My 170S Build

Time spent: 3h
Culmulative time: 16h
Main activities;  Fitting the rest of the front suspension, drilling of wing support.

Blimey – that was a sod of a job. First problem was working out which bushes go into the mounts for the dampers.  There is a bag of bushes of very similar (but not identical) size.  By a process of elimination, I think I have chosen the right ones.  Anyway, I have fired off an email to Caterham to check.  There was a discrepancy in the text vs drawing regarding the number of washers needed.  Hopefully I have made the right choice.  Again, waiting on Caterham to confirm.

The really tricky bit was the top of the damper.  The difficulty is that the screw used to fix these is running fore and aft right next to the skin of the car.  Its very awkward to get to and to get a Allen key onto the caphead bolt, and aligning everything so that you can insert the bolt and it will go through the damper bush into the tapped hole behind.  Lesson learnt – make sure that the washer is at the screw end of the bolt rather than the cap.  The diameter of the washer is enough to mess with the alignment of the bolt unless it is floating in free space (see below).

Made a start drilling the hole in the wingstay but found that my drill bit was too blunt to make progress, so nipped around to my second home, Screwfix – who are a quick cycle from here, to get a replacement.  This is not financial advice, but suggest you get some shares – they are in for a good year.

This is where I am at close of play today. The wheeled axle stands are proving a godsend. Being able to shove the car across the garage to give me more space on the side I am working on is making a big difference.