bball7754

I agree with John. Believe it’s “unpressurized” because it vents to an open catch tank. I think of a pressurized system as onethat is completely closed, including the overflow/expansion tank. With the open tank, you’re dependent on the cooling of the engine and (I think) resulting decrease in pressure to suck the coolant back into the system. So, it is important that the tube extend to the bottom of tank, otherwise it won’t suck the coolant back in. Not that it always does regardless.🙂

Roman

Oh, and it does look great! Pulling the fenders, etc. is the way to go, in my opinion.

I would be concerned that the sealant would not appreciably prevent the aluminum from dulling, but would/could make a repolish substantially more difficult. But I haven’t researched repolishing sealed aluminum, so could be way off base. Steve

I have to confess that for me this thread has become the equivalent of a daily soap opera episode. Lots of twists and turns in the plot, characters fading away then making a comeback, new villains appearing. ☺️

On my 1998 Cat, it just pulls off. No fasteners, it’s just a pressure fit. One caveat. My Cat has no carpeting on the tunnel walls, so not sure if that would change how the tunnel cover is attached. Steve

Nice!! I’m on BAT all the time, so looking forward to seeing it there.

Mike - great article, but what piqued my curiosity were your comments about driving cross country, and your 50 year old car leaking on Tom’s driveway. Did I miss a post about this trip? 😊 Steve

And polishing one car wasn’t enough, so I bought a second that I could also polish.🙂

Mike - You’re making me blush.🙂 And tbh, I’ve never been totally happy with my polishing. More haze than I’d like. But to answer the original question. First, I don’t think you want to polish it by hand. If nothing else, get a HF random orbit sander, and get a polishing pad for it. The first few times I polished, I used Mother’s with a Porter Cable random orbit polisher. I used pads from Auto Zone, and just used pressure to keep the pad in place. Not ideal, but it worked. After the first few years of that (I do an annual polish, usually for an auto show that runs each year), I started using Nuvite with a Cyclo polisher. Nuvite comes in a range of grades. If you have heavy oxidation or scratches, they recommend you start with a compounding/coarse grade, which you apply with a circular polisher - which essentially means a drill with the right pad attachments. You’ll have scratches after the compounding, but they all come out when you use the finish grade. I still use Mother’s here and there, and I think you can get a very good shine with it. Probably a good place to start, and decide how much effort you want to put into the polishing. I end up removing my fenders and windscreen, exhaust, etc, before I polish. But it’s obviously not necessary to go that far. Oh, and regardless of what you use and how you polish, wear neoprene gloves or your hands will be black. Enjoy! 🙂

I’m no help with fuel cell install, but curious what class you will run in with HSR?

I use Nuvite polish and a Cyclo polisher. I also have the Porter Cable, which I use in some spots. Steve

Jordway - Great to have another Seven in STL! At one point there were at least 6 that I knew of, but recently it’s been down to me and maybe one in Belleville. I registered mine as a “Custom Vehicle”, which has a clause that covers “replicas”. I was literally the first person in MO to register a vehicle with the program. My plate was CV001. Happy to discuss titling and Sevens with you. I’ll send you a message with contact info. Steve

Mike - just curious, who was the organizing group? I did two track days there with 3Balls Racing. Steve

Mike - Bit surprised you hated Grattan. To me, it’s a roller coaster track, and never felt it had less passing opportunities than other tracks. But, hey, to each his own, right? 🙂

Grattan is a fantastic track. Bit run down, but the layout is incredible. You’re also only about 2.5 hours from Mid-Ohio, 5 hours from Putnam Park, and 4 hours from Autobahn County Club outside Chicago.

Think I’m going to safety wire mine!

Steve - thanks, but two quills are in transit from the UK as I type. Just one more slightly silly purchase to add to the list. Seems to come with the territory. Interestingly, the shipping from the UK was the same as what Pierce Manifold charged to ship some gaskets for my Webers from CA. Steve

1962 Seven https://www.vscda.org/classified/ You’ll need to scroll down the page to get to it. Not much info, and judging from the front suspension it’s quite a way from it’s 1962 incarnation.

Anker - The speedo drive fitting on the trans isn’t open to the inside, so the other half isn’t in the trans. The drive kept spinning, so I think it eventually just worked it’s way out.

The other half was in the transmission, and disappeared. I’m probably going to bite the bullet and buy it.

Can you go out the bottom? You would have to jack up the front of the car, or even put it on 4 jack stands, but it seems like it would be doable.

I seem to have snapped the quill in my angle drive for the speedo. The drive itself seems fine, but from what I can tell the quill snapped in two. I’m having trouble bringing myself to pay $10.00 for one, plus shipping from the UK. https://caterhamparts.co.uk/clutch-cables/2443-quill-angle-drive-square-end.html Realize it’s a long shot, but anyone have a spare? Steve

I'm the second owner of my 1998 Seven. It was the personal Seven of one of the founders of Rocky Mountain Sports Car, and then became the "dealer demo" car for RMSCI. I purchased it in January of 2005, and it had 7,850 miles on it. It now has 41,835, so I've put on 33,985 miles in 16 years. So, right around the average of 2,000 miles a year. But, sadly it's been barely driven at all the last 3 years, and driven less in general over the last 6-7 since the purchase of my Mallock. I poked around in some old paperwork, and found a state inspection from 3/25/08. The mileage was 21,913, so in my first 3 years of ownership I drove 14,000 miles. Back then I was driving to my track events. The nearest track was Putnam Park (where I first met KitKat in his original Blue Caterham), which is a little over 200 miles from St. Louis. So each track event there added 400 miles. Other tracks were in Chicago, Wisconsin, and Oklahoma, so it wasn't hard to put on the mileage. So, bottom line, I think I purchased the right Seven for me. :)

Fantastic!! Looks like one super quick Series One. Quintessentially English.