The last few jobs for post build and IVA test

So I'm down to the last few jobs before my car gets collected and taken to Bookatrack at Donington, for the post build check and the IVA at Nottingham.

The final jobs included chamfering the edges of the windscreen wipers, and then repainting them. I used my trusty dremel tool for this job.

As you can see from the photos I also painted the wiper blades after using the dremel, you can hardly tell they have been worked on now!

Also Whilst the dremel was out, I decided to fix the throttle cable using a P clip on the front of the cam cover, which meant a little work to the molding on the can cover to allow for a smooth run of the cable, and it worked out very nicely.

Fantastic New Press-N-Snap tool for poppers

So I have wanted one of these tools for years. All Caterham kit builds come with the standard durable dot tool set that you need to use a hammer to set the durable dot fasteners.

It always seemed a bit hit and miss, so I decided to do some research and found this is the preferred tool of the factory and other builders too.

It's called the Press-N-Snap tool, and is made by a US company called Hoover ( no not that one !).

It's intended use is for sailmakers etc who are manufacturing or repairing sails for sailing vessels, so if it's good enough for that job, it must be perfect for the simple jobs on a Caterham.

This is just a quick photo as it arrived from UPS, so straight out of the box.

It's a very high quality tool indeed, and looks like it will be a tool that should last a life time.

The company I purchased it online from in the us, Sailrite US Website has a full range of Press N Snap tools in stock and shipped it within a few days.

The tool comes with the dies for the popper bases, and also two other dies for different styles of poppers too.

I will post more photos later, and some of the tool in action too!

As promised here are the results of the tool in action today.

Boot cover fixing

I am still doing those little jobs before my car goes to Bookatrack this week.

This one I have put off for an age, but I have started on the carbon boot cover.

I decided to use my green paint pen to mark out the locations of the harness holes and popper locations.

This actually made it very easy, and I was then able to use my die cutting tool, which the 11mm one seemed a perfect size, to cut the holes in the boot cover.

Rear Hub Nut final tightening

Now everything is pretty much complete, I am doing little jobs whilst waiting for the IVA test date.

So today I used my friends mega Tourque Wrench to tighten up the rear hub nuts to 270NM.

I used my wheel chocks as before, and that actually made the job easier on my own.

Quick Radiator Swap

So my original radiator had a very small, but equally annoying leak from the lower core. Thankfully Derek from CC sent me a replacement, so this was a quick lunch time job.

I actually managed to swap the new radiator including the fluid in less than 10 minuites, and with minimal loss of coolant too.

The trick was to use the gearbox output plug was the perfect size for the lower house as a bung, so job jobbed and all that.

Fuel Gauge Issue - Resolved.

Some of you keen folks might have noticed that in my first start up video, I noticed that my fuel gauge seemed to be not working.

Here's the video, with the fuel gauge at the end of the video.

First Start Up Video

I had thought that this was due to either a sender fault, or perhaps the gauge.

I tested the earths and supply at the tank, and all seemed good.

As an extra sanity check, and as the gauges seemed the same, I swapped the fuel gauge over with the oil pressure gauge, and sure enough the oil pressure gauge connected in the fuel position read to 1/4, which was about how much fuel I had put in the tank.

As a double check I also tried the fuel gauge in the oil pressure position, and sure enough it did not register.

So I thought I had found the fault, and asked Derek at CC to send me a new gauge, which took almost three weeks to arrive.

The new gauge arrive yesterday, so I quickly got it connected to be disappointed that it too did not register.

After a call to Derek, he went away to speak to the production team, and came back that my gauges were most likely working, but that I needed to fill the tank first, as its this first fill which calibrates the gauge.

So after filling the tank with another twenty litres of petrol, the gauge did indeed Spring to life, and registered almost full.

So thankfully this was actually a non issue, and I need not have worried about it, it would have been nice to know in advance though that it needed a full tank of gas to work in the first place.

Here's the happy smiley gauge all working now:-

Posing in the Sun Today

So now it almost looks complete, I decided as the sun was shining, it was time for some better quality photos, so I drove her out and got the Big Nikon SLR Out.

There's lots of similar photos here, so a warning, picture heavy post ahead!!