Wanted: Caterham nose. Pre-1996 or possibly earlier

[dvl]

Hi,

I’m looking for a nose for my Seven, which I believe should be a pre-1996 part or maybe the 1974-1990 Caterham model.  If anyone has a used or unused nose available, I am interested in buying.

The current nose on the car is a 2010 era part, from either Caterham or Redline. After some trimming, the fit is good in terms of bonnet length (39 inch bonnet) and suspension and head lamp mount clearance, but there is a gap between the radius of the hood and bonnet, on both outside edges. Based on a bit of reading, I think this gap is mostly due to manufacturing changes starting some time in the mid-90’s.  Worst case, I’ll jam some foam in the gap for now and fabricate my own nose or see if one can be sourced from Redline.

The car is relatively nonstandard, even for a Seven, as it is build from a 2010-era Arch S2/S3 Lotus replacement chassis (with upgrades to fit a Caterham front mounted radiator and rack and pinion), a mix of used and NOS Lotus parts, and my own fabrication.

 

Thanks,

Dave

[IamScotticus]

You are saying that the front of the bonnet does not clamp snugly over the nose lip?

do the Dzuz locations fit the brackets correctly?

Are you sure you have a Caterham bonnet?

[dvl]

It fits correctly over the span of the nose, but is gapped at the edges.  The bonnet radius does not align with the nose radius, but it fits fine at the center. See the attached pictures.
 

I’ve seen varying degrees of this gapping in pictures on Blatchat and generally online. 

 

The bonnet was built by Arch and delivered with the chassis. I’m going to talk with a sheet metal guy to see if he can clean up the fir a bit.
It’s likely within Caterham/Lotus acceptable tolerance and really just a minor visual inconvenience.

[IamScotticus]

Refresh or double up on the rubber strip at the top to see if this will pull the corners in.  Simulate this with something flexible to see if thw spacing at top helps.