The first job of the build is actually to remove parts rather than add them, namely the interior aluminium panels.

There are 5 panels in total to remove: the rear bulkhead, 2x bow-tube panels and 2 x footwell panels. The rear & bow tube panels are held in with aluminium rivets and the footwell panels use stainless steel rivets along the bottom edge and aluminium along the top edge. The stainless steel rivets also serve to fasten the lowered floor pans to the lower chassis tube.

I’ve obtained black aluminium and black stainless rivets for the replacement carbon panels.

Removing the old panels is relatively easy for the most part, just drilling out the centres and then tapping off the rivet head with an old chisel. The most difficult parts are in the footwells simply because access is so restricted. A cordless angle drill and camping lantern proved very helpful during this part.

Once the rivets are out of the way the panels can be removed. This involves a little bit of flexing and twisting of each panel but is not too difficult.

The rear panel was the trickiest as the two bow tube panels have to be removed first along with 3 rivets in each of the outer chassis tubes. The rear panel is also held in by the tunnel panels and I had to bend the flanges on the tunnel panels slightly to get enough clearance.

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Once the panels were all removed I went round every hole with a pin punch to make sure all remnants of the old rivets were punched into the chassis tubes. More drilling and hammering was necessary at this stage particularly where the rivet mandrel had snapped off flush with the rivet dome.

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The final job was to spray cavity wax into each hole, this serves two purposes, the first is to protect the inner chassis walls from corrosion and the second is to stick all the remains of the rivets together so they do not rattle around.

I also removed the plywood boot floor during this process and decided that a few coats of varnish would do no harm especially as the underside of the panel is somewhat exposed to the elements.

I will leave fitting the replacement panels until later in the build but the first major job is now done.

The kit arrived on time on Friday 13th March. Ivan the driver gave me a call mid-morning to say he was on his way and an hour later the Caterham van was reversing onto the drive.

With the help of my neighbour John, the three of us unloaded everything into the garage in about half an hour. The chassis and body shell definitely needs three people to lift it off the transportation trolley onto the mobile axle stands, but after that everything apart from the engine and gearbox can be moved by one person.

The engine comes on a pallet and is winched off the van and then man-handled into the garage.

I needed to get back to work so after thanking John and Ivan I closed up the garage and left the sorting out until the evening and the following day.

It is worth noting that the kit also comes with a new printed manual: ‘Assembly Guide – Duratec Version 2.0’ published February 2020. The initial read-through reveals more illustrations and attention to matters that other builders have noticed as lacking from the previous editions (e.g. how to connect the oil cooler pipes). The engine install picture makes this part of the build look deceptively simple…we’ll see!

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I spent the following day sorting through the boxes, checking and organising all the parts. I decided to put all the fasteners and small packages in one box and to rationalise the others (e.g. suspension parts, lighting, hoses etc.) into their own boxes. Larger parts that will be required later such as the very nice carbon seats, nose-cone, bonnet, front-rear wings, exhaust etc. are all inside the house. Hopefully a little time spent now sorting into fewer boxes and adding some more labels will avoid a lot of frustration later in trying to find the obscure part or fastener.

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Having checked everything back to the pick list that is included with the delivery I am in fact missing three parts (‘shorts’ in Caterham speak).

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• 5 speed gear lever (this is pretty important)
• Half-hood (not essential for the build)
• Weather-kit fastener pack (does not sound mission critical)

I’ve emailed Derek at Caterham to confirm that everything appears OK and to ask for an ETA on the missing items.

UPDATE: Email response from Derek: The weather fastener kit is no longer supplied as Caterham now fit them at the factory. The gear lever should have been packed in a small box with the engine mounts (I checked this and definitely no gear lever, there was however a packet of three screws labelled ‘gear lever’). Derek also asked me to check for the half hood as this should have been packed with the nose cone and rear wings (no it wasn’t).

UPDATE: Derek agreed to send the parts out as soon as they become available but has no idea of when this will be given the Coronavirus lockdown.

I am also still waiting for the Quantum shock absorbers I ordered. These are due in the next couple of weeks.

I ordered a number of parts from David at Classic Carbon who has kept in touch during the last few weeks and has been kind enough to send progress pictures. His parts are all hand built with great attention to detail using pre-preg carbon and then hand finished. The headlight bowls have been prioritised and in the final stages of clear coating. I’m looking forward to posting some pictures of my own when they arrive, from what I have seen so far they look amazing.

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The next job is to reduce the height of the axle stands by one notch whilst we can still man-handle the chassis as it just a fraction too high for my trolley jacks. Doing this now will still leave a nice working height and make it easier for us to lower the car safely onto its wheels when the time comes.

After protecting the chassis with the obligatory pipe lagging and masking tape I will then tackle the job of removing the interior panels (not a standard part of the build but necessary in order to fit the carbon panels that arrived a couple of weeks ago).

The build may end up progressing faster than originally planned due to the COVID-19 outbreak. My eldest daughter Sophia is cutting short her post-graduation Asia tour by a couple of weeks and our own family holiday in France may turn into a 420R build ‘staycation’.