Caterham R500 Custom Build - 1/12

[Codger]

Thanks for the great fun rides! Car-mounted camera shows what flat cornering really means. The helmet cam has too much wind buffeting. But hand-fulls of opposite lock, lap after lap is huge fun. Thanks again Nut.

[caterhamnut]

lol - yeah, never time to edit all the hours of video for that sound - one day!!

You'd appreciate the 'K-series' engine.

Designed probably mid-80's? (guessing) it was the first to have very very long head bolts that basically held the whole engine together from top to bottom - with precise 'stretch' - first mass-production anyway - pretty clever at the time and makes it very light. Had a history of head-gasket failure, but ours has been very reliable - never raced or tracked - lol

My very very out of date website mycaterham.com

[MetroRacing]

Ahh I was wondering when the head gaskets would get mentioned with all this talk of k series engines haha.

It was a very cutting edge technology at the time especially considering rover was never the best with it's finances lol. It was designed in the early 80's and put into production around '87/'88. First mass produced all aluminium alloy, dohc, sandwich construction engine. And they go and fit the block with plastic location dowels for the head. Oh dear

Ashley

Edited March 23, 2016 by MetroRacing

[Codger]

lol - yeah, never time to edit all the hours of video for that sound - one day!!

You'd appreciate the 'K-series' engine.

Designed probably mid-80's? (guessing) it was the first to have very very long head bolts that basically held the whole engine together from top to bottom - with precise 'stretch' - first mass-production anyway - pretty clever at the time and makes it very light. Had a history of head-gasket failure, but ours has been very reliable - never raced or tracked - lol

My very very out of date website mycaterham.com

Yes I do appreciate design details that lead to longevity under race abuse. Several of our blocks were designed with bosses deep in the crankcase for longer headbolts. We had ARP make bolt kits for those. The purpose was to improve clamping force and keep the head gaskets alive on our Windsor Fords. The race crazing were getting 1900 HP at 400 ci with monster turbos and spray. The stock Windsors always broke their china rails but not ours. Deeper bolts on the LS as well.

Your ancient site is just great and I can't believe the 24 / 7 use of the poor thing parked in front of your flat, covered with snow! You da man !!!

[injidup]

I like my K-series! With metal dowels and the right head gasket they work well.

Did think about swapping it for a Honda but decided to keep it and get some head work done. One day I hope to get it over 180hp which should push my little* car along quite nicely.

Old head...New Head

*Not as little as a Caterham, though! Still only 730kg.

Edited March 23, 2016 by injidup

[vontrips]

Ahh I was wondering when the head gaskets would get mentioned with all this talk of k series engines haha.

It was a very cutting edge technology at the time especially considering rover was never the best with it's finances lol. It was designed in the early 80's and put into production around '87/'88. First mass produced all aluminium alloy, dohc, sandwich construction engine. And they go and fit the block with plastic location dowels for the head. Oh dear

Ashley

Had my S1 Elise for 8 years without head gasket failure, but I was also waiting for its mention, LOL! Always wondered what percent of them actually failed? Knew a lot of SELOC owners that never had problems, but then I know one guy that had failure on three cars! Always let mine warm up though.

In fairness, it was mainly due to cooling system being too long for the engine design resulting in hot and cold pockets in the coolant; or so I've been told. Mind you they failed in Defenders too???

[caterhamnut]

Mine started as a 1.6 Supersport - approx 120bhp.

My website above details early developments, playing with intakes etc - and some lovely head work as well. With a VHPD intake, larger throttle body, forged pistons, headwork, exhaust etc we got to about 180bhp, but it was a little rough at points. We also moved up to a 1.8 at some point....

Once we made the big step to throttle bodies and Emerald ECU, we now have a reliable 200bhp - so R400 spec. IMO perfect for the road use we do - you don't want something spitting you off a wet roundabout if you sneeze - we are all-weather users after all! But a little sideways fun is always good (LSD - best upgrade!)

For the miles we do, and the - enthusiastic - track use, ours has been very reliable. That first 1.6 (now a spare!) did well over 90,000 miles.

Just miss not having it here. Went back last summer and drove direct from Surrey to the F1 race at Monza, via the Swiss Alp passes, and back - about 3000 miles of perfect driving....*sigh*

[MetroRacing]

Had my S1 Elise for 8 years without head gasket failure, but I was also waiting for its mention, LOL! Always wondered what percent of them actually failed? Knew a lot of SELOC owners that never had problems, but then I know one guy that had failure on three cars! Always let mine warm up though.

In fairness, it was mainly due to cooling system being too long for the engine design resulting in hot and cold pockets in the coolant; or so I've been told. Mind you they failed in Defenders too???

There were many different reasons for the head gasket failers. And different reasons for different cars.

An early one was the material of the head bolts. The block and head would heat up quicker than the head bolts, which therefore allowed them to move slightly. Then the plastic dowels would disintegrate after roughly 10 years, causing the same issue.

I believe Lotus and Caterham always fitted metal dowels and soon changed to the uprated head gasket that Land Rover developed to curb the failers in the Freelanders.

The coolant issues stem from the MGF as no one thought that maybe the thermostat needed to open earlier with a mid engined design. By the time the coolant had gone all the way to the front and back to be cooled the engine was already too hot.

Rumour has it that MG/Rover finally fixed all the issues with the 2004 update. So all face-lift 25, 45, 75 and the sister MG models shouldn't encounter problems. Unfortunately the went bust in 2005

They are great engines. Revolutionary, light and powerful. As mentioned in another thread my friends metro was running a standard 1.4 that with an Emerald ecu and remap put out 118hp. Nobody believed it was either standard or just the 1.4 but it was haha.

Ashley

Edited March 24, 2016 by MetroRacing

[injidup]

Emerald and throttle bodies are next on my upgrade list. Which also means pistons, rods and liners, and a new airbox.

I'm going for some driver training first, though. Upgrading the biological component!

[adamg1987]

Any progress?

Adam

[caterhamnut]

OK - BACK TO 2019 - another 4 years have passed since I did a bit of work in NYC on the decals and dashboards....but then I had the brick wall of how to make some bits...

 

In the mean time I had taken up model making again in the States. New skills and techniques mean that I just know I am not going to be able to resist going back and adding more detail to these kits - particularly when it comes to paint finished and washes/panel wash etc.

 

But the biggest issue was the damn seats.

I've kept up to date with the 'home' 3D printer market, but the FDM printers (the ones that squeeze molten plastic out of a tube - think toothpaste - and build up layers) simply don't have the resolution required. Cheap though - you can pick up a descent kit for £150 - good enough for learning and 'rough' stuff - although actually they are still pretty good now! - and clean...as soon as you start to use resin you have mess, smell, clear-up everytime etc etc..

 

Resin printers, that use a laser to 'set' UV sensitive resin in very thin layers, are a different level of cost!
You are looking at £2-3k for a good, small model....

 

....until now! There are now a handful of small printers available for less than £350.

These use a UV emitting LCD screen to 'set' each layer - the resolution (thickness of the layers!) is way higher than any FDM printer - in fact you can even see the pixels of the 2K LCD screen being printed if you really zoom in.

 

So last week I invested in an Anycubic Photon - a very popular Chinese printer you can get from Amazon. It produces stunning results....

 

 

It has a small print area, but for the size of parts I want to make, it is fine.

DO NOT READ AHEAD IF YOU DON'T WANT TO BE TEMPTED - THE RESULTS YOU CAN GET FROM THIS PRINTER ARE AMAZING!

 

Of course you have to draw the 3D cad files to print - I have access to Solidworks, which I have used in work - but I am not an expert user by any means - I have been drawing boxes and shelves in NYC - so the learning curve to draw a complex shape like a Tillet seat is large!
I thought I'd start with some wheels and tyres - these models have ACB 10 tyres, which have to be the simplest tread to try and draw up as well - result!!

 

 

So - I worked through some tutorials, and...

 

 

So on to the first print - the printer comes with some resin to try - in this case, translucent green...out to Dads workshop....

 

 

 

BOOM! I was amazed at the results...

 

 

 

 

Moved on to some grey resin...

 

 

 

 

...as I had the file for the central cast hub, I am able to reproduce those as well - lucky as I can't find the plastic sheet with 8 hubs machined onto it from 2003!

So this is a 3 piece wheel:

 

 

I have to play around with sizes to allow for paint clearance etc - but it works brilliantly.

You can get different types of resin - so I have got some flexible resin to try and make 'real' tyres - I'll have to reduce the wall thickness right down, and make sure I can use pigment on the resin to make it black - as the flex resin is clear - but that is to come. I'l probably use the grey hard resin and spray for now...

 

 

 

More updates tomorrow - I'm staying up waaaay too late every night working on this - but it is good to get the modelling MOJO back after 18 mths....

[Pouln]

Looking great, these wheels. 

I have acquired a Kudo3d resin printer, but I have yet to start using it. 

Quality should be about the same. 

Planning to make a lot of small stuff, but I do need to get aquainted with 3D design software first. 

 

Do you see any shrinkage happening during printing or curing of parts? 

Edited June 19, 2019 by Pouln

[keefr22]

Lovely wheels (and the tyres are great too!)

 

Keith

[caterhamnut]

Next job was the tillet seats - carbon fibre race seats which are only about 4mm thick in 1/1, and are very curvy.
Now I had the tool to print them, I still had to create the 3D file - youtube solidworks tutorials to the rescure:

 

 

Not perfect in terms of 3D drawing, but good enough for my use!

 

 

 

UV curing:

 

 

Had to get the scale right, and played around trying to get the shoulder 'bulge' correct - this had to fit in the model...

 

 

Once I was happy with the size and shape I primed and sprayed black - although the seat was kevlar, so it would be covered with decal and also some fine flocked sheet to represent the fabric on the real thing...

 

 

 

 

Fun shape to try and cover!

 

 

 

 

 

Once I had added the kevlar, I thought it looked a bit too yellow, so I sprayed a few layers of Tamiya 'smoke' to darken it a little...much better. Quick coat of satin clear to seal it all up.

 

 

 

Then the self-adhesive flocking material - bugger to get the shape right for the side pieces...

 

 

 

Most of the rear and lower sides of the seat would not be seen, so I saved materials...still have a few bits to patch up, but overall - done!

 

 

 

 

These seats were the biggest issue to figure out - its only taken 15 years lol

On a mission now, so I also drew up some other parts - the tiny ones like fog lights, rear view race mirrors etc - none of which are correct in the kit for what I need. I also drew up the '7' grill, which printed amazingly - years ago I had tried to resin cast the original wire one that came in one of the Tamiya kits (The VX powered JPE) as I needed more than one, but it was impossible - not now!

 

 

 

 

I had to make another cooling fan for the radiator of the blue car - the yellow one consisted of part of a camera film case, carefully bent wire, carved fan blades etc etc - huge amount of labour. I drew up this one, made the fan separately so I could paint more easily,.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm currently trying to get the wheel/tyre sizes spot on so I can manufacture those, and am about to start finishing and painting all those parts to assemble...

[keefr22]

Very neat work, all the parts look really good, but the seats are superb!

 

Keith

[Codger]

Staggering. I have now seen the future and it's time for me to leave.

 

Your description of building the fan and shroud from a film case and wire has been my whole life. This entire display of 3D has been like watching a sci-fi thriller where everything comes true in real life.

 

Brilliant 'Nut, just brilliant. You are the future and you're here...

C

[JeroenS]

Those seats are just brilliant, I like the fan too. Looks great.

[harveyb258]

3 hours ago, Codger said:

Brilliant 'Nut, just brilliant.

As above... lovely work and am glad to see this back!!!

[rjfk2002]

Wow that is really incredible. I just have headed your warning. I need to learn more about this printer ha

[Schwarz-Brot]

Great to see you return to this build. I see your seats have an extreme amount of supports. I thought the model would be pulled out of the resin layer by layer, so there'd be no support needed as long as the parts are connected to each other? Seems like I am wrong with that. Can you evaluate this a little, please?

 

The seats turned out great. I try every now and then to get some splined parts to behave with fusion, but I most often cannot get it right. So you have my respect for designing the seats to your needs. Keep the updates coming, I'll be watching!

[Cooper645]

😲🤤 amazing results, I think I need a 3D printer in my life 

[Spiny]

As everyone has said, incredible results. It just goes to show how much of an advance 3D printing represents. But it's also evident from many places around the internet that the best 3D printing is completely useless if the operator isn't up to scratch (the old garbage-in, garbage-out thing). Fortunately, it's pretty obvious from your work here that the operator is most definitely up to scratch... and more so.

[injidup]

Loving your builds (including the Mossie) - keep it up.

Edited June 23, 2019 by injidup

[caterhamnut]

Finished the wheels (or at least the main parts - need to add the air valves etc!)

 

 

Printing the tyres was a pain - tried different angles etc, sometimes they would 'sag' as they printed due to the number of supports - still learning all that!
Had a few flats!

 

 

But once done, and cleaned off - I primed and sprayed with Tamiya Rubber Black (or tyre black - can't remember) - I am going to print a mask to spray 'AVON' on the tyres.

 

 

I ended up using Alclad Chrome on the rims - but not to full 'shine' effect - just enough to glint a little bit. I did try the Spaz chrome you can see, but wasn't impressed - far more to do with prep. and not fiddling with the airbrush - alclad gave me a 'hint' of chrome over the top of the other...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nothing fixed or attached yet...

 

 

Lots of small bits next - mirrors, fog/reverse lights mainly...

 

 

Getting pretty close to assembling these parts to the cars and....finishing!!

[JeroenS]

Those wheels are just lovely, well worth the effort!