Daveb99

Sure, I bought mine from Deroure (Bell & Colvill) online..

I aim to please - I thought this thread needed a bit of humour 🤣

I’ve just had an email from Lotus: ”Dear Dave, We are excited to announce that Emira is now available for viewing at our retailers, however we have been overwhelmed with bookings. As an Evora Launch Edition owner we would like to offer you some rare unobtainium spare parts for your Evora in exchange for hosting a roadshow event for Emira in your dusty garage. Options include door latch mechanisms, window regulators, headlights, and rear sail panels. Please confirm you have a large supply of bacon and eggs and a greasy old frying pan with a loose handle. New screws for your pan handle are available from Lotus @ £19.99 plus VAT. Be quick before they go out of stock. We anticipate a strong take up for this option. Be aware some customers are coming from Porsche/McLaren so ensure they are given extra bacon, but absorb the fat before installation in the sandwich so as to avoid potential chino stains. Conversely, Lotus owners will be content with one hastily bronzed rasher that falls out of the bap during usage, as they are accustomed to such practices. Lastly, we will be sending you Emira signage for your garage door and badges for your Evora, including the larger diameter (6”) nose badge, designed by our local primary school children here in Hethel. Please practice a full reveal with your neighbours but don’t waste your bacon on them such that it becomes a back-order item. We look forward to hearing from you soon. Regards Emira ‘Overflow Car Park’ team”

So having wrapped the sills I decided to have a go at the front splitter. Boy, that was tricky. A specialist pro place told me a while ago it would need to be done in 2 pieces - top and underneath - and quoted me £250. No thanks……I managed it in one piece, using about £5 worth of top quality wrap! I do now need to empty the swear box though….. After removing the number plate plinth you can wrap each side separately. There’s no need to wrap the bit behind the plinth and it’s much easier handling shorter lengths of this stuff…👍🏻 So far the sills and splitter have cost about £15 in vinyl wrap, plus £10 of WrapCut tape. You just need a heat gun or hairdryer and lots of patience (god knows why I tackled it then…..). I made a template out of cardboard too, for the top surface - that helped massively. I may do the mirrors (gloss black paint job on Jag X type mirror caps!) at some stage but I think I’m leaving the roof silver. I have no plans for black wheels and I think the silver roof works well with the diamond cut wheels. Big thanks to Dan Luton from Divine Handcraft for the wrap supplier recommendation and to Phil Stone for measuring his Evora Sports Racer for me 👍🏻

Last weekend the Evora delivered thrills in spades on a 300-mile round trip to Hethel for the MLOC tour of Classic Team Lotus. The afternoon before the trip I decided on the spur of the moment to wrap the sills in gloss black. Don’t ask me why, I just decided to get on with it! Took this at Ketteringham Hall, home to Team Lotus F1 back in the 1970's. I’m loving the black sills look - but not the roof, I quite like that in silver with the diamond cut wheels..

Nice work Bob, sounds like we have both been doing the same kind of jobs. Very interested to hear more about the gear linkage change. What brand of gearbox oil did you use? I went for Redline MTL 75w80 as it’s designed specifically for hard to shift boxes. How much has it shortened the gear lever throw by? Looking at my photo of when I injected oil into the gear cable ends, it seems you’ve changed the end fixing to a ball joint, presume you had to drill the arm / lever to fit it? Here's a pic of mine.

Thanks Dave, I got a bit lost doing it occasionally as well 🤪 Cheers Greg - it’s great to help others - nobody should be scared to tackle this kind of stuff 👍🏻

Really sorry to hear that you've had to withdraw your Emira deposit Scotty. I guess sometimes other things have to take priority and I'm sure you've made the right decision. FWIW I think your GT410 is an absolute animal though, having followed it 2 or 3 times now on MLOC runs and after the short passenger ride at Hassop. I have a feeling the GT410 Sport will be a classic in its own right, but I'm sure you will sort out a lovely Emira in years to come - I plan to do the same myself at some stage.

Haha @ramjetI hope I haven't missed too much! It has certainly been full-on in the last couple of months. Cheers @Bruss, Tesa cloth tape is what you want, 19mm wide, fantastic stuff... Thanks @DBG, when you have the dashboard out there are three pins that protrude from the front - you can't miss them. I wrapped the tape around them around 3 times, as well as renewing the cloth tape everywhere else, and adding it to all the points where it contacts the car. It seems to have done the trick very well indeed. It's worth making sure there are no loose cables under the dash too 👍🏻

Cheers - great that this will help you - just shout if you want any more info.

Thanks - it has certainly been full on during my spare time; I’ve done little else but work on it. I did manage a crazy July though - Goodwood FoS, Dovedale trip, Carfest North, Silverstone Classic and Lotus in the Peak 🤪 - three of them in the Evora 👍🏻

Headlights - mine had no lacquer on them (removed by a previous owner) but a few scratches/swirls. I know they must be properly protected to resist yellowing etc. So I set about sanding them by hand with 3000 > 5000 > 7000 grit wet & dry then finished using my DA polisher and Meguiars 105 compound. Then I applied the Aliath PPF film. Really pleased with the results and I suspect they should be fine for years to come. LED Interior & boot lights - I replaced the standard ‘candles’ with LED bulbs. 42mm Festoon bulbs is the size. They work really well and give the interior a real lift. For the boot (which only had one light, as one was blanked off), I retrieved the cables for the second one, and then bought two complete new units from eBay. They are superb - very bright, and a straight swap. Launch Edition Plaques - As mine was originally a dealer demo, and the 17th car off the line, it didn’t have the LE plaque fitted to the driver’s side. Either that or someone removed it / broke it. The PPF looks original to me though so I suspect it’s the former. Anyway I bought some superb replacement plaques from Dan @ Divine Handcraft, they are different to the originals but I think they look better. I’ve fitted one to the passenger side as well. So that’s it for now - it has been a crazy 2 months since I bought the car, so I will be slowing down a bit but there are still a few bits I want to sort out, a little bit of wind noise near the drivers mirror perhaps, maybe a new nose badge, and a few other bits. Nothing too major - I hope! Hope this has been useful / interesting, and if anybody wants more info on how any of this was done, or what I bought/used etc, please feel free to shout - I’ve had a lot of help from forums etc over the years so it’s good to give something back.... 👍 Useful links Official Lotus Service Notes & Parts manual: https://vsic.lotuscars.com/ Leather Dye (100% match, Oyster, Charcoal and Paprika on file): http://www.staingard.co.uk Cloth tape: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/174091000462?var=472939788567 Gear linkage adjustment: https://www.thelotusforums.com/forums/topic/52231-gearchange-issues-dissected/ ARB bushes: https://www.powerflex.co.uk/search.php?keywords=evora Replacement High Level Brake light: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/132927620830 K&N Filter: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/294202584614 Kenwood Head unit: https://www.kenwood-electronics.co.uk/car/nav_mm/carplay-mm/DMX8019DABS/ Focal speakers: https://www.focal.com/en/car-audio/car-audio-kits-solutions/performance/access/component-kits/165-as DAB Aerial: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07B1ZDMVX/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Sound deadening: https://www.silentcoat.co.uk/collections/silent-coat Bil Hamber UC Wax: https://bilthamber.com/product/dynax-uc/ LED bulbs for interior: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01CPF1D4O/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 LED light units for boot (complete): https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/222986826421 PPF for Headlights: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/132154013122 Launch Edition Plaques: https://divinehandcraft.co.uk/collections/lotus-store/products/evora-launch-edition-mini-plaque

Full Dashboard Removal - this is the big one! I knew when buying the car that I’d need to do this at some point - the airbag cover was slightly lifted at the corner and the only way to rectify it is to remove the entire dashboard (thanks Lotus)…. I have seen worse but it really bugged me so had to be done. I also undertook several other jobs while the dashboard was out. The key to this is to research it properly and take your time - and make sure you have the space. I had the car in the middle of the garage so both doors could be opened fully. I also put all the fixings from the various stages into bags and labelled them. This is important and makes reassembly much easier.. The following are the jobs I did with everything out….. Airbag Cover - once it was out I set about straightening the airbag cover first, as it was very slightly warped at the corner. I did this using a heat gun (carefully) on the rear side, so that the whole cover is shaped to the same slight curve of the dash itself. I also removed some of the excess leather which stops the cover from fitting flush. I removed the steel backing plate (it was already detached at the corner) and realised it needs more than a light coat of contact adhesive to stay securely attached to the airbag cover (and hence prevent future warping / lifting). So I fitted 4 x M6 ‘Insert Nuts’ with countersunk bolts, and fresh contact adhesive too. The cover now fits beautifully, and is flush with the rest of the dash. Wiring ‘tidy up’ - there were no fewer than 9 cables from the original Alpine install that weren’t needed. A real rats nest of wiring. So I took them all out and secured everything nicely, using cloth tape where appropriate. Glovebox Plunger Switch - this is fairly common, there’s a switch behind the glovebox (in the liner panel) that operates the glovebox light. Mine was broken, so a soldering job later and it’s working again. The bulb wasn’t seated properly either so it wouldn’t have worked anyway! Glovebox Retaining cord - for some reason my glovebox opened too far, the hole was in the wrong place for the retaining cord clip. So I drilled a new hole, covered to old one with a blanking decal, and now it’s spot on. Driver’s seat - I removed the seat to fix the seat belt fastener (it used to drop down forwards into the gap when not in use - so I added an extra washer) and I’ve also fixed an annoying creaking noise - it was the plastic panel on the back which needed some lubrication. I also gave both seats a good clean (I’ve used Autoglym Interior Shampoo for years and it works fantastically well on leather). Roof lining / A-pillar trims - this was really grubby so it’s had a full clean. Now it’s minty fresh (but not smelling of mint…). DAB aerial - I fitted a subtle windscreen aerial on the passenger side half tucked into the A-pillar, extending the ground wire (soldered on extra wire) and attaching it to one of the earth points on the dash scuttle beam. Seems to work very well. Focal tweeters & crossover units - I had to enlarge the holes in the dash very slightly to fit the Focal 165 AS tweeters, and I also had to remove the 4 leather sill trim parts to get to the original crossover units and replace them with the Focal ones. When refitting the dashboard (upper, lower, fascia trims etc), I fitted fresh cloth tape to all the contact points, adding more where I thought it was needed etc. Then came the test drive - heart in mouth. Have I sorted the creaks and rattles? Would everything work? Oh yes. What a difference. The car now rides the bumps and ruts in the road like a Bentley (but handles like an Evora of course!). I can’t believe what a transformation I’ve achieved from all the slog and attention to detail. It really has made a massive difference. It’s practically silent, I still can’t believe it. This is how they should be - and I sincerely hope they achieve this (or even better) with the production Emiras. An now for the Lotus Evora, 'Giant's Edition'

Focal 165 AS speakers & Door cards - I removed the door cards, tightened all the fixings on the rear side of them (there are a lot of screws holding all the bits on), and added cloth tape to all the contact points. While they were off I fitted the woofers from my recently purchased Focal 165 AS component speakers. They were a straight swap - I just needed to remove the speaker housing to get the old speaker fully out, and solder the wires onto the new speaker. I also added some Silent Coat sound deadening material inside the door, and closed cell foam behind where the speaker fits. Easy job. Window adjustment - with the door cards and speaker enclosures off, I adjusted the tilt of the window. This has achieved two things - provided a tighter fit against the door seals, and removed the horrible rattling I had when driving over bumpy roads with the windows partially open. You can’t go too far with the adjustment though, otherwise the ‘drop’ of the window is affected when you open the door. After refitting the door cards, the test drive was a revelation - no more squeaks / creaks, and no more rattling windows. Happy days. Window regulators - I took the opportunity to remove the regulators and give them a coat of the UC wax, to waterproof them. Door hinge bolts - these had light corrosion which was very obvious when opening the door - so a quick wire brush, Kurust and black hammerite job and all is well..

Audio - Wireless CarPlay Head Unit - The standard Alpine unit had been replaced by a previous owner with a Kenwood one, which was better, but very laggy indeed (old tech and all that). After lots of research I bought a Kenwood DMX8019DABS with wireless CarPlay. Fitting wasn’t too bad, after carefully identifying the reverse signal wire (for the reversing cam) and the speed sensor wire (apparently required for the wireless CarPlay to work). Mine had an ISO connector fitted in the car so I was able to connect directly to that. I did need to add some small spacers to the mounting bracket to bring it forward slightly. Regarding the speed sensor wire, I initially connected it but it turns out that it sends the GPS location haywire, so I disconnected it and all is now well - it isn't needed after all. Having Apple CarPlay makes a massive difference - up to date tech and all that - I now have a choice of 4 apps for Navigation, and several for music. For a modest £12 a year you can subscribe to the TomTom Go app on your phone, which means you can follow pre-defined GPX routes too - with full voice guidance etc on the unit - great for organised runs or for touring. It's very slick. Who needs an Emira??! For audio, I can request any song I like while on the move, using Siri, either from Spotify or my own Music collection etc. I also designed a custom startup screen, pinching the original Evora design side profile logo and adding the Lotus one. I mounted the new GPS aerial under the instrument binnacle cover, on the supplied metal plate. The head unit is great, makes a huge difference to the ‘usability’. I’ve also fitted a DAB aerial (see ‘Full Dashboard Removal’). Boot lid Gas struts - I just needed to replace one of these, to give it the required oomph for it to go up on its own and stay up. Simple job. Wheel nuts - they had the usual corroded look, so I gave them a quick clean with a mini wire brush, coat of Kurust where needed and then a coat of silver. Washer fluid leak (again) - so the washer fluid was still leaking. Dripping from off side front, in front of the wheel. A quick chat to Dave at PJS and he recommended replacing the O ring in the headlamp wash connection. I duly did this and it fixed the issue - or so I thought. It’s back! I’ll have another look at it all when I get a chance.