Lotus 61 Restoration Project
Part Three

Go to Part One • Two • Three • Four • Five • Six • Seven

Welcome to part three. The car is making some real progress now. Actually I'm writing in the past.. it's all together.... we just have to 'pretend' that it's just coming together as you read this. If your enjoying the reading and maybe picking up a couple tricks to 'toss in your bag' then I'm happy as well. Historic racing is about having fun, and writing this article is giving me the opportunity to share with you the pleasure I get from turning a pile of steel, wire and rubber into a race car. (That it has taken on the appearance of a Lotus 61 formula Ford is an added bonus!)

Cooling: I'll start with the cooling system. It's pretty simple. Originally the upper left frame tube routed coolant to the radiator and the lower right frame tube routed it back to the engine. In an effort to preserve the frame tubes from internal rust I abandoned them for this purpose and installed external copper piping. Short of drilling test holes in the frame tubes to measure the tube thickness, about all I can tell you is that they appear strong. (Checking them for wrinkling or signs of cracking is a daily "preflight check" item when I'm racing).

I use copper pipes for the cooling. I know what your thinking: why doesn't he use aluminum? Several reasons. First, I can solder, or "sweat" the pipe fittings at home whereas aluminum would require TIG welding. This gives me the ability to make changes to the piping; both at home and if necessary, at the track. Second, refer to the photo below. Those two pipes are inside the cockpit of the car; right next to me. When the water temperature of a hot engine is 230 degrees, what temperature do you think those pipes are? For the same reason you have copper pipes in your home: they retain the heat rather than releasing it, keeping your hot water hotter. The cockpit of that car gets blistering hot anyway, and aluminum pipes would release a lot of that heat into the cockpit. While I've made a point of not touching them when the engine is hot, they are a far cry cooler than the water running through them. What IS a problem is the pedal box firewall. When the radiator is cooling that 230 degree water where do you think that heat is going? Yep! A lot of it is coming straight back into my feet! And while I've not blistered my feet during a race I can assure you it gets uncomfortably hot down there!

At this point I've 'dry fitted' all the tubes and hose connectors. I'll add the hose clamps after the drivetrain is installed. Note the arrow pointing to the return line at the radiator (photo below). I've got a petcock drain on the engine block and another in the return line (lowest point in the system). Living in Northern Nevada it gets COLD at night and it would just ruin my whole day to crack a block or head. Tech Tip: after the last race on Sunday I open the petcocks on the block and return line and drain the system. I Fill the system when I tune the car (at home) for the next race then drain the system before the car goes into the trailer. Water's cheap and thus far I've avoided cracking the head... again... (cracking an Ivey head was an expensive lesson!).

Note the rock guard on the front of the radiator. Heavy wire screen from Ace hardware did the trick, and some one inch square aluminum tubing to bring it out away from the radiator has prevented rock damage. Simple and cheap; but it works.

Fabricating copper manifolds has enabled me to use straight radiator hose connections. Tech Tip: when 'plumbing' a unique system I'll figure out what size inside diameters I need, length and the angles involved and make a list. I go to the local NAPA and borrow their radiator hose book. It has a picture of every hose they sell along with dimensions. Once I have figured out what I need I give the counterman a list of what I want. Makes it easy for them and easy for me. I also keep a record of what hoses I used, so next time I need a new hose I can stop in and ask for a NAPA "12345". I also carry a photo of the car with me. Invariably the counterman will ask what kind of a car the particular part is for. When I say "Lotus 61", they often reply "what model 1961 Lotus is it?" Showing them a photo usually gets you a little better service.

Seat Belts: I use RCI six point camlock belts from Summit Racing ($139.95). Inside the box with my new belts were instructions to return them after two years and they will reweb them for $20.00 shipping and handling. Installing them is a job where a second set of hands would be nice. I wouldn't have to climb in and out of the car so much. I've also talked to "Santa" about a HANS device for next year. The price really irks me for something that costs about $50.00 to make, but maybe its cheap insurance.... spend the money and you'll never crash.

The shoulder harnesses go around the firewall bulkhead tube then over the rollbar cross brace.

The lap belts and crotch straps are bolted to frame tabs (arrows). Recalling a statement I made in 'part one' when the frame was stripped and everything wide open: as you can see its starting to get congested with a lot of gear occupying small spaces. Now is when 'prior planning' pays big dividends.

Brakes: What brakes do on a car is convert the kinetic energy of the car into friction, or heat. That heat is generated by rubbing brake pads (or shoes) against a rotor (or drum). Assuming a weight of 1200 pounds for the Lotus with driver: at 100mph it has 402,000 foot pounds of energy. At 50mph it has 100,000 foot pounds of energy. Therefore, to slow from 100mph to 50mph for a corner the brakes must "absorb" 302,000 foot pounds of energy. They do that by rubbing the pads/shoes against the rotors/drums, thus converting the kinetic energy of the car into friction and heat and "reducing" the speed of the car. (Just in case your curious, that 80,000 pound 'semi' traveling at a {California legal} speed of 55mph has 8,130,200 foot pounds of kinetic energy and after he passes Fernley {NV} eastbound on I-80 and kicks it up to the legal speed of 75mph he now has 15,113,155 foot pounds of energy!)

I use Hawk "Black" pads on the Lotus. I've also used Panther pads. The Panthers have slightly better stopping power but don't last as long and are more expensive. For the money the Hawks have been good. I've got no complaints.

Before every race weekend I remove and inspect the pads. I change them when I'm down to 1/4 of the original pad thickness. I also lubricate the back of the pads with anti-sieze/anti-squeel grease before putting them back on. I'm not real big on turning the rotors until they really need it. I've found that after changing pads, by the time I've heated them up during break-in they have bedded and now match the rotors. I do hit the rotors with sandpaper and break the glaze that forms on them whenever I change pads. More a case of "scratching" the glaze then actually removing any material. As previously written, I bleed the brakes and change brake fluid often.

Hydraulics: I've received the rest of the parts I ordered and have completed the brake and clutch hydraulic system. The rear brake line 'T's and individual lines go to each corner. I've also moved the brake light pressure switch from the front to the rear of the car. Note the 'ugly' black square bar where the transmission mount was? This is a temporary piece I install whenever the mount is out. It keeps the frame from bending/stretching. (If you thought to yourself that you've seen it before you are correct. It was also part of my rotisserie mount).

Bleeding the hydraulics: I mentioned in part 2 that I use "speed bleeders". Here is a photo of a speed bleed screw (top) and a conventional bleed screw (bottom). Note the extended, spring loaded valve on the speed bleeder.

Now is a good time to bleed the hydraulics before I've installed the drivetrain. Everything is still wide open. My personal preference is to do one system at a time and I start with the clutch hyraulics. It just happens that the master cylinder reservoirs are as high or higher than their respective system (I took this photo after finishing the bleeding so they are all full) so I fill the reservoir and crack a bleeder at the point furthest away. Let it sit 15 minutes then close the bleeder and check the entire system for leakage. (It will do a good job of gravity feeding the system and any big leaks will become apparent).

After opening the bleed screw (preferrably with a bleed hose into a catch tank attached) I slowly pump the pedal for the clutch. When I see the reservoir level dropping I check the system for leakage and tighten any fittings that need it. I position the bleed hose and catch tank where I can see air bubbles escaping when I pump the pedal, and when no more air escapes I close the bleed screw and check the entire system again for leakage. Next step is to top off the reservoir then fully depress the pedal several times, and check the system again for leakage. (If you have somebody who can hold the pedal on the floor you can make a better check for leakage when the system is under pressure).

Having completed one system I proceed onto the next until finished. I let the system sit a few hours, then bleed the system again. You'll be amazed at the amount of air you get out of the system. If it's been "excessive" I'll let it sit another six hours and bleed it yet again until I'm not getting ANY air out. (Remember the 'lecture' on making the brakes perfect? A little extra effort here is going to mean more speed on the track later.)

Other things: A couple other little 'snippets'... Not only do I have the market cornered on plastic wire ties, but also safety wire. I've a simple philosophy regarding safety wire: you only have to safety wire the parts you DON'T want to fall off the racecar! Alas, figure a way to wire it. A typical example:

I fabricated a new throttle cable. Tech tip: One of the things that invariably happens with twisted cable is unraveling. To prevent that simply take a piece of heat shrink tubing and put it over the cable. Heat it and you've prevented the cable from unraveling.

The "fire bottle"... I had to give this some thought when originally installed five years ago. Not that its That Bulky, there's just no room for it. One of those examples of "sleeping on it". I came out the next morning and suspended it from the tube between the cockpit bulkhead and pedal box bulkhead. Not only is it a perfect fit there, you can visually check the gauge and 'safety pin' from outside the car when the bodywork is installed.

This completes part three. In the next part I'll install the engine and gearbox, fuel system and finish the wiring. Got some 'real fun' coming up in the next part, so as they say on the big screen... "Don't Go Away!"