Paul Coleman

It's an old British car, it's supposed to leak oil - that's how you know it's got any in it!

What about a motorcycle spring compressor?

I had exactly the same problem when I tried this and gave up and just set them like every other one I've seen, so I'm keen to learn if you fix this!

Can you post a picture of it?

I've only ever had the misfortune to have to remove a broken stud twice. The first time I used a stud extractor and that broke off inside the stud which made things even worse as they're as hard as hell. And the second time I MIG welded a nut on the top of the broken stud and wound it out with a spanner. That seemed to work well as the heat from the welder helped break the bond and it came out quite easily. I'm hoping I never have to do another!!

And this is exactly why I've never tried to build an engine. I would have looked at that and gone "Nah it'll be fine"and slapped it together!! I have no concept of what acceptable wear is and when my engine needed rebuilding I gave it to somebody who knew what they were doing. It was the only bit of my restoration that I didn't feel confident to do myself. So I take my hat off to anybody who can tackle one of these on their own

I posted one the DeTomaso Mangusta has the exact same ashtray as the early Esprit.

Go to 8:05 it really sums up early electric windows on older cars...

I have been told that the commutator gets smeared with grease and that causes the sluggish response. So I'm going to try cleaning mine before I spring for a new pair as my window speed is glacial.

Without wishing to piss on your parade Dave most of those are close but no cigar (excuse the pun). The only one that looks correct to me is the Ghibli. If you look at where the rivets are there are 2 of them on the surround, one on each side about half way down. The handle on the lid should be smooth as well (not ribbed for extra comfort). It was also used in the DeTomaso Mangusta... and a few Ford ISO cars as well. In fact the early S1 Esprit is the cheapest car with this type of ashtray. So I'm waiting for somebody with more money than sense who's restoring a Ghibli and is missing his ashtray to buy my car for £100k just to get the ashtray hahaha

If they're the same as an S1 @Lotusfab found an alternative.

That looks like a good find What chassis number is it?

Oooh that was cruel!

I hope you actually like driving and owning after all this!

There are plenty of pages with Jeff's Countach e.g. https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/threads/lamborghini-countach-lp5000s-cannonball-run-by-auto-italia-2010.350857/ This one is the definition of more money than sense though... https://www.complex.com/sports/2013/02/this-millionaire-hung-a-lamborghini-countach-on-his-wall