Caterham Academy 2004

Day 1 - Arrival and preparation

I finished off tidying up the garage in the morning ready for the car to arrive.

Then at around 12:30 the Caterham van pulled up.

After around half an hour unloading (the chassis is heavy!) we'd got it all in. A few handy build tips later I was left to put everything away. I moved most of the bodywork bits into our games room.

At this point I decided that I needed to move the chassis so that there is some vague hope of getting my girlfriend's car in the garage at some point. That will have to wait a few hours as there is no way I can move it on my own, although I can get the front off the axle stands. I've taped up the front suspension which is always the first task, but they don't normally tell you that masking tape refuses to stick to bare aluminium! There's also a shot of the lowered floor (from the front of the car) which is a feature of all 2004 Academy cars.

I started to do an inventory of the parts, but it is really difficult to do without taking absolutely everything out the boxes. I have at least checked the suspension and steering which are the first jobs and I appear to be missing one of the suspension fastner kits and the forward radius arms which is a bit strange. Perhaps they are in another box somewhere....

I am definitely missing a windscreen stantion screw, some SVA rubber covers, gearlever and ECU as they are on the 'to come' list - so I'd better not build it too quickly then.

I'm also missing the assembly guide. I don't know if this is because I requested one from Caterham Midlands in advance.

1 hour build time so far.

Posted by charles at August 27, 2003 5:03 PM