Caterham 7 rebuild
Discussion
When I got my Westfield painted, I used a layer of heat matting on the exhaust side, for the whole panel and also had a slightly larger clearance to you on the manifold through the panel. I would suspect heat and type of paint being the possible problem, plus being left running during the MOT and heat soak. Looks a great rebuild, congrats !!
Tuesday was a busy day, but our belongings and the 7 are now at Southampton docks
The rear carbon wings turned up a few days before leaving. The car was ready for collection from the paint shop last Monday. We put it in a container on the Tuesday!
The cars gone with the old wings attached, and the new ones are in the container to he fitted in Oz.
The nosecone has now been sprayed in. The bubbling paint resprayed, and crossed fingers as they say, it seems to be holding up. I've driven home and the bird drove to Southampton docks in it with no side effects.
The rear carbon wings turned up a few days before leaving. The car was ready for collection from the paint shop last Monday. We put it in a container on the Tuesday!
The cars gone with the old wings attached, and the new ones are in the container to he fitted in Oz.
The nosecone has now been sprayed in. The bubbling paint resprayed, and crossed fingers as they say, it seems to be holding up. I've driven home and the bird drove to Southampton docks in it with no side effects.
civicduty said:
Congratulations hope you and the car will be happy over there. What hoops have you got to jump thorugh to register the car in Australia? Any issues you are expecting?
Waiting to find out how the exhaust fairs and finding someone who's hot on these to hopefully make it a easy ride. civicduty said:
Hows the paint? 
s
te. Was chipping before I left from just looking at it. I never really got the 'orange peel' term, but now I get it. All too well, my car looks like a lime green orange.Where the doors rest on the scuttle when shut, paint has already come off.
There's nearly as much overspray on the chassis as there is paint on the panels. The clean up was lax. So yeah, i'm expecting it to look dreadful after some use due to the seemingly dreadfully soft as s
t paint.I might write them an email to make a point but doubt I'd get anywhere really. I got other quotes. The person who I really wanted didn't get back to me, haha, bugger, but in the end I paint going rate give or take £100.
So......wish you hadn't asked!?
I would like to give a massive thanks to Ben and his colleague from The Classic Car Workshop. He's on here. Top bloke who dismantled and looked after the car for me and reassembled. Legend. I'll have to send flowers.
Came to put the new carbon rear wings on today to find them damaged from shipping, bugger. Hopefully I can add it to the ever mounting insurance claim.
It had to have a few tests to become road legal (£££), but they're passed and I've now got a license plate. Here, in NSW at least, you can have a million different choices of plate. Too much choice comes to mind for hitting me on the spot! They also vary in cost. Looking back the Carbon one might have been nice. I wanted the black with silver writing, but they only had a few in stock, so I settled with black with white writing. I could have waited out a few weeks to get the plate, and also paid much more to get a different look. Then I could have gone for a custom plate also. But as you have to pay a 'stamp duty' on the car upon registering it (3% of the value), plus tax (luckily based on weight, so not too bad for me), plus paying for the plates, it was adding up fast!
You have to have compulsory 3rd party insurance (CTP) just incase you hit someone in your car. You can then have fully comp insurance on top of this if you want, but it's optional. Due to wanting my car to be paid out if damaged, I went for this also.
My car has been put down with a registration date of 2015. They seemed to think that I now have 5 years free from an MOT...which is great but I'm not 100% if they knew for sure.
So If I go outside and put the plates on, it's all insured and road legal....just with blue wings. Oh and the battery is too flat from having the isolation switch left on from shipping. I've also ordered a new starter motor from the UK. Caterhams have problems with the starter solenoid being baked by the close proximity to the exhaust. There are a few ways around this, but my starters buggered anyhow, so a new one is on it's way. See if they hit me for import tax...
It had to have a few tests to become road legal (£££), but they're passed and I've now got a license plate. Here, in NSW at least, you can have a million different choices of plate. Too much choice comes to mind for hitting me on the spot! They also vary in cost. Looking back the Carbon one might have been nice. I wanted the black with silver writing, but they only had a few in stock, so I settled with black with white writing. I could have waited out a few weeks to get the plate, and also paid much more to get a different look. Then I could have gone for a custom plate also. But as you have to pay a 'stamp duty' on the car upon registering it (3% of the value), plus tax (luckily based on weight, so not too bad for me), plus paying for the plates, it was adding up fast!
You have to have compulsory 3rd party insurance (CTP) just incase you hit someone in your car. You can then have fully comp insurance on top of this if you want, but it's optional. Due to wanting my car to be paid out if damaged, I went for this also.
My car has been put down with a registration date of 2015. They seemed to think that I now have 5 years free from an MOT...which is great but I'm not 100% if they knew for sure.
So If I go outside and put the plates on, it's all insured and road legal....just with blue wings. Oh and the battery is too flat from having the isolation switch left on from shipping. I've also ordered a new starter motor from the UK. Caterhams have problems with the starter solenoid being baked by the close proximity to the exhaust. There are a few ways around this, but my starters buggered anyhow, so a new one is on it's way. See if they hit me for import tax...
Thought I'd update with a photo or two.
The car was kept of the road by the starter motor playing up. I should have replaced during the rebuild but I promptly forgot after the engine was removed and sat in the corner of the garage.
A new one was ordered from the UK. The one I required wasn't in stock so an email to say they have upgraded me to a better unit. Fantastic, I'll see it in about a weeks postage. It turned up, it didn't fit. I might have whipped my angle grinder out and modified it. Woo it fits! Press the big red starter button, nothing, it fires but doesn't engage with the flywheel. Bugger. It's just plainly the wrong starter motor.
A new one is sourced. This time they manufacture me one as they have no stock. Just over 2 weeks go past and the new one turns up. It fits, all be it on 2 out of the 3 fixings but I'll take that and the car starts, Bingo!
A few 100 kilometers on the open road yesterday heading for the hills proves the rear end still needs setting up as it seems a bit live. But all's good, it's fantastic to be out after not really driving it for over a year now. We did however notice that upon arriving at our destination that the front numberplate had go awol. A simple £15 order online for a new one?? Not here, you have to surrender any remaining plates, then cough up for your chosen style, mine being $220 AUD, so just over £100. Lesson strongly learnt, attach the front numberplate better!
I also had the engine bay and the footwells powdercoated black when I refurbed the chassis. Bugger me the passenger footwell gets hot. Not just hot, but cook food hot. I think the powder coating and the hotter daily temperatures (although the car's cooling system is running fine temp wise) have combined to melt my feet. Horrifically hot. I'm now seeking heat insulation options.
A picture of it in it's new town.
A picture sans plate, although, come on, it looks better without a front plate. I should have move to the USA.
What doesn't look so hot is the old blue rear wings. Not really the colour combo I was going for. Still waiting to hear back from the insurance company in regards to replacements. Postage alone ranges from £250 - £300.
The roads aren't too bad here. Probably similar to the UK. Some rough parts, but over the last few years the UK roads around where I lived had deteriorated. I've got to go through the process of being stared at again for driving around in such a different car. It settled in the UK locally, partly due to daily use and partly due to seeing them out and about on occasion. Here they aren't that common, the colours a bit more in your face and it's new to the local area. Queue comments, looks, attention. It should hopefully die down.
The car was kept of the road by the starter motor playing up. I should have replaced during the rebuild but I promptly forgot after the engine was removed and sat in the corner of the garage.
A new one was ordered from the UK. The one I required wasn't in stock so an email to say they have upgraded me to a better unit. Fantastic, I'll see it in about a weeks postage. It turned up, it didn't fit. I might have whipped my angle grinder out and modified it. Woo it fits! Press the big red starter button, nothing, it fires but doesn't engage with the flywheel. Bugger. It's just plainly the wrong starter motor.
A new one is sourced. This time they manufacture me one as they have no stock. Just over 2 weeks go past and the new one turns up. It fits, all be it on 2 out of the 3 fixings but I'll take that and the car starts, Bingo!
A few 100 kilometers on the open road yesterday heading for the hills proves the rear end still needs setting up as it seems a bit live. But all's good, it's fantastic to be out after not really driving it for over a year now. We did however notice that upon arriving at our destination that the front numberplate had go awol. A simple £15 order online for a new one?? Not here, you have to surrender any remaining plates, then cough up for your chosen style, mine being $220 AUD, so just over £100. Lesson strongly learnt, attach the front numberplate better!
I also had the engine bay and the footwells powdercoated black when I refurbed the chassis. Bugger me the passenger footwell gets hot. Not just hot, but cook food hot. I think the powder coating and the hotter daily temperatures (although the car's cooling system is running fine temp wise) have combined to melt my feet. Horrifically hot. I'm now seeking heat insulation options.
A picture of it in it's new town.
A picture sans plate, although, come on, it looks better without a front plate. I should have move to the USA.
What doesn't look so hot is the old blue rear wings. Not really the colour combo I was going for. Still waiting to hear back from the insurance company in regards to replacements. Postage alone ranges from £250 - £300.
The roads aren't too bad here. Probably similar to the UK. Some rough parts, but over the last few years the UK roads around where I lived had deteriorated. I've got to go through the process of being stared at again for driving around in such a different car. It settled in the UK locally, partly due to daily use and partly due to seeing them out and about on occasion. Here they aren't that common, the colours a bit more in your face and it's new to the local area. Queue comments, looks, attention. It should hopefully die down.
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