This car is now For Sale

Yep, I have had my fun with it and now it is time to let someone else have a go.

I have asked my brother Rich to sell if for me as he is based in London. For more information on the sale please follow the link to eBay below.

Many thanks for visiting the blog and happy bidding!

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Haynes-Roadster-Caterham-style-in-great-condition-with-low-reserve/191092188603?_trksid=p2045573.c100033.m2042&_trkparms=aid%3D111000%26algo%3DREC.RVI%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20840%26meid%3D5395805359975672206%26pid%3D100033%26prg%3D9297%26rk%3D0%26rkt%3D4%26sd%3D191092188603

A Few Completed Pics

I should really have put these online a while ago but better late than never. Charlie Goldblatt took these at the end of the summer, an hour before my long drive up to Nottingham. Since these were taken my brothers have very kindly bought me some alloy wheels, an I will endeavour to get some more photos up when the good weather returns and I get my hands on a good camera. Until then, here are these:

IVA Test 2... PASSED!!

So I have taken over a week and a half to post the good news, the car passed the IVA!! This super good news was marred somewhat by the fact that the DVLA were stumped when I tried to register the vehicle later that day, they really had no clue what was going on and as a result I am still in the dark as to the progress of my application. Either way the second test went far better, the noise level came in 1db under at 98db, a heart stopping moment as we saw the sound level meter creep up. The emissions were miles under as it turned out that I had not plugged the cut servo assist line and that was the cause of the weird mix, silly really, I think I even made a mental note to do that way earlier on in the build and just forgot. And the other little odds and ends were solved with the appropriate stickers, trim and other miscellaneous garage stuff.

The pass did mean that I could finally make those changes that I had been wanting to make, like my nice wooden steering wheel. I fitted it only to find that it does foul on part of the column but after a little work with the dremmel it moves fairly well, I may still go back at some point an put it on the lathe to make it perfect. Either way it is all looking good and now I am just waiting for the reg green light from the DVLA. Apparently they will send someone out to inspect but it is not so much a test as a check to see it is what you said it was on the form. A bit of a pain but it can't be helped. Should only be a few weeks now.

IVA Test 1...Fail... But could be worse

Now if you had asked me before I went whether my car would pass the IVA I would have told you that the chance of success was about 5%. Still, when I struggled out of bed yesterday morning at 6.45, having got two hours sleep, I must say I had my fingers well and truly crossed.

The day before I had taken the train down from Nottingham and I had intended to do a few finishing alterations before the big day. It was about 7.30 in the evening when I removed the Rear RHS wheel, with the intention of bleeding the brake system, only to find, to my immediate despair, that the wheel had been rubbing on the back of the rear light assembly. It had almost worn through the back of the casing and it had torn into the wires that supplied it with power. To make matters worse the rear wishbone assembly was for some reason loose. I must say I was the nearest I have been to panicking since the temperature sender incident. I phoned Paul my old DT teacher who very kindly turned around midway through his journey home to help out. I was going to have to do some real work on it to get it fixed so I was going to need to drive it down to the  other garage, because, as you may remember, it was currently in storage in a friend's garage. We drove in convoy and Paul stayed until 11.30 helping out. We redesigned the light housing and vacuum formed a new part bringing the light further out from the rear wing cycles. My Dad brought down some food to sustain me through the night. Paul bled the brake system, and I fitted the lights, the wishbones just needed a little tighten and were good to go. At about 3.30 I packed up and headed home to get the necessary papers together and as much sleep as I could fit in. Crisis averted.

Old Setup

New Setup

I was already late when we got down to the garage. However, the greater concern at that point was not my tardy arrival but that of my hired tow truck. A breakdown in communication when making the order meant that he arrived at quarter past, rather than quarter to seven. At that time in the morning we reckoned the journey to the test centre was going to take about an hour and this relatively small mistake had the predicted implications, we were 15 minutes late rather than early. To make matters worse our tester had clearly woken that very morning with mindset similar to that of a stubborn mule and an attitude so negative that it would have made Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh seem like a cheery fellow. Moaning about the fact we were late he strolled up to the trailer and began to pick faults.

He failed it before it had been unloaded from the trailer, on design "faults" that were not even written on the IVA inspection guidelines. However with my severely battered morale hidden beneath the best facade of happy go lucky nonchalance that I could muster,  we unloaded and began the test. And quite soon the faults that had been frivolously thrown around upon arrival seemed to become disproven or of very little significance, sure there were a number of failure points but these I had been expecting and the torrent that preceded had somehow been quelled leaving a trickle of very manageable and justified fail points. Some were as minor as the need to tighten a nut slightly, or a missing split pin.

The test ran its course for 5 hours and at the end my initially miserable instructor and I were on quite good form. The list of errors fit onto a page and it was time to head home.

Below is the list of failures:

-Noise Level too high. Test requirement is sub 99db, mine was 100.8

-Petrol emissions too high in Hydrocarbons and CO2 (needs tuning)

-Rear Number plate screws line with fuel tank

-Steering column touches engine mount

-Interior mirror is too sharp

-Sticker indicating brake fluid filler missing

-Air intake too sharp

-Wishbone bracket too sharp

-Side repeaters too sharp

-VIN plate missing

-Fog lamp tell-tail light not visible from driving position

-Wires need grommets in certain places

-Design weights were underestimates on the application form so certificate of weighing is required

-Fastening nuts on wishbones need tightening

-Castle nuts on steering assembly needs a split pin

There was also some talk of fixing other sharps around the rear of the vehicle but there is no note on the failure form. All in all its not too much of a disappointment.

Good News and Bad

Good news and bad news today. The good news is that I have had the VOSA paperwork approved and have been given a test date. The bad news is that it was not as soon as I had hoped. It's on 18th May. Now this is bad for a number of reasons. The first is that my first exam is on the 26th and given the chances that I will probably have to undergo a retest (the test is very hard), and the fact that there is still DVLA assessment to get through after this, it all means that I will probably not be able to have it on the road for my first trip back up to Nottingham. The late test date also means that I will probably have to move the car from the school as it is a little too long to keep it there. All bad times. But ahh well at least its progress.


Ill keep you all informed as to its progress and how the test goes.

Waiting on paper work...

Busy, Busy, Busy

Busy, Busy, Busy! And I've been working at a cracking pace even if I do say so myself. This is what I have been doing over the last few days, not particularly interesting stories so I will list the parts and show the pics:

Front right hand side body panel

Rear central body panel

Coolant hose holder (holds it away from the alternator fan)

Fabricated the metal front mud guard holders (they still need to be powder coated)

Started mounting the mud guards themselves but only managed to get the left one on so far

Fabricated the bonnet and cut the hole for the carburettor air intake

I also fitted an adjustable bolt that holds the clutch pedal in position when not in use.

I did have one glitch making the bonnet. I had forgotten that I had removed the bolts holding the dash on so that I could work on the dials. When I made the template the dash was therefore loose. I did not see this though and as a result continued to make the bonnet itself, it was only on the final fit that I saw it was different to how it had been at the start (it was moving a little bit every time I bent the metal). So having realised that I had to start again trimming bits off my aluminium sheet. Luckily I had cut it too big rather than too small in the first place. I would have been far less flippant about the situation if I had had to buy another sheet of ali, but in the end it only cost me about 3 hours more work, oh well.

Kit Parts Direct! Great company!

Ok, so I have done more to the car but I wanted to give a separate post as a quick shout-out for anyone who is interested in building their own car or wants some parts to bling their own car up a bit, or wants to buy any car stuff and is looking for a good, HELPFUL, part supplier!! As you have seen and hopefully read, I have used a few different sources to get parts but as I am now nearing the end of the project I can quite definitively say that none have been quite as down to earth and helpful as the good people at Kit Parts Direct. They are one of the few suppliers who have a grasp of the build as well as the parts they sell and as a result can offer some really useful advice when purchasing from them. I put in an order yesterday morning for trim and fog tell tail lights and sure enough they arrived this morning, this was such a pleasant surprise as I am hopeless with waiting around for stuff to arrive.

Either way I just thought it needed to be said, so thank you to all the people at Kit Parts Direct and keep up the great service!!!

http://www.kitpartsdirect.com/

My rear end and a speedo test

Well I gave an update yesterday but kinda skimped on the photos and video, so today I took my camera down and so as to shoot as much multimedia as blogspot will let me upload (almost).

I started today focusing on the rear end more specifically the tail lights and one of the top body panels. I had finished last night by putting on the rear wheel covers on and this morning the next obvious step was to fit the last two tail light clusters. I cut the holes out of the GFRP with a dremel, and although I had seen that in some kitcar magazines people had opted to drill or saw these holes out, the dremel worked a dream. In fact I would say that if you are doing the same thing then invest in one, it makes life so much easier and makes it almost impossible to crack the gel coat layer. With the Holes cut I simply held the light boxes in place with a few spots of glue gun on the outside and with them positioned as desired put a full bead around them under the wheel arch. Then wired them up and tested.

I got a shock (not literally) when I found one of the wires was not working but it simply turned out to be a blown fuse. Stupidly, I only discovered this having tried about 3 different bulbs and traced the wire half way back through the car looking for a brake.

The next piece fabricated was the top left boot panel and there is not much to say about that, all went in fine. I did manage to damage the passenger seat ever so slightly when drilling a hole but it was just where the side of the drill chuck rubbed on it. A bit of a pain though.

I thought I would include some pics of how it looks at the moment as I have not done so in a while so here is front back left and right views of it in its current state. You will notice we now have a silencer!!

Finally today I managed to attach the speedo cable. This was a complete b**ch of a job as the cable attaches to the gearbox at right angles to it, right underneath where the gearstick is. The space to work in the drive channel is so small that I almost crippled myself contorting my hand into a position allowing me access. However I did get it done. The other end required a different attachment than the sierra's in order to attach to my new speedo. I did not want to buy a new cable or a converter. So I used what I thought was a fairly novel idea, which was to attach the cable terminator to the thread on the speedo by moulding polymorph around it. This is a smart material, specifically a low melting point thermo polymer that becomes workable at about 80 deg C and sets quite hard as it cools. Its unlike a glue as it does not have any real adhesive properties at these temperatures but it does take to the relief of the two parts very well, basically making a custom connector. At this point I needed to test it and what better to do so than a quick drive up and down the road.

It worked and I managed to make it up to 40mph as you can see on the dash if you look closely and don’t tell anyone. Rev counter is also working. The bottom three dials I am not so sure about at the moment, oil pressure is playing up and there is not enough fuel in the tank to check that one, as for water temp I am too scared to run it long enough to check that one.

Keep checking in for more progress updates.

I'M BACK!!! And let me tell you what has happened since the Summer...

So the end of the summer went true to the last blog post and the car was not finished before my birthday. In the 5 days after that blog post a fair amount got done, but it had been a long summer and therefore not as much as I had hoped. So I went back up to Nottingham car-less and with a busy Christmas holiday ahead. I was pretty sure that I would not get that much done there, what with presents, mince pies and hiding from carol singers. This did lead onto a problem however. In my absence over the Christmas term the car had acquired some damage, which I suppose is inevitable when you leave a half finished project in an area of the school where students can get their hands on tools or more notably drop them having got their hands on them. Either way this damage, and the clearly obvious fact that the school needed for  more space for their automobile society, meant that I was evicted, and had to be out of the garage by the end of the Christmas holidays (about Jan 5th).

Now you may remember as it was not too long ago, that Jan 5th in London in the year 2010 was quite white, in that there was a thick layer of snow covering everything. This meant that people were panicking about their new year commute into work and subsequently I found that this manifested itself in a sell out of 4x4 to hire. In order to transport my car and move it from the garage I was going to need a 4x4 and trailer and all of the hire companies simply could not help me until far later on. With the beginning of both the school term and the university term fast approaching we had to take drastic action.

I was very lucky to have a friend who's father had a garage nearby, no more than a mile up the road, and he very kindly said that we could use it over the period of the Easter term. So on Sunday 10th January at first light, I drove my very noisy (no silencer), fairly naked (very few body panels on it) car up the road through the snow. I drove in convoy with my father in his car in front of me, and my brother in his car behind. We made it without a hitch and ironically the one car that did not struggle with the snow was my half built one, with the others slipping and sliding in front and behind.

It was clear that my Dad was not totally happy with the fairly illegal exploit and this presented itself three months later when he decided it would probably be best to pay a vehicle removal company to take it back down to the garage. We organised this return for last Tuesday. The day after the Easter bank holiday and the company we used was very helpful, charging a reasonable £51.50 for the move. I paid this with a slight feeling of regret, aware of the fact that it would be far cheaper and a lot more fun, if a little illegal, to drive it back down, but I suppose there is no point in tempting fate, especially having come this far with the project.

So with the car back down in the garage I have spent a very full three days working away on it, and the progress made, after a break that gave me time to plan and rebuild by enthusiasm for the project, has been far better than I had hoped for. I will endeavour to put plenty of pictures up over the next couple of weeks as things move forward.

The plan for this holiday is to have the car practically finished in the next 2 weeks, take it up to Rotherham to have it checked over by Martin Keenan for the SVA (look at the beginning of the blog), then have it tested in Nottingham. Assuming all goes well and I pass, I should just have to register and insure it and I'll be on the road in no time!!! Let's see how this goes then...

PS Cheers to all those who have asked after the progress of the car over the past 9 months, it is really nice to see people take an interest, and does help me stay motivated and stick with it.

And as quickly as it came it's gone again... (well not quite that quick)

I can't believe how long it has been since I have written on this blog, and I can honestly say it's not because of the lack of interesting progress. If fact, quite the opposite, and the work has either left me no time to write or too tired to. After the first successful test drive the aim of the game was to work on the interior, the bodywork, and the loom. I also needed to get rid of the donor car, and with term starting on the 7th of Sept, and it taking up valuable parking spaces needed by teachers at the school, it would not be long before I was going to be registered in the bad books of many of them.

However, before I could get underway working on any of the above tasks, I was heading off up to Leeds for the festival, and an extended weekend seeing friends up there. I had a great time but upon returning I was asked to come in to school to help out with some work (unrelated to the car) in the run up to the beginning of term. With this work from 9-5, the need to get in contact with car scrap metal companies, and of course the fact that I was still trying to get as much done on the car before I headed back up to uni, that was a very busy week and not the easiest way to recover from a festival weekend.

Never the less I went along to the car at 5 everyday to soldier on through it. I turned my attention to the central column, and the handbrake assembly. My old DT teacher was in for the pre term induction week that week as well and really helped out, in fact he has been there after 5.30 for the last few weeks helping out; this has made progress so much easier.

The wooden top for the central column was made twice due to some badly made measurements by me and even with the correct ones it is still a very tight fit. The chrome gearstick ring could really have dome with being a little bigger. However after much jig sawing, drilling, routing and veneering the new one was made up and fitted.

While doing this we were also starting work on the body panels and electrics. The back body panel was the first to go on and looks great. With a bit of fine trimming and a lot of hammering it's a perfect fit.

Next to go in was the panel behind the seats and at this point it was important to ensure all of the eclectics running through the central column were secured and installed correctly. With all of that sorted I fitted the wooden central column with mastic and screws. I also fitted one of the aluminium side panels, I could not put both of these on before as I needed the access to screw in from underneath, a job that was difficult enough as it is.

With the central column in I could go to work putting in the gaiters for the handbrake and gearstick and start carpeting the interior. I had an order at this point that I had to logistically work to;

-Fit the central column
-Fit the side panels
-Carpet the bottom sides and back
-Fit the seatbelts
-Fit the seats
-Fit the outside panels
-Fit the dash

So I started working along that order:

While doing this we also focused on getting the headlights wired in properly and started work on electronics for the control of the fan that I had fitted to the radiator.

Finally I did some of the dashboard wiring for the dial backlights.

It was two weeks of phoning around and £50 before I finally got a company to come out to pick up a car that has no engine and no wheels, but finally today a company came from near Heathrow to do the job. I was, therefore, a little dismayed after all of the waiting to see them turn up in a flat bed truck little bigger than the car itself with no winch or crane capable of moving the car.

However, much to my surprise, and I think to the surprise of them a little, an hour later an engineless, wheel-less sierra was on the back of that truck. If you're wondering how, the answer is, "I don’t really know, but a lot of trolley jacks helped! Oh and some bricks for lubricant..."

So that is the situation as it stands, sierra is gone, interior is almost complete and the bodywork and electrics are following it all up with a promising air of progress about them. The car probably will not be complete by my birthday as I am heading back up to Nottingham on the 20th but it won't half have been close...

The much awaited video!

A finish for the dash and a dash for the finish!

So it turns out that the wiring loom is a miserable job. The most annoying thing about it is that some of the things that it connects to, such as rear lights, need the body panels in before I can fit them, so I cannot connect them up until I fabricate those, but on the flip side it is much easier to fit the loom without panels on. This is one of a number of cycles that stop me doing work and have me left sitting pondering for great swathes of the day.

In an attempt to break one of these cycles I decided to fabricate the dashboard out of some of the 19mm walnut veneered MDF that I had purchased for this job earlier on in the project. I started by making a cardboard template of the dash's general shape using a trial and error style of work. Using this I then traced the outline onto my MDF then cut it out using a jigsaw. Before I started cutting I cut through the veneer along the line with a scalpel to ensure it did not chip and lift off with the saw blade.

Having done this I made sure it would fit by trying to fit it in loosely. While it was in this position I took the opportunity to sit in the driver seat and mark roughly where I wanted the dials to be positioned.


The next step was to mark up more precisely where the dials should go based on my estimates. Having done this I used an interesting hole cutting tool borrowed off a friend. I did not have high hopes for it but I was proven wrong as it cut fantastically clean holes. I checked that it was good enough on the first hole by slotting in my petrol gauge. With it already looking awesome after one dial, I removed it and continued to cut the other 4 holes.

With that done I could not resist dropping in all of the dials and getting a sneak preview of what it was going to look like.

With that done I set about rounding the bottom edge with a router. It is an IVA regulation that the bottom of a dashboard must have a 19mm round on it. I planned to veneer this later so instead of having a simple round I set it in by about a millimetre to form a smooth finish when finished.

This in fact went a little too deep meaning the finish, although still great, was not as need as I had hoped. Later that night I took it home and ironed on the veneer to produce, what looks like, a solid wood curve on the base of the dash.

The next stage was to stain the wood to the darker colour that I had previously envisaged the dash to be. With two coats of that on and dry, it was time to varnish. I chose a matt varnish as I thought it was a bit more of a contemporary slant on what is a classically styled car, but we will have to see how it comes out. I need to put on three coats and I am still waiting for the second to dry. Each coat needs sanding down before the next making the process quite long. However I will post pictures of the completed look. The next job is to set about making the central column which will be made from the same wood, so I may film the process this time and post it as a YouTube video (no promises).

I will get that other video of it starting up soon, that I can promise, but until then keep checking. Between 3-5 weeks left before I must have it finished so keep checking in, in the run up to the end.

A very necessary update!

So, once again without photos I am writing another post, but rest assured that you are not missing out on much as the car does look very much the same as before. I felt that I should give the update on the temperature sender problem. I managed to dremel out the remaining piece of thread, but unfortunately the waste piece of brass fell back into the cooling system. After much laboured though I decided that the best option was to leave the waste in there and keep an eye on the temperature of the engine to see if it was blocking, ultimately the worst thing that could happen is that the waste piece of brass is pumped around and chips the coolant pump, but the work involved in getting the waste out is about the same as the work involved in changing the pump and it is not a guarantee that I would be able to remove the material. Either way, I left it and with a cleaning of the coolant thread using the appropriate tapping set I managed to fit the new temperature sensor. This was on Thursday of last week. On Friday I connected up the remaining coolant hoses and filled the system with coolant, oil and the tank with a small amount of petrol, and with part of the loom wired in, I tried to start the engine. It did not go straight away but after a little fiddling with the fuel lines she started beautifully and has done ever since. No silencer on atm so the engine sounds like a v8 and I really can't describe the excitement felt when revving it. My mate Charlie helped me with a panel for the fuse box and battery on the weekend and having let the paint on it dry over Monday we fitted that on Tuesday and gave the fuse box its now permanent home. It looks very neat. I had to work today but went down to the car afterwards and set about constructing the cardboard templates for the body panels, I may be purchasing the aluminium tomorrow morning. My x-dt teacher has offered to give me a hand attacking the job of unscrambling and wiring up the loom tomorrow afternoon so once that is complete it will soon be time to get those body panels riveted on and start going over the final fix. All very exciting stuff! And to add to that for I drove it for the first time this evening, it was not very far as the shocks have not been tightened up yet so low ground clearance prohibits me from leaving my drive, but the 5 metre drive gave great promise of things to come. I am so very excited about this car now and with the end in sight a final push is all that is needed in order to help me achieve the end goal. I'll try to get a video of the car running up soon, and will keep you posted on further progress made.

She Starts!!!

more to come in the next blog post...

Disaster Struck/Stuck

In short yesterday a massive case of 2 steps forward 1 step back, which I realise is not quite the expression but highlights the situation very well. After a really productive day of work fitting coolant lines, the new alternator mount and a coolant reservoir, we hit real trouble as the old coolant temperature sensor broke off, blocking the thread and preventing me from inserting the new one. Massive set back, and I am not sure how to resolve it. Easy-Out tool does not work and it is starting to look like I may have to drill the old part out. To make matters worse in trying to remove the problematic component I managed to drop a piece of threaded rod into the coolant system. It is amazing how quickly a really good day can go so bad!

I'll keep you posted on the progress of the resolution...

It's all going on for the last time,I hope...

Ok so I am quite happy to admit that I was a little short in my last few blog post, but that is because I have been so busy doing the work that when it comes to recalling it I was finding it a little difficult to maintain the usual wadding that I use to make the posts a little less dull for those of you who aren't interested in oil sump modification and just want to see a few more photos. Well its Saturday today and I chose to spend a day doing nothing. I would like to claim that it was scheduled but in all honesty a sizable hangover left me as good as incapacitated this morning and so being the ever innovative and accommodating planner I rearranged my car building schedule on the fly. This has basically meant that I now have time to leave what I hope is an epic blog post full of entertainment, media and all round fun. I am also trying to give it a helping hand with the application of a bit of positive mental attitude. You can't say I don’t try.

So where shall I begin... this was another eventful week as the time came to get the chassis powder coated and oh boy was I excited. I should say at this point for those avid readers who don’t know me that well that this whole blog would be far more true to life if read with dusting of unenthused sarcasm powdered across all text just before reading. No but seriously I was quite excited. I am not going to go into the details of the powder coating process but here are the key points: it's a bit like painting, it's a harder finish, and you have to remove everything you don’t want to be coated as well as anything that could melt in an oven. We had to take everything off the chassis. And before people rush to point out the lack of forethought on my part I was very aware that this was going to have to happen I just needed to make sure everything would fit before I got it done. Either way, with a little help from the son of one of the garages neighbours, an enthusiastic engineer/scientist of the future, we had the car stripped down in about half a day, and true to their word North London Powder Coaters (link added to sidebar) picked up the chassis up at 10am on Tuesday morning.

At 11am the next day it was returned in all of its bubble wrapped glory and it looked great. A really nice glossy finish thanks to its finishing lacquer coat. The one day turn around for a finish that good was pretty awesome but it does come at a price, it would have been cheaper to paint but the time it would have taken doesn't bare thinking about and the finish would not be comparable to the results that I got from the aforementioned chosen method. That's me in the photo...

That same day with some help from my dad we got the wheels on and with a short break at around 6 for food, and to help get the rolls that I share the garage with, we set about getting the engine in as well. Incidentally the car had its first feel of the public road as we needed it out of the way in order to get the rolls out so we just parked it up.

The engine went in with a little bit of physical encouragement and I decided that it was only right to do as I had done upon removal and record the historic event. Below is the sped up video.

When it was all done Charlie came over with his really nice camera (no sarcasm there) and took some great photos while dad and I sat, with a beer and admired our work.

With that done it was a big step forward in the construction and it was followed by a slight dip in productivity. I got the brake lines in the next day and the pedals in as well. I also managed to get the steering column in as well as the radiator fan. Charlie and I starting working on the template for the dashboard and dial arrangement but it really amounted to very little productive work. In order to stave off this period of low productivity we set about fitting the fuel level sensor into the tank, a job which proved to be very tedious indeed which served to make it all the more satisfying when it was complete. That was where we left work for this week and celebrated the incredible progress with a regrettable volume of wine, but hey you only build your first car once... Here are a few more photos from the build progress and I hope that the prose in this post has been of a more satisfactory standard. Cheers for reading and check back soon!!