you wally

loved the 'short project thread "

been fettling away and will have some more pics soon, just waiting until I have done enough to warrant some progress

 

Nice work.
That engine bay was very filthy before the clean up.
How do you go about straightening the I/C fins?

 

cheers

patience and a toothpick

 

Lol,

well whenever I browse these threads I am simply knocked out by the time & commitment people put into their cars

And the results are incredible, and a credit to the owners

Your attention to detail is fantastic

during the winter I decided to do a little light fettle on my Caterham kit car - I half toyed with creating a project thread - but I know with my pathetic results I would be laughed off the forum

 

Retrospective project thread FTW...everyone loves Caterhams

 

We do indeed love them. Don't be put off by the level of 'projects' being up to par with some people . I have put stuff up here that I think might be of interest for other users as many a time it is a 'how to do' something or more accurately 'how I did this ' which can be really helpful

 

Have not had two much time to do any work on my car as it has all been taken up with my wife's two cars :roll eyes:. Cleaning, installing sub woofers, sorting out power steering pumps and exhausts on her scoob you name it. But along the way I managed to make a start on the inlet manifold.

Picked up this second hand one for little money





Stripped it all down



Cleaned it all up using a combination of nitromors, wire wool, jet wash and degreaser. Then stuck it in the dishwasher when the wife was out and left it to dry. Day or so later here it is all masked up and ready for painting







Then using some long bolts screwed into the top too holes it was hung up in the garage and 3 coats of etch primer.
Then I decided to have a go at wrinkle spraying in black. Chose black as it goes with the colour scheme and my car is not an Sti so no red top for me
(no photos of etch primer but here are the finished results.)

Not bad I think for first time







Masking tape all off now and it is ready to be rebuilt once I source a proper inlet hose, clean up the throttle body and derust all the fuel lines ready for the injectors.

 

Wrinkle black FTW

Needs some nice silicone hoses to go with it - red for loud or black for subtle, and some murray clamps

 

Blue silicone inlet hose
Coolant hoses in blue
Touch of red from the HT leads I guess

Murray clamps ? do you mean the shiny little jubilee type jobs ?

 

These ones

 

They look good. where can you get them from ? Probably need a job lot in differing sizes

Wow just seen the price of one !!! £5 !!!

 

They are pricey, and SFS was about the cheapest place but if they're good enough for WRCs they'll be okay on my car

 

Can get treble the amount for the same price for Mikalor Supra clamps which I think are just as good. Not exactly running massive power here

 

I took all my mikalor clamps off because they were rotten - stainless steel my add

 

I went the whole hog with my samcos and got the clips to match as didn't want any old ones on my new pipes

Looks nice the black manifold and will be nice to see with a mixture of red and blue hoses

 

Trying to avoid the blue and red if possible. So my aim is to only have the positive battery terminal cover and alternator boot left in red (as nowhere seems to do them in blue) and change the HT leads to blue as well.

That way I keep in line with my colour scheme and it does not offend my eyes

 

I had the same dilema so went with red and black - the only blue I will have will be some of the unions on my braided fuel lines

 

I am slightly lucky because the bulk is silver anyway and most if the original hoses are black so I can retain the black, silver and blue scheme
When I replace as long as I bear in mind what can be swapped I find that most will fall in line with what I want

 

That looks awesome. I'm off to get some autosol, did you take the alt off to do it?

 

No left it in and told he misses I was doing the hedges then hid in the garage for a few hours
With autosol and an old cotton T-Shirt









I used a dremmel for the grooves but it's a time consuming job But rewarding in the end
Except when one part is done the rest if the bay needs doing

 

Well today was radiator day. Been getting a few items all cleaned up ready for the swap.
First up was to grab a second hand fan unit and clean it up as I knew the one on my existing radiator was a hunk of rust !

Fan as it arrived. Not as bad as mine but needed a clean up





Stripped down ready for cleaning and painting



Fan motor and shroud had 3 coats of etch primer and then silver and black







Then with the help of my wife set about removing the old unit. God what a pain of a job that is and even though I followed some great online advice I managed to lose pretty much all the coolant

Anyway out came the old rust bucket





Now you see what I wanted to swap it ! There was also a small leak somewhere which given the fact it was held together by a hope and a prayer is not surprising . The plan was to use a second hand radiator in much better condition but unfortunately in removing the top metal sections I managed to bugger up the fixings which meant I couldn't refit them

So plan B was to use the group buy Japspeed one. Yes I know it is lighter and all aluminium and shiny but I was still hoping to recover an old original one. Oh well bang went on the refurbished fan unit and I think you will agree it came up well

First up new radiator. These are a pretty great bit of kit



Fan on



The difference





New one fitted, topped up with fresh coolant
Onto the next job

 

Always look forward to your updates bud, looking good!!

 

Looks superb.Good job.SJ.

 

Thanks guys. The devil is in the details as they say. Like swapping rusty bolts for stainless steel ones so in future the ones holding the fan to the bottom of the radiator do not rust. Same for the small ones that hold the blades to the shroud.

I know you don't get to see the fan motor but it all helps.

 

I took my rad and fan's apart and sprayed them all up before refitting them. I wish I'd never bothered they look terrible again lol.
The Japspeed rad looks great.

 

I know, it is only a matter of time before the weather and normal UK driving ruins your efforts but in this case it is a much easier base from where to clean and keep the rust at bay in the future.

The Japspeed is a great rad. You do get to lose those horrible top and bottom bars that rust like hell but you do need to carry across a few things. Namely the top and bottom rubber stoppers. The bottom ones are a straight swap. I just cleaned mine up. The top ones have a small circular lip which fit perfectly on the original rad but need a little bit of trimming on the japspeed one.
Also you need to bring across your top up coolant pipe. This is the pipe that runs across the length of the rad from top up tank to the hose on the other side that leads to the header tank. Mine was okay but I gave it a couple of coats of paint as well.

 

Great job there, that's going to make a massive difference when it's all re fitted.
Suprising just how easy it is for the fan to all break apart.

 

I took inspiration from your thread si when I saw the way you had taken apart the fan. Mine was a bit of a bugger to get off as the motor was corroded onto the shroud but a few well aimed hits soon dislodged it

 

Today was Underbonnet day. A really neglected part of the engine bay and it is not helped by the useless fire retardant that tends to get worn and torn, rusty bonnet vent under trays and dirt everywhere else.

The normal before shots for you guys



Under trays





Scoop under tray



All stripped ready for degreasing and painting









Whilst the vents and brackets were being painted, I degreased and cleaned the bonnet. Getting there



Etch primer and black paint. Sorted





Fitted





And finally the after shots

 

That's a huge difference - very tidy work