build diary

September 12, 2004:
After tracking down a little wiring fault that was keeping the coils from firing (don't you love it when two things go wrong at once?) the Seven happily fired up yesterday.
I borrowed a plate and decided to take it on a bit of a shakedown run. Naturally the best place for shakedown runs are up twisty roads along the edges of canyons. Everything was going well until all of a sudden I felt a quick spray of antifreeze on my face. Having no windshield allows this sort of thing to happen. I pulled off as soon as I could but couldn't find any leaking. Since I had been climbing since leaving town, I decided to basically coast downhill in neutral as much as possible. Once I arrived at the bottom (and a handy shopping center that also sold antifreeze), I pulled off the nose to check the coolant level. None. The top hose to the radiator was hot but the bottom one was cold. Tipping in a bit of antifreeze revealed that the patch at the bottom of the radiator had blown out and the car was completely and utterly devoid of any coolant. It wasn't leaking when I originally pulled off because the radiator had already drained immediately and I had turned off the engine. Since I had already run the engine pretty hot I decided to have the car towed home across town. This meant a half-hour wait in the parking lot as I answered the three Big Questions That Everyone Wants To Know: What is it, did you build it yourself and how fast does it go? I'm really not sure what the answer to the last one should be - can the performance of a Seven be summarized in a simply, phoaar-inspiring number? Maybe I'll do some 0-60 testing when the car is back together and hit 'em with 5 seconds 0-60 or something like that. Or stick with my current "fast enough to upset the police". Anyhow, it's a beautiful sunny day here and I can't drive the little sports car until I get the radiator fixed again. Sigh. There's also the question about the head - did it survive the fairly substantial overheating? I haven't had the nerve to check yet. Instead I'll be working on the Land Rover to get it ready for a 4-day trip to Moab for the Land Rover National Rally. I'll be back in a week to get the little car up and running again...
entry 617

September 21, 2004:
Well, that was a fun week in Moab.
But I'm feeling a little burned out on working on cars. So after removing the radiator from the Seven a couple of days ago I've kinda stalled. It is fairly obvious that the radiator popped partially because I didn't roughen the surface of the patch before glueing it on and partially because it got a little warm - but mostly because I tried to take a short cut and use JB weld instead of having the rad properly modified. There aren't many places I cut corners in the car but this is one of them. For those who are wondering how the engine is - it was running fine when I shut it off. We'll see what happens once I get the radiator fixed.
entry 618

The radiator after the patch popped off.
Kids, don't take shortcuts on projects like this.
entry 619

September 24, 2004:
CMC mounts.
Heikki Rinta-Koski pointed out that there are photos of how CMC mounts the same rad I used - unmodified - on his website. I'll try one more time to fix this one and if it fails, I'll buy another rad and copy the CMC mounts. I probably should have asked CMC for details on their mounts (which my car was supposed to have) but I felt a little awkward after sourcing the rad itself elsewhere. This weekend I'll give the modification another shot. I'm still concerned that with the CMC setup, the outlets will be awfully close to the suspension parts and the extra angle will hurt cooling somewhat - but it certainly is a good option. We'll see how the "repair" goes this weekend.
entry 620

September 25, 2004:
I don't need to rework those radiator brackets quite yet.
Bill Cardell took my rad's life into his hands and welded a new patch on in place of the bad JB Weld job I'd done in the past. The weld looks great but the epoxy filling in the rad wasn't too happy. JB Weld, more appropriately used, has been pressed into service to reinforce the existing epoxy. It should work very nicely and I'm much more relaxed about the state of the cooling system now. Some questions still remain, however - is the engine okay? Will the rad perform some other surprising trick? Are there any more electrical surprises in wait? Tune in next time and we'll see. Same bat-time, same bat-channel...
entry 621

The patch has now been welded to the radiator - but just as the welding shop predicted, it was at the expense of the epoxy.
The radiator is still sealed but it's obviously not as strong.
entry 622
JB Weld to the rescue!
While it might not have been the correct tool for the job to hold the whole patch on, this should be just fine. It's reinforcement for the epoxy that Griffin put on the rad.
entry 623

September 26, 2004:
The radiator is back in and the motor fired up happily.
A quick test drive seems to indicate that everything is working nicely and the oil looks good. The motor feels pretty strong although it needs retuning after the whole incident with the low fuel pressure. So that's all happy news then. Time to continue with getting the little beastie registered...
entry 624

September 29, 2004:
I called up the State Patrol office today to make an appointment for a VIN inspection.
It seems that they consider a windshield and wipers to be required on a "roadworthy" vehicle in Colorado. I checked with Rocky Mountain Sports Cars (the Denver Caterham dealer) a few months ago and they told me that registering a Caterham Superlight is not a problem, so I didn't anticipate this. So I called RMSC again and talked to them for more details. They register the Superlights either with a deflector or Brookland screens (neither with wipers) and it's just never been a question. So I'll be digging into the Colorado vehicle code to see exactly what it says. Unfortunately the LexisNexis link I had for it has gone away so it's time to dig out a hard copy.

I have to give credit to everyone I talked to. The state troopers were extremely pleasant and helpful and have offered to let me drop by and dig through their "blue book" to determine exactly what is needed. Nathan at RMSC was also willing to spend time answering my questions even though he knew that it had nothing to do with a Catherham. He even asked me to follow up with him so he learns more about it!
entry 625

October 3, 2004:
It's hard to type.
I just came in from a long drive in the little beastie and I'm a little overstimulated. Yes, I have a set of plates for the weekend (honestly, this is legal!) and I've been doing little but driving for the past two days. On the road, the Seven is all full of little zings, rattles and vibrations. They're particularly bad right at 3500 rpm on a light throttle, which is actually pretty common in the city. A sharp impact on the suspension is fairly crashy. Give the car its head, however, and it just comes alive. The engine note hardens, the vibration goes away as the revs soar, the suspension goes all fluid and it's just gear after gear after gear. When playing on the back roads - and we have some fantastic back roads here - it's amazing how much speed the Seven will carry through a corner without even trying. There's always more acceleration. At the moment, I'm quite happy with the amount of power the car has as it's all very accessible. On a Miata with this power/weight ratio I'm always more aware of driving a bit of a missle while the Seven seems to be a better balance of power and chassis.

So it should be fairly obvious that the engine is in good health. It needs to be tuned as we were trying to compensate for the low fuel pressure before and it runs quite rich up top. It also has some bad pinging if I load it up below 2500 rpm or so. There were also a few small problems. Crimp connections. I suspect my crimping tool is not as good as the one I've used at work as there are a number of intermittent connections. It's just a matter of hunting them all down and finding them. I think there's only one left by this point. The screws on a main wiring terminal had also loosened up causing a bit of intermittent running.

How about the results of my research? The Colorado state code is pretty clear - all vehicles must have a windshield made of an approved shatterproof material and it needs wipers that can be controlled by the driver. There's one exception: cars on collector plates. If I can register the Seven as a replica of a 1963 Lotus, that might do the trick. I'll call the DMV tomorrow and see if that will be possible. All my driving around this weekend did point out that a windshield wouldn't be all bad anyhow, so I might go ahead and make one. I have an idea for a legal wiper system that would be removeable (well, not legal at that point of course) or perhaps I can adapt one from an old Land Rover. An interesting note from this weekend - after arriving at a local restaurant (a little sideways), a fellow came up to me all excited and asking about my car. This isn't unusual, but the fact that he had his own little homebuilt Seven with a V8 was. He wanted to know how I could register it without a windshield as he wanted to do the same. We talked a bit about collector's vehicles. He thought mine was a Caterham - I'm taking that as a compliment!

I sure have a lot to say today. Those following Heikki's build have seen the new diff mounts from CMC. Hmm. I think they've avoided the actual source of the problem. The diff is trying to go nose-up quite enthusiastically and it's rotating around these two bushings. The nose is what needs to be tied down. Steve has told me they have a PPF substitute but I haven't seen anything about it yet. This solution will definitely reinforce those bushings better but it's still a rubber bushing and is designed to flex. Stiffening the bushing (as I did) would help, as would shaving down the top of the metal sleeve through the bushing so that the differential is mounted solidly to metal. Sure, more NVH but that's unavoidable in a Seven anyhow. 14mm bolts are a requirement instead of the 1/2" that I believe have been used - that's an easy mistake to make because the holes in the end of the factory mount are smaller than the hole through the bushing and the stud is designed to match. It seems that my setup is more effective than some of the others as it's surviving quite well despite the fact that my engine is making about 40 hp more than most 1.6s.
entry 626

October 5, 2004:
Colorado will indeed allow me to register my car as a Collector Car - in 2029.
Since I'm not quite that patient I've decided to make a windshield. I've spent some time measuring photos of Caterhams and it looks as if they lay the glass back about 64 degrees. They're also 12" tall in the center (thank you Nathan at RMSC for that information). Armed with this I'll be playing around with some cardboard and masking tape to build a mockup. This is where Ron Champion's book is fairly useful as it has some good construction tips. The shape of that ridge around the scuttle is going to affect the angle in mine, though. I'm still consdering what to do with wipers - "the book" suggests using some from an old Mini. Since I'll be driving one of those next week when I'm visiting Ottawa, I'll have a good look. That would be a good choice for a permanent installation.

Heikki pointed me to this build which uses a large radiator on a CMC frame. Some good views of the bracketry but this particular one uses a remote cap.
entry 627

October 6, 2004:
An evening of puttering around.
First, I cut a sheet of cardboard into windshield size (12" high by 35" wide), taped it onto the scuttle and started playing with angles and placement. That lip around the edge of the scuttle sure would be useful for putting on a wind deflector but it gets in the way of a windscreen. It's a little steeper than I'd like at about 70 degrees. I'd prefer about 65 - and those 5 degrees make a big difference. From looking at photos, it appears that CMC puts their windscreens in front of the lip. Hmm, I hadn't looked at those photos last night. Time to go back and re-examine.

Once I got tired of playing with my cardboard, I tried some big tires on for fit. BFG R1s (these have been kicking around for a while!) in a 205/55-14 size on 1994 Miata wheels with a +45 offset. In other words, they're wider and taller than the others I've tried but they have the same centerline. They fit brilliantly in the front. In the rear they clear, but not by a whole lot. When trying to fit the rear fenders, I had problems getting them to bolt up to the flat side of the rear panel - they wanted to sit a little further back and this caused giant gaps as the rear panel started to curve around. So I squeezed them up a little and effectively tightened the curve. I only realised last night that this is why my rear wheels don't look quite centered in the fenderwell! CMC has since extended the rear body slightly and this would solve the problem. If I want to fit truly large tires I'll have to do the same but that's not a big deal. These particular tires fit fine. They sure look mean! I have another track day in late October and I'll see if this old rubber will still stick.
entry 628

Test fitting some larger tires.
These are 205/55-14 tires on stock Miata wheels with a +45 offset. They fit but are close at the rear. When I installed my rear fenders, I had to tighten the curve a little at the rear in order to fit them to the body. CMC has since extended the rear section of the body which would allow the fenders to move a little further back. More clearance for big rubber and a more finished look.
entry 629
195/55-14 Toyo on the left, 205/55-14 BFG R1 on the right.
How long has it been since they made the R1 exactly?
entry 630
Mocking up the windshield for height and angle.
Note the reference model!
entry 631
I had neglected to put a lock nut on my tie rods.
Yes, yes, I know. There was a little bit of slop that has now been removed.
entry 632

October 7, 2004:
A few folks have reminded me that CMC sells a windscreen designed for these cars.
It's $300. Not a bad option, but I'm going to try my own instead. I want a slightly different shape than CMC uses and I don't mind putting a bit of time in. It should be surprisingly affordable - the first quote on glass (flat glass, about 35"x15") is $36. All I need to do is find some channel to run around the outside edge. I'll be visiting a few likely suppliers this afternoon. I'll also be dropping by a friend's house as he is donating the wiper setup from an MG Midget. Excellent news!

After this burst of activity, the Seven will sit quiet for a while. I'm heading back to Ottawa for a week and a half to attend a friend's wedding and visit family. I'll also be borrowing an original Mini while I'm there and I'll have a little peek at the wiper setup...
entry 633

October 8, 2004:
Last night I paid a visit to an MG Midget that is getting a few upgrades.
The owner was planning to remove the wipers so I helped him out! It's not quite a complete setup, missing the flexible rod and with one damaged "wheelbox", but it's a very good start. A bit of looking around a Series III Land Rover and/or eBay will turn up the rest of what I need quite quickly I hope. The motor is heavy!
entry 634

Several wiper pieces from an MG Midget and an MGA.
entry 635

October 19, 2004:
Back from Ottawa!
I have a track day scheduled this weekend at the Pueblo track. This is a real track so it should be a good test of both the high-speed behaviour of the car and of my nerve. My Miata with this same engine was pulling just about 100 mph at the end of the straight a few years back. I'm quite excited about this as it will give me lots of time to learn more about the car, do some tuning and grin so hard my face will hurt.

To get ready for the track, I have a bit of work to do. Let's see, check the fuel filter, do a little engine tuning, swap over to race rubber, change a few electrical connectors and generally check over the car.

For those who miss the chaos and quick updates of the early summer, there are several other builds that are interesting to watch. I've mentioned Heikki's build in the past. Steve Carter has a website about his Toyotus, a CMC "Classic" build. Hmm, those shipping photos look familiar. Dennis Palatov runs DPcars.net which not only includes the story of building and driving a Hyabusa Westfield in the Past section, but also building his own highly ambitious car from scratch. Judging by the amount of email that's coming my way, my own particular build has caught people's attention.
entry 636

A suggestion from "Gasoline Fumes" on the GRM forum on how I can transport the Seven!
entry 637
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