E 906 return to the road

A few weeks ago I mailed the local dealer (Stratton Motor Company, Longstratton, Norfolk) asking if there was any chance of a recall activity being done FOC. I had by now assumed they'd either not received the mail or were not getting any info from Lotus Cars. Yesterday I received an email from Ian (Service Manager) confirming the work hadn't been done and so was outstanding and that he would now order the parts.

What's noteworthy about this is not what they are doing but how long it is after the recall was issued but they are still happy to do it. There's no requirement for a manufacturer to undertake recall work on an unlimited time-scale they can easily argue the customer has taken many years longer than normal to respond, the car has no issues despite being 25+ years old so really doesn't need the work, but they are doing it with no hesitation.

Thank you Lotus Cars
Thank you Stratton Motor Comany.

Now to book the car in.

It went for its second MOT test (since I've owned it) and it passed, one failure point was the RHS rear fog lamp not working but I fiddled with the lamp at the station so he re-tested it and passed it.
The car was an absolute PITA that day, started well, drove OK for most of the journey but become troublesome once it got hot, almost stalling as I arrived at the testing station.
During the test it refused to run well and refused to start well. I left with the certificate, and it stalled approx 100m down the road, then another 20m on, then 1/2 mile later it stalled on a roundabout and refused to start. Thankfully it was a roundabout with more than one lane but despite coasting as tight to the kerb and putting hazards on I still had three drivers pull right behind my car and blow their horn for me to move.
Greenflag arrived within 45 mins and helped push it off the roundabout, having checked it out decided it was ignition, which tied in with my diagnosis and so had it recovered as he thought there was a good chance it would break down again despite it having decided it would start again (seemed like something breaking down when hot).

I spent the day on the car, from 8am today, and having replaced various bit I found that replacing the rotor arm and dissy cap didn't fully sort it but replacing the AB14 seemed to remove the misfire.

I was getting exhausted (lunch would have been a nice thing) and so made a few schoolboy errors such as setting the timing light to 0 degrees advance then knocking the knob and setting it to 60 degrees without realising and then wondering why the timing seemed so far off despite having set it to 10 degrees static. I also managed to rotate the plug leads when swapping over to the new cap, I'm sure i held them the same way round.

Anyway, it runs and runs a lot more evenly than it had since being recommissioned so I suspect the AB14 was causing me issues all the while and this was the first real run that it got hot.


Tomorrow I need to replace the rubbers on the upper ball joints, the passed as they don#'t allow dirt in but they have a split so will be replaced to keep grease in.

Well, I had progressed with the car quite well, needing to finish the leather and that would be about it, or so I thought.
I spent a fair bit of my free time doing bits about the garden etc, so with the good weather over I realised I needed the garage as a working space, tidying that has been (and continues to be) hard work. It's fairly tidy now but the plan is to not do much more on the gold one for a while, I do need to dry it out (not happy) and fit new door seals (Hopefully that's the cause of the wet carpets as the windscreen is newly fitted, the rear screen is secure and the water is not visible on the headlining).

Once that's done the plan is to move it to the rented garage and let it dry out a bit more. The silver Excel that's in that garage at present then becomes the winter project. I've been and removed the rear brake discs and now nee to remove the fronts/ free them off so that it can be moved onto the truck/trailer easily.

So, hopefully starting the next restoration thread very soon.

Well, I had a go with the Glyptone stuff and whilst I have no reason to doubt it's better than the current Furniture Clinic approach (G= one coat, FC = colour and top coat)) it doesn't set very firm nor does it adhere very well. i think it's going to have rubbed off very soon.

For the green Excel (long since gone to Mike's) I had planned to re-colour the leather to a lighter colour than it was. That never happened (car went) but I had purchased the FC solvent based (cellulose) paint and still have it. In terms of colour, the Glyptone stuff which I had matched to the original colour of the leather (piece sent was cut from inside the door trim) was a lot more vivid than the parts of the leather exposed to the sun for the last 25 years. The FC stuff I already had is a little bit more vivid than that FC stuff. Based on that I've decided to re-colour using the existing FC stuff.

I've so far done the driver's door trim & handle, centre tunnel storage box, gear stick gaiter, handbrake gaiter and the trim between those two gaiters. It looks rather vivid, but I suspect the original colour would have looked rather vivid against the faded (almost cream) old leather colour.



So, all in all, a bit annoyed that the G stuff doesn't stick well and that I paid circa 3100 for the kit and conditioner etc. A bit annoyed that I didn't think sooner about using the FC stuff I had, I could have achieved more of the re-colouring this week.

Oh well, I forgot I'd not checked / set the tyre pressures after I had the tyres fitted. On the road it didn't feel as sure footed as the other Excel and when home, sure enough, 30-32 PSI in the tyres.

Now the stomach bit. I had a coffee and biscuits before setting out, on the ride they were threatening to leave me again. My Turbo Esprit had softer suspension when it was on the wrong springs and so sitting at full extension. I think from that I need to adjust the fronts to be a little softer and the backs a bit more than that.
I know the individual wheels / components move so it's not frozen joints but the back is pretty solid and not surprising, when I put my foot down a little it felt as though the back end broke free a little bit. I couldn't drive it in anger (even on a main road) as it was raining slightly.


On the positive side, the engine does seem to be full of life, picks up nicely and sounds smooth, and the brakes (fronts) seem a bit more confidence-inspiring than the normal ones.

The second rear spat is not on the car, all four wheel arches have been re-finished in black under body sealant (Shutz type) so it has nice firm edges between the gold of the body and black of the wheel arch areas.
The NS windscreen finisher is now back on, I've adjusted its shape by partially filling the void between the two skins with GRP and clamping it while it cured. It's now re-fitted.


I think, other than a few areas of paint that need cutting, it's now done on the outside. I still need to sort out the front headlining panel and either have it and the old sun visors trimmed professionally or re-shape (GRP) the headlining for the visors I plan to use and then have it re-trimmed professionally.

The leather colourant is on order (two colours, one cream one black).


This could end up a nice tidy car, then I'll have to not get in it with greasy clothes on, having been working on cars for fear of making it need lots more work. Who knows, I may even clean the interior occasionally.

I have had the front and rear bumpers sprayed along with the spats, bumpers and one spat fitted (need to move car to fit other) and I now got round to checking the lights work.
All going well, little bit of twisting of lamps (bulbs go in the ground to grow into flowers) and the oxidation on the contacts cleared enough for the lamps to illuminate. Got to the front and the front fog lights are not working, take headlights off again, check connections, all seems OK, refit headlight. Still no light output, eventually, having removed end refitted the headlight a few times (once to replace the reflector unit with a much better one) I establish the problem. The switch inside the car isn't working so obviously they were not working before I removed the bumper.

I put a replacement switch in and hey presto, OS one comes on, so refit headlight again and refit fog light lens, NS still not working. Headlight out again, this time fiddle with the connectors again, no joy, I can get 6v at the lamp but not 12v so it must be a poor connection and must be on the short run of wire as the OS gets its +12v from the same terminal block in the headlight well as the NS.

Oh well, time to pull the headlight pod again and try and get this to work.

Oh yes, as the NS windscreen trim doesn't clear the new screen I need to shape it differently, so it was resting in position, I forgot this, opened the door and closed the door causing it to fall to the floor and chip some of the paint.

Things have been a bit hectic of late so progress has slowed.
Anyway, since last entry:
Front bumper has been taken off, damage repaired, flatted, primed with u-pol aerosol primer, existing paint reacted with primer, re flatted with more paint removed, reacted with another layer. Ah, give up on this.
Bumperettes have been repaired (one of the securing bolts had sheared off) and painted with bumper paint.
B pillar trims have been painted with same bumper paint, found acetone dissolves the vacuum formed plastic, so didn't really need to re-paint once I'd scotched them the wiped with acetone but did anyway.
Ditto mirror bases.
Repainted rubber mirror covers, using vinyl paint and a scotch pad, to give it texture and not become a flat shiny surface.
Spax front dampers fitted care of Fitz.
Front spoiler repaired and now awaiting stone-chip paint.

Pretty much now finding who I want to do the paint for the bumpers and spats, time to obtain some leather re-colourant and give that a go then start using it.

Last time I was working on the car all seemed sort of OK and it was starting except, one final time and when I pulled the lugs I found the spark was awful, even straight out of the coil.

With some help (remotely) from Matt I've reviewed, cleaned replaced bits and now the spark at the plugs seems better. Today, the car started almost as soon as the starter moved. Hopefully that's the last pulling the dissy etc for a while. I hope this also solves the problem of difficulty getting HC and CO parts of the exhaust emissions both down.

Door lock (glued back together) is back on the car but the little blue piece of plastic fell when it was in the door and I cannot see it, so will have to obtain a new one. So, door trim back on as well.

I also fitted one of the pair of new rear dampers, I am to do the other tomorrow. The old dampers were advised from the MOT test to be watched and with only 40 miles after the test it was obvious the light oil trace the tester had seen was coming fro the damper and wasn't the WD40 we both hoped / thought it was. I had wondered if the shock could be re-sealed but then I noticed why the seals had failed, the plating on the shaft had failed so it would have to be re-chrome shaft and then re-seal or what will actually happen- dump them.

I had to make my mind up about the seals change in place, seals change on the bench or LSD. LSD won.

I didn't start early on the job (read that as nearly midday) the exhaust and chassis strengthening bracket came off quite well. Most of the nuts were OK to undo, some a little bit tight. The only two that were pigs were the ones that secure from the top rear diff carrier to the subframe, they came off with the help of a power saw.

It was a bit of a shock when the diff came out with nothing underneath it to support it, I had tied a rope round it so it didn't drop straight to the floor. It swung towards me at an alarming rate. New diff was going in quite well until i couldn't find one of the bolts. I searched the floor where I knew I'd laid them I even looked at the side bolt holes of the diff to check I'd not put them in there. I carried on convinced the bolt would turn up and would be easy to fit as it was needed for one that is accessible even when fully fitted. I struggled to get one side of the carrier to line up, eventually I spotted the "missing" bolt in one of the holes that secure it to the diff carrier, I'd wound it ion to check the thread on the replacement diff was clear.

It's back in with the diff secured to the main carrier, the harmonic weight back in pace, the rear carrier secured to the subframe. I still need to put the bolts in that secure the front diff carrier to the subframe, I remember that can be a pain to achieve.

Then it's back on with the driveshafts, prop shaft and other bits.
Still waiting for the rear dampers I ordered on 23rd Feb.