SeattleTR

Similar to the recent post, I have a 420R that I am going to sell, it is largely finished (engine fires with no issues) but still requires some of the back end work, brake bleeding, alignment etc. Life events and weekly commuting just isn't leaving time for work on the weekends. I did reach out to Beachman Racing and would have had it towed there and pay to have it completed, but was unfortunately ghosted - I get it, the idea of finishing a build probably isn't the most attractive. Alas, I'll move on to my next step and sell. I will take some more pictures this week, but here are the latest ones I have. 420R, British racing green + black. Heater, heated seats, upgraded brakes. Let me know if interested, haven't really though price, but open to that discussion.

It would have been disappointing if it was smooth sailing all the way through! It does look there are racing spec parts, I think I have the non-R housing, so I guess I’ll be trying to swap these out.

Well the replacement de Dion came and that’s now installed with the a frame and rear springs, anti roll and drive shaft. I took the time to also order the flexible brake lines so I installed those. only to discover that the OD of the bearings are bigger than the ID for the housing. Anyone know if there are multiple specs for these parts? Hope everyone is having a nice summer.

Well despise the fact that there isn't a rear end on the car - the rest of the week went well, the engine fired up and is running nicely.... damn immobilizer needs to be close! The interior is essentially done (had to install the seat heat switches by drilling through the tunnel cover), carpets and seatbelts are in, the passenger seat is in as I don't have the bolts for the driver seat - easy trip to the hw store later to get M8 bolts for it. I was able to bleed the clutch and I somewhat bled the front brakes, remember I don't have a rear de dion tube - I tried to cap the rear brake line but it started dripping brake fluid so I stopped. On my car Caterham seems to have moved to a single reservoir for brake/clutch fluid. A little bit of a leak of coolant on the small line off of the tank (my kit didn't come with a hose for that and the one I got is a little too big - off to get 5/16" later too). Getting there! I'll send some pictures tomorrow

Ha, my brain was off getting headlight fluid More progress, but some issues with the radius arms both sides are rubbing against the frame/side of the car - this doesn't seem right to me, anyone faced this before? There is a lot of lateral pressure on both sides (I really had to pull on the dedion tube to even get the second one in. edit: looks like it is an S3 dedion tube 😐

Ok overall a pretty good day - getting pretty close to mechanically complete - connected the prop shaft bolts, full exhaust, accelerator cable and started on the de dion tube, and time spent hunting for parts (and a run to Napa). After some more swearing I think I've gotten the final dry sump line locked in a position that won't hit the belt and alternator but it really seems like it is slight too short. Hoping to complete the rear end tomorrow.

Ha, the next time I'm getting rid of a sweat shirt I'll prep them for winter...

Thanks much everyone for the pictures, I'll take some today, really surprised you have that much room to your alternator in the bottom picture. I'll try again!

Thanks, I went back to it yesterday and made more progress (Diff, steering column, air box) and managed to get a couple routed well. What I’m fighting is now the routing for the line from the rear of the sump to the bottom of the tank, I’ve tried to copy some of the blogs I see but if I route it by the skin of the car the line is too short and the line kinks or keeping it inside the frame has it rubbing the alternator and belt. Here’s a quick picture of the progress (excuse the headlights, some new LEDs should arrive today).

Making some progress, engine is in, today spent time with the water lines, hand brake cable, prop shaft, oil tank and the radiator. Overall good progress, but I'm really fighting with getting the dry sump lines to fit, does anyone have detailed pictures of their routing?

This makes me lean towards just retaining the indicator pods, happy to test and report back.

Amazing, thanks @MV8, much appreciated! Will be interesting to see how they look with/without the indicator pods given these newer LED have indicator potential too.

Well, after doing the headlights I started to consider the LED bulbs for both the indicator pods and headlights themselves, also the CF pods. Has anyone retrofitted their headlights from Just Add Lightness? Unfortunately back in Seattle for the week so on pause but taking the following week off to dedicate to the build!

Ok well this was the first real full weekend out in the garage, was able to make some pretty good progress and enjoying the build. Unfortunately I'm at a loss for the brake line copper washers so going to have to figure out the specs for those and look to acquire the right ones (the manual and what I see on various blogs indicate the ones with the brake lines are too small. I got the front ARB together only to determine I need to dremel out the ball joints, looks like that's on the agenda this week.

Embarrassingly not until today - I finally broke down the crates and really set up my garage for working and today tackled the front suspension, I had a little bit of trouble finding the correct sleeves for the upper suspension but found them at the end of the day, I took some advice from one of the blogs and looked at the headlight alignment too overall a good first day and looking forward to this build process! I also noticed there was quite a gathering of Caterhams in Cle Elum yesterday!