Day 17 - IVA Rubbers, Headlight Fitment, Front Anti-roll Bar, Radiator & Side Repeaters (8 hours)

The instruction manual suggests fitting the headlight mount whilst building the suspension up. Reading other blogs, I believe this isn't the way that Caterham do it and that the headlight unit is best constructed off the car (couldn't agree more)! As a result i also didn't fit the Anti-roll Bar at that time.

Today has felt like a productive day with help from my little assistant Katey. ;-) Thanks hun.

Job 57 - IVA Rubbers

Having had a quick chat about the IVA requirements, Katey set to work fitting the IVA rubber around the front openings around the front suspension. We decided that this was best done before mounting the headlights.

First port of call was to remove the bolt for the Upper Front Wishbone as the this is where the headlights mount, but also because the nut touches the bodywork and would prevent us from fitting the IVA rubber. This then allowed me to remove all of the masking/insulation tape around the holes, I was pleased to see that the paint is all present and correct, especially around the front upper wishbone mount where the bolt.

Katey did most of the rubbers, but a bit of team work was required in order to get some parts of the rubbers in place. It was necessary to push the aluminium body panels from the inside (which I did), whilst Katey pushed the rubber in place.

IVA rubber fitted - A time consuming job . Thanks Katey.

Job 58 - Headlight Fitment

Whislt Katey was working on the IVA rubbers, I decided to add a bit more insulation tape to the headlight wiring. As it was cold, I used the heat gun to warm the insulation tape and wiring to increase stickiness. Once happy with this I fitted a rubber grommet to the heat shrink. Again I used the heat gun to warm the cables threading the loose cables through one at a time first and then the bundled heat shrunk wiring.

Makeshift support used whilst working with additional insulation tape and fitting the grommet

Before mounting I sprayed the inside of the headlight and wiring connections with ACF50 to prevent corrosion from inside.

Having removed the front upper wishbone bolt, it was a case of persuading the headlight/indicator wires through the grommet inside the chassis. (I found using my heat gun to warm both the heat shrink and grommet helped). Once the wires were through it was  a case of getting the upper wishbone bolt back through and securing with the nut (incidentally the rubber helped grip the nut as the bolt was wound in to the nut.)

Test fitting 

Coaxing the wiring through the grommet - Not enough hands, Katey helped.

LHS Headlight and indicator mounted

Job 59 - Front Anti-roll Bar

This was another easy job once i'd greased my balls! ;-) With a bit of assistance from Katey providing some resistance I pushed the balls into the socket.

Balls in socket with the protective rubbers zip tied - I had to use 2 small zip ties, not provided as the ones provided would not fit in the groove as explained in the manual

Blue Anti-roll Bar Bushes - Not sure which Anti-roll Bar it is mind

Job 60 - Radiator & Fan

A nice job to do, made easier by using the work bench to lay everything out and mock it up before fitting. Looking at the Radiator it seemed, that it could be mounted either way up. I ended up mounting the Fan on the bobbins first and then locating the radiator afterwards. I connected up the bottom coolant pipe and trimmed the upper coolant pipe securing both with the hose clips as instructed. The fan cable was then connected and zip tied to the chassis cross member.

Radiator mocked up before fitting to the car

Radiator and Headlights fitted

Job 61 - Side Repeaters

 This was a job I wasn't looking forward to, just because of the size of the holes that needed to be opened up on the newly painted cycle wings. I started fitting the IVA rubber around the edge of the wings.

IVA Rubber fitment

 I then set about opening up the pre drilled holes. First step was to mask over the holes on both sides to prevent any cracking of the paint. Caterham recommended using increasing sized drills, but I took the advice of Tom Wood and used the Dremel to open up the holes.

Indicator hole - increasing in size - Measured with the micrometer approximately every mm

Once I had opened the hole to 15mm I had to make a decision! The standard indicators require a 15mm hole and 2 further 5mm holes, but I had purchased some (IVA approved) LED circular side repeaters which required 1 20mm hole!

Standard vs purchased side repeater - Which to use?!

I opted to go for the larger hole working on the basis that if required I could always fit the standard repeaters as they are secured using the 2 5mm holes and not the 15mm hole!

First side repeater fitted

Both front wings with side repeaters fitted, ready to be mounted to the wingstay!