and got Charlotte to take a picture of me having been brought to my knees (literally) by getting these two out!

I was literally brought to my knees getting these two panels out!

And here's the pic of both interior panels finally removed - the dark brown stuff on the panels is Dinitrol 2135 that I used when building the car... I'll be using a touch more of this to protect the metal from corrosion before I get cracking with the refit. 

Both interior panels removed - yippee!

So that's the removal done!  It was a mission, but you can probably tell from the picture above, it was a good sense of achievement to have got this far.  Next up, the panel 'weigh in' and then the re-install.

Carbon Interior Install - Day Two - Panel Removal

With a bit of a thick head in the morning, I decided it best to grab a coffee and bacon sarnie before I got to work.  So around lunch time I managed to pluck up the courage and get stuck in to removing the remaining three panels - or at least I thought I could manage that!

 

The next logical panel to remove was the rear bulkhead.  Some sixty odd rivets later I noticed there were three rivets tucked away in the corners near the wheel arches, and with no way of getting a drill in there, I made my new 'rivet removal' contraption.  This consisted of a flat head metal handled screw driver which had a pretty sharp head on it and a metal hammer.  I just lightly tapped off the rivet heads which was pretty easy with my lovely new tool!

Tapping off the three edge rivets of the rear bulkhead using my 'bespoke rivet removal tool'

After the rivets were removed, I moved the tunnel cover, only to see there were another three underneath that which also needed removal, but these were easy to drill out.

Three more rivets under tunnel cover

With all the rivets from the rear bulkhead now removed, it was time to get the bulkhead out - easier said than done - at first...  It appears that Caterham used some silicone to bond the bulkhead panel (along with a fair few rivets) and perhaps to provide a bit of waterproofing too.  It seemed most logical to start at the bottom and gently using the claw of a claw hammer prised the bottom part of the bulkhead away from the lowered floors.

Gently prising the underside of the rear bulkhead away with a claw hammer worked well

Next was to get the top section out - and as the bulkhead is wider than the edges of the car some bending was required.  It was a bit of a fiddle, but both of the top edges of the bulkhead needed to be bent to get them out from the metal part around where the top of the rear suspension is bolted in.  After prising this out, it looked something like this:-

Top of bulkhead edges needed bending to free it from underneath the roll bar

Now onto more 'panel bending'... With both bottom and top edges freed (see above pics) the panel needs to be slightly bent in the middle to allow room to get it out of the car - don't bend it so much that you put a crease in it, but just a little effort and a bit of a wiggle and it'll be free!

Rear bulkhead panel removed, revealing the structure of most of the rear of the car

So with three out of five panels removed, it was onto the final two, both of which I'd been dreading!  Picture below shows me looking like I'm having a good time, but this was very fiddly due to the lack of space and I was not enjoying this part of the experience whatsoever.

I'm having fun, I'm having fun - yeah keep telling yourself that Daniel!

To be fair drilling out the first section before the crease (in the outer panel) was pretty easy, it's just when the space becomes limited is when things start to get tricky!  It didn't take me long to find there was a severe lack of space and light in the drivers foot well, so after having my torch roll around whilst I'm trying to drill our rivets practically in the dark whilst squashed into the tiny foot well, I found another use for the accelerator!

A new use for the accelerator!

With light at a premium, and drilling access also at a premium - I found these four pesky rivets, along with the vertical ones towards the end of the tunnel the hardest work.  I had to tap the top off these using the screwdriver method mentioned above, then try and drill then out and then tap out the final pin through too - all whilst cramped in ridiculously contorted positions.

Having wrestled around for long enough I had a brain-wave which I wish I thought of earlier - remove the pedal box cover for some 'added light', and would you know it, yes this worked .  Picture below is to show the light coming through from pedal box, but the panel is also removed at this stage.


Removing the pedal box cover 'adds light'

And the fourth panel is out!  Thank god!  Only one more to remove!


The fourth interior panel is out - only one more to go!

With the fourth panel out - I considered pushing myself and getting the final panel out, but I just couldn't face it, so decided it was time to calm down, and finish off for the day.  More 'fun' tomorrow.

Carbon Interior Install - Day One - Prep

Before I finalised my R500 order, I was offered a test drive of the 620R at Donnington Park by Doug Parker, the sales rep I was dealing with throughout my purchase.  Laying eyes on the 620R in the metal for the first time, a couple of things caught my eye.  One being the beautiful carbon seats, and also the carbon interior panels.

Those of you who have followed the build will know the story about and the lengths I had to go to get the 620R seats, but after a 'fair battle' I got them... Which I'm very glad to have pushed so hard for as they are very comfortable and look, how can I say?  Well, they look the nuts!  

I'm at a stage with the R500 where I'm really trying to shave weight off it, without removing anything unwanted that may take away from the overall look - I guess you could say I'm aiming to keep the form before the function.

Anyway, having had to humiliate myself for the last couple of years in an R500D without carbon interior panels, I discussed this with Simon Lambert and asked 'nicely' if I could purchase the interior panels and fit them myself.  He asked some questions, and very kindly said I could be one of the first (if not the first) customer to purchase the interior panel set, as this is something Caterham will be offering as an upgrade on their parts site - cost is £900, mind you.

I think the 'standard' cars these panels appear in are the 620R and now the soon to be delivered, Superlight Twenty kits... So in a nod to potential customers, and owners alike here is my diary about stripping out the interior panels and fitting these beauties:-

Caterham carbon interior panels, first picture after unpacking

So on with the show - he comes the 'juicy' stuff...

Carbon Interior Install - Day One - Prep

Starting at the rear of the car I removed the upper four point harness sections and the newly fitted boot cover.

Upper harnesses and boot cover removed

With interior space a premium in the Seven, and getting out of one when half way in the footwell being a touch 'tricky' I decided it best to remove the exhaust, to avoid accidentally stepping on it whilst climbing out, and to give a little better access.

Exhaust and Cat removed

Next out of the car was the seats - real easy to remove.  From the underside of the car there should be four bolts for the drivers side (if you have moving runners) and four cap heads for the passenger side (with fixed runners). The seats just lift out with a bit of a wiggle, keeping note to ensure the lap straps of the four point harness are being eased though at the same time.  With the seats out, the next part to remove was the lap straps from both sides.

Both seats and lap straps removed

The next obvious part to remove / loosen was the tunnel cover.  Starting off with removing the gear-knob which is nice and easy, just undo the grub screw and turn the gear-knob anti-clockwise and off it comes.

Removing the gear-knob is very easy

As I've got a heater in my car, the heater vents restrict the movement of the tunnel cover.  There are two bolts either side, welded to a strip of metal holding the heater vents in place, so this needs to be removed.

Heater vents partly secure tunnel cover in place

To remove the heater vents, you need to loosen these two nuts either side of the heater unit under the bonnet, then push the bolts through and the metal strip with the bolts attached will be loosened on the inside of the vehicle making it easy to remove.

Removing these two nuts (both sides of the heater) will allow you to remove the heater vent panel

Having not full adhered the bottom of the carpet behind the drivers seat, seemed to be a bit of useful 'foresight' as this fuel filter? needed loosening - which was dead easy, but you needed to remove the offside rear wheel to get decent access, however it was just a couple of bolts and washers and it was free.

Fuel filter needed loosening off it's mount

Now time to remove the carpeted section.  With a bit of gentle pulling, it came free surprisingly easy from the rear bulkhead.

Removing carpet from rear bulkhead was straight forward

With the carpet removed you can see where adhesive was and wasn't sprayed! 

Carpet removed from rear bulkhead shows where adhesive was used

With all the prep work done, it's time to get onto the panel removal.  It appears that the panels with the rounded section are like a keystone holding the sides and the rear bulkhead together, so it made sense to remove these first.

I used a 4mm (metal) drill bit and got to work with the drilling.  Some time later and about thirty five rivets removed, the panel is free - and I was left wondering holy fcuk what have I got myself into here?!?

Rivets drilled out of first panel and removed

 Now onto the 2nd curved panel, probably an hour, and some more swearing later - it was also free.

Rivets drilled out of second curved panel and also removed

Having burnt through a couple of drill bits, drilled out probably seventy rivets and removed the two easiest panels I was pretty tired and decided to call it a day.  At the end of the first day, the garage looked like this!

The garage at the end of day one!

So with the garage looking like a bomb had gone off, and much less progress made then anticipated - there was only one thing for it!  Yup, close the garage, get drunk and whinge about a project you are beginning to think will beat you.

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! :-)