Today, well yesterday (I had an old university friend come to stay yesterday evening, so went to the pub with him in the evening instead of updating my blog.....sorry for those avid followers) I got cracking with the bodywork in an attempt to make the old girl look like a real car, or as real as any Caterham ever does!
First off I started with the rear wings, which went on without too many problems. The most time consuming part of the process was cutting out the rubber strip that sits between the wing and the side skin, but it was worth taking time on this to get a decent fit. With that done it was simply a case of bolting the wings on and fitting the rear lights. Like many of the jobs you undertake when building a Caterham it feels as though you need three hands, but it was satisfying to see the end result. I don't think it would be uncharitable to say that the rear lights, well all of the lights on the car, are of rather dubious quality. So many of the parts Caterham use are beautifully finished, but then there are some that look like they have come straight off a 1970's Austin Maxi and in all honesty these probably have!
With the rear wings done I bolted the exhaust together properly and moved onto the front cycle wings, which put up rather more of a fight. I actually only managed to get the passenger side done with the time available, but was pleased with the result. With the indicator fitted to the wing it was a case of lining up and drilling the wing and the wing stays and making sure that the wing fitted properly relatively to the wheel. I phoned Caterham at this point to ask a general question and was told that if I wanted to I could just glue the wings on (I always seem to get these useful insights about an hour too late), which didn't seem quite right to me. In the end I decided to drill and bolt the front of the wing for extra security and glue the back. The most frustrating part of the whole process was trying to feed the indicator wiring through the wing stay and out of the tiny hole at the bottom. After 30 minutes trying I gave up on the day, leaving the front wing loosely fitted and went to see my mate for a beer, but not before putting the rest of the bodywork on to get a first glimpse of what she will look like when finished!
It was a good day!
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