The great strip down ends....(almost)

[djmhall]

Well, Angus & Tessa have really put me to shame!

 

Far from being a weekend job, stripping down my 1400SS took me from Christmas Eve to ... well probably Easter Saturday as I have still to remove the old floor panel and tunnel panels.

In my defence, I have had an average of about 30 minutes per weekend, due to the combination of manic job plus 3 year old boy plus new born girl who arrived back from hospital with SWMBO on .. well Christmas Eve!

 

But basically the job is done. I am surprised at quite how good some of the chassis is despite the piles of cr*p which fell on to the floor when the side skins are removed. Part of me says that perhaps I shouldn't have bothered, but then again, I know that if it had been left much longer, it would have deteriorated and looked much like the horror stories others have pictured.

 

Thanks to the advice received here, I have boxes full of labelled sandwich bags of all the bits and hundreds of pics of how it all went together and think I have half a chance of putting it back together. I have spoken with Bruce at Arch and hope to deliver the chassis to him in the next couple of weeks.

 

The best bit about this is that after 10 years, I finally know how my car fits together. Whats more, I will now have the fun of putting it back together and making the improvements I want - I always wanted to build one in the first place.

 

Questions and observations...

 

There will be many but, for starters..

1) I want to put in a new loom (chassis at any rate) and from a separate thread, the choice is CC or "someone" who advertised in LF. Any better clues as to who the someone might be?

2) Brake and fuel lines: I would rather aeroquip the lot when I do the rebuild - any clues as to good suppliers for this?

3) I cannot put the open diff back in after all this time and trouble it would seem like a crime. I missed the BB on LSDs due to dosh and time. As a one off, where am I likely to get the best deal?

4) I am converting from Clams to Cycles. I was going to ask Arch to build some stays for me while they have the car - is this a good idea?

 

Thats it for now - there will be many more, but bear with me - this is getting to be fun!

 

 

 

 

[caterhamnut]

Well done Dominic!

Sounds like you had quite enough to be getting on with with a growing new family, and were also able to take yours apart in a logical, bagged up way. I had intended to do this, but somehow we just managed to create a pile of bits!! 😬

You are right, it is an excellent way to learn about how your car goes together (hopefully!)

I am up to Arch on Saturday to see our chassis revived - Bruce will do you a fantastic job and is a pleasure to deal with.

Can't help you with the loom question - as you have seen I am looking at similar options! What I would say is get a list of any new bits you need and get an order in sooner rather than later - there may be some delays.

Someone will tell you where to get the brake lines from - I think they are pretty standard, so there should be quite a few sources.

You could contact Phil at Road and Race (number on our website) and discuss diffs - even if you don't buy it from him, he is the man to fit it into your current casing, or offer any advice.

CONVERTING!!!! 😳 - if you must downgrade then I guess caterham is the source for buy some standard stays.

 

Enjoy it - it is fun isn't it. 😬

 

www.mycaterham.com

here

91,000 miles -1st 1.6k Supersport, '95 Motor Show car

[Dobuy]

Thinkauto for brake pipes and fittings here

Perceived wisdom is that solid pipes are better, with the exception of the de-dion and of course the normal front aeroquip pipes.

Don't forget to ask for L7 Club discount from ThinkAuto

 

Duratec SV, built in Dubai

[djmhall]

 

Thanks for the coments - I finished the strip down completely on Monday - can't wait to deliver it to Arch - especially after the great photos of your Saturday visit.

 

Sounds like I should keep the main solid pipes and just convert the DD to aeroquip - thanks for the link Dobuy!

 

A couple more questions:

 

1) Spare wheel carrier or not?

My company 147 comes with 4 wheels and a can of "stuff". Seems a shame to lug around a spare when a can of "stuff" might do. Only issue being can I then modify the luggage rack for the occassional (and theoretical) long distance blat and how would this work?

 

2) Tank straps. These were just welded on and I would have thought that this would prove a perfect way of breaking the new power coating due to flexing. Surely later cars didn't have this arrangement?

 

3) AOB: While the car is a Arch, what other essential mods are recomended? I am never going to go crazy with power and I doubt it will get much serious track work. I doubt that my driving skills are good enough to warrant any work on the suspension. I had thought though about powder coating as much of the ali as possible.

 

Thanks

Dominic

 

[Shaun_E]

It took me 4 weeks to strip my car and that was working most of the weekends and some evenings so don't feel too bad about that. Bagging and labeling made re-assembly much easier, so you'll be glad you did.

Definitely get a new loom - it's my biggest regret that I didn't. Not sure where to source one though - Caterham will obviously supply the standard offering but you may be able to get a custom loom made for similar money.

I don't have a spare wheel carrier but others swear by them. Why not have a removable one made to give the best of both worlds?

Can't answer your question on tank straps - on my car the tank sits on two right angled brackets and is held down with long bolts through a right angled bracket that sits on the forward top edge of the tank.

I didn't have any extras added to the chassis. Angus has gone for Watts linkage mounts but people I asked about that said that the Caterham design was sub optimal and that there was little benefit in the Watts link over the previous design. I had every panel powder coated apart from the rear panel (they can't do that one as the bends crack the powder coat) - it looks better and should provide a further barrier to corrosion. Strip all your suspension parts and get them blasted and recoated (and rebushed) - another thing I regret not doing.

Good luck.

 

Yellow SL #32

[caterhamnut]

Dominic - fair to say just about every (period of) chassis is different, when you get to Arch, walk round it with Bruce and I am sure he will point out things and make suggestions as to what you may want done

I have the same tank fitting as Shaun.

If you look at the pictures at the top of this page (or page 9 if this jumps!) you can see the 'new' (relative to ours) tyre rack. I am a fan simply because it does provide a good luggage rack if not used for a spare wheel, also good for transporting wheels to track days - 1 in the rack, therefore only 3 strapped to the top. Carries a good sized waterproof case if required, and most importantly provides a nice bumper for minor bumps!

As Shaun suggests, many people have made them removable. You could discuss this with Bruce - might be something he can do 'at source' - or get it put on and sprayed up along with everything else and then take it off yourself later.

I had watts link brackets fitted 'just in case' - we may never use them - like the cage bushes - so that sort of thing was more of a 'just in case'.

 

www.mycaterham.com

here

91,000 miles -1st 1.6k Supersport, '95 Motor Show car

[Tom_C]

I have a can of "stuff" in both the tintop (Clio 182) and the 7, as mine's a race chassis. What you need is Tyreweld from Halfords if you don't want to carry a spare.

 

For luggage carrying, Ernie Panks (Norfolk AO) is developing a rack to clamp onto the rear panel.

 

 

Cheers

 

Tom

 

FH54WLX - only the car supports ManU, honest!

 

see here

[Chris__]

Nice one Dominic!

 

re this:

AOB: While the car is a Arch, what other essential mods are recomended? I am never going to go crazy with power and I doubt it will get much serious track work. I doubt that my driving skills are good enough to warrant any work on the suspension. I had thought though about powder coating as much of the ali as possible.

I'd say go for all you can, and copy what Angus and Tessa have done 😬

 

I don't worry about a lack of a spare wheel, but if you're doing touring, a spare might give you peace of mind if the tyre tears or shreds or whatever, the one thing tyreweld can't fix.

 

LSD - I'd ring BGH, as everyone on this site seems to swear by them, and they've got rather a lot of diffs...

 

 

[nickh7]

Hi Dominic

 

As for the wheel carrier I cut it off but added a small bumper as you can see in the photo

here or http://community.webshots.com/photo/531631597/2932259930083607912szUUfN

I am sure that Bruce could do the same, I can still use the luggage carrier so all round its a good solution

 

Nick h

 

Its Yellow and Black and makes me 😬

 

Edited by - nickh7 on 18 Apr 2006 20:39:02

 

Edited by - nickh7 on 18 Apr 2006 20:39:55

 

Edited by - nickh7 on 18 Apr 2006 20:42:52

 

Edited by - nickh7 on 18 Apr 2006 20:43:49