Well went for a OMP Steering wheel, or atleast the auction-sniper did.
A bit modern, but I mean, look at the car? :) RRP for a similar one is £136
Good old ebay! New for £49.95.
Could wire the buttons up to give a momentary contact switch for the wipers and something else, if I adjust the wiring and add a relay or two! NOT more wiring!
Steering column is in, thats a simple grommet sealing it perfectly through the bulkhead. Only issue I see is that the grommet could wear and split, but then I'll just superglue it back in place.
Wiring tubed covering downsized to 7/8ths and alot neater.
Adjusted the heater mounts a bit so I can run a pair of special grommets on the outlet pipes. Rather than those silly foam seals...
http://www.nfauto.co.uk/bulkhead_grommets.htm These will fit a 25-27mm hole and can be trimmed down to fit any size of the pipe up to 22mm. Perfect!
http://www.nfauto.co.uk/ provide all sorts of stuff! Well worth a look.
Old 12" wheel the new one 12.5"...I hear the measurements are usually less, so the new ones is more like 12" again.
Few images of tight packing.
About 8mm from the sump to the chassis.
Not much room here! again 8mm all over the front. Ok with the virtually hard mounted engine.
Didn't quite get the adjustment of the steering rack mount right, another snip and weld needed to stop the oil line rubbing,
Helps to be able to take the engine out etc :) Again 12mm here.
Manifold runs about 30mm from the bulkhead. The piece of pipe with the clip on will be removed at the collector and another piece added with gentle bend to run along the outrigger and join somewhere to facilitate the removal of the exhaust easily...Have to ponder than one. Not that happy with the manifold design, but its a caterham design, primaries miles too short, but its fine to 200HP you just don't get much torque from it...But then the engine will have more torque at 1200rpm than the Spitfire at max!
Alternator pretty close, will add some kind of shield or a bit of heat wrap on the exhaust here.
10mm clearance down the driver side bulkhead vertical.
Much more clearance this side, no need for a passenger clutch pedal is there!
About 15mm all round the filter.
Same here.
Engine can come out now for the LAST time! Chassis can have an apollo tank bracket added, turrets rubbed down, seam welded and the whole lot painted. I got a stack of stuff for etching and powdercoating. Then it really is the final build.
Should just be a sizing issue of the bore, or maybe no issue at all.
EDIT: Major whining on the Caterham Forum about the AP Caterham Kit and using it without a special master cylinder, the pistons are too big for a normal one...1/3rd more travel atleast...I think these AP need a (0.815 AP) or 0.875" master cylinder. You could try a Wilwood M/C but you'd to experiment I think if the pedal is not to required standard. Oddly though some folks say its ok :) Gotta love forums.
I know Caterham make stuff to go onto cars like the CSR260, which is a f'ing fast, these cars can in production spec lap tracks all day etc (well maybe their reliability is not that great but the brakes and wheels stay on!) I trust their judgement, as their kit is raced on by vast numbers of cars every weekend. Where Rally Designs Wilwood kit probably isn't.
Factor in buying some nice pads for the the wilwoods £80-10
Its about an even call it £575 with VAT for wilwood kits and pads with basic discs and £646 for Caterham bit less if they will ditch the brake lines...I got quite friendly with the bloke from Milwood MC in Stroud, so see whats cooking with him. The AP have integrale mount lugs which I prefer the look of, and same for some Wilwoods, but the kits are always radially mounted with an anodised mounting block...Something else to flex...
EDIT:
ALSO JUST FOUND ANOTHER SPITFIRE UPRIGHT brake kit!
http://www.jameswhiting.com/page9.html
http://angus.zenfolio.com/p434475895/
Alcon Calipers . More info when I dig some up. These use normal Caterham discs. Non vented and large pads. I read ALOT of favourable reporting on the Caterham Owners Club about this kit. Its got smaller pistons than the AP so there is no master cylinder sizing issues and long pedals due to large piston sizes. People seem to like these alot, especially with PAGID pads. Which are the current favoured pad of everyone it seems.No vented discs which does concern me, not 100% sure of the Caterhams are using GT6 sized disks of Spitfire ones, the brake caliper would suggest a GT6 disk? With the right pads they really shouldn't be that important provided the discs are good quality. Lighter too! Ponder that.
I am liking this Alcon lark, I like good quality components rather then just an overkill of lower quality stuff, ie massive crap disks and pads, when really high quality pads and disks will do a better job etc.. Factoring in the possible master cylinder experiments, the Caterham setup is getting expensive. You need to consider the piston sizes when buying calipers unless you like a 2" pedal of mush. If the Alcons can be used with a GT6 disk and some *gulp* £100+ Pagid pads (that last forever) I'd be tempted to give it a roll...
These megaexpensive pads will last 3-5x longer than Mintex or EBC. I read these Alcons were tested at Nurburgring in a Vauxhall engined Caterham and did the 24hr race with one set of really good pads...My car ate 2/3rds of a set of Mintex 1144 in 12laps of the Ring and about 40laps of Combe and a hand full of road miles...Thats about 3hrs track driving.
With alloy hubs, my 7075 wheel nuts, superlite alcon calipers and non-vented disks it might be 6kilos per side lighter in unpsrung mass than the normal GT6 setup! About half the mass!
Not a single gripe with these Alcons on the forum, bar someone moaning about fade with greenstuff pads, but thats hardly suprising, but need some further debate on it. My car is probably not that far off an SV caterham with all the trimmings in it.
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Also the clutch is a 1600 Capri plate I think. I will need to consider buying an uprated clutch plate of the same O/D to ensure it doesn't blow itself to bits. I am very light on clutches and don't to burn outs or 0-60 timing much if ever, but I'd rather nor find its inadequete for the shear power.
Saying this removing the engine is a DODDLE! The exhaust manifold, carbs, fair ilter, water system (complete), engine mounts all come out as one unit. No need to undo or remove anything bar water and electric connection and the main exhaust pipe...All the water system, ancillaries come out attached to the motor or engine mounts. Forward planning has its benefits.
I should get my 2nd cheque from adsense soon, the adverts are here for your benefit...Sooner they start paying the sooner I can buy a quaife box :)
Suppose I should be out enjoying the celebration of another wonderful New Year for the human-race...sound a bit boring to me!
Anyway after the massive house parties we used to have that went on for days or weeks (no comment), a beer in the pub seems a bit dull to be honest :)
