Carbon Fibre Bonnet

Whilst researching 'carbon' stuff, I found that Ultimate Carbon (along with a number of other carbon Caterham bits), also manufactured an S3 louvered bonnet (Ultimate Carbon are the guys who made the bespoke parts for me/you!)...  It was advertised as pretty much ready to fit, but just needs the catch plates fitting... I asked Bryn about the weight saving, but he wasn't entirely sure, so thinking that 'its carbon - it MUST be lighter!' I took the punt and gave him the go-ahead.

At first he was reluctant as they had to get the mould out of storage or something (I can't quite remember) but after a bit of pestering he sorted out what they needed to and said he'd make it for me :-)

Here's my first sight of the bonnet - a picture of the item that Bryn sent to me prior to collection.

My first sight of the carbon fibre bonnet

It then dawned on me that I've a massive great hole in the side of my bonnet for the air filter / trackday airbox.... Bryn said it'd be fine to make a paper template up and he'd cut the hole out... 

Bonnet cut-out template

Trusting that my template was fine - he cut the hole out and cleaned up the rough edges.

Hole cut in my Carbon Bonnet for air filter / carbon track day airbox

A few days later, we met at an M1 service station car park, I handed over some money - he handed over a lot of carbon; which didn't look dodgy at all :-) but joking aside, it was pretty much central for both of us, and meant I could get my hands on the parts sooner rather than later.

I got home, checked out all of the bespoke bits (which are awesome by the way) and put the bonnet on the car to ensure it fit - and yes it fitted perfectly, thank god. 

Unpainted Carbon Bonnet on car - looks odd so needs some paint!

The car looked odd with a carbon bonnet - and the intention was never to leave it in the carbon finish, so I didn't get them to lacquer it...

Prepping and Painting
The next bit was for Dave at Daytona Coachworx to do!  Dave wanted me to be exact with the paint that I wanted (obviously) which can be a little tricky with Caterhams (so I'm led to believe).  Luckily I moaned about the quality of the factory paint job, and when the car was waiting for the fuel pump to arrive it was repainted by XK Engineering.

I rang and spoke to Gary at XK Engineering who had to look into the records, but rang me back a little later on and said the car had:-

• Porsche Riviera Blue 39e colour
• Glasurit Basecoat (which is water based)
• and a DuPont solvent based clear coat (VR-1120)

With the paint details in hand, Dave ordered up the paint and got cracking with the bonnet prep.

The bonnet was given an initial flatting.

Carbon Fibre Bonnet after initial sanding

The inside of the bonnet was then masked - love their attention to detail!

Inside of bonnet masked

With the nature of carbon fibre, there is a tendency for there to be many pin-holes and small grooves (which would show up when painted), so the bonnet was primed, flatted, and primed some more.  In the picture below you can see one of the grooves on the left edge of the louvre.

Small grooves in the bonnet to the left of the louvre

In the end, Dave put three medium coats of high build on the bonnet, and flatted with P320.  He then flatted it almost back to the carbon so as to take up as many imperfections with the primer, and not leave loads of excess on there (weight!) He then put another three medium coats over that. Again he flatted as much as he could, so as to leave the minimum amount of material on the panel before painting.  Dave said this took a long time to do due to the complexity of all the louvres.

Carbon bonnet primed, flatted, primed and flatted again to achieve a perfect base.

The primer was left to dry, and then it was time to apply the colour...

Porsche Riviera Blue 39e Glasurit Water Base Coat Drying

With the base coat sufficiently dried, the clear coat was then mixed with a bit of flexible additive (to reduce the chance of cracking) and was sprayed on and also left to dry.  The flexible additive slows the drying process, so it took a little longer to dry than expected.

Once fully dry the bonnet was polished and ready for collection...

Carbon Bonnet Flatted and Polished - Job Done

The finish on the bonnet is ace, it feels very light indeed and the colour match is spot on too!

Drilling the Rivet Holes and Fitting Catch Plates

The old rule of measure twice and cut once certainly applies when you're drilling into an expensive bonnet!  No going back now! I started off by drilling a small pilot hole with a 2mm metal drill, then opening it up for the rivets with a 4mm drill.

The catch plates were fitted with two rivets (which was a little awkward to get access to, due to the shape of the end of the rivet gun), and a small metal plate on the inside of the bonnet to support the rivet and give strength to the catch hook.

Drilling holes into my new bonnet for catch plate hooks to be fitted - measure twice and drill once!

Applying The Decals

I know the stripes on my car are pretty bright, but I like that... I've had a number of people comment on them and also contact me to find out what they are... So to avoid further questions :-), they are MACal 9807-07 Pro Super Luminous Orange and I bought them from http://signsuk.co.uk/ as they were the guys who supplied decals and stone chip protection film for Caterham Midlands.

MACal 9807-07 Pro Super Luminous Orange Caterham Triple Stripe laid out ready for application

A couple of weeks ago I got SignsUK to send me some more decals in prep for the new bonnet... Applying the centre stripe was more fiddly than I thought it would be.  The process is to wipe down the area with methylated spirits and a clean microfiber cloth to remove any residue, dust particles and to get a good clean base for decent adhesion.  Then spray the area with a little water to allow for movement if you lay the decal down incorrectly.  Peel back the underneath to reveal the adhesive, and carefully lay the adhesive in place, pushing out any bubbles that may appear and then remove the paper top layer (carefully!)

The only problem with the Super Luminous Orange is that it has a tendency to fade in direct sunlight (over the course of a couple of years), but I couldn't really notice too much difference once the decal was fitted.

I also had a few variants of the blog's domain put together a couple of years ago, and cut (again in the MACal material) to match.  I decided to go for a change this time round, and went with the more 'square' version, which I think looks good too.

New carbon bonnet domain decal applied

A lesson to be learnt - do not apply decals outside in the wind... Quite frankly I thought this would be easy but the centre stripe was a right pain in the a$$... Not only that I had a fair hangover which didn't help with such a fiddly job! 

Onto the Weigh In
My favourite bit - seeing how much lightness has been added!  You can immediately tell the difference by picking the two up, so I thought that a decent saving was to be had.

I popped the aluminium bonnet onto the scales and they weighed in at 2.956kg.

Caterham Aluminium Bonnet (with cut-out) weighs 2.956kg

Then (and in a like for like state), the carbon bonnet was on the scales, I held my breath hoping for a significant weight saving... The carbon bonnet weighed in at 2.13kg which is 826g lighter - nearly two pounds saved and is around 28% lighter than the aluminium original, so I'm happy with that. 

Carbon Fibre Bonnet (painted with cut-out) weighs 2.130kg

The final reveal

And for the final 'reveal' the carbon fibre bonnet! Which aside from the weight saving, you really wouldn't be able to tell was carbon fibre! 

Painted Carbon Bonnet with decals applied, all fitted to my Caterham and looking very good!

A big thanks to Bryn at Ultimate Carbon for giving into my continual pestering and agreeing to make the bonnet, and also 'my mate Dave' at Daytona Coachworx for doing another fab job at prepping, painting and finishing off the bonnet.

The total cost of the bonnet including painting, catches, and decals came it at just shy of £800 - which works out to £1 per gramme saved!  I'm sure there's cheaper ways of removing weight!

Folembray - A Cracking Trip

Way back in 2014 (during the build), I was aiming to get away on a weekend tour of France with a track day at Folembray included.  Due to various reasons, the car wasn't ready, so I missed out. 

I made up for it last year, and really enjoyed myself... The trip was organised again for this year, but as I'm not on Facebook I didn't really get the heads up until Arnie contacted me to see why I wasn't going.

I naturally booked up as soon as I could... The only thing was my usual blatting buddies (Andy, Tom, Steve, and Alex) couldn't make it, so I was going on my own... that was until I contacted James Malley, (who lives just around the corner) who jumped at the chance to come along for the ride.

We made our arrangements, (I bought a boot bag from Soft Bits for Sevens for obvious reasons) and we agreed on a 6am pickup time...  With rain forecast, there were the usual frantic hourly online weather checks performed, but however many times I checked - it was looking ominously wet, torrential rain in fact, but I decided to throw caution to the wind, so off we went.

-1c, 6am, no windscreen and a long way to go - at times like this I'm happy to have a heater in my R500

After a slow-ish drive to our first meeting point (Maidstone services on the M20), we were the first to arrive, so took the opportunity to go inside, warm up, grab a coffee and waited for the rest of the guys to turn up.  About half of the attendees of the trip met up at the services - quite a few faces from last year, and a few new faces too... 

A few Sevens meeting up at the Maidstone services on the M20, ready for a few days of blatting and track action!

A fun thirty minutes on the motorway later, and we met up with the rest of the guys at the Eurotunnel car park - Sevens as far as the eye car see (well nearly!)

Sevens as far as the eye car see (well nearly!) at the Eurotunnel car park

Our timing was good, so we didn't have to hang around for too long and swiftly boarded the Eurotunnel for the short trip to France.

On the Eurotunnel

Having 'landed' in Calais, we had a little blat to get to our Lunch destination - La Fregate and with all the Sevens parked up nicely it was a great opportunity to get the drone out!

After lunch we went for the main blat, about three and a half hours over some great French roads, and at a decent pace too.  Not too fast this time, as I didn't want to get another speeding ticket!

We arrived in St Quentin around 16:30, found the hotel (Hotel Memorial), parked up, checked in, had a quick shower and it was off for a beer and a bite to eat.  Dinner was at Le Grand Cafe de la Universe in the Central Square of St Quentin.

A few quiet pre-dinner beers on Thursday night with the James, Ed, Mike and John

TRACK ACTION - FOLEMBRAY CIRCUIT

Woke up early, and full of excitement on Friday morning... The drive to the circuit was a touch longer than I remembered (over half an hour) and the weather was looking great, but the Forecast said torrential rain in a few hours...  The organisers were well aware of the looming weather, so opened the circuit slightly earlier than the 10am time, and we got underway... 

The morning session was (for me) about getting in as many laps as possible before it rained, so there were plenty of passenger rides, and a few quicker laps on my own too.  We stopped for lunch and it was still dry, but the skies were getting darker...

CAR SETTINGS

With the two-foot-long ham and cheese baguette fleeced, it was time to try and get a quick lap... At every track day it's usually a case of starting from a base road setup, and slowly dialling in the settings until the end of the day where the fastest times usually come... My final settings (before the rain set in) were:-

• Front ZZR tyres at 17psi (warm)
• Front Nitron (one-way) shocks on eight clicks from softest
• Rear ZZR tyres at 20psi (warm)
• Rear Nitron (one-way) shocks on fourteen clicks from softest
• Rear ARB one from front

With big rain storms forecast and the skies looking greyer every minute, I noticed there were a few rain spots appearing on my visor during this three lap stint, so it was time to put the pedal to the metal and try and get a quick lap in:- 

54:667 LAP
The third lap in the video above was a 54:667 and you can see from my glance at the lap timer that I was dissapointed (figuratively speaking) as according to the fastest laps website the unofficial circuit record is 54:390 set in a Ferrari 458.  Here is the 54:667 lap:-

LAST YEAR VS THIS YEAR
Having lapped around 2 seconds faster than I did last year, I will put it down to a few things in order:-

• Suspension now flat floored
• Around 15kg lighter
• Better settings on ARB and tyre pressures
• Improved brake pads
• Roller Barrels properly balanced
• Heavier right foot
• General experience

Not content with the above, I've decided to put together a 'last year vs this year' fastest lap video to see where the differences are made up:-

And that was the track day over...

Crossing the finish line at Folembray - cheers for the pic JV!

FRIDAY NIGHT

Dinner was at L'Edito also in the Central Square of St Quentin and next door to last nights restaurant...  We met around 6pm, discussed plenty of potential car upgrades, blats and had a few beers.  Dinner consisted of Beef Fajitas (I seem to remember them being better last year) and a couple more pints. 

After a few beers it was always going to seem like a good idea to move onto 'something stronger' JV suggested the best cocktail in world was a margarita so we ordered 'a few' which were actually pretty strong... About half an hour later someone came to grab a shot of us drinking margaritas, and I thought it was a brilliant idea to do the good old 'finger willy tongue out' pose!

Obviously someone had one too many of those 'things' on the right of the picture!

SATURDAY MORNING

With a bit of a thick head from the night before, and thinking 'I hope I didn't do the finger willy thing (but vaguely remember doing it)... However... I'm not on Facebook, so no-one would post it, even if I did...' Anyway, they did - see above!  It was time to leave the hotel and head back home.  Another drone moment, but this time - for a still of the group.

The 'No Trailer Trash Weekend' Folembray 2016 attendees

With the goodbyes out of the way it was time to head home...  We (James and I) decided to head directly back as I had a karting race the next day, and James had a family event to attend on the Saturday night - so the quickest way back to the UK was a fairly dull slog up the French toll roads for about two hours... 

AND ONTO THE 'CRACKING' PART

About one and a half hours into the drive back, the fuel light came on (which is a 10 litre warning) and with only around 50k to go, I quickly done the maths and worked out that I'd have just enough fuel to be able to push on and fill up in Calais.  

The fuel was very close to running out, having practically arrived at a petrol station near Calais on fumes (my readout was alternating from 1L to 0L left)... I filled up, went to pay and then heard a LOUD BANG - I turned around to see James talking to a short, 'less than athletic' Romanian courier driver who managed to crash into my stationary car!

A short 'less than athletic' Romanian courier driver managed to crash into my stationary car!

Considering how terrible our communication was (I didn't speak Romanian and he claimed not to speak any English) I gathered he was trying to suggest he didn't see the car, so we exchanged contact details, I checked over the car and the only real damage I could see was the front cycle wing was utterly destroyed.  

Cracked and destroyed front carbon cycle wing on my Caterham R500 :-(

Upon closer inspection the cycle wing stay was pushed into the tyre meaning the tyre wouldn't rotate.  Luckily there was a workshop attached to the garage and in my greatest impression of an English person who can't speak French, trying to speak French; I shouted, pointed and made hand gestures until he understood I was after a crow bar.  

With quite a lot of force I managed to prise the cycle wing stay away from the tyre enough so we could get going again-phew... On the short drive to the Eurotunnel I worked out my options, and thought:-

1. I don't stand a chance of getting the money off that Romanian bloke
2. It'll cost me heaps more in insurance premiums if I do start a claim
3. I may as well take it in the a$$ like a good ol' stiff-upper-lipped british chap and pay for it myself.

So I checked on Caterham Parts site, and freaked!  £286 for a carbon cycle wing, plus £14 delivery!  OUCH! for me, and the courier driver got away scott free. Very irritating - I should've just asked him for the money there and then, but I couldn't be sure there wasn't any chassis damage until I got home.

I've now checked the chassis, and thankfully there are no signs of damage - whilst driving it didn't feel like there was damage, and luckily I usually park my Seven (in petrol stations when filling up) out of gear with the handbrake off - no idea why I do that (until now), as I don't do it any of my other cars...  I'm guessing it was just the impact that shattered the wing, and any real damage was negated by the car being able to roll forward.

So now, that's two accidents in my car - BOTH by other drivers crashing into my wings, leaving me to sort it out. Nice.

TOTAL COST OF THE TRIP

With all the excitement slightly jading my memory - I tried to keep an note of the costs on this trip, just so I know for future, and this is (roughly) what I spent:-

• Return Eurotunnel Fare - £132
• Hotel - £104
• Petrol - £150
• Track Day - £55
• Tolls (Dartford and French tolls) - £15
• Food and Drink - £100
• Beers / Margaritas - £150
• New car Cover (one-off cost) - £50
• Soft Bits for Sevens Boot Bag (one-off cost) - £187
• New Carbon front cycle wing (one-off cost) - £300 inc shipping!!!
• Total Cost approx this year (excluding one-off costs) - £700

AND FINALLY - DID IT LEAK?

Yes and no... It's not leaked at the tail of the gearbox, but it is quite thick and gunky there, and there is some clear fluid underneath the gearbox towards the front... I'm hoping this is just perhaps overfilling, expansion due to temperature or something else, but I'll keep a very close eye on it.

WOULD I GO AGAIN?

Yes, tomorrow - it was a 'cracking' trip!  Joking aside, it was an awesome weekend.

Folembray Prep - Brakes

I can't quite believe it's been a year since going on a three day round trip to St Quentin, France with a day in the middle at Folembray circuit... Well it's not 'exactly' been a year... but I've made the decision to go again with the same group at the end of next week (Early May Bank Holiday weekend).

Whilst at Folembray last year I had recently fitted some ZZR tyres and some Nitron shocks... I found on the blat to the circuit there was a bit of under-steer, and at the circuit pretty major under-steer which I tried to dial out with tyre pressure and damping adjustments; but meant I also had to adopt a slightly different driving style to accommodate... Turns out after having the car flat floored that the suspension setup was terrible, borderline un-driveable, so on reflection there was no real wonder why I was struggling for front end grip.

So now having everything pretty much sorted in terms of setup, I'm hoping to be able to improve on the lap time (so long as it's dry!)  and with that in mind, I've a few things that will (hopefully) help me achieve this goal. 

New Brake Pads, Fluid Change and Bleed
When I had the car flat floored by Rob at RatRace Motorsport, he 'sold me a seed' about brake pads, which I must say had been on my mind for a while... I just couldn't shake his suggestion that he had some 'special compound' pads which he'd developed over the years that vastly improve braking distance and feel over the standard pads! 

Having noticed towards the back end of last year that the brake pedal was a bit spongy and certainly required a lot more effort to stop the car-which meant my grey matter had buckled; and a week or so ago, I decided that life wouldn't be living without these new pads.  So off to RatRace it was!

On arrival I was greeted by Rob and his Rottweiler (Aston), who pretty looked pretty gutted to see me again :-(

Robs Rottweiler (Aston) realising I'm back again!

Onto the brakes...  Firstly, as much of the old brake fluid was removed from the reservoir using a an hand extractor pump.

Old brake fluid removed from reservoir

The fluid was replaced with a new higher performance DOT 4 called Castrol React Performance.  This should be more resistant to heat and will reduce any fade that I may experience.

Castrol React Performance DOT 4 fluid going back in

With the new DOT 4 fluid in the reservoir, the rear bleed valve was plugged with the bleed catch tank, I jumped (not literally) into the drivers seat and pumped the brake pedal until it was firm... Rob then released the bleed nipple, tightened it back, I re-pumped and so on until the new fluid was through and we were happy with the fluid colour and pedal feel.

Rear brakes ready for bleeding

With the rear brakes bled the old pads were removed and even though I've only done around 3500 miles the rears were cracked and had about 25%... Which is probably due to quite a few track laps... The new pads on the rear are visibly different with two sections to aid cooling which will help.

New pads (top) vs Old pads (bottom)

The new pads had some copper slip applied to the outer sections to stop squeaking and were then fitted.  Some more copper slip was put on the wheel nut threads, the rear wheels were re-fitted and that was the rears done.

New rear pads fitted

Now onto the front pads...  These were a little more complicated to bleed and replace as to get access to the retaining bolts, the calliper on the nearside needed removal from the hub.

Front brake calliper was removed - note Aston's eyes in the background

I can't remember the offside calliper being removed, and my photos seem to confirm that it wasn't removed.  The same process as the rears though, more brake fluid, and the system flushing through.

Front brakes ready for bleeding

New pads (right) old pads left... They seem very similar, but the old front pads were in much better condition than the rears... However, there was still signs of some cracking where they have potentially been overheated, so was good to replace - the new pad material is also softer too.

New vs old front pads - not much difference in appearance

New front pads fitted...  Everything was torqued up, the brake fluid topped up and the wheels replaced.  Job done!

New front pads fitted

With the new pads fitted and brakes bled with new fluid it was time to pay the bill and head off home... It was chucking down with rain so wasn't an ideal opportunity to test the new brakes but, the pedal feel was back to how it was when I first got the car (I guess this is down to the fluid and bleed)... Apparently the new pads will really help, so I look forward to trying them out at Folembray... I'm just praying to the weather gods that it'll be dry!

However - I think next time I'll bleed the brakes myself, as I found the following video on YouTube which makes it look very easy to do on your own... Not only that I'm sure I've got an easy bleed brake kit hiding in my garage somewhere!



Bespoke Carbon Parts - 12v Socket Holder, Knee Trim Panels, Fuel Pipe Cover and Pedal Box Cover

Ever since I had my car weighed, I've been on a bit of a mission to 'add lightness' wherever I can.  After-all every gramme saved is a little more performance, and considering I'm not going to the gym right now, I need all the help I can get!

Having replaced the interior earlier this year with a full set of carbon panels, and my carbon'itis' well and truly settled in, the things that have been on my hit list are:-

• 12v socket holder
• Knee Trim Panels
• Fuel Pipe Cover
• Pedal Box Cover

Now I know I could just remove these parts, but I want to keep as much of my car as it is, but replace things with lighter versions, so after some considerable "no's" or stupidly high quotes, I found a company online (Ultimate Carbon) who seemed 'delighted' to take on the job.

The chap there, Bryn gave me a ring, we discussed the detail and the only real issue was I had to 'donate' my parts to the cause...  I managed to overcome that problem within about two minutes of putting the phone down to him, as the parts were swiftly bubble-wrapped up, packaged and ready for the courier to collect!

My donation to the cause - parts bubble-wrapped, and packaged ready for collection

A couple of months later this photo arrived - my 'own' carbon parts, finished in matte lacquer and looking very smart indeed.  

My very own carbon parts - finished in matte lacquer and looking very smart

Here is some of the moulding process info, pictures and weights of both original and new carbon parts.

12v Socket Holder / Fuse Cover - and manufacturing

Starting with the most awkward part to manufacture first, the 12v socket holder.  Here is the mould in various stages. 

Pictured below is the carbon mould and laid up component inside a pink bag which is a bagging film used to seal everything.  The white material inside the bag is a breather cloth wrapped around the carbon component and resin which helps the air to be sucked out during at the vacuuming stage.

The bag with the component inside is autoclaved for three and a half hours at around six bar / 90psi at 130c to cure and bond everything together.

Caterham 12v socket holder mould in it's pink bag as it came out of the autoclave

The picture below is of product removed from the bag after the autoclaving process.  The component has had the white cloth removed and is left with the red halar release film, which is used so that the bagging materials don't stick to the part and stops the resin bleeding.

New carbon 12v socket after autoclaving, prior to halar release film removal.

The halar release film is like peeling greaseproof paper from a freshly baked cake that peels off nicely, which reveals the final product (below) which is the product ready for trimmed and final lacquering... I went with a matte lacquer which I think is perfect and suits the components extremely well.

Fresh out of the autoclave - my new Caterham Carbon 12v Socket / Fuse cover.  Just needs trimming and lacquering!

12v Socket Holder / Fuse Cover - weights

The original Caterham 12v socket holder / Fuse cover weighed in at 288g 

Original metal Caterham 12v socket holder / Fuse cover weighed in at 288g 

The carbon version was less than half the weight at just 130g!

Bespoke carbon Caterham 12v socket holder / fuse cover weighs 130g

Then it was onto fitting... All that's required is a little velcro and the tongue pushing into the lower edge of the dash and it's fitted, and looks ace too!

Bespoke manufactured Carbon Caterham 12v socket holder and fuse cover

Knee Trim Panels
Onto the knee trim panels - I guess the easiest (and cheapest weight saving method) with these is to simply remove them completely, but I find there's quite a lot going on in terms of wires in this area, so prefer to keep the knee trim panels fitted.

The two original metal knee trim panels were put on the scales and weighed in at 270g

The two original metal knee trim panels were put on the scales and weighed in at 270g

As you can see from the picture below the matt finish and general construction of these parts is superb.  I popped them onto the scales and the two of them were less than the weight of one of the metal ones - weighing in at 116g for the pair!

Both carbon knee trim panels weighed in at 116g - less than the weight of one of the original metal versions!

With the knee trim panels fitted you can see the excellent weave, not only that the matte lacquer is a perfect match to the carbon interior panels.

Carbon knee trim panels fitted, showing excellent weave and great match to carbon interior panels

Fuel Pipe Cover
The fuel pipe cover in the boot is again one of those parts I think you can just do without, but I like the neat and tidy look of the boot with the fuel pipe cover in place, so decided this part should also get the 'carbon' treatment!

Pictured below is the original Caterham fuel pipe cover removed from the car (just two screws hold it in place) and it weighed in at 154g

Original Caterham metal fuel pipe cover weighs 154g

The carbon version isn't a considerable weight saving, but is nearly half the weight of the original at 86g.

Bespoke Carbon Caterham fuel pipe cover weighs 86g

Fitting the Carbon fuel pipe cover is easy, just two screws either side hold it in place - taking the picture below was more difficult though!

Caterham Carbon fuel pipe cover fitted in boot

Pedal Box Cover

I think this was the part that set this whole project off in the first place... The pedal box cover... For some reason whenever I removed the bonnet it always seemed as though the pedal box cover should've been made out of carbon - well now mine is!

The original metal pedal box cover comes off really easily - just remove the eight or nine bolts and it'll lift pretty much straight out.  The original Caterham pedal box cover weighed in at 310g. 

The original Caterham pedal box cover weighed in at 310g

The bespoke matte lacquered carbon Caterham pedal box cover on the scales - tipping in at nearly one third the weight of the metal version, just 108g.

Bespoke matte lacquered carbon Caterham pedal box cover on the scales weighs just 108g

Now onto what I've been waiting the last two years to see (well not quite!) but it still looks good....  The carbon pedal box cover fitted, and for those 'eagle eyed' readers you'll notice I've used black anodised bolts to secure it which I think look cool and finish it off nicely.


Caterham Carbon Pedal Box Cover only 108g!

Combined Weight Savings
Before I 'donated my parts' for such a good cause, I popped them all onto the scales to see how much they weighed.  Surprisingly it was over a kilo, weighing in at 1.028kg

Metal interior parts weighed in at a combined 1.028kg

And in comparison the bespoke carbon parts total weight is 438g - which is a saving of 590g... It all adds up!

Bespoke carbon parts total weight is 438g - which is a saving of 590g

Want these for your car? Where to buy...
Having considered arranging a 'group buy' - which on the face of it seemed like a good idea... I just don't have the time to arrange this and answer the questions and so on related to it, so have decided it best to link to the ultimate carbon website where you can make your own enquiries directly should you wish to purchase any of these parts:- http://www.ultimatecarbon.co.uk/

Overall I'm very impressed with the fit and finish of the items, the weight saving is a bonus and I'd certainly recommend having them finished in the matte lacquer as it looks really smart, and compliments the .

Respraying the Seven

After a couple of years and a few thousand miles the Seven in my grille looks like it has taken a bit of a battering... And seeing as I'm towards the end of sprucing my car up for the year ahead I thought I should tackle this job too.  

Caterham Seven Grille looking battered after a couple of years

So the nose was off the car, and the grille removed from it.  The silver Hammerite on the seven was badly chipped and flaking, so half an hour of sanding later the remaining paint was off, and I'd achieved a good key on the metal underneath.  With the old chipped paint removed an hour or so was spent meticulously masking the grille, and it looked like this:-

Caterham Seven Grille keyed, masked and ready for spraying

I made a little 'spray booth' out of a large(ish) carboard box, and applied four light coats of Silver Smooth Hammerite...


Caterham Seven Grille was sprayed with a few coats of Silver Smooth Hammerite

Having used hammerite when I initially sprayed the grille a couple of years ago, I'm hoping due to the fact I've taken the time to key the metal this time around it'll stick a bit better and naturally last longer...


Caterham Seven Grille looking like new again

The grille was refitted to the nose-cone, and that was fitted back to the car and now it looks like new again, so I'm happy!