EdWills

Thanks to those who contacted me. Bill F.

The 'Village' a.k.a. Portmeirion Village, is located in Gwynedd, North Wales. Originally Built in 1925 as a 'folly' it was under construction up to 1975 built in the Baroque style and now owned by a charitable trust. Accommodation is available on site if you ever want to visit there. Beautiful part of the country. EW

Hi All. Well, it looks like I lied, and my nose is starting to grow. I found two Seven America Road and Track road tests from July 1961 and September 1962 where both cars are fitted with the Lucas L1130 but no signal lamp bracket beneath the headlights (reproduction of the article quite hazy).. The signal switch on the dash was a substantial looking item, and possibly Holden still have these? Holden carry two types of L1130, one cast and one drawn. The drawn lamp is double the price. They also carry (or did) spare rubber mounts and bulbs for these as well as the L516. Tony Weale in his book Lotus Seven, Restoration, Preparation, Maintenance' advises: "That before 1979 two alternative types of Lucas separate sidelamps were fitted. The larger ones will be familiar to MG "T" owners, and the smaller ones are common with the Austin A40. Both types were listed for the Series 2, and although the smaller ones were common on Lotus Series 3s, some early Caterhams used the larger type". He goes on to say: "Provision was not made in the wiring harness for flashing indicator lamps until late in 1961, and the lamps themselves remained optional until standardised midway through Series 2 production". Tony Weale does not indicate when the signal light bracket commenced to be fitted beneath the 7 inch headlamp. 5 inch spot lamps were fitted prior to 1964. I have a photo of a 1959 Series 1 Seven where the car is fitted with a signal light bracket mounted underneath the 5 inch spot lamps. It is a pear shaped bracket and possibly of the owner's own design. I really like the metallic blue finish of one of the Sevens shown above. Lotus produced a number of factory fully completed Series 3 cars for export to Canada, and they were painted in metallic blue, as was the original Seven Series 3 introduced by Graham Nearn at his brother's pub. The second owner of my car repainted the car unfortunately. Cheers, Bill

Hi Henry. 100% correct, and the Lotus Seven Owners Manual shows both options. As I noted, I cannot find any road tests or photos that I have (there are tons more out there to blow my theory to bits!), where the car is fitted with the L1130s only.. Please note however, that John's Lotus Seven Registry incorrectly lists some of the lamps, flashers and sidelights for the Series 3 almost identical to the lamps he has listed for the Series 2. Perhaps for the U.S. as one poster has mentioned, the L1130 lamps were fitted without the lower flasher indicator bracket that became standard on later Series 2s and definitely on Series 3s. On early Series 1 and 2s, a narrow headlamp was also fitted and is shown in the manual. You are correct that the L516s were used in conjunction with either the L539 (Series 2) or L691 (Series 3) flasher indicators. So for the very early Series 2 cars shown in the photos, the L1130s would appear to be correct - if I mislead, my apologies.

Hi All. From the many photos I have in my collection, the 'torpedo' lamps shown in the photos above do not appear on any of the Series 2 or 3 Lotus Sevens that I could find. The usual fitment was the slimmer and more aerodynamic looking Lucas L516. These are still available from a couple of sources in the U.K.: Holden Vintage - www.holden.co.uk, or Stafford Vehicle Components - www.s-v-c.co.uk. Stafford are a tad cheaper, but both show U.K. Value Added Tax included that is normally removed for export (at roughly 16.67%, not the full 20% as charged in the U.K.). The rubber mounting pad and hardware are supplied with the lamp. Both companies still sell the different Lucas amber flasher/indicator lamps (both terms used for these) that were used by Lotus on the Series 2 and Series 3 (also red lenses for the rear of the car if needed). Note: Please see the Lotus Seven Register U.K., where John Watson has listed all the correct Lucas part numbers for the different electrical components used on Sevens. For the Lotus Seven Series 3, the L691 front and rear amber flasher/indicator was used, not the L539 that was posted on J.W.s site originally. The L539 was the flasher lamp for the Series 2. The L691 was also fitted on the front wings of the Lotus Seven Series IV. No one at the moment produces replacement Wingard (used pre 1965) or Thorpe P.T.675 rear tail/brake lights (August 1965 onwards), although one gent remanufactured Wingards for a while. I note the use of hexagon head bolts on the fibreglass wings/clamshells in a couple of photos. Lotus (and possibly Caterham) used slotted mushroom head bolts and nyloc nuts with the smooth mushroom head on the inside of the cockpit by the knee to hold the rearmost wing bracket, and the smooth head on top of the wings where they are bolted to the headlamp bracket and the rearmost wing bracket (with thin rubber washers under the heads). I have a few for sale in the parts for sale section of this forum under 'nuts and bolts'. I can get more if anyone is interested, or pass on the address. I'm not a business and have a lot on the go, so the info. is available if you want it. Bill (alias EdWills).

For sale are the following nuts, bolts or screws. A packet of: 3 - 3 B.A. x 3/4 inch long, new, unused, coated steel countersunk slotted head screws to attach Wingard rear lenses to their bases. Ages ago, I ordered a few of these for some Wingards that I had found, but only have the 3 remaining after the sale of the Wingards. These may prove useful for spares or to replace missing or damaged screws. Also included is 2 used nuts, washers, and screws from an original Wingard lamp base which may be helpful for sizing up replacements that may have become damaged. Recently I checked for distributors of B.A. screws in the U.K., and many now only sell even sizes. $6.00 Canadian plus postage for the packet. I have 3 sets available consisting of: 2 brand new ARP hardened chrome-moly washers, 1/2 inch inside diameter x 1.3 inch o.d. x 0.120 inch thick with black non-rust finish, along with 2 brand new military grade AN365 1/2-20 UNF threaded Nyloc nuts (rated at 125,000 psi). These are for the inner ends of the Triumph Herald upright to secure the stub axle to the upright. (note: These are for the early type of upright with a separate disc brake bracket, not the later type that incorporated the calliper bracket on the upright). The washers are the correct size to fit the axle, and the end of the upright. The nuts - when fully torqued - should leave necessary thread showing. Note: Using ordinary mild steel flat washers may be bad practice, as torquing non-hardened washers to 55 - 60 foot pounds of torque with standard 1/2 inch Nyloc nuts of 3/4 inches across the flats, can severely distort the washers (it can cause actual 'dishing' of the washer), resulting in a lower torque value than recommended, thereby compromising the safety of the part. $12.00 Canadian plus postage for 2 new washers and 2 new Nyloc nuts. Mushroom slotted head bolts with nuts (14 of each available). These are fine thread M6 x 60 mm long with a 15 mm diameter slotted mushroom shaped head. The equivalent is 1/4 inch thread x 2-1/2 inches long x just over 9/16 inch diameter head. Lotus used these particular bolts to attach the front cycle or flared clam shell wings and stays to the car. These are slotted head as per Lotus specs, and come with correct fine thread Nyloc metric nuts (either regular or shorter height if preferred). Note: These bolts are not what are sometimes referred to as carriage or coach bolts (or fender bolts?). The carriage bolt does not have any holding method in the head, but instead has a square shank under the head. Most of this type have coarse threads either Imperial or Metric. Lotus probably chose to use mushroom head bolts with the head inside the cockpit to avoid scraped knees or hands. The use on the cycle wings or clam shells was for appearance sake, looking much smoother than say a hexagon head bolt. These metric mushroom head bolts exactly fit the welded spacer tubes on the side of a Caterham chassis, and also fit the loose spacer tubes used by Lotus to secure the rear most wing brackets to the chassis. To use these bolts through the ally or fibreglass clam shells, rubber washers should be used to cushion against the fibreglass (not supplied) and not overtightened leading to cracking of the glass.. Set of 4 nuts and bolts $8.00 Canadian plus postage, but I have up to 14 nuts and bolts if extra are required. I can be contacted via this forum, or by clicking on anglocanadianlotus7.ca, or by checking Simple Sevens.org where I also have some items for sale. Cheers, Bill F.

Hi Dreamer. According to a January 1981 article in Motor Sport magazine (U.K.) Caterham were planning to use a 4 link with Panhard rod set-up on their basic 7 and Sprint models using the 1600 Crossflow for 1981 onwards cars. In the same article, a road test of the Caterham race car prepared by Chris Meek with engine constructed by Clive Roberts mentions an upgraded rear suspension, but does not detail which type of rear suspension (i.e. 'A' bracket or 4 link with Panhard) was used on their race car. Note: I mentioned the 1975 Modsports car built by Caterham for David Bettinson. I wrongly noted that the car had 18 pounds of metal removed after it had been strengthened. This is totally incorrect as 18 pounds of tubing was actually added to strengthen the chassis making it over 4 times stronger, but 14 pounds of trim material was removed, making the car only 4 pounds heavier. As I mentioned above, it had a 4 link with Panhard rod rear suspension. In other U.K. magazines featuring Caterham 7s that had been adapted for racing by their owners, some competition bodies required an original type of 'A' bracket at the rear. Some referred to using a ball joint at the axle location, and one referred to a sliding 'A' bracket, which appeared on Rob Cox Allison's 'Black Brick' series of racing cars (I am fortunate to have an original blueprint of this set-up). The Motor Sport Jan. 1981 edition also mentioned that Clive Roberts had experimented with a turbocharged 7, so again, David Kaplan was ahead of his time once again. EW

Hi IamScotticus. As per the advice of MV8, similar specification bolts (12 point) can also be obtained from ARP in the U.S. or possibly Pegasus? I note that you live in Houston U.S.A., so ordering items from the U.K. that have originally come from the U.S., will have extra costs on them due to U.K. import charges, customs fees, taxes etc. Regarding shipping from the U.K., I recently ordered 4 small screws (manufactured there - not China), and the postage was £19.25 (equivalent to $25.00 U.S. approx.). Some (not all) businesses in the U.K. that are willing to ship to North America, have been burned in the past - according to them - with false claims of lost items, damage etc, so that they will now only ship tracked and insured by post, or use courier companies. I've noted that courier companies tend to charge a rather high cost for clearing items through customs even when the item is duty free. In Canada, the postal service does charge for the item to be taken off the line for customs inspection, but the charge is not too bad ($9.00 currently), the duty is assessed depending on the CRA Tariff number, and you pay the duty, postal charge, and/or taxes at the post office when you pick the item up. Canada Post seems to allow up to $100.00 (Canadian dollars) value before they assess duty. They sometimes also waive the taxes, and the item is delivered to your door/roadside box with no fees owing. The U.K. still has a few specialized manufacturers of Imperial size nuts and bolts, but now mostly sells only metric fasteners. The Imperial sizes mostly come from the U.S. and India. EW.

Hi All. I'm late getting to the party on this one, but enjoyed reading the thread after I just found it! DSK (David Kaplan) produced very well engineered and well made parts for road and racing. All the parts I purchased from DSK were excellent, and if there was a problem (a minor defect on a wishbone), David took care of it right away, no questions asked, with a replace or refund option. He had excellent suppliers, and the quality of the parts I have reflect this. His bulletins were well thought out, and were sound engineering practice. Mr. Chapman and Carroll Smith would have approved, and I believe Mr. Smith worked on some chassis drawings and stress calculations for David. I have all of the DSK technical bulletins, and if Lotus - under Mr. Chapman - had been truly interested in developing the Seven further (which he definitely wasn't), some of the DSK mods suggested by David may have been incorporated. In fact Don Gadd, when he was working at Arch, incorporated some of David's modifications into at least one much modified chassis. The integrated roll-over bar at the rear of the chassis was incorporated with a forward removable brace, a 1 inch x 1 inch x 18 gauge square tube - linking both sides of the chassis behind the seats - was considered essential by Mr. Gadd. The 2 inch by 1 inch heavier gauge rectangular tube at the lower front of the chassis was considered a good addition by Mr. Gadd to strengthen the front wishbone attachment points. I am not sure if further chassis were produced by Arch in this format, as probably Caterham (under Messrs. Nearn and Wakefield) weren't prepared to go that far at the time due to higher cost of production. They did add further strengthening of course as per the Twin Cam Seven chassis, but that was about it. (Note: When Caterham - under new management - decided to really go up-market with much more powerful engines etc., they completely redesigned the chassis and used another frame builder. It looked like a Seven chassis, but all of the tubing and triangulation was different). The Caterham/Arch produced racing chassis specially developed for David Bettinson in 1975 for Modsports racing in the U.K. was much modified from a 'standard' Caterham 7 chassis. It had further external triangulation and a similar Panhard rod set-up at the rear as per the DSK road car (although a Cars and Car Conversions test of the race car notes that Caterham/Arch removed 18 pounds of metal to make it lighter for racing). The DSK chassis was developed to remove all of the original design (read breakage) problems, plus added a turbocharger to the engine. Caterham considered this far too drastic and too far removed from what they were doing, and so cut the partnership with DSK. I was fortunate to have a long chat with David Wakefield on this point on a visit to Caterham. When Clayton Seitz took over DSK, he was similarly very helpful. I have the original magazine road test of the DSK Seven and it has also been reproduced in some of the booklets on the Seven. Looking back over the years, so many manufacturers have tried to copy the Lotus Seven, with different chassis arrangements and different looks. Maybe DSK was ahead of its time?

Hi bball. Yep, I just checked it myself and page error shows up. I will check with my young computer friend who set up my site, and see what is going on. If you just use anglocanadianlotus7, this may work better. Thanks for the heads up. Cheers, W.

Hi Christopher. Very good point. The belt that I have seems to be made of a natural material (military style cloth weave?) not synthetic, but not positive on this. The belt was fitted by a previous owner, but I removed it after 1 year of use as I preferred three point belts at the time. It has been stored for many years, so possibly still useable, but maybe I should remove it from the site. I note that a military surplus store in my city still sells these type of belts, and who knows how long they have had them on their shelves? Thanks for the reminder. Cheers. Bill

Hi All. A forum member has requested that I list some parts that I have for sale. I have accumulated these bits an pieces over a number of years, and do not need them for my rebuild. Most are unused, and purchased either from Lotus (many, many years ago) or from companies in the U.K. All items located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. To list them on this forum with photos would take up a lot of space , so with the permission of the site manager, they can be found at https://www.anglocanadianlotus7.ca/for-sale There is a contact page on the site, or if easier, my details can be found at SimpleSevens.org where my mailing and email address can be found. Cheers, Will.

Hi Vinman1. I have compiled a short list of items available for sale, and can supply photos of same. I don't want to take up to much room on this forum, so if anyone is interested, they can find my email contact address by searching either www.anglocanadianlotus7.ca, or by checking www.SimpleSevens.org and clicking on 'for sale', or clicking on the crossed Canadian and Union Jack flags icon on the start page of John D.s site. Cheers, Will.

Hi Ian. You could try Xtra Special Sevens (U.K.) for the scoop as they also seem to make reproductions of Lotus parts. If and when you decide to fit the top scoop to the bonnet of your car, either using your old bonnet or a new one from Arch or Xtra special 7s, advice from Bruce Robinson of Arch may help. He advised me to install the down-draught manifold on to the engine with the carb correctly bolted on (engine in the car of course!). Carefully lower the bonnet onto the carb with the air filter studs installed, and fasten the bonnet in place. Gently tap the area of the bonnet that is directly over the carb with a leather or rubber mallet to provide an imprint of the studs into the underside of the ally bonnet. Then remove the bonnet, and using the top of the air filter as a template, line up the holes in the filter top with the indentations in the underside of the bonnet, and draw around the filter top. Allow a small bit of clearance around the hole to be cut out, but check the necessary diameter by placing the air scoop over your drawn lines to ensure that it is not excessive. Bruce also advised that Arch do not cut the hole in a new bonnet for a customer, as there are always slight differences in chassis, engine mounting brackets, and engine types (original 2737E Ford Crossflow slightly narrower block than the uprated 711M for example). The original carb for the pre-updated crossflow was a Weber 32 DFM, later replaced with a 32/36 DGV or 32/36 DGAV with automatic choke. There was also a 32/36 DFA or 32/36 DFAV produced by Weber (I obtained one from Dave Bean brand new) that correctly allows the throttle cable to attach to the carb in the orientation designed by Lotus for the Series 3. The 'G' version has it attached the opposite way round. Cheers, Will.

Hi Vinman1, me again. A few years ago I purchased some spare parts from a gent in Alberta, Canada, who was selling his 1970 Lotus Seven Series 3. He was the second owner and sold the car on ebay to a fellow in Spain for a hefty price! The 3rd owner declined the offer of spare parts, so I glommed on to them all. Among the parts were a pair of stanchions from the first owner of the Seven, who had raced and hill climbed the car. These stanchions are made of fairly thin plate steel, and are fitted with a small top plate to fit racing mirrors. They follow the same shape as the aluminum stanchions. The original owner obviously found them suitable, and although slightly heavier than the ally type, they are well constructed, and designed for a 1970 Series 3 chassis frame (same as a Series 2). I don't need them and if they would suit your requirements they are available. They are really more suited for racing. I also have a few brackets and metal chassis parts that are for sale. EW

Hello Vinman1. Not sure if you heard back from Redline, but a company in the U.S. called Lotus7.com (owned by Tony Ingram - a very helpful and dedicated Lotus 7 parts supplier and constructor), has a kit of parts (brackets) for braze welding on to the various axles used on the 7. He obtains them from Xtra Special Sevens in the U.K. (Mick Beveridge, also very helpful). Note: The brackets shown on his site are part assembled together with what appears to be braze welding, and Mig or Tig may be too hot for the brazed joints and blow them out, or weaken the metal. You could contact Tony or Xtra Special Sevens for a set that do not have any braze welding on them if you prefer mig/tig. Also, Arch Motors in the U.K. now sells chassis and body parts direct from their establishment, you are not required to purchase via Redline anymore. Bruce Robinson of Arch advised me of this last year (when I needed some ally pieces) that he is willing to supply parts for genuine Lotus and early Caterham Sevens directly. Redline will continue to sell all other parts for Lotus and early Caterham Sevens. You can also check www.anglocanadian7.ca for a list of suppliers. It may not be completely up-to-date, but a number of suppliers are still in the business of providing for Seven owners. I believe that by now you may have solved the problem of different bolt centres for your front and rear axles, but Mallock in the U.K. were fond of fitting Ford rear brakes (or discs) to BMC axles, and also provided parts for the Ford axles such as double row bearings. One of Mr. Arthur Mallock's sons runs/ran the business and may be able to help (if he hasn't retired by now?) Cheers

The lotus@se7ens.net forum received a request from a member of usa7s to combine resources for the owners of Lotus and Caterham Sevens, to provide advice and assistance for current and future owners. To keep these cars running, and perhaps as original as possible, there are various companies dedicated to achieving this. I have had a site set up by a family friend which can be accessed at www.anglocanadianlotus7.ca I have included information, advice and specifications on the steering rack used on the Seven, as well as spring and shocks for road use cars, plus leads to parts plus specifications that may come in handy. Many original Lotus and Caterham 'original' parts are now becoming harder to find. Please feel free to comment on the site, as I can only learn from honest opinion if anything needs to be changed. Cheers. WF.