Paul Coleman

Because of the damage to the front mounting point in the bonnet area I have had to redesign the frame to take the stress off that point and also make it easier for me to repair it whilst still being able to rotate the shell. So I've removed the front mounting point off the frame and added a new one that will locate on the front of the footwell... So now the front mounting point is unstressed and I can get at it to repair it. Once I've done that I might refit the mounting point or just leave it off if it seems okay as it is now... That was basically the best part of a days' work on my own. Good job I'm not being paid for this or they'd be moaning about how much it's costing hahaha I haven't decided exactly how I'm going to repair that area around the bobbin. So I'm going to have a think about it...

Just drill some holes and bolt it I think. I want to be able to fully dismantle it to store it when I'm done with it

I had determined that this car has been side swiped at some point and the front mounting point for the chassis has cracked. So when I rotated it today I noticed that it was stressing the mounting point in the body and was in danger of pulling the bobbin through the body... So I'm going to have to find a way to repair this before I invert the body for any length of time. It's not in any danger of collapsing and falling on me as it still has another 3 fixing points down that side of the body but it needs sorting sooner rather than later. There are a couple of fixing points in the footwells which I have currently not used so I may utilise those instead of the two forward most fixings which would then allow me to work on it whilst upside down... Then when I've fixed the mount I can re-attach at those 2 forward points. I love it when a plan comes together

I have nearly finished the rotisserie and I tried it out this afternoon. Unlike my e-type which didn't need a full length frame this has all the weight at the bottom of the car so it's quite difficult to rotate it with one person. It is also too big to rotate inside my garage as it hits the garage door openers - first world problems. I have quite a nice tan from all the welding I've been doing and I'm told it should sound like bacon and eggs frying when you're welding but if you'd ever tasted my cooking you'd understand why my welding is so bad! So here it is upside down... I plan on fitting a length of box section between the two trolleys to stabilise it but this was just a trial rotation. The problem with this car is that it's so wide, so even though it appears to be very high (and it is) when it's on its side the side almost touches the horizontal legs of the trolley. If I want to work on the underside then I'm going to have to pull it out of the garage, turn it and then put it back in again. I won't be able to work in the garage with it on its side as I could when I had my e-type but the e-type was only 1.2m wide whereas the Esprit is nearly 2m... I've mounted the frame at 8 points where the body mounts to the chassis and it seems fine, there were no horrible creaking and cracking noises when I rotated it. I think that the only time I will want it on its side will be when I'm stripping the paint and that will be best done outside, so I don't see the height being a major problem. Most of the work I need to do will require the shell inverted so it will at least be at a reasonable height for my poor old back... I've drilled a hole in the outer tube and welded a nut on it and I was planning on using a bolt to lock it at any angle but it isn't going to work I don't think, so I will drill a number of holes in the inner tube and then just stick a bar in it to hold it at the desired position. There's a fair bit of bodywork to do on this car so this will make my life a lot easier as I'm getting a bit long in the tooth to be crawling around on the floor

I saw a comment on another forum that asked if his booster seat was part of the 350 sale

This is the first of the three wheel trolleys I need to make. I had some metal paint kicking around in the garage so I treated it to a coat of paint. I actually bought the paint to paint the front gates but I've been too busy playing cars so the gates still haven't been painted, oh well... The 10" swivel wheels will make it easier to move around on my gravel driveway. This will also be very useful for painting it as I will be able to spin it over and do the underside as well. One down and one to go and then onto the frame to mount the body on.

Ah the eBay one! Yeah it looks like a good starting point The sun visor frames and brackets are available from SJ Sportscars and the window motors are also available new off eBay... https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/194238422977?hash=item2d39831fc1:g:EksAAOxy9X5TbBLs https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/203518702688?hash=item2f62a8f460:g:K6oAAOxyUgtTPGkK

I made one for the e-type I was restoring but I sold it when I sold the car last year. I didn't think I'd ever need it again! It had a locking bolt to keep it in whatever position you wanted so I will do something similar with this one... I'm going to make the width of the movable bits 2m so it will be stable enough

Nope, I'm going to make a rotisserie so I can turn the whole body through 360 degrees. I want it upside down to do the repairs and with a rotisserie I can spin it on my own. Watch this space...

Hahaha good idea! I hadn't thought of that

I have moved the stands which were holding the body up so that they run lengthways instead of across as I need access to the tunnel where the chassis sits... And I have bought a load of mild steel box section and two bits of round pipe... Plus I bought 6 of these 10" swivel wheels... Can you guess what I'm going to be making next week? The clue is the round pipe, where I needed two bits where one fits inside the other.

The bloke who trims cars for SJ said he had spent ages scouring the country and couldn't find anybody. You apparently run the risk of sparking which on a nylon material will ruin your day.

The marcasite type seats were originally ultrasonically welded to create the ridges but you try and find somebody to replicate that now!

I thought I'd better just check the heater matrix that came with the heater I have so I rigged up a contraption that Heath Robinson would have been proud of... I put 40 psi into it as I wanted to see if it had any weak spots and sure enough there's a tiny leak on one of the corners of the matrix. You can just see it here in the top corner as a tiny stream of bubbles where the horizontal pipe connects to the end tank... It may have been water tight and just not air tight but it's not worth taking a chance as you basically build the car around the heater and changing it after the fact would be a nightmare of a job so it needs re-coring. I was lucky that the heater even had a matrix as the replacement ones that SJ sell are not the same. The pipes on theirs come out at a different position so I suspect these early ones are no longer available but at least I have one to rebuild.

@LOTUSMAN33 has just done something similar I believe...