Lotusfab

Well road test complete. For the first time my speedo works perfectly and my rpm gauge. The annoying rattle I always thought was in the binnacle has gone, it was the UJ I replaced! S and J have updated their lower UJ to the correct one, so should work fine now if someone needs a replacement. I still recommend a more expensive refurb of the Originals.

Yep. Two cars was too much for me. Hope some Northerners get to see now its up there. The new owner did 5 hrs of faultless driving the last few days. Think hes taking it to Lotus in The Peak.

https://youtu.be/zmY9zsdnUXc Car spotted up North!

All done, no play at all in the steering and Veglia fixed. Just needs a good vacuum and a road test!

Love the front decal and spoiler colour on your white car!

Keep an eye on the temperature whilst your working, keep the disc moving and apply more water when the paste starts to dry out. This keeps the heat down, Two much heat could crack the glass. Took me about 40 mins with pauses to remove the windscreen scratch.

Veglia repaired and back in. Just waiting for steering parts to come.there now about a 5 mm clearance between the needles and the perspex. easy job really. incidentally I had a scratch on the inside of my windscreen It appeared after I let others drive it. Not sure when it happened. I was able to polish it out quite easily. You could feel it with your fingernail. I used a drill with felt pad and Cerium oxide. When I have more time I may remove some of the scratches on the exterior glass. They don’t stand out but I know they are there!

Heres and example of poor parts. Supplied by a well known Lotus parts supplier. This is the UJ I installed when I originally restored the car. I didn’t check it at the time, as I had no experience of Lotus parts issues, I assumed they would work as supplied. I did have a lot of trouble trying to get the steering working without the UJ hitting the chassis. There is very little clearance in this part of the design. Now I have removed the UJ I can see why It was hitting the chassis. The top one is the original. you can see they are nothing alike and the hitting the chassis problem was cause by the new UJ being wider and thicker! There is a british company Kiley Clinton that can refurbish these. I may well get this done if the ones I HAVE ON ORDER ARE THE SAME AS THE ABOVE!

I remember making all the trips to pick it up, yep doesn't seem that long ago! Your always welcome to come and have a look.

Thanks Dave they have done well for 10 years! Can’t believe its that long since I picked the car up from you!

Needles done and replaced. Belt and braces I have used spacers as well about 3 mm. Glued to the perspex and hidden by the Instrument mask. Cleaned the dials with rubbing alcohol. I used six spacers. Just need to reinstall. Still waiting for the steering parts.

You have now changed your argument. I didn’t say anything concerning fellow restorers, both the Daves are great and I would trust them 100 per cent. You were implying I am rubbish, thats how it came across. Also you imply I am unable to set up the geometry on my cars. I have spent more time on that alone than most people would on a large part of their restoration. Serval posts you have made on here recently and in the past are frankly patronising and condescending and don’t help others in any way. They seem to imply I haven’t got a clue what I am doing! After doing Lotus cars for 10 years its insulting! I posted the concours to prove the point. If you don’t wish to fix your display permanently great drive around with it broken. I won’t be there on the 1st May as a friend has now taken ownership of my Turbo. He will be displaying it up North extensively, so you will get to see it at some point. I won’t comment on this any more as its wasting my time, but I will continue to post refinements that may be of use to other members.

The new UJ and column both came from S and J. The problem is the quality of the parts is poor because they are done at a cost. Whether they or I fitted it the UJ it would still be worn out. Its in a high stress application and is inferior to the original. The casting is the wrong shape and its not as heavy duty. There is no alternative but to use these parts going forward which means more maintenance work. Same issue with the Chinese rear wheel bearings. They do not compare with the originals and have play in them when newly installed. I have bought two new old stock and stored them. There are no original bearings left. The two new ones I bought lay unused because they are inferior. I can list many cars that have issues after being done by the professionals. Its the nature of these cars and the design, which is less than optimal in many ways. New parts being made to the wrong dimensions, from the wrong materials all adding to the issues. The door seals being a case in point. I finally got to the bottom of the problem.I proved the door seals are the wrong profile, size and made of harder rubber than the originals. I had no issues with the original door seals and door alignment. I stupidly replaced them before I knew about the parts issues and thats when all the problems started. The increased size and stiffness of the new seals Increases the loading on the catch causing it to slide far more easily than with the original rubber. In my case the shims behind the bulkhead were very slightly off square and not parallel with the bulkhead. The extra pressure from the seal pushing the door catch out regardless of tightness or the metal gauze beneath it! I know of an S1 that was fully restored and it was awful! It was trimmed before all of the electrics and mechanical bits were sorted.This is a complete no no. The windscreen fit was dreadful. I won’t say who restored it but they are very well known. They must have done the windscreens many more times than me but produced something I wouldn’t pay for. It would have been a court case if I was involved. Professionals are not magicians and have all the same issues with these cars. I would say after messing around on these most days for 10 years and having done most of the jobs many many times In order to get it perfect. I now have the same overall skill levels as the restorers and have bettered them in some areas due to spending many many more hours restoring than they could have done on these cars. I would stand the Turbo up against any Turbo in the UK. Its going to be on display up north 1st May at GAWSWORTH Hall, including Lotus in the Peak later in the year. Maybe go and have a look and judge for yourself weather a professionally restored car is any better mechanically or cosmetically. I only post info on here as I try to perfect my S1. To me originality is secondary to a useable reliable car. In some cases its an excuse for a tatty car that people want top money for when they sell. A forty year old Lotus Esprit thats original is an unreliable money pit, as anyone with experience of these cars will know only too well. They need lots of maintenance and care. Whats the point of a nice looking Veglia if you can’t tell what speed your doing and haven’t a clue what the engine RPM is? Things have to work properly. On here I post so there is some idea of how to go about fixing things without wasting hours trying to think of how to do it.

Victory demo laps. 30a3a844-ecc5-49fb-8962-288b77d10bb9.mov

Well anyone who has seen either car can decide for themselves. I think I must have some skills at restoring. Brooklands a little while ago up against some very nice cars.