New 420R owner

[Max-Wilde]

I spent the last couple of days giving the old girl a facelift!

Fitted new plates front and rear, caterham LED lights at the rear, led indicators on the front with clear lenses, carbon winglets and carbon FIA cover. Much improved! Really happy with the LED lights! Massive difference that brings the car a bit more up to date!







And the finished article!

[Blue 7]

It’s looking fantastic. I do like those rear lights, I think Caterham did a fantastic job of producing something with an updated look, but still in keeping with the classic looks of the car. A tricky balance to strike.

Roll on the spring!

[mr momo]

Fantastic !

Love the :
- padded Tillets
- suede Momo
- LED front indicators & rear lights


Aero is a must (with a good pair of Whileys or a helmet) !
If you get the Aero, you may well get the aero mirrors too.

Is it 5 or 6 speed (can't tell) ?

Edited by mr momo on Saturday 12th February 12:02

[Max-Wilde]

Blue 7 said:

It’s looking fantastic. I do like those rear lights, I think Caterham did a fantastic job of producing something with an updated look, but still in keeping with the classic looks of the car. A tricky balance to strike.

Roll on the spring!

Thanks! Yes I agree, they have done a great job

[Max-Wilde]

mr momo said:

Fantastic !

Love the :
- padded Tillets
- suede Momo
- LED front indicators & rear lights


Aero is a must (with a good pair of Whileys or a helmet) !
If you get the Aero, you may well get the aero mirrors too.

Is it 5 or 6 speed (can't tell) ?

Edited by mr momo on Saturday 12th February 12:02

Thanks! Seats are heated too!

Yes full carbon aero is the next thing on the list! I was going to fit retaining channels this week but found the original builder had fitted them already! Very grateful for that! So the switch over should be very easy!

[mike150]

I'd go for this and get a set of Motamec mirrors. The view is amazing as its like having nothing in front of you

https://www.meteormotorsport.com/shop/caterham/aer...

[Max-Wilde]

Had time to fit a few more bits today, replaced the gear knob with a new one as the original so one was looking a bit tired, also replaced the plastic handbrake handle with the nice machined aluminium one, nice little freshen up for the cabin!

[framerateuk]

Quite like the look of the machined handle.

Do you have to cut the plastic one off, or is it removed easily?

Years ago I removed one on a Fiesta ST and it was a matter of cutting away at it with a knife until it came off!

[Max-Wilde]

framerateuk said:

Quite like the look of the machined handle.

Do you have to cut the plastic one off, or is it removed easily?

Years ago I removed one on a Fiesta ST and it was a matter of cutting away at it with a knife until it came off!

The removal was fine! Just wrap the handle in the microfibre then use mole grips to twist it back and forward to brake the adhesive. The difficulty was getting the Alu handle to fit, the handbrake has a metal welding seam on the underneath that needs to be ground off, also it has a few edges that need to be ground down before the new handle will fit, as you can see mine required a few bit of grinding down!

[boombang]

jimhcat said:

Lovely looking car. If you don't already have an aeroscreen I would strongly recommend you get one for track days.
It takes minutes to swop between the two and the difference on track feels like another 100bhp

Being lazy, but is there an idiots guide to swapping and parts list?

[framerateuk]

Max-Wilde said:

The removal was fine! Just wrap the handle in the microfibre then use mole grips to twist it back and forward to brake the adhesive. The difficulty was getting the Alu handle to fit, the handbrake has a metal welding seam on the underneath that needs to be ground off, also it has a few edges that need to be ground down before the new handle will fit, as you can see mine required a few bit of grinding down!
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Ah interesting!
Thanks for the advice!

boombang said:

Being lazy, but is there an idiots guide to swapping and parts list?

You'd need...

Aeroscreen
Centre Mirror
Side mirrors
Captive bolts (optional, but it would be a pain without these).

Also you'd need to be able to re-attach the electrical cable for the heated screen, I tried some tiny model car style connectors, but they were quite fragile. I've disconnected the heating wires for now, I never use them anyway.

How you attach everything is all up to you. Caterham do a full kit here:
https://caterhamparts.co.uk/windscreens-aeroscreen...

But if you get the clear aero then you'd need to sort the extra bits out seperately.

[boombang]

Thank you very much

[Max-Wilde]

Managed to get a couple more bits ticked off the list this afternoon.

applied Tesa tape to the leading edge of the aero wishbones to avoid stone chips.

also hopefully after the car goes back to Caterham in a couple of weeks for some warranty bits, I will be able to book some track days. With that in mind I had a couple of tow straps sitting in the garage from a previous project so I thought I might as well get them fitted to the seven. I made sure to wrap most key areas with electrical tape to avoid any metal on metal, and secured the D rings and straps with a few cable ties to make sure nothing will be rattling around!

[jimhcat]

boombang said:

Being lazy, but is there an idiots guide to swapping and parts list?

Here are the instructions I stole from somewhere else:

1. place a blanket or towel on the bonnet to lay the screen on when you eventually lay it down.
2. remove the wipers from the spindles
3. remove the two knee panels under the dash - you will need to remove 5/6 screws to do this. The panel may need some wiggling to get it out. Sometimes you will also need to drill out one of the rivets.
4. if you have an FIA kill switch, disconnect the battery to avoid shorting out the battery. Remove the key as well.
5. you can now get at the nuts behind the bolts holding the windscreen stanchion in place, but first...
6. loosen (but don't remove) the screws holding the screen to the stanchion. This will give you leeway to remove the scree without scratching the paintwork.
7. find the two wires coming from the heated screen. (One blue, one black). They go through the scuttle at the right and left hand edges of the screen. They should be connected using spade connectors. Remove the waterproof covering from the connector so the spade terminal will fit through the hole in the scuttle.
8. now you can undo the bolts take them out one from each side, then take the next two out carefully, making sure the screen doesn't fall over as you remove the last one (this bit will be easier if you have someone to hold the screen).
9. lay the screen on the bonnet (you see why you put the blanket there in step 1 now?) if you have an fIA switch you will need to wiggle the stanchion past the switch.
10. remove the wires through the grommets. They will fit through the hole! Needle nose pliers make it easier to wiggle them through.
11. now you can fit the retaining channels. You will find two nuts holding the scuttle to the chassis below the holes where the screen fits. Remove the nuts, lift the u channel below them, clean any corrosion I you find and then fit the retaining channel. This means that you don't need to take the knee panels off in future as the nuts are held in place and you will have a spare hand to hold the screen when fitting/removing. You may need to temporarily remove the FIA switch if fitted to get st the nuts. Make sure you have disconnected the battery before you do this!
12. replace the knee panels.
13. fit the aero screen
14. job done!
Next time you only need steps 1,2,6,7,8,9,10, 13. It takes 5 mins to remove the screen and fit the aero, 10 mins the other way. Easy to do single handed.

The new black channels are fitted on the inside of where the big hex-head windscreen bolts go. Here is a picture of the passenger side. The red line shows the location of the new channel. Remove the two nuts & washers (red arrows), and remove the existing small black channel piece (blue arrow). Put the new channel in its place, and replace the nuts & washers. Make sure the captive nuts on the new channel piece line up with the holes for the windscreen bolts...

Edited by jimhcat on Friday 4th March 09:08

Edited by jimhcat on Friday 4th March 09:10

[boombang]

jimhcat said:

Here are the instructions I stole from somewhere else:

Edited by jimhcat on Friday 4th March 09:10

Buy that man a beer! Thanks very much.

[Max-Wilde]

I bought a set of retaining channels to fit to make the aero change easier in the future. I spend about 15 mins wrestling with one of the knee panels and getting absolutely nowhere, I manage to get it just loose enough to take a peak behind it and found that the original builder had already fitted the retaining channels, I have never been more grateful for anything in my life!

[BertBert]

Curious as to why you fitted tow straps when you have towing eyes anyway?

[Max-Wilde]

BertBert said:

Curious as to why you fitted tow straps when you have towing eyes anyway?

Mainly to make it more obvious where they are, also the towing eyes are pretty small, you would need a tow strap to use the towing eyes anyway I would imagine, so fitting these takes care of all that.

[BertBert]

Max-Wilde said:

BertBert said:

Curious as to why you fitted tow straps when you have towing eyes anyway?

Mainly to make it more obvious where they are, also the towing eyes are pretty small, you would need a tow strap to use the towing eyes anyway I would imagine, so fitting these takes care of all that.

Makes sense. Although in my rather extensive experience of track recovery, they wouldn't have any problems with using the caterham towing eyes!
Car is looking great by the way!

[Max-Wilde]

Cheers! Yea likely! I had them laying around so it gave me something to do anyway!