ianashdown

I’m working on trying to get the piping. It seems the Woolies only sell interior, not suitable for the front and rear fenders; I’m also the side panel piping and the fender piping are different size. what I want to avoid, if possible, is three different color piping; seats, side panels and fenders. I really want cream or off white as the car will be painted in an ivory or old English white. I think bright white would not be ideal. I’m also told that Redline has the correct material, but Chris isn’t answering email right now. I’ll keep bugging him!🙂 Ian

I think the Powdercoat wrinkle from Arch is really good, way better than I was expecting! Should be tough too! Ian

There is a dash panel. You can almost see it in the LH cockpit area in bubble wrap. Arch reproduce the Lamiplate with a really nice looking powder coat. I’ll post some pics ASAP Ian

Over a year since my last post! It goes by so quickly!! The chassis needed so much work and it was impossible to find anyone who would take this on in California, or even the US. Shipping it to Arch for repair and reskin was just unbelievably expensive, so a while ago I made the tough decision to have Arch build me a new S2 chassis. I know it will never be original again with a replacement chassis, but it already doesn’t have the A-Series engine it was born with in 1961, but I think it will be a better, safer vehicle in the end and probably will get finished much sooner. Shipping has become super expensive; and then I got shafted for 25% tariff. It made the whole replacement exercise really expensive. I can’t bring myself to add up all the costs yet, but I think the crate, shipping, customs, duty, tariffs and extra storage fees ( while I bitched about the tariffs and tried (failed) to point out that the should be 2.5% not 25%, was more than the cost of the new chassis! The new chassis just arrived and I’m more than thrilled! It looks great and I feel so much more enthusiastic now I can actually start to hang things on the chassis; actually build the car. The engine, 1500cc pre-crossflow, is at Mountune and should be finished soon, the gearbox needs one new part and a seal a gasket kit and it can go back together. Both will then be installed, not permanently, in the chassis, likely followed by the wiring harness, once I decide if I’m repairing the original one, building one myself or buying a reproduction one. I think the latter, but I’ve not decided yet. Building one might be interesting, but anything that moves the project forward is being favored right now; I have to finish this car before I can move on to my Elan, Reynard, Elva FJ, or any motorcycle projects! Being an over-organizer type engineer I’m trying to write a project planning/management spreadsheet to plan out what has to be done, what each task is dependent on etc. I hope it’ll help . . . Ian

I recently sent an irreplaceable part to Arch Motors as part of my restoration only to have UPS loose it. TWICE! They will lie to you, provide fake proof of delivery, after two ‘investigations’ offer no accounting of what efforts were made to understand why the proof of delivery shows it being delivered at a specific time but security cameras show no deliveries around that time. If you do ship with UPS, and I highly recommend against it, give it a declared value of what its loss would mean to you, not just its actual specific value, and insure it for that value. I doubt you’d ever get a claim fulfilled, but with doing this the very best you can hope for is $100. Im not sure if FedEx or USPS offer any more security, but do whatever you can to protect you valuable or irreplaceable parts. Ian SoCal

In order to keep my S2 restoration moving, I’ve decided to buy all new bodywork rather than make molds and then new parts from my original bodywork. I would like to order them in the color gel-coat that I need rather than paint. Can anyone let me know who has correct S2 molds and builds high quality parts, preferably in the US but the UK would be OK too. Thank you, Ian

Ho about these two? I haven’t seen any reference to these.

Here’s another question for the collective wisdom. My 7 was shipped from the factory in 1961 with an ‘A’ series engine. Sometime around ‘64 & ‘65 the engine was changed to a Ford 105 E. The car was disassembled in 1969 and stored until I bought it in 2023. The engine as I received it had been fitted with a different crank and rods to give 1340cc, ported, had aluminum spacers on the rocker shaft, maybe an cam, and had twin 40 DCOE 2’s fitted, so sometime between ‘64 and ‘69 these various mods had been done. Does anyone know if the 40 DCOE 2 was a ‘64-‘69 period carb? I have a set of 151’s in addition to the 2’s and I’m trying to figure out which are more period correct and which might be good choice for a 120E (1500cc) with an A2 or A3 cam, mild porting on standard valves. I’m thinking 151’s, but I’ll be interested to hear other thoughts. Thanks, Ian

Does anyone know of a number and letter stamp set that matches the early ‘60’s Series 2 Lotus chassis plate style of lettering? Failing that, what is the height of the letters? Thanks, Ian

Like this? Still confused, but I’ll be building it back to as near to as delivered in ‘61 as possible. Ian

Hi Joe, Thanks for the references. I’ve never seen this car with the engine in so this was a big question. I have the frame drawings and was looking for some reference to engine position, but there are none. It’ll be while before this goes back together, but this info will be a good check. I will try to find the other engine mounts, there’s also a fixture to make more, and see if there are differences. My guess is this was an autocross car or similar, but some very low level as the standard of workmanship of the welded-in roll hoop was very, very poor. It would not pass tech inspection, not even close, these days! My thought is that moving the CG rearwards may have improved turn in response. Ian

It’s going to take some study for sure. I’m surprised to hear that you’re at 50% with no drive or spare when the engine is well forward. I think some the secondary difficulties may sway me against. No available exhaust, gearbox mount to name just two. Hmmmmm . . . Ian

My car seems to have had engine mounts made that move the engine back by maybe as much as maybe 6” (see attached). This car has a history of some form of competition, auto cross or similar, back in the mid to late ‘60’s so I wonder if shifting the engine was a thing back then. I’ve heard, and it would seem logical, that it balances the F/R weight distribution to close to 50/50. Is this a mod worth keeping, understanding that it is not original, but is an in-period modification? I believe the original mounts are in the pile of part somewhere. Ian

I don’t, but I know the ask was very low.

****** SOLD ****** The recent California fires took a fellow 7 owners home and car. He recently posted the following: “Like many I lost my home and stuff in Topanga to the fire on 1/7 Offering this to my VARA family, hopefully this is worth something to someone It was a 1962 Lotus 7 series 2, # 1636 1600 ford motor .040 over, lightened and balanced with an Ivy head Never installed correct series 2 rear fenders and clamshell fronts. Original side curtains Please make me an offer and it haul away“ If interested, please contact Marshall Kahn via Facebook of via me.