Appletree Works, 26 - 30 Glenfield Road
Ashford, Middlesex, TW15 1JL, U.K.
Tel: 01784 - 241466 Fax: 01784 - 250915

Caterham FireBlade
Archive

“just a few more revs” Oops!

Funny noise from wheel?

Missing a Nut!
The lock-nut is missing from this upper wishbone.

“I think my ‘A’ frame bushes need changing”!!
A live axle car came in with tyre pressures of less than 10psi and the ‘A’ frame bushes in the picture on the right. Needless to say, a little air and a new set of bushes transformed the handling!

Beware when buying old cars for ‘restoration’.
The chassis tube, (pictured below) on this Lotus 7 Series 3 was not found until the car was de-skinned for a rebuild. Just in time I’d say.

Back to Horror Stories

Here is a situation (pictured right) where a live axle halfshaft has had the bearing tack welded in place, very poor practice, and in this case it caused total failure of the shaft through metal fatigue. The heat penetration of the weld has effected the molecular structure of the shaft halfway through.

This Caterham 7 dedion car (below) came through the workshop in 2003. It had been worked on by someone unfamiliar with the marque as the rear brake callipers had been transposed.

Pictured (left) is the right-hand brake calliper on the left-hand side of the car. Whoever fitted this calliper to the car then had to re-route the brake-pipe so that it would reach the calliper. The subsequent incorrect routing caused the brake-pipe to be damaged with suspension movement - (pictured right).

Horror Stories III