caterhambuild, Author at 310 Build

Wishbones

Don’t fully torque wishbone bolts until car is finished with wheels on, on the ground
Chamfered side of washer faces towards the lower wishbone
Prepare headlights before bolting on upper wishbone – will fit at same time as upper wishbone

Start by checking that all bolts fit in required holes. You may find several bolts don´t. If this happens you need to use a file to file away any burrs or excess powder coating until the bolt fits nicely. This makes the job a lot easier later on. On the lower front wishbone, take a wrench and insert/tighten the required bolt to clean out any debris.

Poorly fitting bolt (left). Use file (centre) to remove any excess powder coat or metal burrs. Bolt now fits (right)

Lower Wishbones :

Use the trolley jack support the end of the lower wishbones. Offer the lower wishbone up to the car. Place a long allen key or pin punch in the front hole to offer support.

Start with the rear bolt on the lower wishbone. Use the 2-2-2 configuration as per the manual. The rearmost two washers are easy to fit in, make sure that the chamfered side is facing toward the wishbone. The next two washers are harder – I put one washer into place and used an allen key to support it before hammering the second washer into place using a nylon hammer. The fit is incredibly tight but once you get it moving with some wiggling it will come into place. This is covered very well on the detailed 420 build blog. Once you have the washers aligned, hammer through the bolt (coated with copper slip) and then tighten the nut.

Now move to the front bolt on the lower wishbone. I could pull the wishbone away from the car body very very slightly… this was enough to get the first washer in and some of the second. Using a pin punch to stop the washers dropping thru I used the mallet on the second washer to drive it down. I then found the easiest way to align the washers was the pull the wishbone towards me (ie away from the car moving ´ahead´ of it) and to wiggle the wishbone around. This combined with the pin punch aligned the washers well before inserting the coppaslip covered bolt. I set the lower wishbone level using a spirit level and tightened by hand. I will leave torque until the end.

Upper Wishbones :

Prepare a ratchet strap to support the upper wishbone while you work, before getting anything else into place

Coppaslip the Wishbone bush sleeve. You can find this in the loose bag in with the suspension. There are only 2 of these wishbone sleeves – try pushing them onto the bolt to check you have the correct ones first.

Check that you have the right bush sleeve BEFORE you hammer it into the upper wishbone! Slide it onto the bolt as in the left photo before going any further

Apply some copper slip to the sides of the front of the upper wishbone as well. Offering it up to the car, you will probably find that it is slightly too long :

Apply initial force using rubber mallet in direction indicated by arrow.

Fully insert (as much as you can) the rear of the upper wishbone. Then use a rubber mallet on the front of the upper wishbone to hammer it into place, initially applying force in the direction indicated by the red arrow in the image above.

Once the upper wishbone is in place, place a pin punch through the front upper wishbone bolt to hold it in place and rig up a ratchet strap to support the end of the wishbone

Once the upper wishbone is secure, align the rear hole and hammer through the copper slip covered bolt. Tighten the bolt, but don´t torque.

Now need to add the headlight which should have already been prepared.

Support the headlight on the creeper seat, thread the wires through the grommet and pull. This should fit comfortably.

Then remove the pin punch and push the headlight stem into position, making sure that the hook is underneath the mounting point and that the top of the headlight stem is tucked in to the car body

The bolt should pass through the holes to be tightened up. Do not push the bolt all the way though. Just get a little bit of the rear poking out as shown in the photo below.

The front upper wishbone mount is very tight to the car body and it is very very easy to scratch the paint.Make sure you have some masking tape in place and push the body work in where the bolt will sit to create more space. Now hold the bolt in the open jaws of a spanner against the upper mount, before using a socket to slowly twist the bolt. This way you can tighten the bolt without spinning the nut around. Just go slowly so that you don´t thread the bolt!

Now hold the nut against the mount and very slowly tighten the bolt using a socket, keeping a spanner against the nut to stop it from rotating. Note how the headlight stem is tucked **underneath** the skin of the car – make sure it is not hanging out.

Repeat for the other side and this should be the result

Nuts and Bolts

Prep

This page is a collection of things I’ve learnt about any techniques and components to build the car.

Caphead – a bolt, but with a circular head instead of hexagonal. Instead of using a spanner, you use allen key to tighten up.

Chamfered – this is when an edge is smoothed out to a slope. Usually this applies to washers where you will see that one side of the washer doesn´t have an edge to it

The same washer. The left washer shows the chamfered side. Right washer shows the normal side. Note on the left washer that the edge has been smoothed away. This is chamfering.

Copperslip – This is grease mixed with powdered copper. Normal grease will melt at high temperatures, whereas this is heat resistant thanks to the presence of the metal. You apply this to the bolt thread and/or body. It an also be used on the back of brake pads to stop squealing brakes. Copperslip can make it easy to get bolts into tight places, such as fitting wishbones, A frame, differential etc. (along with liberal mallet use). It will also make nuts/bolts easier to undo for maintenance etc and provides some protection from weather. It’s a lubricant. There is a degree of debate on how much of the build to use this on. I took the approach of using copperslip wherever the manual indicated it should be used (there is a small icon on each page where Caterham recommend using it), and maybe one or two other places tops. Wherever I used copperslip, I indicated in the text. Some builders seem to apply copperslip to most bolts. I’m not sure there is a right or wrong answer. The one thing you probably wouldn’t do is use copper slip on bolts which you applying loctite on. The use of copperslip will also affect how difficult the bolt is to tighten or loosen, as it is a lubricant. Bear this is in mind, for example I didn’t use any copperslip on the engine parts because I don’t want them easily coming undone! You need to take copperslip into account if you are torquing a bolt which is NOT marked as having copperslip applied in the manual. Torque values are typically specified for dry nuts/bolts. You may want to err on the lower side with the torque if you have applied copperslip to a bolt which is not marked as having copperslip applied, perhaps 80-90% of the torque value …. but I am NOT an expert… ask someone more qualified if you intend to do this because there are obviously safety implications.

Crossthread – if you try to force a nut onto a bolt and the threads don´t align properly you can cut a nut thread. This is very prone to happening when a nut meets a bolt at an off angle. This compromises the nut/bolt and needs to be avoided. Best solution is to use your fingers to do the first few turns on any nuts/bolts before using tools to tighten once you are sure thread correctly aligned.

Derek – Weird place to put this but I would just mention that someone called Derek Howlett used to work at Caterham and was their main point of contact for amateur builders in the event of problems. His contact details were in my copy of the manual. Just a note to say that he left the company in mid-2020, but Caterham now have other people available to contact if you have issues.

Econoseal – these are the plastic adapters that wires go into. Protects against water. You can get various tools which help assemble and strip these connectors if you need to do upgrades to the electric.

HSS Drill bit – HSS stands for ¨High Speed Steel¨ and typically refers to drill bits that are suitable for drilling through metal (as opposed to wood or masonry)

IVA – Individual Vehicle Assessment – this is the government test for new cars, similar to an MOT but a bit more in depth. You need to pass this for the car to get licence plates and be road legal. You can ‘present’ the car yourself and lots of builders do, however I can’t stand bureaucracy, so I got the dealer I bought this car from to present it for me.

Loctite/Threadloc – This is like glue for nuts and bolts. If you apply some loctite (the one I used was a blue liquid) to the thread of the bolt and then tighten it will ‘set’ similar to glue. This means if you need to torque up a bolt with threadlock, make sure you torque it immediately, don’t come back to torque later. Torque upon application, and then leave it to set for 24 hours or so. If you need to undo the nut/bolt, then clean off all the old theadloc and apply new. Various different types of Loctite are available – 242, 243 and 248 all available. Caterham recommend 243 so I’ve gone with that.

Nyloc nut – this is a nut with a nylon insert which is a bit like using threadlock. When you tighten up the bolt, it will bite into the nylon. You shouldn’t reuse these or tighten/untighten unnecessarily. Blue insert tends to be metric, white insert tends to be imperial. Not used with spring washers

PBC – Post build check – once you’ve finished building you get the car checked over by the dealer you bought from, or Caterham themselves, before sending for IVA. The main point of PBC is to check the car is safe and to fix any mistakes in your build.

Plain washer – used to adjust spacing, to spread load from a nut/bolt on a softer surface, and/or to help make a rough surface smoother for nut/bolt. Large diameter/thin plain washer is used to spread load onto very thin material.

Socket Set – A collection of sockets that you can put onto a wrench (typically supplied in the ‘socket set’) or torque wrench (typically bought on its own). Wrenches and sockets come with different ‘drives’. The drive refers to how thick the connector is between the wrench and socket. The main drive sizes are 1/4 inch, 3/8 inch and 1/2 inch. Generally speaking, the higher the drive, the more torque (tightness) you can put down it. The lower the drive, the smaller the nuts/bolts you will be doing up. So for 5mm nuts, you will be using a 1/4 inch wrench/socket, not 1/2 inch. You won’t even be able to get a 5mm socket to go on a 1/2 inch drive wrench. Likewise, if you need a 19mm socket, you wouldn’t use a 1/4 inch drive on that, more likely a 1/2 inch drive. 3/8 inch is a nice middle ground, and I used that size drive a lot on this car.

Spring/Split washer – this is a washer with a split in it, looks like a cross between a spring and a washer (hence the name(s)). Idea is that it should prevent a nut coming undone, because it digs into the nut so if there is any vibration, the washer will help stop it undoing the nut. Usually this will be next to a bolt or nut, then there will be a plain washer – ie a spring washer shouldn’t be coming into contact with the car body. Generally not to be used with Nyloc nuts, as with nyloc the nylon insert provides the resistance

Torque – this is doing up nuts to a certain N.m (Newton Meter) measurement – you can think of this as ‘tightness’. If you need to torque something use a torque wrench which you can set to a certain value and it will then click as you reach that level of ‘tightness’, prevent you putting more power down it. When torquing up, ensure bolt is the correct length, if you use a bolt that is too long it may strip the thread on the bolt. Once you have torqued a bolt, mark the head with paint/torque pen. It is helpful to extend this mark onto nearby metal, then you can easily see if the bolt has loosened. Make sure you stop when you hear the first click on your torque wrench to avoid overtightening.

Trickle Charging – this is when you leave a special battery charger hooked up to your car battery for days/weeks/months while the car is not being used so that the battery doesn’t run flat in that time.

Safety :
Not that I’m one for the boring stuff, but will do simple stuff. Use eye protection. If drilling or working with volatile chemicals use a face mask. When applying glue, grease and any other chemicals will use disposable latex gloves. Use work gloves wherever possible. If working with sharps use slash proof gloves.

Other rules :

Don’t apply any tape to painted surfaces of the car for significant period of time
Protect bodywork with cardboard/ bubble wrap and don’t be lazy about it
Caterhams are constantly changing. That´s why the manual is often out of date.
Check bolts fit before attaching relevant part. Holes may need to be filed slightly or drilled out.
Be prepared to use force from time to time. Rubber mallet is very useful.
Some powder coating will get damaged. You can go over it with Hammerite black paint
Don´t expect everything to align. My car was frequently out by 1-2mm and it was incredibly frustrating.
It will go together eventually, patience is key to making it work. Try to enjoy it, even when you want to put a sledgehammer through the windshield!
Everything is hardest to do first time, with components with eg left and right, the second time is much easier
You will make plenty of mistakes, try not to let them distract you and if necessary take a break after messing something up to avoid making it worse!
It is easier to scratch and damage the body paintwork than you think – overprotect and think every action through before you do it to make sure you are not scraping against something.
Don´t throw anything out. If you think you don´t need a nut/bolt/washer etc, I keep it in a freezer bag
Purchased a load of small plastic boxes to put the fixing packs into (eg Pack A, Pack B etc). I then stack these on work bench and lot easier to grab what I need.

Spec

Prep

Caterham 310R
SV Chassis (also known as S5 Chassis)
Lowered floors
Full windscreen, hood and side screens
Carbon seats with padding
Detachable steering wheel
Track day roll bar
Heater
Clear lens pack
Master battery cut off switch
13 inch wheels – 8 inch rear, 6 inch front
Avocet red with white stripes

I deliberated over the spec for quite a long time.

Originally I was more inclined to go with the 420 or 360. I test drove a 310S and thoroughly enjoyed it and I was steered in that direction for a first Caterham. Apart from the odd track day over the years and about 6 months of Golf R32 ownership, I’ve never owned a performance car before. A lot of people pointed out that the 310 was the balanced point in the range and going on the test drive I certainly felt like it was enough car for me (for now anyway!). I struggled to find anything negative in terms of reviews so decided to take that option, but went for the R pack because that’s what I wanted.

At over 6 foot and having sat in both normal and SV chassis, I felt SV was definitely the way to go, along with the lowered floors. I was inclined to go with the 15 inch wheels as I thought they looked nicer, however it was pointed out that handling may be better on 13. Heater I wasn’t sure about – I couldn’t see how I would need it, although again it was pointed out that its a nice option to have if you want to take it out on a cold day. Battery cut off switch as it may spend long periods of time unused in the garage. Clear lens pack as I thought it would look nicer. Carbon bucket seats because I think they look amazing and I wanted that sports car feel.

Steering Rack

Front End

Notes :

Don’t fully tighten bolts securing the rack yet – will torque up once the actual steering column (connecting steering wheel to steering rack) is fitted – this will come after the engine is in.
Give the tracking nut 13 turns for SV body (old manual). New manual says 12. Average of 11 for normal body and 13 for SV body (as per old manual). This is for tracking purposes and only a rough fit, tracking will be done at PBC.

Lay out required components from Steering rack bag :

Once protective cardboard has been added to the car, put down some cloth/towel to protect the metal work as shown, then insert the left side (driver perspective) of steering rack and push quite far through.

This leaves enough space to get the right side of the steering rack in position

Now add the steering rack clamps and tighten bolts, but do not fully torque – need some give in the steering rack for later when we attach the steering column.

You want to make sure that the steering column is angled in such a way that the Universal joint is pointing towards where the steering wheel will go. Don´t install it with the Universal joint level as it will require a lot of faff to line it all up later.

Now take the universal joint and slide it onto the steering rack. Attempt to fit the bolt through, you will probably find something like this where you cannot push the bolt all the way though

Take the universal joint back off and put it in a vice. This comes as an 8mm hole. Get a 9mm HSS drill bit and drill through the hole. Move the drill bit up and down several times and apply a little pressure towards the open side of the UJ so that the drill bit is really taking off some of that metal. Offer the universal joint back up to the steering rack periodically to see if the bolt will now fit. Eventually it will and you get the following :

Screw bolt onto end and torque to 20Nm, marking with Torque pen.

IVA Trim

Front End

IVA trim is needed to pass the IVA test, it’s essentially a rubber strip with a long edge and a short edge. The long edge goes on the inside of the car or component and you can use a small dab of superglue to secure it. You only need to fit the flared edges on the top wishbones, but I also did the steering rack and lower wishbone hole as well. I looked at going all the way around the top wishbone holes like some blogs, but found it was a bit tight and thought it would be tough to do the bolt up at the front. Unfortunately the top holes are a bit challenging to get right, you have to cut bits away from the back where the frame gets close to the car bodywork.

With superglue just a dab every 2cm or so to hold it in place.

Once I had the IVA trim in position I bubble wrapped the bonnet and put it out of the way in the garage roof. I then secured some cardboard to the outside of the car to help stop any scratches, and put some 22mm pipe lagging from B&Q onto the various bodywork parts to provide some protection while I build the front up.