The morning was spent re-visiting the drivers side seat. I thought that we’d made progress as, after taking out the seat again and the front bolts again, we got to a position where we had all the bolts through the seat rails and through the floor. However, this wasn’t the eureka moment I thought it would be.

Sadly, with the bolts through, I am now no longer able to move the seats on the rails fully enough to get access to the back bolts. When trying to move the seat forwards, the release handle can’t be pulled up because the chassis bar of the lowered floor prevents it.

I can’t move the seat all the way back because the loose bolts in the rail snag. I thought I’d admitted defeat on this one the other day but now, I really do think that this is an impossible task for me. I just can’t see how it can be done.

So, I moved onto the rear brake callipers. Essentially, the last piece of the puzzle, other than fibreglass and lighting, still to do. Once I’d found the correct spacers and bolts, everything went together well. I did need a piston release tool to slacken them off so they would go over the pads fully but my local car store hired me one.

I did forget to insert the small metal clip that sits above the pads on right calliper, but it came off the car again without too much problem. Adjusting the handbrake is tiring on the hands!

Everything’s starting to look pretty final now. Once the rear wings go on (hopefully tomorrow) we’ll be so close I can smell the petrol… well – I guess I will have to smell petrol in order to get the thing fired up :). Another trip to halfords for a jerry can is in order.

The final hose went on the engine and fed into it’s catch-tank on the bulkhead.

Lessons for today are that the tunnel top goes in much easier before the seats are in and that the handbrake cable needs to not be attached – or at least fully slackened off – so that you can get the cover over the handbrake handle.

Dad did his normal sterling work, ably assisted by foreman Penny. He got the wire through the front left wing so that could be bolted into place. He also then started the nerve wracking process of drilling and positioning the front right wing and wing stay. Mum had her first sit in the car, although she couldn’t get her leg over… ahem. She also made a trek down to the car shop for some bits and pieces as well! Thanks Mum!

2 weeks in now! A lot’s happened in those 2 weeks as well. I’ll get to putting the second video diary together to show the bits and pieces since week 1 but in the mean time, we made some good progress last night before coming to a grinding halt again!

The Fedex mad arrived, just as Jennifer at Caterham said it would, and all the bits I’d asked for were there – ready to move the car on a few stages. I now had the cap head bolts needed for the rear dampers and radius arms.

And that’s where the evening started. Firstly attaching the top damper bolt (making sure the aluminium spacer was inserted in the bush prior to fitting). With a little jiggling, these went in far easier than I thought they would. The bottom bolts were a little more tricky as I had all the hub and drive shafts fitted. It was definitely a 2 man job, with one person holding and manoeuvring  the hub assembly, while the other pushed and rotated the bolt into place. Just as I was tightening the second of these long bolts, a had a sinking feeling that I’d forgotten a washer and a check of the manual confirmed this. It actually turned out to be a pretty simple step to insert these and get the bolt back in.

Whilst under the car, I connected up the rear brake hose from the de-dion to the car.

On to radius arms. Again, with a little jiggling and encouraging, these went in without too many dramas. And, other than the brake callipers, that was the rear suspension in place. You can’t finally tighten some of the bolts until the weight of the car is taken by the axle. You do this a little later in the build.

With everything having gone so well, we moved confidently onto the seats! It wasn’t long before we realised that this was going to be an adventure all of itself. They are tight to get into place, especially with the roll cage on and then you have to feed all the harness straps through as you lower. We started with the passenger seat and with a lot of jiggling and pushing, luck and just a small amount of grinding, we got that attached.

UPDATE: Don’t be tempted to tighten a bolt if it isn’t aligned correctly with the hole. If you accidentally cross thread the bolt, the riv-nuts that you are putting the bolt into are not very strong. If you apply too much torque to the bolt, the riv-nut will break and start spinning in the rail. At that point, you’re looking at a new seat rail to get it fixed.

Then onto the drivers seat… this put up a hell of a fight and it defeated us (well me really as I ran out of patience). Trying the method in the manual, we got the front bolts loosely in place. We then ran the seat as far forward as we could get it and went to put in the rear bolts – only to find that the seat wouldn’t go far enough forward to allow access to put the rear bolt in place.

Out came the seat and we pre-inserted the rear bolts into the rail. We put the seat back in and got the front bolts in and tight (that makes it sound simple but it actually was virtually impossible to get the allen key onto the bolt head to allow tightening and my hand is very bruised this morning because of it!)

When we went to the rear bolts, they weren’t magically in line (of course they weren’t!) and the pre-inserted bolts appeared to stop the seat from sliding properly to allow finger access to wiggle and jiggle.

At that stage, it felt like an impossible task and when you hit the ‘impossible’ stage, I’ve found it’s best to stop and come back to it with a fresh head another day. So that’s what we did!

UPDATE: Although I never got the drivers seat in place, I know that Steve Grubb simply substituted the cap head bolts that Caterham supply for the job with hex-head bolts that wedge themselves in the rail. That way, you don’t need to get an alen key on the bolt to be able to tighten everything. If I were having my time again, this is the route I would take with them. I also believe it is the method the factory use if you get them to do it for you. You could also be brave and bent the adjustment bar to allow greater movement of the seat forwards. As the seat moves forwards, you can’t pull up the bar as it gets trapped by the chassis rail. If the bar was given a ‘v’ shaped kink downwards, this might solve the problem. I wasn’t confident enough to give this a go but it might be worth keeping in mind – especially if you are not tall as putting the seat in all the way forward, will mean the seat can’t be adjusted backwards any more.

Day 13, unlucky for some. And unlucky for any major progress. I started the evening with the aim of getting the cycle wings on. I ended the evening with only one, half done.

To be honest, I’m probably 90% done on it but the problem is the 10% left is getting the indicator wire through the wing stay. This is a task that is quite clearly ridiculously stupid and hard. Frustrating as well.

Drilling the wing-stay and the wing itself is nerve racking and time consuming, but not the end of the world.

After I had accidentally stripped the connector from the end of the wire and lost it down the tube and eventually got the wire out of the whole only to find that I couldn’t pull through the insulation sheath, I decided to give up for the evening. Hopefully it will all be easier with fresh eyes.

UPDATE: 1. The manual suggests that the indicator wire is covered in heat shrink and that it should be shrunk ahead of insertion – this is not true! You can add your own heat shrink, but the covering supplied is just plastic and makes the wire pretty much impossible to thread the wire through. 2. It’s easier to get the wire through if you remove the connector first. However, you’ll need a soldering iron or a crimp to re-attach the connector after threading. 3. The grommets that need adding are again impossible to achieve if your using the wire covering that is supplied. (Some people would be tempted – and this isn’t me you understand… – but some people might just put the wire through with no covering on it and then give the impression that the cover is on by threading it onto the wire once it’s out of the tube and pushing through enough to make it appear it’s going all the way through. Other people – again, not me of course, would also declare the grommets impossible to put in place and cut and glue them into place to make it appear they are where they should be. I don’t condone the actions of these people of course – just wanted to make you aware of the lengths some people will go to – tsk.)

Tomorrow, I’m due delivery of the final engine hose and the bolts to enable me to complete the rear suspension – which will likely be a really nice distraction as well.

Today I fitted the breather bottle elbows. I used a 19mm wood drill to cut a whole front centre of each bottle and then just squeezed the elbow into place. I had had confirmation from Tim Ward at Caterham that these catch tanks can be fitted ahead of IVA and that the breather tube coming from the top, center, left side of the engine goes to one of them and the mysterious hose coming from low left side of the engine goes to the other.

I glued the trim around the cycle wings and also around all the right hand suspension apertures. However, I made a right mess of the suspension trim and because I had incorrectly used this trim internally on the car, I had to use several shorter pieces on the front right cycle wing. Nether is therefore as neat as you would ideally want but it’s done and so it’s another thing ticked off the list. I didn’t have enough left over for the top front wishbone aperture but, in all honesty, with the bracket, bolt and wishbone all butted up against the bodywork, it doesn’t look like it’s going to be possible anyway. I might be getting Caterham to solve this one for me.

I had a quick line up of the cycle wings onto the wing-stays and also put a tyre in place. Was good to see the final effect as it will look in the coming days. If my rear suspension parts don’t arrive tomorrow, it looks like I might have to be brace and drill and fit the front wings on.

As a final task, I set about doing some tidying of wires, cables and hoses in the engine bay. Some of it is starting to look OK now – certainly more presentable. There is just one more hose to fit now and the catch tank is all ready to receive it!

It would be really nice to get the rear suspension done so that I can put the seats and centre console in place but until my next bag of shortages arrive, there’s nothing I can do about that.

I also filled out my IVA application forms today. This means that I really do have to get the build complete by end of October now so that I don’t mess up the schedule.