soldave

Thanks dude. The guy at Lotus who was looking after the car had a really good eye for photos and composition

I replaced my rear shocks with Gaz shocks & springs, and with the shocks set to their softest, I would say it's pretty close to stock. I think mine are three clicks from softest; much more and you start to kangaroo down the road.

The quality and extent of work you've done on the car, the photos you've taken, and even your write-up here are really inspiring. Massive respect for what must be a lot of blood, sweat, tears, and money that's gone into this build. I hope it's as fun a drive for you as it looks.

A few pictures from my Eclat's recent trip back to Hethel, en route to the launch of the Eletre. Plus a bonus pic which I think came And then a couple of pics from a recent quick shakedown drive. I'll post both colour and filtered version, but I'm quite partial to the B&W one. I quite like the fact that inside the car the "LOTUS" on the steering wheel is in the sun with the rest in shade. I wish I could say that was by artistic design!

Five months I've not posted up on here. Apologies for it being a long time between drinks, but there are some updates to tell. The main reason I've not been active on here is that in February I became a father for the first tie (that I know of!), and as you can probably imagine life has been turned upside down a bit. Less time to spend working on or driving the car, and much of my focus elsewhere. But when I have been thinking about the car, the main thoughts have been, "How can I get this little human riding in the Eclat in relative safety?". Massive thanks for @Dunc for sharing his experiences with child seats and finding one that will fit. I'm going to be getting one in the next couple of days, but have the base for it already. My main challenge with child seats was that my Eclat didn't have rear lapbelts or indeed the slots in the material for the belt to feed through. So I set to work ordering parts! The lapbelt brackets from SJ Sportscars are... let's say don't fit the snuggest, so spacers were needed and it's now as safe as it's going to be I think :). Almost had the belts fitted and then the headlining decided to fall down on me in the car, coating me in 30-odd year old dust and broken down foam! It's fitted back up but I'll be the first to admit neatness isn't my strong suit, and I'll probably get someone professional to redo the interior at some point. But I now have two rear seatbelts and am a step closer to being able to drive my son around in the Lotus. Which for me is a very big thing. Then the observant of you may have noticed the appearance of a yellow Eclat at the launch of the Eletre (won't get into discussion of the new car, but I think it's going to be a big success and anything that pushed the brand forward gets my vote). Someone at lotus remembered my Eclat joining the launch of the Evija, and wanted it to take part in the launch of the new model. I'm not one to turn down the opportunity for the car to be involved in another part of Lotus history, so they very kindly arranged for it to be picked up and trailered down to Hethel, and then to BBC Studios for the launch, and back again. My contact at Lotus is a big fan of that generation, and took good care of the car, even taking the time to take some very nice shots of it around the HQ. When I fired the car up on its return, it sounded scarily like a tractor. Got me quite concerned about what they'd done to it whilst it was away, but after a bit of troubleshooting I found out that it was spark plug number 1 that had gone. Not fouled badly, but the car would only idle close to normal when the lead was barely touching the plug. Fully connected and there was no spark at all. Changed for a new plug and all was well again. And then last but certainly not least I've recently replaced the front brake lines with braided lines, and have finally got a garage to loosen the diff drain plug, which has been just a rounded off bolt for far too long. The oil didn't look too bad, but it's all replaced and fresh in there now. And I think that's covered it all. if you're still reading then I applaud your staying power! Hopefully more posts and pictures once the car seat is fully fitted. Until then, safe driving

Awesome response, thanks for that. Gives me lots to have a think about.

Are there any child seats that will fit in the back of an Elite or Eclat? Am very happy to be a new father and am already wondering when his first trip in the lotus can be. Issues I envisage are the width of the seats and the fact that there's only a lapbelt there so it may be a non started but wanted to check what others had done. Many thanks in advance for any thoughts you may have.

I certainly wouldn't remove the thermostat. What temperature is the thermostat opening at, and is it opening fully? The stock system works so if it was me I'd be trying to find out why it's not operating as intended.

Fair enough. So the total timing at 3,500rpm of around 32 degrees could be about right? I do know the distributor in my Eclat right now isn't the original matching one - will sort that out at some point further down the road.

I'll try to be as brief as I can here as I just want to confirm my thinking. When timing the car (25 degrees @3,500-4,000rpm) that,s what you're looking for on the timing light, right? I can set it at about that but my distributor adjustment is at its limit. Just wanted to check as someone has said that I should be doing 25 degrees plus the 7 degrees of static/idle retard, so giving me 32 degrees total. Only way I can seem to get at 3,500rpm is by setting the idle timing to around 13-14 degrees which seems way too high. I think the advice is wrong but I just wanted a sense check from you knowledgeable people though as the 25 degrees was at the limit of distributor adjustment (all timing marks lining up). Many thanks in advance.

Took me far too long to do it, but the timing belt is back on and car timing set to about 25° @3,500rpm. Credit to my pregnant wife for actually manoeuvring herself into the car to act as throttle controller! Distributor needed adjusting right to the edge of its "low side" adjustment to get to only 25 degrees, but it's all set. Trunnion lube and brake fluid to refresh during my winter break from work and I'll then be ready for the year ahead🙂

Well after a couple of hours this morning removing the spacers and resetting the auto-tensioner, it's all fitted and looks much better. Still unsure where those spacers came from - will just take it as Stage 1 weight saving! Next on the list, flushing the coolant without flooding the garage when I open the radiator drain valve! Some sort of canal for the coolant is going to be needed methinks

Thanks for the pics. Yeah, it looks like mine is just a mm or two too far forward. Might have to loosen the tensioner bolts and try to find out why. I do have to remove one of them to get the alternator strap back on anyway.

I can rotate the engine and there doesn't feel like there's rubbing in the crank pulley area but you're 100% right it doesn't look right. But the only way to get the tensioner closer to the body is: Moving the spacers to the outside of the tensioner - makes no sense Removing the spacer plate which my "dummy" AC pulley goes on - would mean v-belt isn't aligned Remove the aluminium "arm" between spacer plate and engine - would mean v-belt isn't aligned.

Note to self: Always take photos before you do work Can someone please let me know where I've gone wrong here? Got the auto tensioner back on after some blood, sweat and tears, but the tensioner seems to be sitting too far out compared to the belt even though there doesn't feel to be any contact with the crank pulley. My current setup also means the alternator strap won't fit anywhere. Should the 5mm spacers go in front of the tensioner (i.e. towards the fruit of the car) or is between tensioner and metal plate correct? I wondered about spacers going in front but then it feels like the lock screw on the tensioner piston won't be able to turn. Please be kind - I know I shouldn't be struggling with this!