My car was very standard when I purchased it. It had no roll bar, no clips for seat belt mounting, no chassis modifications, and no reinforcement to the rear end.

I bought the car in Laguna Hills Ca. in 1987. It had a fairly fresh restoration, and was painted BRG. It came with the original Lotus manual, and even the original Lotus top without quarter windows. It also had original fenders and wheels with it. It has wider rims and rear fenders now. The California license plate on it when I bought it was: OE-7. It was extremely stock. It did not have a roll bar, it did not have seat belts, or even provisions for mounting them. The windshield frame has never been drilled for installation of side curtains.

Very soon after I picked it up, I let my brother drive it, and he crashed it on the Ortega Highway, with both of us in it. (He turned before he got to the curve, over corrected a couple times, and lost it). The car ran into the side of the mountain, spun after hitting it with the front, then hit the mountain with the rear a little. Damage was fairly extensive. The front of the chassis was badly damaged on one side, the nose cone and hood were damaged, the radiator, oil cooler, and sump were ruined. My feet ripped the rivets out, and pushed through the end of the passenger foot well. The A arms were torn half off, and one of the uprights was ruined. There was a big dent in the back of the body too, because both ends of the body ended up hitting the side of the mountain before it was over. Amazingly, none of the fenders were damaged. I bought what parts I could to repair it, and looked for a shop that could take it on.

Tom Beauchamp at Beauchamp's Fabrication was recommended, and I brought the car to him, in Santa Ana Ca. He totally reskinned the car inside and out. It really didn't need a new cowl, dash, or interior panels, but I liked the look of a race car I had seen there with painted alloy panels in the interior, and decided to pony up for that for mine. I never cared for the galvanized sheet with Vinyl backing that it came with. He rebuilt the frame from the firewall forward on one side, and about the front 18" on the other side. The original chassis numbers are still on the frame, that part was never cut out. All the usual bracing was added, including the addition of tubes inside the driveshaft tunnel, and a steel transmission tunnel. I had him install a roll bar, and tabs for installing a 5 point harness at this time. The completed frame was powder coated red. Tom cleaned up and repainted the original fuel tank and made up new stainless steel mounting straps for it. He also fabricated one of the A arms, which I had purchased from a well known East Coast Caterham dealer, but he never shipped it.

Tom reskinned the car in thicker aluminum sheet than it came with, and the floor feels much more solid than before. I chose the Black and Red color scheme, and Tom had the body painted locally. Even though I still had them, I chose not to reinstall the fender supports, I just don't like the way they look, and I know that the fenders stay on without them. When Tom reskinned it, he also installed nutcerts on the inside of the body for fender mounts which are so much easier to deal with than those little rubber things with the brass threads inside that it had before. He also made the front sides of the body removable, with Dzus fasteners holding them on. This was a great benefit when I refreshed all the front end bushings a couple years ago, and also for cleaning. It still has the Triumph Standard 10 rear axle, although I had Chris Beebe install a 4 speed TR-7 ring and pinion as well as cut down TR-7 axels in it, with a Quaife. He also made up a chrome moly A frame, and a ball joint conversion for the A frame to axle housing bushings. He also made up new trailing arms for it, which are adjustable, and slightly offset for tire clearance. He got rid of all the bolt on stuff for mounting the shocks to the axle, and replaced it with clean and simple welded mounts. He also straightened the axle housing (Probably bent when I had a local welder but the stiffener plate on it, it didn't even have that when I bought it), and put a little negative camber in it.

With as much work as had to be done to it to make it roadworthy after the crash, the car looked virtually new, but it isn't. The photo's I sent are 12 years old now I think. I have photos of before and after the crash, including some during the restoration. They are not digital though (I've got to get a scanner).

For what it is worth, Tom built that wild little stake bed from the chassis plate up. He was a master
craftsman, and a good fellow. I had not seen him since about '97 or '98, and was wondering where he had moved his shop to.

I will send my pertinent information plus photo's when I get a chance. It also has a long VIN number on its DMV papers due to California not being able to deal with a short VIN number.