Uprights and steering

Finally, over a month after taking delivery the uprights have arrived! First job was to assemble them onto the car. The integration of the cycle wing-stays caused a little issues, where the central hole needed to be filed to make them fit (both sides). There are also a few bolts in here that are hard to access with a torque wrench. The lower upright bolt has a surprisingly long thread on it and that prohibits final tightening with a conventional socket... The nut on the upper wishbone is hard to access at first, so tighten the majority of the way using a spanner and then a torque wrench can be used for final tightening.

LHS upright assembled

 I did then get a bit carried away and loosely fit the wheel and cycle wing; starting to feel like a car!

Starting to look like progress is being made

With the uprights installed, I then fitted the anti-roll bar - which was entertaining. With plenty of grease on the balls, it required some serious force and a measured amount of hammer before it would go. With that does the front end is in a tidy state.

On to the steering and a recurring theme emerges. I had to file out one of the holes in the universal joint to allow it to fit - not something I was keen to do at all, but it got the job done. Fitting the upper steering column is a bit of a challenge as the lower white plastic bush is easily dislodged when sliding the column in. My only answer for this was perseverance. I would advise that you position the column such that the curved surface is pointing outward toward the RHS of the car; this will allow the clamp to be installed much more easily as you can actually get on the bolt heads with a socket. The upper rubber bush is also a bit of a challenge - a good amount of rubber lubricant and brute force and it will go eventually. With the steering wheel installed it's starting to look much better in the cabin!

Nice MOMO steering wheel, great size and feel for this car

Odds and ends: 

Other jobs completed included fitting the brake lines to the de-dion tube; my first experience of riveting - quite good fun. The brake lines were also bent to fit, echoing the sentiment that Caterham may as well send straight pipes. With this done the de-dion was set in place, but the upper brake line couldn't be installed due to a dodgy thread on the male union.

De-dion and driveshaft in place

Having the brake lines in place I kept the rear brake calliper assembly attached to the aluminium ears for later.

LHS ear with the calliper attached

With a final view of the rear I looked at installing the rear dampers and found that the roll bar needed to be installed. I had it loosely bolted in place previously, just to put it somewhere. Actually installing it was a bit of a pain. More filing of the rear mounting holes and a good bit of hammer action enabled the bolts to be fitted.

Roll bar fitted

When I got a bit carried away with having a wheel on and pondered adding the cycle wings; however, there was no clear marked positions for the two holes required to start the drilling and assembly process, just an orange dot...?

No clearly marked positions for holes