Previous owners writes: The car was very complete however very rough. We stripped off nine coats of paint. Lots of bondo. A friend led the effort in the restoration and with my labor he directed me and his son. The man has a body shop and very talented in all areas. The motor was a mess. We removed it and took it apart . Another friend checked out all the parts and replaced what was bad. Transmission was removed and checked out. Anything that could be removed was. Cleaned up, replaced etc. The restoration took about 3 years. Work on weekends mostly. It was very intense. I have a photo history of the step by step take down and the rebuild.
It was a race car in Southern California in the mid 60's. Held track records in F Production for many years. I was told that the car was very competitive. A man by the name of Chuck Billington was the owner and racer. The car is very original.
Although the the early pictures do show one, there was no roll bar on the when I got it. The only evidence of the roll bar was the small thin bars coming off the rear compartment, cut loose of the rear top frame and bent at an angle. I used them to connect the rear support bars. The main bar is bolted on to the top support towers and the thin bars are attached to the rear frame.
New Owner Doug Gillette writes:
I have just purchased a 1962 Lotus Seven America (948 A Series engine and drum brakes all round). As my initial foray into competitive driving, I intend to participate in some local slalom and hill climb events. Currently the car is on 13" steel wheels shod with skinny road tires. I am contemplating upgrading to something akin to alloy Minilites (magnesium Minilites or Wobblies are beyond my budget and as a novice probably my needs as well). Did manage to make contact with Chris Beebe and am awaiting his suggestions on appropriate upgrades to the rear end assembly. He was quite specific in his inquiries: car weight, car with driver weight, engine displacement and horsepower, wheel and tire specs, anticipated use. I plan to leave the original rear unmodified so that I can restore the car to its original configuration should the spirit move me.
Plugging away on SB1143 -- a little more digging has revealed that I have to replace two of the frame tubes. We were looking to improve the roll bar mounting method and discovered that the two vertical frame tubes at the very rear of the tub, where the bracing struts for the roll bar had been attached, were both substantially rotted through at the roll bar attachment welds. Another little project!
