Back with Some Stats – How Much Time!

Three months on from the build and time to do a look back at some statistics…

It’s been three very cold and wet months since I got the car on the road. We’ve had the Beast From The East and it’s lesser sibling, The Mini Beast From The East, along with a bunch of rain and a good dose of a stinker of a cold that kept me inside for too long.

Suffice to say I’ve not been out in the car much. As I write this (end of March 2018) the car only has about 160 miles on the clock and 70 of those were in the last 3 days. There’ll be more on that in a future post though.

In the meantime, how about some build stats? I get asked the usual questions a lot – how fast, how much, how heavy etc etc. But I also get asked a lot about how long it took to build…

… and I’m glad you asked, I say 🙂

So, as well as keeping a Blog on this website while I was building, I also kept a written record of how much time I was spending, both on the website and on the build. I also totted up a few other items in case anyone’s interested. The numbers are “about right”… I think. Don’t quote me to the second, I may have missed recording a time and had to think back as to how long it took, but I don’t think I missed anything big, or I’m too wildy out.

Some High Level Statistics

Build Hours	162
Visits to the dealer, Williams	7
Visits to Caterham	1
Pictures Taken	1,546
Pictures added to Blog	601
Emails to Caterham	58
Emails from Caterham	35
GigaBytes of storage used (mostly video)	877
Blog Posts	65
Words in Blog	83,869
Hours Blogging	111.83
Website Views	9,530

I think most of those stats speak for themselves, but lets run through them for the insomniacs amongst you…

Build Hours – 162

For many of you aspiring builders, this is the only number you’re interested in:

162 hours to build a car

That’s a lot longer than I thought it would take… and also a lot longer than Caterham tell you it will take.

Double what I had hoped.

Where did all the time go…? Well there’s more detail below if you really want to the gorey mess of it… but in the end, it went into the “fun” of it. I really enjoyed the build and I probably took longer because I was enjoying getting it all done the way I thought it should be done, and not just the quickest way.

It also seemed to take forever to get over the final line. Endless jobs to tidy and  do the IVA tasks. In the end I did just about everything I could find that was required by IVA. Perhaps all of them weren’t necessary but the way I look at it – it passed first time!

Could you do it faster – certainly… especially with the swanky new Ikea style build manual. Would you have as much fun – depending on your goals… maybe. Would I have had as much fun doing it more quickly – absolutely not. It was a fantastic 162 hours of glorious fun!

Awesome!

What’s not included: I haven’t included any research time. As well at the hours of building and blogging I did many, many hours of reading all the blogs, forums and facebook posts I could find. I’m sure there was at least another 100 hours in research – both before and during the build.

More Detail on Build Hours

If you’re interested (and a real sucker for punishment), then at the bottom of this post I’ve put my whole build log.

I recorded all the major work items, and even lumped in the not-so-major items. I can’t guarantee that I captured absolutely everything, but if you’ve been a follower of the blog you should get a sense of whether I’m the meticulous type or not.

If you’re a “a bit more of the detail” sort of person but not a “dump all the minutia on me” person, then I also grouped the tasks into the following categories and generated a (pivot) table of the approximate headline durations…

Task Category	Duration (hh:mm)
Bodywork and Protection	22:20
Brakes	11:53
Drivetratin	26:58
Electrics	18:57
Exhaust	05:40
IVA	07:50
Other	06:50
Plumbing – Oil	09:35
Plumbing – Water	16:30
Safety	02:05
Steering	03:15
Suspension – Front	17:20
Suspension – Rear	12:56
Grand Total	162:09

At some point, I might try and put this information back into the gantt chart I first created. I know there were a bunch of you that said it would take me longer than in the gantt… but hey you’re only young once.

Again, there’s more detail at the bottom of this post…

Visits To The Dealer – 7

Of course there were the usual test-drives, spec’ing, paying etc etc. But I also had a few trips out to poke around their stock to see how things were done on an already built car, and I also made trips to pick up my bonnet and a different track day roll-bar.

And while we’re on the subject of roll-over bars… bear in mind that some clubs (i.e. Lotus7.club) insist on the FIA track-day roll-over bar – the one with the diagonal braces running across the car. If you go for the standard roll-over then no-tracky-with-them! They won’t allow you to enter one of their track days unless you have at least the FIA track-day roll-over bar.

Visits To Caterham – 1

A visit to take my bruised, and already late, bonnet back to be reworked. I could have got them to pick it up but decided a trip to the showroom was going to get it there faster… and… it was a worthwhile day out that I hardly needed an excuse for. I learnt a lot from poking around the cars there and also got talking to other builders and mechanics which was also really helpful too.

Pictures Taken – 1,546

I’ve talked about my reasons for blogging (here) and some of the very first comments I got back on my first few posts were – “more pictures please”. We all know a picture paints a thousand words and nothing more so than when you’re trying to explain something technical.

Of course you need to take pictures as part of the submission to IVA, but I only provided them with half a dozen or so. So, taking lots of pictures wasn’t for their benefit. In the end I found it really, really useful to refer back to pictures I’d taken from earlier in the build. I’ve also been able to dig through the collection when people have asked questions later and I’ve been able to find something that didn’t make the blog but showed exactly how I’d done something.

I’ve enjoyed having the photo collection to go back through and I hope you enjoy the montage header picture on this post – which is (most of) the pictures uploaded to the site so far… in a montage (ImageMagick if anyone’s interested). I think there are 504 images in that montage – don’t ask about why there’s a difference between the 504 here and the 601 mentioned below… there just is – right!

Pictures Added to The Blog – 601

I think that’s way more than I was expecting and probably took forever for people to download as they read the posts… but it seems they helped a bunch of people through their own builds so hopefully worth it in the end.

I’m also aware that some people just look at the pictures on the pages… with very little evidence that they’ve read the words. That’s ok too… and of course I can bad mouth them here because they won’t read this either! 🙂

Emails to Caterham – 58

I never would have guessed that – honestly! I thought I was trying to keep the traffic to Derek to a minimum. Hmmm.

Derek was great, and often surprised me with how quickly he got back… but sometimes not so too… so don’t rely on him for a guaranteed response if you’re in a rush, would be my recommendation – but realistically, nobody promised that either.

If you need help quickly, there are some great Facebook Groups and of course Blatchat if you get stuck in a rush:

• Facebook CaterhamTechTalk
• Blatchat

Both those sources helped me out during the build, but the standard internet and social media warnings apply: only with an adult’s permission and caveat emptor!…….. what! you didn’t pay for your internet content… ! 😉

Emails from Caterham – 35

Derek wasn’t always as chatty in return… some of the disparity in numbers comes from me replying “thanks” or “ok” a few times. But, also Derek, I’m sure, has other jobs to do and so his responses could sometimes just be “yes” or “no” – which left my questions answered but sometimes a little lost as to actually how I had to move forwards.

However, for the overwhelming majority of the time, Derek’s answers were great and left no room for confusion.

(The one exception to that was the pictures he sent of the washer bottle install, in the boot, that didn’t include the non-return valve and caused water to spray the windscreen whenever the brakes were applied as I drove the car for the first few times!  🙂 … more on that in a future post).

GigaBytes of Storage Used – 877GB

Yes, that’s right, not far off a TeraByte of media… mostly video.

For the whole of the build I had at least 2 GoPro’s running. I have many, many hours of video that, one day, I hope to make a time-lapse or even a “These are the Steps to Make a Car” video.

I had started off thinking I would do a VLog as well as a Blog. However, it became clear very soon into the build that building, blogging and vlogging would have been too much. The general rule seems to be that 10 minutes of video takes about 200 minutes to film and about another 100 minutes to edit. And as you can see below… I spent almost as much time blogging as building and to edit and post a VLog was going to take me way over the time I had available. Sorry no VLOG – yet.

Blog Posts – 65

Hopefully you’ve all read them! They were great weren’t they?

Words in Blog – 83,869

Phew! That’s some piece of work!

Hours Blogging – 111.83

I didn’t count all my time blogging – some of it was on planes, trains and automobiles. But… I did “time” some of my blogging and that gave me a metric to use… which worked out at about 750 words an hour while I was writing, drawing, uploading and editing. So… 83-thousand words @ 750 words per hour  =

112 hours!

I could have built another car in that time, or at least I could do now I know what I’m doing!

Website Views To Date – 9,530

Whilst not exactly the web’s most visited site, I’m pleased that there has been at least a few people interested to take a look at the fun we’ve had.

From the start of the blog to March 26th 2018 (just over a year), the website has had some 9,500 views. And for those of you interested… a view is counted when a visitor loads or reloads a page.

That’s it for stats… I hope you enjoyed the journey so far…!

And now for something completely the same… The Full Build Log

Now for the real insomniacs amongst you, here’s the full build log…

Date	Item	Comment	Duration	Task Category
12/08/17	Steering Rack		00:50	Steering
12/08/17	Front IVA Trim		01:00	IVA
13/08/17	Engine, Bell Housing and Gearbox		01:00	Drivetratin
17/08/17	Tapping Harness Bolt		00:20	Safety
18/08/17	Front Suspension		01:40	Suspension – Front
19/08/17	Front Suspension		02:36	Suspension – Front
20/08/17	Headlamp Assemblies		04:16	Electrics
20/08/17	Front Suspension		01:18	Suspension – Front
22/08/17	Upright	Test Fit	00:20	Suspension – Front
22/08/17	Upright N/S	Cycle wing stay, upright, wooden stay	01:00	Suspension – Front
22/08/17	Upright O/S		01:22	Suspension – Front
23/08/17	Blogging	Playing with 80D mount	00:25	Other
23/08/17	Track rod end	TRE requires 13 turns not lock nut	00:18	Suspension – Front
23/08/17	Front Anti Roll Bar		00:47	Suspension – Front
23/08/17	Front brake pipes	Test Fit	00:20	Brakes
23/08/17	Front brake pipes	Fitting, not torqued	00:15	Brakes
23/08/17	Waxoil	Front bodywork	00:10	Bodywork and Protection
25/08/17	Front Anti Roll Bar	Fit bushes to bar and brackets	00:07	Suspension – Front
25/08/17	Front Anti Roll Bar	Dremel out holes and attach	01:15	Suspension – Front
25/08/17	Horns		00:32	Electrics
27/08/17	Engine	L-Hose, Engine Mounts, Hoist	02:35	Drivetratin
27/08/17	Engine	Hoist Leveler Extensions	01:04	Drivetratin
28/08/17	Engine	Moving Car and prep alternator	03:05	Drivetratin
28/08/17	Engine	Install engine and reattach alternator	03:45	Drivetratin
28/08/17	Tidy up	Put car away and tidy	00:30	Other
29/08/17	Gearstick		00:20	Drivetratin
02/09/17	Gearbox	Try and get some more clearance – failed	01:30	Drivetratin
02/09/17	Reverse Switch		00:15	Electrics
02/09/17	Engine	Wiring	00:50	Electrics
02/09/17	Starter Motor	Positive Cable	00:05	Electrics
02/09/17	Fuel Pipe		00:05	Drivetratin
02/09/17	Clutch hose	Remove plugs	00:15	Plumbing – Oil
02/09/17	Primaries	Start	00:20	Exhaust
03/09/17	Primaries		00:30	Exhaust
03/09/17	Catalytic Converter	Springs mainly	00:50	Exhaust
03/09/17	Exhaust	Tighten exhaust and cut down 8mm hex	00:30	Exhaust
03/09/17	Lambda Sensor		02:05	Exhaust
03/09/17	Lambda Sensor	Rivnuts	00:45	Exhaust
03/09/17	Tidy up		00:15	Other
04/09/17	Engine	Retorque engine mounts and paint mounts	00:30	Drivetratin
04/09/17	Oil tank		02:00	Plumbing – Oil
04/09/17	Steering Column	Gring universal joint	01:40	Steering
04/09/17	Tip and B&Q	Sealant black and clear	01:20	Other
04/09/17	Steering wheel	Fix boss (double sided tape for velcro)	00:10	Steering
04/09/17	Oil Tank	Bottom fixing P-clips	01:00	Plumbing – Oil
04/09/17	Throttle Cable	Fettle Hole for nipple in footwell	00:40	Drivetratin
04/09/17	Oil Tank	P-Clips	00:45	Plumbing – Oil
04/09/17	Oil Tank	Top setscrew – 4 spacers	00:10	Plumbing – Oil
04/09/17	Top oil breather	Cut and flip P-clips	00:15	Plumbing – Oil
04/09/17	Steering Column	Uni joint insert + torque after painting before	00:35	Steering
06/09/17	Radiator	Dry fit – fan brackets?	01:45	Plumbing – Water
07/09/17	Oil cooler	Dry fit and drill extra holes	00:15	Plumbing – Oil
07/09/17	Heater	Test fit heater	00:15	Plumbing – Water
09/09/17	Radiator/Oil Cooler	Fit and drill oil cooler mounts	01:45	Plumbing – Oil
09/09/17	Oil hose	Test fit	00:40	Plumbing – Oil
12/09/17	Roll Over Bar	Torqued	00:45	Safety
16/09/17	Engine Water	Plumbing + Water Expansion Bottle Mount	01:55	Plumbing – Water
22/09/17	Water Expansion	Drill Chassis + Heater + Water Hoses	03:00	Plumbing – Water
23/09/17	Water	Heater + Water Hoses	00:30	Plumbing – Water
23/09/17	Heater / Water	Pipework to temp sensor	00:20	Plumbing – Water
23/09/17	Water	Pipework to temp sensor	00:25	Plumbing – Water
23/09/17	Water	Temp Sensor + Heater Control	00:50	Plumbing – Water
23/09/17	Accelerator Pedal	Bend	00:00	Drivetratin
23/09/17	Prop Shaft	Refill Gearbox + Propshaft	00:40	Drivetratin
23/09/17	Diff	Install Diff – Joe helped	01:25	Drivetratin
24/09/17	Engine Bell Housing	Bell housing protector	00:30	Drivetratin
24/09/17	Raise Rear	Jack up rear again	00:05	Other
24/09/17	Diff	Bolting in and measuring	00:40	Drivetratin
24/09/17	Diff	Bolting in and measuring	00:14	Drivetratin
24/09/17	Diff	Bolting in and measuring	01:15	Drivetratin
25/09/17	Tidy up		00:30	Other
25/09/17	Engine	Rethink expansion bottle and earth leads	00:45	Drivetratin
29/09/17	Handbrake	Dremel (duh!)	01:15	Brakes
29/09/17	Diff	Fluid	00:15	Plumbing – Oil
29/09/17	Diff	Make 14mm Hex Plug-Socket	01:00	Drivetratin
29/09/17	Diff	Fluid – slow but took all 1L	01:00	Plumbing – Oil
29/09/17	Prop Shaft	Failed torquing bolts	01:25	Drivetratin
29/09/17	Drive Shafts	Installed	00:05	Drivetratin
29/09/17	Rear Suspension	De Dion Dry Fit	00:40	Suspension – Rear
29/09/17	Rear Suspension	De Dion Dry Fit	00:35	Suspension – Rear
30/09/17	Handbrake	Again – this time in the right place	00:30	Brakes
30/09/17	Prop Shaft	Torque bolts without destroying screwdriver	00:10	Drivetratin
30/09/17	De Dion	Bend brake pipes	00:50	Suspension – Rear
30/09/17	De Dion	Bend brake pipes	00:23	Suspension – Rear
30/09/17	Rear Suspension	Insert DeD, Dampers, Radius Arms	02:15	Suspension – Rear
30/09/17	Rear ARB	Rear ARB + A-Frame	01:15	Suspension – Rear
01/10/17	Rear Suspension	A-Frame	00:45	Suspension – Rear
01/10/17	Rear Suspension	A-Frame + RHEars + Hubs + Callipers	02:10	Suspension – Rear
01/10/17	Rear Suspension	LHEars + hubs + callipers + Wheels	01:35	Suspension – Rear
06/10/17	IVA	Form Filling 1c and 4	01:00	IVA
07/10/17	Scuttle Trim	215cm, 70cm reamaining	00:25	Bodywork and Protection
07/10/17	Knee Trim	RHS	01:55	Bodywork and Protection
07/10/17	Knee Trim	LHS	02:50	Bodywork and Protection
07/10/17	Carpets	Transmission Tunnel	01:30	Bodywork and Protection
07/10/17	Mats	RHS	00:45	Bodywork and Protection
08/10/17	Mats	LHS	00:10	Bodywork and Protection
08/10/17	Centre Arm Rest	Arm rest and gear knob (again)	00:10	Bodywork and Protection
08/10/17	Harnesses	RHS	00:35	Safety
08/10/17	Harnesses	LHS	00:25	Safety
08/10/17	Seats	LHS + RHS	00:50	Bodywork and Protection
08/10/17	Exhaust	Silencer  + Cat Guard	00:40	Exhaust
10/10/17	Brakes	Swap couplings to grey ones	01:00	Brakes
11/10/17	Headlamps	Remove, add gromets, replace	01:30	Electrics
14/10/17	Water		02:00	Plumbing – Water
14/10/17	Petrol	Fuel fillup with Dad	00:20	Other
14/10/17	Petrol	Fuel fillup with Dad	00:10	Other
14/10/17	Engine	Start – not	00:30	Drivetratin
14/10/17	Engine	Start – not	01:00	Drivetratin
14/10/17	Engine	Start – no flow in Rad though!	01:30	Drivetratin
15/10/17	Water	Attempt to clear airlocks – failed	01:00	Plumbing – Water
21/10/17	Water	Drop front then rear, no sign of airlock	01:45	Plumbing – Water
21/10/17	Water	Blow water from rad, run for 30mins	00:45	Plumbing – Water
22/10/17	Boot	Varnish Wood	00:20	Bodywork and Protection
22/10/17	Boot	Carpet	00:45	Bodywork and Protection
22/10/17	Boot	Carpet + fuel shroud	02:05	Bodywork and Protection
22/10/17	Boot	Carpet sides	01:40	Bodywork and Protection
23/10/17	Boot	Fuel shroud + boot floor carpet	00:50	Bodywork and Protection
23/10/17	Rear Wings	Abort	00:05	Bodywork and Protection
23/10/17	Torque Rear	Watts Link – must do hubs later	00:20	Suspension – Rear
23/10/17	Rear Wings	RHS	03:40	Bodywork and Protection
23/10/17	Rear Wings	LHS	01:40	Bodywork and Protection
23/10/17	Rear Wings	LHS – Finish bolting on	00:30	Bodywork and Protection
28/10/17	Fuel	Add More Fuel from Garage	00:30	Other
28/10/17	Washer Bottle	Make bracket	02:00	Plumbing – Water
29/10/17	Brakes	Rear brake braided hose protection	00:10	Brakes
18/11/17	Lights	Rear Lights	01:05	Electrics
18/11/17	Lights	LHS front indicator not working	01:00	Electrics
19/11/17	Lights	LHS front indicator seems to work after wiggle	00:30	Electrics
19/11/17	Front Wings	Swap wing stays – grrr!	00:45	Suspension – Front
19/11/17	Lights	Repeaters	00:30	Electrics
22/11/17	Front Wings	Tried bending wingstays	02:11	Suspension – Front
22/11/17	Gearbox Mounts	Flip bolts so threads show	00:50	Drivetratin
22/11/17	Lights	Repeaters – cut and solder new earth leads	00:24	Electrics
22/11/17	Lights	Rear Number Plate	00:35	Electrics
22/11/17	Lights	Repeater wiring – spade fettling	00:25	Electrics
22/11/17	Handbrake	Adjustment – hmm	00:10	Brakes
22/11/17	Lights	Headlamp Wiring	00:40	Electrics
22/11/17	Lights	Headlamp Wiring	01:45	Electrics
23/11/17	Clutch	Fill with fluid and bleed	01:15	Plumbing – Oil
23/11/17	Brakes	1st fill and bleed	02:25	Brakes
23/11/17	Williams	Trip to Williams to pick up bonnet	01:55	Other
23/11/17	Brakes	Brakes weeping – keep tightening more	01:00	Brakes
23/11/17	Front Wings	Seem to need spacers, bending isnt working	01:00	Suspension – Front
24/11/17	Brakes	Tighten front joints again	00:20	Brakes
24/11/17	Front Wings	Spacers? No… bead of 521 to space with	00:05	Suspension – Front
24/11/17	Front Wings	IVA trim	00:40	Suspension – Front
24/11/17	Handbrake	Final Tweak	00:05	Brakes
24/11/17	Handbrake	Cable routing, dremel diff	02:00	Brakes
24/11/17	IVA	Book IVA for 7/12 @ 8AM !	00:05	IVA
24/11/17	Cable Tidy	Clutch braid + ECU Plug	00:50	IVA
25/11/17	Lights	Repeaters wiring up (loose connections)	01:20	Electrics
25/11/17	Engine	Tidy for IVA	01:25	IVA
25/11/17	Engine	Tidy for IVA	00:40	IVA
25/11/17	Mirrors	RH Wing Mirror	00:45	Suspension – Front
25/11/17	Mirrors	LH Wing Mirror	00:10	Suspension – Front
25/11/17	Mirrors	Rear Mirror	00:05	Other
25/11/17	IVA	Cable Tie Front ARB (again)	00:20	IVA
25/11/17	Engine	Air Filter including rubber IVA trim	00:25	Drivetratin
25/11/17	IVA	Battery Cables	00:45	Electrics
25/11/17	IVA	Catalytic Converter IVA trim	00:05	IVA
25/11/17	Wipers	Fit wipers and bend	00:15	Bodywork and Protection
25/11/17	Lights	Rewire Repeaters – forgot to include wing!	00:15	Electrics
25/11/17	Rear Suspension	Tighten Rear Hubs + Oak brace	00:23	Suspension – Rear
25/11/17	Front Wings	Glue them down!	01:00	Suspension – Front
26/11/17	Font Wings	Repeater Wiring to Sockets – RHS	01:40	Electrics
26/11/17	Font Wings	Repeater Wiring to Sockets – LHS	00:35	Electrics
26/11/17	Tidy up		00:45	Other
26/11/17	IVA	Run through Caterham IVA handout	02:25	IVA
26/11/17	Handbrake	Move P-Clips to A-Frame!	00:10	Brakes
26/11/17	Bodywork	Remove carboard and masking, add foam strips	01:45	Bodywork and Protection
02/12/17	Brakes	Final Bleed before IVA – bent A-Frame – GRR!	02:00	Brakes
03/12/17	A-Frame	Take car out of garage and onto stands	00:20	Suspension – Rear
03/12/17	A-Frame	Contemplation under car	00:25	Suspension – Rear
03/12/17	A-Frame	Took A-frame off and stand on it to straighten	00:23	Suspension – Rear
05/12/17	A-Frame	Install new A-Frame	00:37	Suspension – Rear
05/12/17	Handbrake	Re-attach Handbrake P-Clips to A-Frame	00:13	Brakes

Good night insomniacs… go to bed!