http://s1090.photobucket.com/albums/i372/fergust4/Here I added 18 new photos of different aspects of the build. I really love the lotus 7 design because the bottom of the car is perfectly flat, in mine I even made sure the oil pan didn't hang lower than the bottom of the car.
The diffuser is completely functional, really like that detail. And I really tried to beef up the cage beyond what I typically see on the web. When I see a 7 with just a roll bar than stands only 3 inches above the headrest I get the shivers. When I'm fabricating this cage I try and envision tumbling off the road and the different forces affecting the structure.
The A-pillar is a piece of one inch solid steel from the inner core of a strut. The advantage here is much less material to look around during hard cornering. Also since the piece is solid steel, it compliments the strength of the bigger hollow tubing used for the rest of the cage.
Also unique to this build is the rear bumper design. Using free metal from a broken swingset a friend gave me, I got creative and artsy with that one. Had I bought that metal retail I probably would have paid 3-4 dollars a foot minimum. In my experience it's extremely valuable to take scrap metal when its available. I have different bins for different size scrap.
I'm really a fan of rivets as you can probably tell. I see zero cars on the road utilizing rivets and that is depressing. I found a case of 500 rivets at harbor freight for 5 dollars, and I was used to spending 6 bucks for 50! I've seen an occasional riveted race car in magazines with rivets at maybe 3-4 inch spacing, but I'm a firm believer in one inch spacing on these things.
There is also one photo of a custom hub I TIG welded for this car. Taking the Volvo 740 hub (which isn't dual wishbone) I had to fabricate the part to fit dual wishbone, and have a solid mounting point for the fender. Had I researched this before hand I could have saved a lot of trouble.
Enjoy -fergust
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