I can't run topless all the time, people are starting to talk

[jbcollier]

Looking for a new top and doors for my 1969 S3.  What are my options?  Can I fit later Caterham offerings?  They have larger windows, zip-out rear window and doors that fold so you can actually store them in the car.

[Jonathan Kay]

Our two main weapons are:

• Talking to suppliers: Thundersport, Soft Bits for Sevens. NB Club discounts.

• Trying existing hoods on your Seven. I'll start the offers with a factory full hood for a 1998 S3 in South Oxfordshire.

Jonathan

[alan c]

When I purchased my first 7 it had the old style hood and doors and it was a straight swap to fit new hood and doors.

It was an S3 but not as old as yours.

Thar said do you need the hood, just buy new doors and a half hood 

[Golf Juliet Tango]

Topless is good 

[jbcollier]

Thanks for the links and suggestions.  I'd forgot that the half-hood places also made full hoods.  I can't use a half-hood as I don't have a roll bar.

I have been trying to contact Redline for a few months.  My emails and phone calls go unanswered.  Any idea what might be up?  I have a £650 credit I would hate to lose.

[jbcollier]

Thundersport now only sells certain items through Caterham.  This includes hoods and screens.

Does anyone know if a "Caterham S3" hood and side screens will fit a 1969 Lotus S3?

[SLR No.77]

It's a sad day if Caterham are now using bully-boy corporate tactics to prevent Oxted, who are an independent automotive upholsterer, from making you a bespoke hood for a Lotus 7.  

I recently contacted Oxted about re-upholstering some Caterham seats and it's clear they're running scared following pressure from the new Caterham management, I hadn't realised it was possible to use "contractual obligations" so many times in a single email. There's plenty of alternative upholsterers capable of doing a seat refresh and possibly a lot better so both Caterham and Oxted lose out. A little more complex with a hood unfortunately.

Stu.

[ScottR400D]

#7 it's not new is it? Titan won't sell any C7 stuff directly either. I doubt it's just those two, though the bigger suppliers will be clamped down on no doubt. 

Just another indicator of how CC views its aftermarket. 

[SLR No.77]

#8.  Selling stuff directly and having, for example, a tunnel cover re-upholstered, is not really the same thing. But we are where we are.

 

[jbcollier]

From Thundersport:

Unfortunately, I have some bad news.  I have been discussing your email with both the company director (the original trimmer who patterned the Caterham weather gear in the 70s) and our production manager.
The current full hood and doors will definitely not fit your car.   Our director advised that you might be able to get away with a short cockpit full hood but, upon investigation of our pattern boards with the Production Manager, we have no longer have the patterns available.  
Many apologies that we are unable to be of assistance.

[Tony P]

I’m puzzled (nothing new…):

According to Weale (and other reputable sources) the first Caterham chassis was based on that of the Twin-Cam and other model Lotus Sevens, with early revisions thereafter largely confined to altered triangulation of the spaceframe, especially around the rear beyond the cockpit sides.

All the ballyhoo about the long-cockpit chassis when it was released was of increased internal dimensions, without changing the appearance or external dimensions of the car; this achieved, in the main, by relocation of the cockpit’s rear bulkhead within the frame. I don’t think the shape or size of the cockpit side opening changed at all? (witness the change of position of the seat back against the curved cockpit side).

I have a recollection of, years ago, the now late-owner of a Lotus Seven Twin-Cam (by definition an S3-size, short-cockpit, live axle car) trying out my sidescreen’s (from an early 90s, S3, long-cockpit de Dion) -‘increased viz’ versions with the ‘arm bulges - on his car (which had the original flat sidescreens) and I’m pretty sure I remember them fitting.

What has changed since then, or what have I missed, that means that a later hood or doors cannot fit jb’s earlier Seven?

[SLR No.77]

"achieved, in the main, by relocation of the cockpit’s rear bulkhead within the frame"

Exactly my recollection as well Tony.

[jbcollier]

Inquired directly with Soft Bits and they only make half-hoods and half-doors.  If I had a roll bar, they were confident they could make one up just from photos.  Nice to know.

[Iamscotticus]

Bad, Oxted!

How many business get to equip a 60 year old product and you can't support an S3?

[Tony P]

… despite the 'bespoke' service of which Thundersport’s website boasts.

jb - where are you based? As Jonathan suggested earlier, you ideally need to try a later hood from another owner since, as yet, no one has suggested why it wouldn’t fit.

[jbcollier]

I might as well be in deepest, darkest Africa as I'm in the colonies, specifically Edmonton Alberta Canada.