jlumba81

I've been reading the Caterham owner's manual downloaded from the UK site. I'm planning on getting a SV w/ the 210hp duratec and the manual says to use 'Caterham Motorsport Oil 5w-50'. What oil types do you guys use and what engine do you have?

Trace the wires off the ignition switch. There is supposed to be a hot wire that has power at all times. Hopefully someone on the forum who owns a 7 can narrow down which wire it is. Hmmm.....I suppose you can try running a wire directly from the battery to the ignition wire, bypassing the faulty wire. Make sure the car is in neutral first cause you may start cranking it. Hope that helps.

Check the grounds. You might have to just get a multimeter and start checking the wiring starting at the battery.

You might want to check out the ignition switch to see if it has a loose wire or a short.

Thanks for posting the pics. It looks very well done. They use a lot of gravel around here and I definitly will use a clear bra when I get my seven.

Do you guys have a website? What kind of mileage does the SR27 get and what's the size of the gas tank?

Nice idea about the bedliner on the wing undersides. I was wondering about that 3M clear bra. Is the piece for the nosecone one piece or multiple pieces?

I was curious how durable rear wing protectors are. Also how well do the optional carbon ones do? Anyone use those plastic film protectors or try powdercoating them?

I left some leeway for paint and body work, but my cousin graduated from Wyotech and did some body and paint classes there. If he ends up getting it, I would be nice if we could say that we did all the work ourselves. I noticed in pics of the GTM that it has no muffler, just header, cats, h-pipe and exit pipes. Is that right? Must be really loud. What's it compare to exhaust noise from a seven?

I was wondering about under the bonnet too. Also has anyone tried powdercoating the body? I've seen where they sell curing lamps which are pretty much just high wattage IR lamps.

All the Factory Five car come w/ a tube frame chassis. I was helping my cousin price out the cost of building a GTM. The kit is $19,990, they had a winter discount on it knocking off another $2000. It uses manily C5 corvette parts and I saw a salvaged one online for $10K and you need a porsche transmission and you can get one of those for about $2k. So you can get one built for around $35-40k. If you want an LS7 you need a porsche gt3 transmission, both of which will bump up the price to $50-60k. The 33 Ford Hotrod looks nice saw an article on it in Kitcar mag. It has inboard shock/spring front suspension like the CSR or the freestyle setups for the Seven.

If that is the episode about the TopGear car of the year award they have a link to it on the front page of the CaterhamUsa website. http://www.uscaterham.com

On the other hand for those seven owners w/ the polished aluminum body panels. Has any of you put on a coat of clear after polishing? A friend (who's a certified master mechanic) recommended doing that when I mentioned buying a seven. I believe his dad owns an old jaguar w/ a polished alum finish.

Don't have a pic at the moment. I got a 2004 java black pearl. It has a nice thick coating of dirt on it now. Driving isn't so bad, I just use winter studless tires. We just got another 3in or so of snow today. The past few weeks the roads were mostly clear. New tires might be in order for next winter the current ones are 3 seasons old and I think I've driven on them in the dry too much. I did a roadtrip on them already 1400miles roundtrip averaging 80mph. I misjudged how icy it was a few days ago and spun out going 60. Ended up going sideways for a while at 40ish before ending up in the highway median(or whatever that strip of dirt between the lanes is call). Could have gotten myself out if I had a shovel ended but up getting a lil pull from my uncle's toyota tundra. Oh, btw it has minor mods K&N filter, B&B turboback exhaust, upgraded top mount intercooler, ecu tune, springs, swaybars, various bushings, skidplate and driving lights. Basic stuff.

It probably won't be until the end of summer, last week of July-August hopefully. Still need to come up w/ the funds and finish up building my garage.

If there's a problem when it reaches colorado is more easliy taken care of. Shipping to alaska is very expensive and I'd rather have it done once. It might cost $500 to ship something coast to coast, but it would be another $500 just to get it from Washington to Alaska. Anyways paint is paint, doesn't matter if its a $20k car or a $60k. Seems like more people are scared to do painting than to rebuild their engines.

WestTexasS2K, thanks for the advice. I was curious about the primer and what sequence to do the stripe. I think I'll probably end up buying paint from http://www.eastwood.com. They have a nice selection of supplies and I think I can get everything there. The rattlecan idea was just a thought. I probably won't do it on the seven but I got an old van to practice on. Paint is peeling off it anyways so it won't hurt it. I plan on practicing on a few other cars first.

Large containers from the lower 48 tend to be barged up by sea. Occasionally stuff happens depending on weather. I'm not worried about the kit being shipped from england to colorado its the colorado to alaska part. I plan on visiting colorado and getting a test drive before making the purchase. I'd like to be there in person instead of buying over the phone. If I was worried about messing up the paint then I would have bought a used seven instead. Its just paint if I mess up just redo it. I'm more worried about building the engine than painting. You can drive it w/ a crappy paint job, but not w/ a blown engine. I just wanted to know if anyone has tried painting their seven before and if they had any tips.

They price the street harness at $92 and the race at $400. Does anyone happen to know if there is a US model car that uses the Ford Sierra differential?

I'm planning on painting my seven a metallic silver w/ a black nosecone stripe. Caterham USA quotes the metallic paint at $2435 and the stripe at $153. I can get an earlex spray station 5000 for around $400 and the paint and supplies for another few hundred. All in all it should be around $800-1000, maybe cheaper depending where I get the paint and supplies from. I don't mind screwing it up, I'd rather do it myself rather than pay someone to do it for me. Also I won't have to worry about any paint scratches from the shipping.

So which type is better for spirited driving the standard 3pt or the 4pt harness? After some spirited driving in my wrx I ended up w/ cramping abs, I need better seats. Its a section of road I like driving on that is pretty empty most of the time. Going 80-100 on corners posted at 40-50 gets some sideloads going. Also what the difference in the 4pt race harness compared to the road harness?

That sounds nice to be around tracks. 500 was just a number I threw out. Checking on Mapquest its around 2000 miles to Washington and almost 800 miles to Anchorage, AK. I think Anchorage has a dragstrip nearby. Also I need to ferry my vehicle 70ish miles north by sea to get to mainland. Juneau is pretty isolated, being surrounded by water and mountains.

Kitcat, that might make it to my future upgrade list. I'll just settle for the factory seat and 4point road harness for a while. Since the seven will be a street only car, I'd track it but I think the nearest track is 500+ miles away. How's the 6pt for daily driving? And what seat did you use? Alaskossie, I think I'll just use the standart 3.62. I can always swap it out if needed. Do you happen to know if anyone in the US sells them or is it a UK item?

Don't forget unless the paint is ready to spray you will also need to buy some reducer and the ratios are usually 4:1 or 3:1, that's reducer to paint ratio. Then if you want to make sure the paint stick you should use a primer and then to get a nice gloss use come clear. Paintjobs are really all in the prepwork if the surface doesn't look nice it will show up in the paint. I have a feeling that I'll have missing parts when I order my kit, so I'll have a good amount of time to work on the paint. For anyone interested this site has some nice paint and bodywork supplies http://www.eastwood.com. Btw, painting is really expensive here. I think my cousin was quoted $1200 just to get his bumper on his evo painted. Also I don't trust the work of the shops here, I see too many cars w/ peeling paint.

I was just curious what a rattle can finish would look like if you did the prepwork properly. I went to the duplicolor website and it seems that using their rattlecan primer, basecolor and clear it turned out pretty well. Its just an idea I was bouncing around. If it turns out bad I can always strip it down again and redo it. That's why I'm going to practice on another car first. The other option was to to buy an Earlex Spray Station 5000. To make it look nice and shiney all you need to do is a bit of wet sanding to get the orangepeel off and then buff it. I already have a nice random orbital and a wax and polish kit from Griot's Garage.