Caterham Academy 2012 - Build (Day 2)

Day 2:

Today was my first proper day with the car and I spent the first hour or so sorting out the various boxes and trying to find out where things were. Once I had worked out what was in each of the boxes and started unpacking the steering and front suspension I had a good 4 hours on thefront of the car.

The steering rack was straightforward to fit, but I had a couple of attempts at the wishbones before I got them right...I didn't get the number of spacing washers quite right first time, but once I had worked that out they went on easily enough. The dampers went on fine, but the uprights gave me grief for an hour or so. The problem was I didn't read far enough through the manual, so was struggling to get the locknuts on the top mounts done up, eventually working out that you need to do them up and get them located with a sacrificial plain nut, then taking it off and fixing it with the locknut. That will teach me!

The manual is OK, but at times it isn't particularly clear and you end up re-reading the passage 3 or 4 times before working out what they are trying to say. It means that you are always wondering if you have got it quite right or not....there is lots of scope for getting it wrong! As a result I didn't manage to get quite as much done as I wanted to, but I have made a good start and am pleased with the result so far. It has been a very satisfying day, but my back is suffering already...being an office dweller day in day out means I have some toughening up to do! Still, there is two weeks to go!

Tomorrow should see the front suspension complete if all goes to plan!