Giugiaro Esprit S1 Full Restoration

[Fridge]

14. Bow (to the) Doors

With the sunnier days it became more comfortable to work outside which also provided the room required to work on some of the larger pieces remaining in this jigsaw. Namely the doors, which being wide meant their addition could not be done in the single garage. I’d also been warned that the process of their fitting and alignment can be very tricky and time consuming process to get right. The warm weather would at least mean that it was a nice environment in which to work slowly.

New old stock exterior door handles had been purchased months previously, rather than refurbishing the old ones, which had wear around the tumbler edge, and would require repainting anyway. However I found some minor modification to the latch mechanism was necessary, and those parts were swapped over from the originals. As well as having the door bars cleaned up I had their end plates re-zinced, since they helped fill the silver batch when I had the gearbox bolts done.

Fitting the door bars with their new hinge bushes was easy enough, and allowed a central support on which to hang the door skins for the internal assemblies to be added, followed by the door frames.

So far so good. However, the build sequence wasn’t obvious and I was conscious not to rush as I didn’t want to find that I’d fitted the rare clear glass, some of which I’d obtained months earlier, only to find it all had to be redone again due to an error.

The door handle rods were scrubbed up lightly with emery cloth, which also allowed the adjustment tabs to take a grip. I didn’t see the need to buy new plastic retaining blocks so the control rod ends were tie-wrapped in place on the interior door handles so as to keep them from popping out. Finally, the metal strips holding them in place were screwed in place to finish the door catch mechanism.

The newly powder coated door frames were dug out of safe storage, along with the front quarterlight glass and the messy process of fixing them in with sealant began. Not for the faint hearted, and not something I’d recommend. I would suggest careful masking of the door glass and preparation of the door frames prior to painting with a suitable finish. Thereby retaining some more of the originality, and saving stress and mess into the bargain.

Certainly the media blasting had cleaned out the channel for slotting in the new weather strips. I left these as they were for a few months whilst I worked on the rest of the car, before trimming them to create a good corner once they had taken shape around the raised drop glass. One of the benefits of a protracted build I suppose, over faster production line methods. However, I did feel over this whole section of the restoration that a repeated production line experience would have been beneficial, since getting the fiddly stuff right first time was difficult and stressful.

With the main door parts now complete, the new weather strip and finishers were assembled and bolted into place. Remembering to paint the rivets on the inside, as I could see that their shiny surfaces would catch the eye in the door glass aperture when complete. The drop glass and runners were then put into position on their newly greased bobbins. Making sure that they were free to slide up and down before bolting them into place.

With the doors now in position and aligned I was able to add the waistline trim. First to the main body, then on the doors themselves. Another time consuming job requiring a lot of patience to get it right. In preparation I warmed the coil of waistline trim in a black bin liner left in the summer sunshine for about 30 minutes. I found that it didn’t take long to become supple and lose its inherent storage kinks.

Following advice I began to put it in position, using masking tape to first hold in position so that it took the form of the body shell. I was to be leaving for Poland on business for a few days, so I rolled the car back into the sun warmed garage and let time do its thing.

On returning to the UK I was keen to crack on and see how the trim had set in position. I found that the process worked well, though when removed for gluing it quickly lost its shape and had to be handled carefully when the time required to fit permanently. I also found that it was best to mask the trim thoroughly, rather than just at intervals, but that may be just me, as I’ve not seen anyone else take this approach. Anyway, it worked.

Trickier sections, such as around the curves of the wheel arches required the use of some localised heat. I commandeered an old hairdryer and used a strip of the heat wrap I’d bought for the chassis and engine mount protection from the exhaust to help prevent stray heat reaching the precious paintwork. Just in case.

The rear corners were the trickiest sections of all were the rear corners which I had noticed on other cars were difficult to obtain a smooth transition. This did take a whole afternoon to get right. Using a combination of applied heat, an assortment of clamps borrowed from my friend Keith, and small dabs of superglue using a pin to the undersides of the waistline trim to provide a quicker adhesion ahead of the sealant to setting. Fiddly work indeed.

The beauty of forums such as this and the ready made community of Esprit owner restorers on Facebook is that I was able to ask advice on the angles that the waistline trim had to be cut. Thanks to @jonroberts, @winners, @madrocket, @JNW3 and others this only had to be done once, and saved me rubbishing whole lengths of painstakingly fitted trim only to start again on those sections. I used an old stool and blocks of wood to obtain the right height, together with a cardboard template I’d made with the 2 angles required, along with my trusty Stanley knife fitted with a new blade. Heating the overlapping end to be cut first to soften it, before finally trimming.

Another one of those heart in the mouth moments I found were becoming quite frequent in these final build stages. Again, this hastily thought up homemade method worked very well.

The next stage was the door carrier which is necessary to fit the outer trim. An odd idea, which I couldn’t believe worked, or why, but found that it did. New strips had been obtained along with the obligatory stainless steel rivets to prevent rusting. The strips were fixed in position using masking tape and the doors drilled. Yikes! Making sure that the drill depth didn’t hit the precious drop glass inside. More yikes!

The rivets were pre-trimmed as I found that they would expand a little too much and squeeze out the carrier strips. The outer waistline trim was then fixed in place with sufficient overlap to allow the ends to be cut once they had set in position.

With the door trims fitted the car was looking more like an Esprit, and taking shape overall.

Fitting the ‘A’ and ‘B’ pillar finishers were less labour intensive and quickly moved the exterior along.

No longer did I have a car that looked like a half assembled Lego kit. Only the bonnet, rear hatch and main glass were necessary to complete the overall exterior look.

[drdoom]

Outstanding, David! Thanks greatly.

[Fridge]

9 minutes ago, drdoom said:

Outstanding, David! Thanks greatly.

Thanks @drdoom. It was a bit laborious, but no more so than the process that it describes!

 

[Fridge]

16. Mr Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (from Goldfinger if you didn't know)

During these summer months I’d also begun to run the engine. With the aim of getting it running so that it could be test driven, albeit tentatively. To check that everything works, as at this time I was intending to drive it to the engine tuners, over the North York Moors down to SE of Malton, North Yorkshire. A round trip of about 120 miles.

This was a new area for me, knowing little about Del’lorto carbs. It was time for me to dig out the book that I had been earlier recommended by @Paul Coleman. How To Build & Power Tune Weber & Dellorto DCOE, DCO/SP & DHLA Carburettors by Des Hammill.

The instrumentation was hooked up in preparation.

This was useful, but like a lot of technical books, not written or edited well and difficult to follow due to contradictory details. Fortunately I also had Tim Engel’s notes which are available online, and I was able to make my own compilation  notes from both sources for use when working on the car. Using this combination of information the carbs were eventually able to be balanced sufficiently using a Carbtune for it to run.

It was during this time that the new SU fuel pump packed in. Which confused matters greatly. It took a short while to work out what was not happening, but not after the carb tops were removed and the fuel flow was checked. As it turned out I knew of at least another 2 fuel pumps probably from the same batch that had stopped working also. A video of the pump not working on a bench whilst connected to a battery was sufficient for the retailer to eventually get a new pump to me. SU admitted that it had been a manufacturing fault with a grub screw which had come loose. Overall, this episode set me back nearly a month.

On the advice from my local NE Lotus Club I also fitted Del’lorto inlet manifold to carb spacers, since mine were simply plastic spacers. Shown in black below.

The Del’lorto carb spacers and spare 'O' rings. A far more elaborate affair.

However it popped and banged heavily and I was in regular contact with @grimreaper until I realised that the advised thread turns related to when petrol was a different “recipe”. Once I wound out the jets to full, I got better running. Screwing them in until I obtained a decent balance and “tune”. Certainly enough for me to drive the car.

By September, after seemingly weeks of effort, the Esprit was running OK. Taking this short video on the mobile before tweaking the balance a little more.

Engine Test

Autumn was once again approaching, and the 2^nd anniversary of this restoration. With less and less requiring work away from the car, progress over the winter would slow.

Significant progress had been made over the past 6 months since April, and I could finally look forward to the home run, and being finally able to drive the car on the road within the next 6 months.

[jonwat]

7 hours ago, Fridge said:

 

 

There needs a gap to be left between the manifold/carbs & spacer (check the manual). I appreciate you've replaced this plastic spacer with the correct Lotus spacers, just thought I'd point it out in case you didn't know.

PS Great work. 

[Fridge]

Thanks @jonwat. Yes, that's why I replaced them 😀

However, at the time of original assembling the carbs and manifolds I didn't understand their relevance, but it was mentioned to me at my local Lotus Club NE meet. I still didn't quite understand the subtlies either - Doh!

Though I'm not certain that these were the cause of my problems when trying to get the engine to run and idle smoothly. Perhaps I'd have had problems later down the line once I began to drive the car? I suspect so, given the reasons for fitting them.

Oddly, the car came with those simple plastic spacers, so I'm not sure if it ran with them or not? Or badly perhaps? As this car was a none runner when I purchased it.

Certainly, I found the 907 engine and twin Del'lorto combination a far more unforgiving set-up than I've experienced with other engines and setups of this kind. Perhaps showing what a barnstormer this engine is (for it's age at least). I could certainly see that it was a 'revver', and had performance. Such a sweet sounding motor. I become to love the Del'lortos, even if my initial lack of knowledge about them prevented me from making faster progress during this stage.

Dave Bogg has done a great job of tuning them, and now that I've done over 1,000 miles since July I will be taking it back in the spring for a tweak. Combined with the suspension geometry that I've just had done by specialists (details to follow), this will make the car a joy to drive. I'm certainly enjoying it!

I hope that you're enjoying my write-up also. It's certainly bringing back quite a few memories. Even if it is now just going back to the end of 2018, as so much was done in the process. The restoration was enjoyable and stressful in equal measure, but overall a fabulous opportunity to realise literally a boyhood dream, and meet so many like-minded and enthusiastic people into the bargain. It's a great community, spreading across the whole globe.

[jonwat]

26 minutes ago, Fridge said:

I still didn't quite understand the subtlies either - Doh!

They're there in order to stop the fuel in the float chambers frothing, caused by engine vibrations, which manifests itself as the engine misfiring normally at high speed.

My first Esprit, an S3, had been serviced by a "sports car specialist" garage who'd over tightened the nuts so the rubber O rings had forced the lead plugs on the carb faces into the drillings so they no longer sealed properly. 

[Fridge]

Hi @jonwat yes, I suppose if I hadn't changed them at this time I would have noticed eventually, once the car was roadworthy. Then been asking questions! (whilst frothing at the mouth probably)

[Fridge]

17. The Art of Glass (well it is a 1978 car...)

Apologies, I’m running out of puns of Bond film titles. Probably for the best.

It is fair to say that I faced fitting the windscreen and rear hatch glass with trepidation. I had read so many things about the preparation and process that my head was beginning to spin. I desperately wanted this stage to go well, as failure would mean a whole setback in preparation and cost.

I had been given the name of an independent mobile windscreen specialist 2 years earlier by John at the paint shop. Paul (not Ringo), had arrived just after that Easter to remove the windscreen and rear hatch glass from the car. Which I had safely packed away in large thin storage boxes made from sheets of specially purchased hardboard, and stored in the spare room behind a wardrobe. It was time for me to unpack them and clean them up, which I tentatively did.

I’d called Paul to arrange a suitable day to refit them to the car. However due to our busy schedules this turned out to be very tight, as I also needed to get the car away for tuning that afternoon, due to tuner’s availability also.

The stainless steel inserts that assist the corner alignment of the windscreen chrome finishing trim were a very tight, if not impossible, fit into the slots. I therefore had to painstakingly file them, but without taking off too much. This required continually filing and then carefully assembling the trims on a soft and flat surface, so as not to mark their outer polished finish. I have no photos of this process, as it was so tricky and had to be done slowly. It took at least a dozen iterations to get each corner to fit correctly. I also carefully filed the ends of the trim to smooth off minor burrs. It was worth all the effort in the end though.

I had also very carefully pre-shaped the trim sections to fit the curvature of the roof line and 'A' pillars etc. Not for the faint hearted, as one press too hard could kink this fragile pieces. All that had went well thankfully.

However I was afraid that Paul wouldn’t realise how fiddly the fitting of the glass would be, having read about the process on other restoration threads. Which I once again poured over, at least twice. Yikes! In a mild panic I messaged @Lotusfabas I knew that he’d documented this extensively, and had just done the same with his Esprit Turbo. I was now at least confident that I could instruct Paul in anything that he was unfamiliar with, or at least not expecting.

Thankfully, Paul immediately put my mind at rest. He had recently fitted a new windscreen to one of my other favourite cars, a Ferrari 365/GTS ‘Daytona’, and he was not fazed in the slightest. So I knew he was up to this job!

He understood the complexities associated with this type of job, and I helped out where instructed. I was quite nervous to say the least. Especially helping him carry the glass on the hand suckers to the car. This is no understatement. It had to go well, and on time. The pressure was on!

The windscreen took about 2 hours to fit, but the rear hatch glass went in about half that time. Oddly, considering it has trim on all four sides. This included making our own seating blocks from solid Styrene Butadiene rubber to raise the glass to the correct height to meet the surrounding trim sections.

I made the executive decision to also fit the matt black vinyl strip to the base of the windscreen, even though the screen had been correctly masked. It actually finished off the installation well. Though I cannot see it retaining a clean edge over the years, but could be easily re-applied.

Again, I didn’t have the time to take any photos as I had to remain focused on the job in hand at all times. However, I was extremely happy with the finished results.

For the first time in three years the car now looked complete.

Amazingly Paul would only except a small charge, and absolutely no more. Having loved the opportunity of fitting a screen to an Esprit. I now had little over an hour for lunch and a tidy up before my pal Mark would arrive with the trailer to take it down to Malton for engine tuning.

 

[Fridge]

18. Escape Hatch

Apologies, I missed out a stage in my restoration. Since I'm writing this up in chronological order of how I tackled the full restoration of the Esprit. This largely concerns the assembly and preparation of the rear hatch and bonnet prior to fitting.

Although it's great to rush to add things which are ready, just for the sole purpose of making the car look good. It's a great looking car after all! I had to consciously hold myself back from jumping ahead of myself, but making the build more difficult by installing items that weren't strictly needed at the time, and would only hinder access, and thereby my progress. Tempting though it was!

So, once I was happy with the engine running and that I was unlikely to need the best access to the engine as possible I fitted the rear quarterlight windows and the bulkhead separation window. Which I spent assembling during the winter months.

During those cold and dark winter months I also took time to complete the bonnet. Taking care to fit the refurbished air intake mesh using the original fasteners. Fixing the new rubber seals by using flexible superglue which @madrocket had recommended. It worked  extremely well, if a little expensive. New rivnuts and the powder coated catches completed the bonnet. It had been tempting to fit it and complete the external look of the car, but I reluctantly held off, as I still had things to do in the front compartment.

Similarly with the rear hatch. Which had also been stored in a spare room for months.  I obtained original style ‘D’ section foam which I cut to the length of the original and stuck to the corners as I had removed 2 years earlier. It appears to help seal the bicycle inner tube style seal that fits around these two items. As per the rest of the car, all none structural/suspension fasteners were replaced with stainless steel. My extensive spreadsheet of the restoration costs calculate that this area alone came to £340. Which excludes the many bolts I bought from SJ Sportscars for the fulcrum bars and other load bearing areas.

I also assembled the rear 'Constructor's' badge ready to place on the rear hatch prior to being fitted, having obtained excellent gas struts from SPG near Derby when I was passing just before that Christmas. This item had to be in place so that I could organise for the remaining glass to be fitted. After fitting the hatch I adjusted the rear catch, adding the replacement badge and LOTUS lettering to complete.

The next step was to recreate the original demister wiring. I located some original style black PVC spade connector shrouds and set about making the fly leads.

My car hadn’t come with a spare wheel retainer, and the captive nut from under the front compartment floor had also been missing. Leaving just holes where it had been riveted. I made a template and sketched a design for the local fabricators to make up using nuts and bolts I had put together. The job was given to a young apprentice who made a great job of it, and was amazed that this simple piece fit into such an exotic car. I added a homemade hard rubber/plastic 'bobbin' under the stainless steel washer to help protect the inner surface of the newly prepared spare wheel.

Since I was getting close to preparing the car for the road the number plates were ordered. Choosing an accurate style for the age of the car. I’d used the same firm previously and I knew they’d do a great job and I knew they would set off the car well.

Once again, this was a major psychological and emotional stage for me. As the car had finally got it's 'name' back, and was now ready for the penultimate stage of getting it on the road. With only the windscreen and rear hatch glass to be fitted. As detailed in the previous instalment. We're now back in sequence now. Phew! 

[Jeanvm]

Fantastic work you have done, I will use your topic when I need it. Thanks for that.

One comment, did not had the car Original the chrome door handles like mine?

 

[Fridge]

Hi @Jeanvm they are chrome. It's just the light. Chrome reflecting the background, in this case green grass in shade looks black in the chrome.

The speckled surface finish of the handles diffuses light, again looking not as bright as they would if they were smooth and mirror finish.

...... my business is dealing with light 😉

I work in film and video. Light being the main ingredient. Here's a close up photo, straight on into the camera, and also in the montage of photos used early in the post.

Don't worry, I have every detail covered on this restoration. That also has to be part of my skillset.

BTW, is that cat Pussy Galore?

[Lotusfab]

The door handles and window trim were painted black on the Bond car to reduce reflections whilst filming. Because of that my door handles are black, but I couldnt bring myself to paint the window trim!

[Fridge]

18 minutes ago, Lotusfab said:

The door handles and window trim were painted black on the Bond car to reduce reflections whilst filming. Because of that my door handles are black, but I couldnt bring myself to paint the window trim!

Yup. That's common practise, even today. If I were to be looking to replicate the Bond Esprit S1 I think I'd have done the window frames, though silver is best. Mine had been painted by a PO, but more of a fashion thing in the 1990s probably. Like the GTIs of the time etc. You could get them wrapped I suppose? But I think you'd got enough on your plate at present 😕

This is why the Bond Copper Fire paint is a duller brown colour, as a normal metallic paint will be 'hot' under the filming lamps. And also be difficult to expose during the daylight shots in snow under bright sun.

Engine and gearbox issues following work or restoration are things we all fear. Fortunately mine has been great. Just had a blast in it. The suspension geometry setup has been fantastic, and has transformed the car. Though I think I'll be taking it for a tuning tweak in the spring as it idles a little high when warm and is difficult to start. I don't want to mess with it at present, as I'm filming in Spain with Kawasaki for the next two months, then within 2 weeks of my return I have to drive the car to a Bond line-up coordinated with the launch of Bond 25 (No Time To Die). It's running fine at present other than above, and I don't want to upset the apple cart, and I know from experience messing with the distributor can cause niggles elsewhere. I can live with the starting issue for now.

You should be interested in the forthcoming suspension geometry post, as I know you had some toing and froing with yours. I simply set it up on the driveway so that I could road test it, then drove it to a racing tuners near York that my local Lotus pals had recommended. They spent 5 hours on it. Weighing the car first. Best money I've spent TBH.

Anyway, best of luck with the ET engine. If I were you I'd either buy another working engine with known reliability and rebuild that. Preferably a HC, since yours is no longer original. Or, get it rebuilt by SW Lotus who do them all the time, or PNM Engineering. However, PNM will take AGES!!!! I'd choose SW Lotus. It's your call, but I couldn't take the risk of spending more money which could see you back in your current position quite easily. Difficult choice to make I know.

Just drive your S1! It's a fabulous car. I've driven mine over 1,000 miles since getting it on the road in July.

 

[Lotusfab]

Thankfully,  my S1 is flawless. It had a race around Mercedes Benz world circuit with my wife driving shortly after the rebuild!  I I spent ages getting the tuning and suspension perfect. I spent weeks adjusting the suspension with the help of a Hunter align system. The 907 engine without the Turbo and increased power output is much simpler. The components must be subject to much less stress. Theres  50 HP more going through the Turbo engine. Also you can find spare parts really easily. I have discovered the supply of 910 Turbo parts (cam housings) has all but dried up. I know where there is  a fully rebuilt dry sump engine for sale. Theres no way I will install it. If the oil pump fails its game over! Theres nothing wrong with the engine I have, I just needs some work. At the next major work on my S1 I will replace all the cam followers with steel. Im starting to know the engine now as well as the rest of the car.

[Fridge]

Yes @Lotusfab. I'm reading the ET road tests and the cars hardly fail to impress the 1980's press. Apart from the usual build and part bin of course. Lotus didn't mess about developing the 910 engine. Though I prefer the simplicity of the 907, and n/a cars in general. I've only every had big engined Alfas and Audis, without turbos. Though very nearly bought a RS6 bi-turbo.

I know what you mean about some parts becoming rare. 😲

[Lotusfab]

I wonder if lotus have kept all the casts for these engines?If they have it would be really easynto recast the parts and quite cheap? 

[Fridge]

3 minutes ago, Lotusfab said:

I wonder if lotus have kept all the casts for these engines?If they have it would be really easynto recast the parts and quite cheap? 

They should have, but I doubt it. They binned a lot off ages ago. You could ask though.

[Jeanvm]

18 hours ago, Fridge said:

BTW, is that cat Pussy Galore?

Its Micky (mikki) a real fighter. no other cat dare to come near into the garden. Perhaps family from Galore.

[cor]

David,

 

thanks to you and fabian for these great write up's on the restoration.

It will help us a lot on the restauration of our s1!!

 

 

[Lotusfab]

Nice paint job!

[Fridge]

Yes @cor this and the Facebook groups are a great resource. They've helped me a lot. The S1 community of owner/restorers is second to none.

Glad to hear you're enjoying the write up.

[Rolls]

Which groups are you following @Fridge?

[Fridge]

32 minutes ago, Rolls said:

Which groups are you following @Fridge?

Obviously anyone on here that contributes to the S1/S2 ownership.

On Facebook there are 4 main groups:

Lotus Esprit Group

Lotus Esprit S1 S2 S2.2 (Type 79 Owners)

Lotus Esprit Owners

Lotus Owners and Enthusiasts

There is also a useful US-based Esprit group on Yahoo, but @bgalbraith has the details about that.

[bgalbraith]

Lots of really good information in all of the emails, as well as the Files section here:

https://groups.io/g/S1S2euroS3LotusEspritOwners

I have some good information on S1/S2 Esprits on my web site:

www.holycows.net/Lotus