New 7 Owner Initial Questions

[slowdude]

You can fit the standard tonneau on under the doors. You don't have to tuck the doors on. Alternatively you can put the doors in the passenger footwell under the tonneau.

 

In semi cold weather I run doors and a tonneau. If it's not going to rain, it's a good way to keep heat in under 50F.

[das76]

Hi @Randy Flowers. here is a pic of my pedal box if that helps. I wear size 9.5 Piloti Shift shoes, no problems at all. I can take some measurements between the pedals if that's helpful. I'm assuming this is the standard setup - my car came like this from the previous owner. 

 

Edited June 21 by das76

[IamScotticus]

There is a cover called a shower cap.  It covers more area than a tonneau. 

https://www.softbitsshop.co.uk/showercap-439-p.asp

[KnifeySpoony]

Here are some pics of my pedal box. You can see my pedal spacing is different:

 

 

These are the shoes I drive in. Unlike some of the recommended shoes in this thread, you can see the sole is much narrower than the upper of the shoe.

 

 

 

 

This is how my shoes fit in the pedal box. The left shoe is firmly up against the side panel, and the right shoe is firmly up against the left shoe. You can see how much room there is. FYI I have lowered floors and the heels are resting on the floor.

 

[Randy Flowers]

Hey there yall.  Happy 4th!

I thought about starting 2 new threads about the below issues, but figured all of this is still about my initial 7 owner questions, so will just keep adding to this thread as I sort through those type of questions (and maybe another new 7 owner can read this whole thread one day and have it help them sort through their own initial questions).

I am slowly finding more opportunities to drive my new 7 and sorting through the adjustment/issues phase.  I have an autistic daughter that I am not yet wanting to put in the 7, so my chances to drive it have been only about once per week so far.    Loving the car by the way

 

I have two issues that have risen to the top of the list that I would like advice on...

 

1) Throttle and brake pedals:  Unless I use my bare feet I am having issues with every single shoe I have tried so far, including OMP Technica race shoes and Vibram shoes.  Both of those shoes are very thin and not much wider than my feet.  The soles of the shoes though are still prone to hit the throttle and brake simultaneously when braking.  I realize that part of it is practice/technique, but I had an incident the other day that almost caused a wreck!  I was braking with a car in front and was hitting the throttle while braking and had to suddenly dart into the other lane to avoid the car in front, yikes!  My mechanic friend had been saying we should move the throttle pedal to the right.  I had resisted that idea at least until I tried some really thin shoes first, but after that incident while using thin shoes, I am in agreement with him.  I want to move the throttle pedal to the right as much as possible. 

 

See the picture of the pedal box attached.

 

I asked Josh at Rocky Mountain for his thoughts on moving the throttle pedal to the right and he said the following:

 

'For bending the throttle pedal, it can be done in situ by using a block of wood and a long handled Phillips screwdriver jammed down the shaft -- this is how the Brits do it. I prefer to undo the top bolt, remove the pedal entirely, and bend on the bench top vise -- to me this reduces off-axis load on the bushing, but it's probably overkill. Either way it's absolutely fine to cold-bend the pedal.'

 

So, what are yall's thoughts on bending or moving the throttle pedal to the right some?  Wondering how much we can move it to the right as well (1/2 to 1 inch?) before too close to the transmission tunnel?

 

Also on this topic.  I have been looking at lots of barefoot shoe types, and then found something I had not heard of before, barefoot shoe socks.  I am 100% good driving in my bare feet or regular socks, although they have been getting very hot in the pedal box (see the comments below as to why!), so thinking that these barefoot shoe socks plus moving the throttle pedal to the right a bit will solve my issue with the pedals being so tight.  Here are the barefoot shoe socks I ordered:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08SHWNXF4/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

2) Cockpit heat/noise:  I have been having a severe heat issue in the pedal box area and thought it was just how hot these cars are in the pedal box.  I have only driven it about 3 longish drives so far (150+ miles total so far) and after the 2nd drive on a 95 degree day nearly fried my bare feet, I was looking for gaps in the foot well and that quickly revealed a GIANT hole in the foot well (LOL).  The top pedal box cover plate in the engine bay was GONE!  No wonder it felt like a furnace in the pedal box, sheesh.  I figure fixing that will eliminate about 75% of the pedal box heat I was experiencing.  However, I still want to put carpet down in the foot well and floor board (carpet already on transmission tunnel) and I want to put serious and thin heat reflective/noise reducing material underneath the carpet throughout the cockpit.  Once I put on a pedal box cover plate and put in carpet and heat/noise reducing material in, I will then re-evaluate the cockpit heat and decide if it is worth it to do further things like coating the headers.  Josh at Rocky Mountain is sending us a new pedal box cover plate already. 

 

I went through lots of archived forum posts on BlatChat, USA7s and other sites and looked at what others have done to reduce cockpit heat.  Their main solutions were A) insulate the cockpit interior and the engine bay/transmission tunnel side with heat reflective material (although they all suggested different types of material to use), B) make sure that your heater is OFF and that all the vents are sealed off and make sure that the hot water doesn't go thru the heater during the warm weather, C) Either wrap or coat the headers/exhaust (note that wraps apparently don't work well long term here in the Pacific Northwest with the long rainy seasons) and D) put in some sort of hose that brings in cool air from the nose into the foot well.  Some also were venting hot air out the sides or bottom of the car in various ways.

Note that my 7 already has the standard Caterham heat insulating material on the foot wells, etc inside the engine bay. 

Also, we are also thinking of putting a custom metal heat shield in front of the headers to funnel heat down through the hole where the exhaust pokes through the body. 

 

My main question is what kind of heat/noise reflective material would yall propose to put down throughout the inside of the cockpit (under the carpet)?  Wanting something that dramatically reduces heat/noise that is not crazy expensive or really difficult to put in.  The forums suggested all kinds of materials and lots of their posts were decades old, so wondering what is the best type of heat/noise reflective material for that in 2024?

 

Thanks!
Randy

 

 

 

 

Caterham 7 Pedal box.HEIC

Edited July 5 by JohnCh
Converted HEIC image to JPEG. Please see help guide

[CBuff]

In looking at your photo of footwell. It looks like your brake pedal is bent towards the accelerator pedal. Not sure if that is stock or if someone adjusted for better heal toe.  How is the spacing for you between brake and clutch?   Do you just reduce the bend in the brake pedal? 
 

I haven’t looked closely at my pedals to see how they are configured (it’s an sv so I don’t struggle with pedal spacing as much). Although it did take some practice and smaller shoes not to hit brake and gas at the same time. 

[MV8]

I'd straighten the brake pedal off the car, then trim the left side of the throttle and the right side of the clutch pedal, then rivet on pads for the clutch and brake. For shielding suggestions, how about a pic of the engine bay near the front of the pedal box?

 

 

[panamericano]

You can also gain a little space by removing the pads and just putting friction tape on brake and clutch pedals.  

[pethier]

On 6/17/2024 at 10:18 PM, IamScotticus said:

There have been many examples of 7 skins eroding at the frame rails. It took several decades.  Im not going to insist thst any of us will see our Cats falling apart during our ownerships, but these things are just good practices whenever aluminum is attached to steel and a current is introduced.

These cars tend to sit for months, years.  Just disconnect the battery for storage. Especially for the coolant and pump.  Aluminum pumps can corrode because the coolant is a conductor.

Yeah.  When I installed the rear mud flaps on my Ford F-150, I noticed that WeatherTech gave me aluminum washers.  They made sure the word "aluminum" is in the instructions.  It also looks like the steel bolts have some sort of coating. 

[KnifeySpoony]

Moving the brake pedal will do nothing. You need to bend the throttle pedal to the right. I just did this actually and it was super easy (can't believe I put it off for so long). Removes simply with the one bolt, then bend it on the bench. Made a huge difference. Make sure  you adjust your throttle stop if necessary.

[das76]

@Randy Flowers if you are still struggling with shoes, here is another idea I just came across: Water Shoes. I have a pair I use for paddle boarding and it just dawned on me that these would work and they are very thin. This exact model/brand i can't find on Amazon anymore but there are lots of others, and they are cheap: $25-35. They don't have a ton of heel padding but surely these would be better than bare feet. Just try and find the thinnest pair.

 

And looking at your pedal box, vs mine, you should definitely do something to move the brake to the left. My accelerator pedal is also further forward than my brake. I can push the brake a decent amount before my foot even touches the accelerator.

[Randy Flowers]

Josh has sent me a replacement for the top pedal box cover plate.

Next Tuesday, we are digging into adjusting the pedals in some way, probably bending the throttle pedal to the right some as a starting point. 

I am already almost hitting the clutch when i brake, so the idea of straightening the brake pedal will give me even less room to the clutch, so unless the pedals themselves are reduced in width, I don't like that idea.  We may end up straightening the brake but also replacing the pads with thinner pads on the brake and clutch.  For sure though, the throttle is moving to the right as well.  I want maximum space between all 3 pedals, but especially brake/throttle.

On the shoes, I received these 'shoe socks' and they are like wearing a sock with a sole, so can't imagine getting anything thinner than that and they were very cheap.  I will hopefully be able to wear thin actual shoes of some sort after adjusting the pedals

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08SHWNXF4/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Randy

Edited July 11 by Randy Flowers

[anduril3019]

Maybe a dumb question, but...

Have you looked at all into the possibility of widening your pedal box?

On the clutch side, is that an interior panel, or the inside of the bodywork? If it's an interior panel, you could remove it or cut it back.

On the gas side, how much clearance do you have between the panel and the transmission? If you can figure out how much engine movement you may have, you might find a little space there to either form a recess in the panel for a little bit of foot room, or make an entirely new panel., then adjust the pedal spacing accordingly. 

There may not be much room, but with what you've got, even if you can pick up 1/2" overall, you're going to notice it.

Edited July 11 by anduril3019

[IamScotticus]

Please share your pedal box width at the pedal position.

I'm curious if it's any different from my 95 Live axle LC.

I realize it's not an easy task to measure that space.

[Randy Flowers]

I have an update on the above discussion.

We bent the throttle pedal about 3/4 inch to the right and that really helped with not hitting the throttle and brake simultaneously.

 

Also, I bought these 'Sock Shoes'

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08SHWNXF4?ref_=pe_386300_442618370_TE_sc_as_ri_0

 

And they work great!  They conform completely to your foot (so not much wider than my actual foot) and they have great feel thru the rubber.  I am finally able to drive it without using my bare feet.  I am even finally getting the hang of blipping the throttle on downshifts in the 7.  I can easily do that in my Miata, but struggled with it in the 7 until the throttle was bent to the right and without having some sort of shoes to drive with. 

 

The sock shoes even work walking around just fine (I don't have to take another set of shoes unless going somewhere where they would look silly).  It would be possible to even hike in the sock shoes, although that would surely wear them out quickly.

 

Thanks for all the advice on shoe types.

 

Randy