Post trackday check and clean

[RESOLVIWOLF]

begun the long cleaning task tonight .... tons of East Midlands finest mud all over, inside, under and within teh car ❗ Bit between the bottom chassis rail and the curved bottom edge of the body is a right pain. Cleaning the dry sump belt aint easy either !

 

anyway, had a few questions:

 

1) whats the best stuff to polish up my exhaust and downpipes real good... and where do i get it from ?

 

2) is there a list or website showing some good post tracklday checks... what nuts to check, re-torque, anything else to look out for etc... ?

 

3) at the base of the battery there's a black sticky coating thats formed .. presuambly from the battery. Any ideas hwo to prevent this ?

 

4) is there anywhere on the car that is particularly suseptible to rust and where i shoudl always apply a little WD40 ? From my slr days i remember that the joints around the wishobones and anti roll bar were quite rusty. Also, the top ball joint on the top wishbone always seems heavily marked and battered on every caterham ive seen... ???

 

 

any help appreciated, cheers

 

 

[STEVE GILBERT]

1) Soapy brillo pad to clean, actual polishing is very time consuming retrospectively and you need machinery or no life

 

2) Use a build manual and spanner check every single thing

 

3) Too much acid possibly but what the stuff is? If acid remove some with a syringe

 

4) Just keep it clean and protect with 'tyre slick' or silicone spray, touch up chips etc. Some people can't be arsed to clean the wishbomes at all. If you have had a Motorbike this bit is a bit like that to my mind.

 

Justs my 2p

 

Steve

 

 

 

See My Caterham Fireblade Here.

[kenny.]

I'd also check the plastic ball ends on front anti roll bar if applicable........I broke a couple of these in my last 7 when on testing days.......the car always felt better to drive but times dropped off by a second or so a lap when this happened As for the awkward bit at bottom of engine bay you mentioned, I use an acetone soaked rag...comes up as clean as a whistle as does all the under body ali with this method..............just keep a window or door open or you'll feel pissed for no apparant reason. 😬.....I buy acetone for about a fiver a 5 litre bottle and it really did keep the car grease and dirt free.

 

Kenny SLR400

 

 

[drB]

IMO - if you find a brillo pad a bit coarse to clean the exhaust, just use some wet and dry,

 

a 1500 grit will give the best finish on the important shiny bits!

 

ouch!

[Myles]

Bit between the bottom chassis rail and the curved bottom edge of the body is a right pain.

 

I found that a jet-wash (I've got an £80 Karcher) zaps these grot-traps a treat.

 

I'd put some Waxoyl down there before winter - and although it's been doing a good job, it does collect grit...

 

...so one jetwashing later, and it'd cleared even the surface waxoyl away - ready for a reapplication. Job done.

 

Keep BC free and open for ALL. Membership No. 43xx

 

Alcester Racing 7's Equipe - 🙆🏻™

[RESOLVIWOLF]

"Use a build manual and spanner check every single thing"

 

 

is that really necessary ? dont really want to be there for hours on end. Was hoping someone could recommend a list of about a doaen or so bits to check ?

 

 

[gmdh555]

ditto that - if I've got to do that after every trackday I've bought the wrong car

 

Gareth

 

Yellow and black 1.8 VX, pics here

 

[Gridgway]

I find my spanner check is pretty obvious when you go round.

 

At the front you have:

upper and lower wishbones (4 bolts)

shock fixing (2)

top/bottom uprights (4)

track rod taper joints (2)

 

At the back you have (depending on setup):

radius arms (4)

a-frame (3)

dd ears/hub (8)

drive shaft (2 athough that's not coming undone)

 

That lot shoudl hold the suspension on then there's more until you get bored...

 

Caliper bolts (8)

Rack bolts (4)

That funny block and grub screw thing on the steering column

wheel nuts (16)

check the engine mounts

diff mounts

chassis tubing round the diff (Arnie)

 

Bored now!

 

Graham

 

Then

[Frying Pan]

Graham's list is pretty exhaustive, but you may want to add:

 

- Harness mounts (and condition of harnesses)

- Seat mounts

- Security of cycle wings (if bonded rather than bolted)

- Condition of tyres (including pressure)

 

The build manual includes a section at the back of 'critical' torques which is pretty much the same as Graham's list, and took me less than an hour to do at the end of my build. Good for peace of mind

 

Guy

 

See some pictures of the build here. First 1000 miles completed!

[Jason Plato]

The trick is to torque the bolts up once , then mark them with a spot of tell tale paint . If the bolt moves , the paint blobs dont match up .

 

simple visual check is all that is then needed .

 

Dave

[Mcalvert]

Great information - Thanks! This should really go into the FAQ.

 

Michael.

[Steve Kirk]

Re exhaust, this has been covered a lot on these forums. I read through the past posts for ideas, and tried a few different abrasives/polishes on mine. My exhaust was covered in a heavy brown coating when I started, I think it hadn't been polished for several years and 40k miles. I found that the combination of methods below worked best for me. Step two might not be required for newer or cleaner exhausts.

 

1. Gloves and safety goggles were a must. Seriously. There is a lot of dust so a filter mask is a good idea too.

2. To shift the hard brown stuff, I found that nothing I used by hand was making any impact, including hard wire brushes and steel wool. So I got the drill out and used the wire brush and sandpaper disc attachments. Halfords sell a variety pack of different paper grades, mostly coarse/med. I got through 2 packs of these, mostly because the disks end up tearing and flying off across the garage. This was the point at which I was most pleased with myself for having thought ahead enough to wear goggles....

3. Once the brown stuff was gone, I put the drill away and used progressively finer sandpapers by hand to smooth the metal finish. I think I used 120,400,600,1000,1500 simply because that's what was in the shop. About 4 or 5 sheets of each was enough.

4. I then polished up using Peek or Autosol polish on Scotch pads. I used coarse then med then fine pads. Again, Halfords do a variety pack, but one of each was enough. Both polishes seemed as good as each other.

5. Buffed up finish with Peek/Autosol on a soft cloth.

 

You can buy all the bits below from halfords. Get some rubber gloves and goggles while you're there.

 

I was amazed how shiny my exhaust is now, considering how grotty it was before. It does takes hours, although I can see now that just a little light polishing will keep it in good nick.

 

And yes it does discolour on the first drive after polishing, but it is easily brought back again with a little Peek/Autosol.