Lotus 7 (Replica) Build

250buggys

Well-known member
P clipped the wiring loom in yesterday evening.

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Lots of fun drilling 5mm holes for 3mm riv nuts under the box section.

Here you can see the loom runs down the N/S and the brake and fuel lines down the O/S. Diff at the end.

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Just got to hoover out the swarf ๐Ÿ˜€
 
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250buggys

Well-known member
Got the 20 odd holes drilled for the boot cover. Forward section is captive and secured with screws and riv nuts and the other end has press studs fitted.

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Just adding the holes for the harness bolts and then stripping everything off now it has warmed up for paint.

Just need to get the holes drilled for the rear arches etc.

Will give the pannels a good key during the week, clean off and then ready for primer.

Now all the mechanical stuff is complete, paint, engine in and bolt all the rest of it together ๐Ÿ˜€ job done!! Well hopefully.
 

250buggys

Well-known member
O/S rear arch fitted, just adding the P profile trim to the N/S rear wheel arch.

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I fitted some stone guards, with the Freestyle it is amazing how much rub is kicked up by the front wheels...๐Ÿ˜€

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Good fun, nice to have a few days on it with the BH weekend.
 

250buggys

Well-known member
With it being nice and warm and no rain in the forecast I pulled out the chassis and stripped all the front suspension off ready for paint.

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Got it all rubbed down and cleaned

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In primer, looks good in grey. The plan was to go Nardo grey and that was when nobody knew what it was. Now everyone has it and that put me off.

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Getting there now ๐Ÿ˜€

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If all goes well tomorrow it will be gloss white ๐Ÿ˜€
 

250buggys

Well-known member
Been building the kit back up after paint.

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Just waiting on some more paint to turn up so I can finish the scuttle pannel and get the dash fitted. ๐Ÿ˜ƒ
 

250buggys

Well-known member
When I designed and built the brake lines for the Freestyle it was easy, just went round bled all the air, had a good solid pedal and then went around again to see if I could find a bit more air.

Today I got my ezibleed out to bleed the brakes on the 7. I knew it was too hot to be messing around but it was a job that needed doing before I covered the master cylinder up with the pedal box cover.

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Went round and got the air out but no pedal so I knew there had to be a leak. Worst place, puddle in the middle at the back. All over the diff casing and draining into the prop shaft tunnel....

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Leaking from the 4 way union and not a weep....

Top fittings were dry so pulled off the bottom, when the system was pressurised it was spurting out.

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I started to doubt myself a bit, wrong fitting or wrong flare or bad flare but all looked good.

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I found some swarf so thought it may have prevented it seating properly, cleaned it all up and tried again but still leaking. Went round and checked all the other fittings and they were good.

I stripped off the 4 way union and knocked up a test fitting and could see it went in wonky as a 3 leg donkey.

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At least it is only an ยฃ8 part I need to order as I must have cross threaded it when I put it in.

I'll have another go when it turns up in the post ๐Ÿ˜ƒ
 

250buggys

Well-known member
Made a start prepping the bonnet for paint, pulled all the laser film off. Right pain where all the edges of the film are fused to the ally panel, I have a technique for getting that off but it still takes a while to look decent. All keyed etc

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The kit came with a flush bonnet but I sold it on and ordered one with the louvre style, with owning a Freestyle best to get rid of the heat etc

Turns out it is a right arse to paint. Where the vents are punched out the material is really stressed and not so good for paint!

I then realised that although the weather was perfect for painting I needed to chop the bonnet at some point for the exhaust exit on the near side.

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Now has a couple of coats of primer and flattened off for paint.

Have spent a fair amount of time fitting the carbon edge trim which was not plug and play, spent a considerable amount of time and effort trimming and sanding but now the off side is looking Ok, pics to follow ๐Ÿ˜ƒ

Scuttle pannel all ready to fit and picked up a spare gearbox in the week, the MT75 Sierra boxes are like hens teeth now.....
 

250buggys

Well-known member
That gear box I picked up still had the coupling attached but the bolts had been chopped.

Managed to get one out with mole grips and the other 2 grinded some flats and they soon came off. Only thing was had to fit it to the engine to put it in gear so it didn't spin.

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250buggys

Well-known member
So the ST box came with a hydraulic clutch but there was no way of fixing it to the MT75 gearbox. Shame really but no mounting holes to pick up on. Would have been great to make this work.

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The slave from a 318 is now fitted to the box and the spring is on there to keep the release bearing a few mm off when pedal not depressed.


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I made a new longer threaded pin for the slave cylinder in inventor and got this machined up.

Should give me as much adjustment as I need.

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Just need to bleed it and give it a test and then I can throw the engine back in ๐Ÿ˜ƒ and crack on.
 

250buggys

Well-known member
Anyway

Engine back in and....

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Home made hydraulic clutch remote test pedal down.

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and pedal up position....

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Should all be straight forward ish here on in. I think ๐Ÿ˜ƒ
 

250buggys

Well-known member
Got all the engine mount to frame bolts in and torqued up.

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This was a right old pain as the access to get the nut on the other side is pretty much non existent. Had to try and hold a nut in a 13mm spanner, feed it in under and try and get it to line up straight while getting the bolt to thread on

The side panels form a 90 degree and fold under the chassis. I have heard of others gouging big holes in for access to the engine mounting fastenings. Bit crude but might work with sealing caps etc.

The middle ones were the hardest some of the outer you could get to with your fingers.
 

250buggys

Well-known member
Next job was to get the nose cone back on so I could cut out a hole in the bonnet for the exhaust manifold.

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Been meaning to do this for a while...

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Measured and made up a template.

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Cut the hole out

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Fits nicely

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Quick coat of gloss white ๐Ÿ˜ƒ
 

250buggys

Well-known member
Some tinkering today.

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Got the silencer bracket fitted

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Shiny part added.

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Bought a wideband lamda sensor but when I took the connector apart it has what looks like a circuit board inside. I was going to chop off the connector and wire it straight to the ECU but not now.

I may have to fit a narrow band as I dont really want to chop a big hole in the side panel to pass the sensor through as that is smaller than the connector.
 

250buggys

Well-known member
Got the back boxes fitted for the fog and reverse lights, just waiting on some plastic conduit and a junction box and will get them terminated.

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Also got the VIN number on.
 

250buggys

Well-known member
Got the alternator fitted.

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Just measuring up for an Aux belt.

Bit of a pain really, I removed the heavy cast casing but had to put it back on as that was where one of the alternator bracket fixings was. Putting the casing back on means it fouls the belt and I had put the standard rotation water pump back on where I had filled a reverse direction impeller so I could do away with the idle pulley bracket. Shed load of weight gone back on... Cant really see another way of doing it.
 

250buggys

Well-known member
My new trolley jack decided to dump all its oil on the driveway, another quality product. Spent an hour stripping it down to replace the 4 O rings.

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Seems to work ok for now.

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Made up a battery tray and started drilling holes and realised I should just bond it on as it is in compression and will be plenty strong enough.

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Got a bracket to hold it in place

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Modifying the cast bracket which is a timing belt cover and also is an engine mounting point for use in a FWD. You can see where the alternator bracket picks up a mounting point. Lucky I didn't scrap that... Belt should clear it ok once I have finished trimming the excess away. ๐Ÿ˜ƒ

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Got the throttle bodies installed and all the plumbing to the rad is done.

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Spent a bit of time soldering and getting ready to connect things up to the fuse box. Some good progress lately.
 
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