My very brown 74 Elite project

[petecov 3]

I dig the body color! Can't wait to see more updates.

[BrianK 101]

15 hours ago, petecov said:

I dig the body color! Can't wait to see more updates.

Thanks! I'm having a hell of a time with the steering rack.  The rebuild kit had parts that don't fit - forcing me to manufacture them myself. Luckily, I have a lathe at work... unfortunately, the dimensions I was given were wrong (my own fault for not verifying), so when I got the newly made bronze bush back home, it didn't fit. I'm going back tomorrow to make a second replacement bush, and can hopefully finish the rack this weekend.  After that, the only thing stopping me from putting the whole thing back together is the front wheel bearings - still need to press the races out & have no idea how to do that yet (brass drift didn't do the job and I haven't yet done the research for other solutions).

... oh, and rust abatement on the front of the chassis (already took care of the rear when I did the rear suspension)

...and I discovered that I really need to replace the fuel line that runs down the chassis - it's still original & seems pretty brittle.

...and then, of course, there's the transmission with bad 2nd and 3rd gear synchros.

...and the AC system that has never worked

...and the release cable for the rear hatch

...and the choke cable.

...and the speedometer

...and the clock

Oh, the fun I'm going to have. 🙄   

[Neil D. 30]

On 08/06/2020 at 21:57, BrianK said:

Brian, 

Check the workshop manual, for the additional bracing added to the later models.

This is fitted between the two bolts that locate the lower links

Neil

 

 

 

[BrianK 101]

On 15/07/2020 at 14:04, Neil D. said:

Check the workshop manual, for the additional bracing added to the later models.

This is fitted between the two bolts that locate the lower links

Neil, I may be blind, but I didn't see anything in my workshop manual about additional bracing.  Can you provide any more info, or ideas on where I can find it in the manual? 

  

On to today's update: 

Rewind back to my first post-purchase inspection of the car... One of the biggest issues I saw was a loose steering rack: 

 

The steering rack, then, became one of the "must have" fixes before getting back on the road. I called around to the usual suspects in the US to find a rack, but none were available. Shipping from the UK was cost-prohibitive, so rebuilding was the only choice.

To backtrack a bit: As has been mentioned previously in this thread, I've been endurance racing a different Elite for almost a decade. Many of its original Lotus parts weren't up to the rigors of endurance racing, so quite a lot of the suspension and steering systems - in the race car - have been replaced with non-Lotus and/or custom stuff (I should mention that I can't take credit for any of the custom suspension work on the race car - that was handled by a teammate). 

The race car's manual steering rack, however, has served us well, and, in fact, was rebuilt earlier this year by a semi-local shop.  I mention this because I'd planned on bringing my car's manual rack to the same shop, which is, however, about an hour's drive (each way) from my house; and charges $350 for the service. 

Earlier in the thread, it was pointed out that Lotus Marques in Australia makes a rebuild kit. The kit is actually for an early Esprit, but Steve at Lotus Marques said that it would work for both cars.  The kit was about $160 US, shipped - almost $200 cheaper than the local rebuild service, and would be shipped to my door, saving 2 hours of driving. 

With that, I ordered the kit. It was shipped the next day but wouldn't arrive for another month due to COVID shipping delays, during which time I reconditioned the rear suspension.   

When the kit finally arrived, I noticed it didn't have track rod ends (I don't know why I thought it did - it clearly doesn't from the website), so I ordered new ones. Turns out they are bit on the rare side these days, so I paid dearly for them - $120 for the pair. Keeping tally, that makes the cost of this rebuild $280, but I still haven't had to drive, and I'm still saving $70, so... fair.

When I finally started pulling apart the steering rack, I found what was causing the rack to be so loose in the tube: I originally thought that the rack was missing the end bushing that locates the rack in the rack tube, but it appears that it just disintegrated: 

 

 

With not much bushing and a ripped bellows, dirt was able to get into the rack:

 

Other than a little dirt, the rack looked to be in fine shape, so I stripped and painted the external stuff:

Of note: I used a paint color called "Ford Blue" - which I assumed was the original color. After seeing it, I believe it should have been "Ford Equipment Blue" which is much darker. Oh well, the difference was not worth another trip to the store, so Ford Blue it is.  

With everything cleaned and prepped, I started the rebuild. The very first step involves replacing that end bushing I mentioned earlier. The new bushing (bearing?) is made of bronze rather than plastic (as is stock) and is meant to be press-fit into the end of the rack. 

It didn't press-fit.  It dropped right in, bottomed out, and fell right back out. I emailed Lotus Marques, which started a back and forth where we verified all dimensions.  The kit was built to spec, but my rack was not.

My options were to make careful measurements of my rack, send them to Steve, have him make a new bushing, then wait for it to ship back; or I could have the part made locally.

As luck would have it, I work at a company that has a fabrication shop and I have lunch with the lead fabricator almost every day (well... before COVID). As a favor, he stayed late one night to make the new bushing for me - I just had to supply materials. We measured my rack tube and took the inside diameter measurement from Lotus Marques and made a custom bushing for my car:

6" of 932 bearing bronze is about $30, shipped. That brings the total up to $310, and I've now had to come in to work to have the bearing made (I've been lucky enough to be able to work from home since March), so now I've done almost an hour on the road. Not the best bargain anymore, but it's been interesting. We're not done yet, however...

Getting home with the new bushing, I tested that it fit perfectly into the rack tube.... but the rack, itself, would not fit in the bushing. I had assumed that my rack tube was the only thing out of spec, but it appears the actual rack is as well. There was no way to correct this problem other than to make a new bushing. One more trip to work and one more late evening for my workmate, and I had a lovely bronze rack bushing/bearing:

 

6" of 932 bearing bronze is about $30, shipped. That brings the total up to $310, and I've now had to come in to work - twice - to have the bearing made, so now I've done 1.5 hours on the road. Not the best bargain anymore, but it's been interesting. We're not done yet, however...

The next step for reassembly is to adjust preload on the pinion shaft (that eventually connects to the steering wheel). Preload is set by tightening an end plate down on a cylindrical spacer that contacts the bearing's outer race. If there's too much preload, the bearing won't turn; too little, and it will be sloppy. The amount of preload is determined by shims that sit between the end plate and rack housing - more shims means less pressure on the bearing spacer, and therefore less preload.

As [un]luck would have it, the races of the new bearings are larger than the stock bearings - so I needed another 25 thousandths or so worth of shims. Shims for this rack are not readily available - I was never able to find them. I eventually had to have some made... by my friend from work... after hours... again. Only this time, he had to use a CNC mill which he has at his personal shop... which is about 1 mile from the shop that I could have had rebuild my rack in the first place. He agreed to make the shims, I just needed to supply the material. 

Shim stock comes in rolls, and the smallest suitable roll was $40. My friend did the CNC work for free, but I had to drive to go pick up the new shims. So now I've spent $350, 3.5 hours on the road, and it's been nearly 3 months since I ordered the rebuild kit. :: sigh :: I really should have paid the pros to do it in a weekend.

Pressing on, after getting back home, I excitedly got back to the rebuild when I found...

...I'd had him make the wrong shims.

In my haste, I gave him the dimensions of the rack preload shim, not the pinion preload shim.

I swore a lot.

Then I tossed the new bearings, cleaned the old ones as well as I could, repacked, then reused them. This should have meant that everything went right back together, but, I had ripped one of the very thin (0.002", I believe?) plastic shims while disassembling, so the pinion was still too tight when the end plate was properly torqued. 

Without any better ideas, I decided to make the spacer shorter. Using an old trick for flattening heads, I got a piece of flat glass, taped some 400-grit wet sandpaper to it, and sanded the spacer down to the required dimensions (trying to be careful to rotate periodically to keep it as flat as possible).

 

Amazingly, this worked, and I was able to continue.  Only one more preload adjustment to go - what could go wrong?

As you might have guessed, the last preload adjustment went wrong. It appears that the rebuild kit's new nylon spacer that adjusts rack preload is thicker than stock.  So rather than the 15-ish thousandths worth of shims needed for the stock spacer, I now needed about 50 thousandths.

If you'll recall, I had my friend make the wrong shim for pinion preload... Well, the wrong shim for the pinion is the right shim for rack preload, so I had the correct shims after all. Score! To make the news that much sweeter, my friend was having trouble making 0.010" shims with clean edges, so he made one, additional 0.050" shim. The thick shim was exactly perfect. It's so pretty, I took a picture of the CNC'd shim sitting in place:

 

In the end, from the rebuild kit, I only used the bellows, pinion seal, and three nylon spacers... the rest was either refurbished or made from raw material. While Lotus Marques was great to work with, I really don't think I got my money's worth out of the rebuild kit - especially considering that I already had 2 spare sets of bellows.

With that, the rack is complete.  Here it is with teaser for the next entry: front suspension:

 

 

Edited August 25, 2020 by BrianK

[EXCEL V8 159]

That's really bad luck with the rack Brian 🙄.  I only needed to make the shims - everything else was OK.  Looking good now though!

Pete

[BrianK 101]

I was planning on this entry being for the front suspension and the "end of round one" - where the car would be in good running order, minus a few big items that could be put off for a later date.  I'd hoped to get to those items after having had a chance to drive the car more than around the block.

Instead, it's turned out to be a bit of bruised onion, where peeling off layers to repair them exposes underlying bruised layers that need attention. Having said that, I'm still of the opinion that it's in surprisingly good shape, considering its age.  It might even be up to muster for some; but I can't leave well enough alone, so while the front suspension is done, the car is still up on jack stands and will be for another week or three.

All that said, let's talk about front suspension.

Front suspension was handled much like the rear - pull everything out, replace bushings, epoxy coat suspension arms, and clean/treat surface rust on chassis. Disassembly was straight forward - no tricks or gymnastics needed.  Lucky for me, almost all bolts came loose after being hit with penetrating liquid. The few that didn't succumbed after being heated.

This is what things looked like at the start...

Lower link (note that the swaybay bushing has literally disintegrated and is no longer present):

 

Another look at that same lower link off the car. It's in decent shape for its age, but most of the factory (?) coating is gone and you can see that the bushing is cracked and ready to be replaced.

 

Upper balls joints were in pretty bad state:

 

As a tip for other who are attempting this job, I found spring compressors made by a company called "Shankly" with relatively small/thin jaws that fit between our tight springs:

 

All together, a fairly motley crew, but nothing that can't be easily saved:

 

With everything off the car, it was time to replace bushings.  I wasn't sure which I should do first - epoxy coat or replace bushings.  I decided to do the bushing first in case the act of replacing the bushings damaged the epoxy.

Bushings for the rear suspension are rubber over a metal sleeve.  They were easy to push in/out with my little 6-ton bench-top hydraulic press.  The fronts, however, have metal sleeves on both the ID and OD of the rubber bush - requiring *a lot* more force to press in/out.  My little press wasn't up to task, so I took all 4 upper arms and both lower links to a local shop with a 60-ton press.

I called this shop at 2pm on a Saturday & was there by 2:10.  They normally close at 3 on Saturdays, but the owner stuck around, dealing with these nightmare lower-link bushings until after 4pm. After failing to push out the old ones as a unit, they ended up burning out the old rubber with a gas torch, then pressed out the outter sleeve by itself. The new ones took several tries to go in correctly. For the privilege, they only charged $120 ($20/ea).  I tipped generously (literally everything that was in my wallet).

With new bushings in place, it was time for epoxy coating - specifically, POR-15.

Something I learned by doing this process is that the etching (?) step is also great at removing rust, so even though POR-15 can be "Painted Over Rust", I tried to remove as much of it as possible before coating.

Front suspension parts are stamped (unlike the bars in the rear) and, as such, have lots of crevices that hold dirt. I wanted to get them as clean as possible, but was threatened with my life if I used the dishwasher or even the kitchen sink, so after hitting everything with a wire brush, I screwed together some scrap wood and a trash bag to make a ghetto parts washer:

 

After loads of scrubbing and a round of etching, the suspension arms took on their ghostly, zinc-phosphate look:

 

...and after a couple rounds of POR-15, everything's looking brand new again:

 

 

Up next were the hubs.  I convinced myself that I shouldn't put a coating on mating surfaces, hence the exposed metal patterns:

 

In the above pic, flat black parts are sprayed with high temperature paint.  The gloss black areas are epoxy coated (I did, eventually, top-coat the caliper mounting plate with high-temp paint).

...and while everything was apart, I replaced the front wheel bearings (though I didn't take any pictures of that process). The front bearing races were relatively easy to get out once I realized that there are recesses in the bearing seat that allow you to get a drift on the bearing's outer race to tap it out (there was so much grease in the hub that I couldn't see these recesses initially). I froze the new bearing's outer race to shrink them a bit, and they went in without much fanfare, though I did rent a bearing toolkit from the local auto parts store, which made the job much easier.

The bearings each came with a small bag a grease. It looked like a paltry amount - much less than what came out with the old bearings - so I tossed those bags and used a tub of grease that I think is sufficient. I'm hoping that automotive grease is automotive grease & both options are equally as good. I did do a bit of research in this area and tried not to jam too much grease in the hub & made sure my grease had a chance of standing up to moisture. I guess time will tell if they are greased correctly.

With the hub refreshed, it was time for reassembly.  Reassembly involved new trunions. Those trunions are a bit tricky to lubricate - they are meant to take gear oil (via zerk fitting) rather than grease, and my grease gun doesn't like gear oil. Searching through the forum, I found a suggestion to partially fill both the trunion and the neck that leads to the zerk fitting with gear oil, then quickly screw the two together before all the oil spills out of one half or the other. If you have quick hands and a few strategically placed towels, it turns out this can be done without *too* much mess... but it's still a stinky mess.

Here's the before/after:

 

After a little more elbow grease, everything was reconditioned and ready for reinstallation:

 

If you're wondering, those are SJS's shocks.  I'm all but certain they are made by Pro-tech and valved based on SJ's specs. The are single adjustable for damping, but do not have adjustable seats (non-adjustable ride height)

Before installation, while everything was a part, I wanted to clean up and paint over any surface rust on the chassis. As seems to be typical, the chassis' exhaust side was in slightly worse shape than the cold side, but nothing horrible.  Here's the starting point (after getting most of the dirt off with a wire wheel and degreaser):

 

....and after Eastwood Rust Encapsulator (it would eventually get a layer of Chassis Black - which has a more satin finish):

 

When I stripped the under side, I was met with shiny metal. This is very suspect to me - I can't imagine 45 year old Lotus-treated steel having this little rust.  I'm not enough of an expert to tell if any of this was replaced, or if this car just lived in a basement for years, but this is the underside, after being degreased:

(it's worth noting that the coating wiped off relatively easily with degreaser, but was incredibly sticky as it started to dry)

You can also see, here, that the cross member has been abused by jacks over the years. Note to self: use large piece of wood when jacking.

After spraying Rust Encapsulator followed by chassis black (both Eastwood products):

(I got a bit of overspray on the oil pan, but I can live with it )

 

With that... everything's ready to go back in.  One last "I'm still clean" shot:

(Note that the front end has been hacked by a previous owner.  That's a story for another day)

After everything was said and done, it all came together relatively easily.  No major struggles getting it back together, though I did scratch a few metal surfaces during assembly

It should be noted that new hardware was used where possible - all grade 8 or class 10, and all zinc coated if a zinc option was available. As it turns out, this added up to quite an expense - I've spent several hundred dollars on nuts, bolts, and washers since the start of this project.

I say no major struggles, but that does not mean it was a walk in the park.  The top nut on the shock is a real bear to get on.  The shocks' top bushing is designed to be compressed; but in-situ, in its uncompressed state, is longer than the threaded part of shock - so you can't get the nut on without compressing the rubber bush.  That's a really tight spot to be applying heavy pressure to the bush while trying to thread a small nut without crossing it.

Also, despite all my careful planning while disassembling the steering rack, I neglected to put the rack's pinion in the same location as it was when it came out, so the steering wheel was 90 degrees off center when I put everything back together.  That was solved by simply removing the steering wheel and putting back on straight. Top tip: if removing the steering wheel without a puller, leave the wheel's retaining bolt on by a few threads, so when the steering wheel pops off, it doesn't fly in your face. I learned that by watching Wheeler Dealers (back in the Edd China days) and am glad I did - the steering wheel comes off with quite a bit of force & would have offered a substantial punch in the face had the bolt not been partially on.

As per the workshop manual, none of the nuts that contact bushings were tightened until the car was on the ground. My method for weighting the car was to have someone sit in the driver's seat while I [partially] hung from the swaybar while tightening.  (My garage's inspection pit has really come in handy during this build - it's the only way to hang from the swaybar while tightening nuts ).

After putting it on the ground, I did a very basic alignment - made sure toe was correct, drove it around the block to see the steering wheel was off-center, adjusted both sides to that direction, reverified toe, and then repeated until it drove straight.  I'll do a proper alignment when it's fully back on the road.

 

So, after all of that, how does it drive?  In a word: amazing.  I'm sure I'm all kinds of biased and I'm sure I'm factoring in all that work with the result, but I'm shocked at how well it drives considering how old it is.  Remember, I've only driven the car 20-30 miles since I've owned it, and all of those miles (until now) were on original suspension, so it was like night/day driving on the new stuff.  Very pleased.

Of course, during the process, I found that the blinkers/parking lights were reversed, the bumper was held on by Erector Set hardware, the speedo was disconnected, the rear UJ on the propshaft is missing its zerk, my spare transmission is garbage, the finish on my wheels is pitted beyond easy repair, and the tires are either 22 or 32 years old (date stamps in the 20th century didn't include the decade - so they are either from '88 or '98).  All of those things will be addressed in future entries.

That's it for now. I'll be pulling the diff and propshaft this weekend for unexpected repairs, which is a bummer, but the [first] finish line is tantalizingly close.   

Edited October 29, 2020 by BrianK

[EXCEL V8 159]

Brilliant Brian!  It's looking great under there!  Such a shame none of it gets seen again 😉.  Did you look really closely at the trunnion ends of the lower arms - they are often cracked on the early arms?

Glad it drives well.  Can't wait to get mine to that stage!  Keep up the good work.

Pete

[BrianK 101]

5 minutes ago, EXCEL V8 said:

 Did you look really closely at the trunnion ends of the lower arms - they are often cracked on the early arms?

Nope!  Didn't know that was a thing.  😰

I did spend quite a lot of time cleaning/painting, but I wasn't looking for anything specific. Where do they crack - I'm guessing along one of the 90 degree bends? (I ask as I frantically look through all my disassembly pictures)

Finger's crossed that they are OK - there's no way to see cracks now that they're coated.

[EXCEL V8 159]

Yes - they crack on the bends below the trunnion at the end of the arm.  I've got several sets of early arms and they are all cracked - even the later galvanised ones before they doubled up the thickness of the metal on the last ones.  I have to admit the cracks are hard to see when they first start.  I think so long as you know about the cracks you can check them at regular intervals and you'll be fine.

Pete

[BrianK 101]

19 minutes ago, EXCEL V8 said:

Yes - they crack on the bends below the trunnion at the end of the arm.  I've got several sets of early arms and they are all cracked - even the later galvanised ones before they doubled up the thickness of the metal on the last ones.  I have to admit the cracks are hard to see when they first start.  I think so long as you know about the cracks you can check them at regular intervals and you'll be fine.

Welp... this is the only evidence I have, and I don't see any cracks, so I'm going to call them good and pretend this conversation never happened. 

(Good tip on checking them regularly - I'll put that on the list.  Thanks!)

 

[BrianK 101]

I'm a little behind on updates, so to start the catch-up, let's talk about the never-intended-to-be-a-project project: the front bumper.

When I was installing the front suspension, while sitting on the ground in front of the car, I noticed that the bumper wasn't straight.  It wasn't far off, and, honestly, I'd never noticed it was off until I was sat on the ground just a couple feet away. But... I can't leave well enough alone, so I thought I should fix it.  In doing so, I realized that the bumper "skin" was sagging on the top surface, the marker/flashers were installed upside down (with the amber flashers on the outside), and the whole bumper mounting situation was sub-par.

This might be a controversial "upgrade", as I was just winging it based on intuition, without much of a plan; and, of course, second guessing and changing my mind several times along the way.  I don't think it's bad, necessarily, but I bet others would have come up with better solutions.  In fact, I may have over-thought this whole thing and maybe should have just straightened the bumper and been done with it.  Oh well... now there's a story to tell.   

In this picture, you can see that the bumper is almost touching the "waistline" trim on the near side, but is a good half inch off in the center, and never touches on the far side.

 

Worthy of note: my car, being a US car, came with federal bumpers that, aside from being impressively ugly, had some sort of rubberized coating that wrinkles over time.  The previous owner replaced the front bumper with the "Euro" version (the version that existed everywhere else in the world) and mentioned that the new bumper wasn't attached very well, and that I might want to improve on his thrown-together solution.

With that, I pulled off the bumper to begin upgrades. 

The sagging bumper skin was due to poor cutting from the mold - the top curve of the bumper was slightly too shallow to follow the body's shape, so when fitting tight with the the body, the center section of the bumper was forced down as the sides were snugged into the body. Unfortunately, because it lived like this for 2+ years, the bumper had been permanently deformed where the center section was sagging a good 1/2" in the center. In an attempt to straighten/flatten the top skin, I decided to fill the upper cavity with a piece of left-over 3/4" pressure-treated plywood that I cut to the correct shape, slathered with sealant, and wedged in the top section of the bumper.

Note that the plywood is a left-over piece from the shed floor behind it.  

 

While doing this, I started thinking about the bumper's role in a crash. I assumed that I was missing some inner piece of foam that would form the structure of the bumper.  While my research since has proven that to be wrong (I believe, from the factory, they were just hollow skins that were meant to crunch and be replaced?), I was convinced my bumper was missing its inner structure, so I decided to make my own.

I started looking around for Styrofoam bumper liners - thinking I could cut a larger one down to size, then I came across closed-cell expanding foam of various densities. I picked up a couple quarts of what I thought would be a fairly "soft" foam, but after a test, realized that it was still pretty stiff and somewhat heavy.  I was concerned that it might be too stiff, therefore negating the purpose of the bumper - instead, transferring all of the energy into the body, itself.  I was also concerned it would be too heavy - making it difficult to mount and keep in place.

Instead of filling the whole bumper, I blocked off the sections of the bumper that overlap the nose's crash structure, and added a few cavities in the foam that would allow a progressive collapse of the foam in an impact. (reminder: I was making this up as I went along... it might all be hogwash ). I also lined the entire section with tape in case I wanted to remove the foam in the future.

 

With that, I was satisfied with the bumper's structure, so it was time to move on...

The US cars never got this bumper, therefore, none of my US parts suppliers seemed to carry the grill that goes behind the top opening (the bottom section is available, and I eventually installed a new one). After seeing the bottom grill, it looked like a pretty simple part to make, so I ordered 6' of 1/8" steel rod and a few different types of steel mesh, trying to get something that matched exactly with the Lotus part.  

Of note: I made this decision before I decided to remove the bumper, so I designed the grill thinking it should be able to be installed from the front - without removing the bumper.  As such, it's smaller than the stock part - only *just* covering the opening - and is attached (riveted) to the bumper rather than the crash structure.

After deciding on the matching mesh, making the grill was straight-forward.  I was happy to have an 1/8" pipe bender to make the 90 degree bends. While I originally planned on welding the mesh and frame together, with the welder clear across town, I decided to just solder it. In the end, I think that will work just fine.  After soldering and thorough cleanup, the grill got primed and painted, and I think it looks pretty good, though I don't know if it was worth the effort - bending and soldering every single wire was not the best use of my time.  Mine (top grill) on the left, Lotus part (bottom grill) on the right:

 

Next, the indicator lamps needed to be flipped. Once flipped, they would no longer sit flush in bumper, so the bumper's cavity got trimmed to allow them to fit.

The previous owner had used threaded rod through the indicator lamp assembly to attach/locate the bumper to the body.  The threaded rod connected the lamp assembly (therefore, the bumper) to an aluminum bracket that was attached to the body.  The rod was secured with tiny nuts on either side without any sort of locking mechanism (I removed them with my fingers when I removed the bumper). Without a better idea, I redid this, but with nyloc nuts all around.

(Side note: I've since visited a Lotus specialist who makes their own bumpers. After seeing theirs, I think I should have glassed in the foam sections of my bumper, embedding a steel frame with captive nuts in the fiberglass... Then use that frame as a mounting point, bolting through the body.)

Finally, the previous owner's primary bumper mount was a shelf that was bolted to the body, then the bumper bolted to the shelf.  The shelf was made of 1" 90-degree angle aluminum, and was attached to the body with large-head screws and non-locking nuts. The bumper was attached to the aluminum angle with self-tapping sheet metal screws, straight through both parts (no nuts or washers).

I should note that at some point in its life, this car's body had quite a bit of material removed - which also removed potential mounting locations. Without any better ideas, I simply tried to improve on the shelf idea.  To start, I found wider aluminum angle (not as wide as I would have liked, but the widest I could find at the local hardware store), got a set of heavy duty clip-on nuts, and uprated hardware - including "seal washers" that are rubberized on one side (thinking that would help with shock considering they were going to be pressing on fiberglass).

Shaping the new shelf:

 

Painted and installed, using all the same holes made by the previous owner, so as not to weaken the fiberglass any more than it already is:

 

With that, the bumper was ready to go on, but not before repainting and re-gluing the front crash structure in place (no pictures of that, because, well... it's just black paint and glue). Because I had to remove the headlights to remove the bumper, before replacing them, I also replaced their rubber seals.

All together:

 

The astute reader may zoom in on that picture and notice that the left side of the bumper (right side of the picture) is slightly lower than the right side of the bumper (left side of the pic)... and that droop is what started this whole folly.  Yeah... I guess that's how it was meant to be. At least it no longer sags in the middle.  

Edited December 30, 2020 by BrianK

[BrianK 101]

While not that exciting, it's worth mentioning that tires for this car are difficult to find. To make a long, not-so-interesting story less long: I found that prioritytire.com (in the US) carries a lot of off-brand tires, many of which come in stock Elite sizes.  It's difficult to decided between a lot of unknown brands, as there just isn't much information available on them.  In the end, then, I chose Accelera Phi-R tires. Accelera Phi-R seem to be somewhat popular with the drifting crowd because they are cheap and not awful.  OH well, the whole set was $300, shipped; so if I end up replacing them in a year, so be it. These are better than the 20+ year old tires that were on the car when I got it.

Speaking of wheels/tires, I've also attempted to get my wheels refurbished.  I wanted to be sure they were actually re-cut rather than simply polished (recutting means that the wheel is laser scanned, then sent through a CNC lathe to remove the very top layer of metal - exposing "new" metal below.  In combination with color and clear powder coating, they look brand new after the process is complete).  Recutting, as it turns out, is fairly expensive - $1,000 was the cheapest estimate. I still have a transmission to service/replace, so I thought I'd put off the proper refinish for later.

While I was getting estimates, I came across several shops who offered polishing service rather than cutting.  Being that I have a few spares, I thought I'd take one wheel to a polisher as a test.  At $75, I thought it was worth the gamble.

I chose a shop that had glowing reviews and was just a mile or so from my office.  The gentleman who runs the place is very friendly, but does not speak very good English. We had an exchange that was worthy of a comedy sketch - which would have been great fun had a wheel not been ruined in the process.  The exchange went like so (no exaggeration):

me: I'd like to get these wheels cleaned up but not to a mirror-finish.  I'd like for them to have a matte/satin finish when complete & try not to disturb the painted areas if you can help it.
him: OK, we will make it very shiny.
me: No, not very shiny. Less shiny - like your shop door (which is Aluminum)
him: Yes, OK.  Very shiny.  Like this (he points to a wheel with a mirror finish)
me: No, not that shiny. Less shiny - like this (I point to a wheel that was clean but wasn't yet polished)
:: insert one more, identical exchange ::
him: Somewhat confused.  OK.  I understand.

So I dropped off a wheel - one of my best ones - and waited for his call 4 days later.  This is what I got back:

... The very definition of mirror finish, and all painted surfaces gone.  While it looks kinda nice, you may notice that there's no longer a lip that would normally surround the gray center - it's been polished down to a small bump.  

Even so, I thought that it might be salvageable if I masked off and painted the sections that were painted from the factory. I started masking, then realized how difficult it is to cut perfect, concentric circles for the areas that needed paint, so I decided to put it to the side and re-use a spare wheel. (I had actually started to put together a drill-based lathe to help make the cuts, but that was becoming more trouble that it was worth, so I abandoned the idea)

 

At this point, including the work done by the previous owner just before i bought the car, the following had been done:

- rebuilt bottom end with new pistons, rings, and seals
- rebuilt head with new valves and shims (and a skim to flatten)
- new distributor and spark plug wires
- new cam belt and tensioner
- rebuilt rear brakes
- swapped out front bumper for non-federal "Euro" bumper & correct lights to go with it
- made and/or replaced radiator grills
- swapped out rear bumper for the S2 version, complete with NOS Rover lights
- full new interior: headliner, carpets, seat upholstery, fabric on door cards. (steering wheel, entire dash and center console still original)
- replaced entire main wiring harness and an assortment relays and switches
- replaced starter with the new-style gear reduction type
- replaced Lumenition Optronic ignition system and ignition coil
- replaced all suspension and differential bushings (poly for swaybar, rubber everywhere else), using all new hardware (nuts and bolts) where possible
- replaced shocks and spring perches
- epoxy coated all suspension arms and rust-treated the exposed parts of the chassis.
- rebuilt steering rack and replaced all steering related joints (tie rod ends, ball joints, etc)
- replaced front wheel bearings
- replaced tires

With that, I feel the car is safe enough to start putting on some miles & working out those kinks you only find while driving.  Luckily I live only a handful of miles from some of the best roads in the US...  If you've watched any car-related program that's filmed in Southern California (Motor Trend comparisons, US episodes of Wheeler Dealer, Smoking Tire, Chris Harris when he's in the US, etc etc etc) - a good 50% of the canyon carving shots are from the roads just up the street from me (CA-2 and Angeles Crest Highway, if you're curious).

I've only been up there twice thus far with the Elite (I've only driven the car a handful of times since it's been back on its feet), but I've found it to be surprisingly capable for something built in the 70s. I'm very pleased with the outcome - at least since having the carbs rebuilt and rejetted.  That's a long story for another entry...

Until then, here's one of the first, triumphant "Finally made it out of the neighborhood" pictures as a teaser. This is somewhat significant -- prior to this picture, I don't think it had moved more than a handful of miles at a time for the last 20-ish years.   

 

[rjwooll 214]

Absolutely wonderful. She looks gorgeous! Thank you so much for taking the time to post your experience with all the pictures. You are an inspiration to us all. Now I hope you can do plenty of driving on those great roads and show the locals true style, competence and efficiency!

Cheers and wishing you a very happy and successful 2021

Richard

[BrianK 101]

Prepare for another entry in which I drone on at length about a subject with which I recently became familiar - carburetors, specifically Dellorto DHLA carburetors.  The TL;DR (too long; didn't read) version is: After researching Dellorto carburetor calibrations until my eyes dried up, in trying to properly tune my completely-out-of-tune DHLA45's, I second guessed my findings and abilities to the point that I took the car to a specialist who, without my intervening, charged well over $1000 to do *exactly* what I had planned to do, had I done the work myself (though, let's be honest... they probably did a better job).  Such is life.  Here's the story:

 

Prior to the big drive in my last post, I'd only driven around the block (several times).  It never really ran right, but I hadn't yet touched the carbs, so I figured they needed some attention and just accepted the sputters and pops until it was time to address them.  Poor running was never really an issue then, but when I started to navigate traffic, the lack of low-end stability was becoming a problem.

Some background:  "Federal" cars (those destined for the US, Canada, and Japan, if I'm not mistaken) ran Stromberg carburetors. My understanding is that engines running Strombergs had lower emissions than those running Dellortos (lower emissions being required to pass then-new pollution laws in the US). It is also my understanding that the Stromberg equipped cars ran 10-20hp less than the Dellorto equipped cars. At some point in my car's history, the previous owner opted to install Dellorto carburetors (and a Lumenition ignition - which will play into this post later).

Back to my car: Prior to re-jetting, my car had a real problem getting off the line - especially under higher loads (like pulling away from a stop on a hill) where it would sputter and nearly die until I dipped the clutch and got the revs back up.  It sounded like there was an occasional misfire at low rpm (idle and just off idle) and the exhaust didn't smell right - it didn't smell like unburnt fuel or burnt oil, so much as it just smelled a little "hot," for lack of a better term (I assumed it was overly lean). However, above about 3000 rpm, it ran great, pulled hard, sounded great, and never missed a beat.

With that, it was time to start digging into the carbs. I have limited experience with carburetors... not zero, but my experience is very narrow.  By "narrow", I mean that I've done a good bit of work with Holley carburetors on small block Chevy V8s, but that's the extent of it.

With a couple ounces of Holley confidence, I started getting into the Dellortos - initially by picking up a copy of Des Hammill's "How to Build and Power Tune Weber & Dellorto ... Carburetors" and a 4-pot manometer. The book is interesting, but not exactly what I was after.  It's a book you really need to take as a whole - reading one chapter by itself won't solve any problems or make anything run better, but having the whole thing sat in your brain serves as good reference when you're trying to decide on a path to take.

By itself, the book wasn't enough, so I did a *ton* of research online.  Lots of good info from this and the Jensen Healey forums; and I kept coming across Tim Engel's fantastic posts.  One thing I learned from Tim's writings was to pay attention to the Lotus carb "spec" (specification), or, more importantly, the Dellorto "calibration." 

Ahhh, carb specs... what a deep hole that turned out to be.  For the uninitiated, Dellorto worked with many OEMs as a carburetor supplier.  Every Dellorto carb has an ID tag, and that ID tag can be used to determine for which car the carburetor was made. Not only does the ID tag tell you the car, but it tells you the exact calibration: chokes, jets, holders, emulsion tubes, etc that are in use.  The exact calibration is necessary for our cars, as Lotus changed the spec several times during the course of a model run, and sometimes changed the calibration within a specification (for example, there are 2 different calibrations for "spec 9" and 3 different calibrations for "spec 10", depending on the model of car - Esprit, Elite, Excel, etc).

Now, I'm no expert on this topic, so take it with a grain of salt, but from what I gathered, for the 907, Lotus used 3 different specifications called spec 1, 3, and 5.  For the 2.2, they used "spec 9", then for the 2.2 HC, they used "spec 10".  I'm sure there are more specs beyond that, but that's as far as my research went.  According to Tim (and others), Spec 5 is the sweet spot for the 907 - spec 1 was too rich and spec 3 too lean.

With that, I had a reasonable target, but what I didn't know was the starting point - What calibration did I have?  The Elite/Eclat workshop manual has a carb spec table (page 13 in the technical data section at the front), but it only goes to spec 9, and it doesn't associate a spec with a tag number, so no way to see which spec I had. Lots and lots of searching for my ID tags was coming up empty - I even found a pdf of all Dellorto calibrations, but my tag numbers were nowhere to be found.  I was pretty convinced I had an off-the-shelf carb, or one calibrated for a different OEM. Several days into my search, I decided to look at an Esprit S3/Turbo workshop manual (one I stumbled across online). In that manual, the carb table not only had all the tag numbers, but it had Spec 10 carbs as well. Looking closely at that table ::insert angels singing:: I finally found my id tags!

For the uber curious, I made a Google Sheets version of the various Lotus calibrations from that Esprit workshop manual. Maybe someone will find it useful: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1393V4_TwG5b2bUYojQNO2vCmL_K_kFAUCTQ94qWSQvs/edit?usp=sharing

The big discovery: my carbs originally came on an Excel with the 2.2, high compression engine - Spec 10. My Lumenition ignition is also from an Excel.   If I'm not mistaken (again, I'm no expert here - just someone with moderately capable Google Fu), we never got the 2.2 HC engine in the US, and we certainly never got the Excel. It appears, then, that the previous owner, in attempt to get more power, imported parts from the UK some time prior to 2003 (when the car was last registered).  Kudos to them - that couldn't have been cheap or easy.

Now that I know the start and end, it should just be a matter of sourcing parts and swapping everything out to convert my spec 10s to spec 5.  At least, that was the plan, but there was one major difference between the Spec 10 and everything prior: Spec 10 is a DHLA 45D - which comes with a power jet (as opposed to the DHLA 45E which, at least according to the table, does not have a tunable power jet)

As with many problems I've tried to solve with this car, the power jet turned out to be a nothing-burger when it came to my tune.  I could have, and should have, just ignored it.  After all, the power jet (if I understand correctly) only comes into play at wide open throttle above 3K rpm when there's very little vacuum... an area where I never had a problem.  However, because I am one to overthink things, I convinced myself, falsely, that the power jet was making up for the leaner main jets of the spec 10 vs spec 5, and that by going with spec 5 mains, I'd be entirely too rich in the top end.

I made myself crazy trying to work out how to determine the correct size of the power jets in relation to the main jets.  I figured the only route to solution was experimentation - which would have been easy enough if I had a library of chokes, jets, holders, tubes, etc. to play with, but I didn't.  This meant that every iteration would require a new set of parts.  Not only is that expensive, but I found it difficult to source Lotus-specific jet sizes in the US... which meant shipping from the UK for each iteration of tune.  With 6 or 7 tunable parts per throttle bore and a few others per carburetor, that becomes an expensive and time consuming process.

So after all that research and planning, on the day I intended to go buy an ultrasonic cleaner to help with a full rebuild, I decided, instead, to call a local classic Lotus specialist to see if they had a tuning "library" and time to have a look at my car. The answer to both questions was yes, so I bit the bullet and handed the keys over to a pro to do the work.  (For the curious, the shop was "Lotus Prepared by Claudius" - which seems to have a "love it or hate it" relationship with the Lotus community, but, in the end, they did great work and were very open to sharing their methods and capabilities of their shop)

It cost me dearly to do so, but the outcome was absolutely perfect.  It has the same or better power in the top end, but, most importantly, is silky smooth at lower rpms.  I can drive the Elite like any other street car - which makes driving so much more enjoyable, especially relative to the sputtery limping off the line prior to the tune.

So what was the magic recipe?  Spec 5. Ignore the power jet & just go with spec 5 - just as I had planned. Of course, along with spec 5 parts, the carbs got a full rebuild - which, I'm sure, played a roll in improving overall performance, too.

 

So now having the ability to drive reasonable distances, I've taken the car on a few shakedown runs in the canyons.  The most recent was one of the better drives I've had - about 50 miles of mostly beautiful, twisty roads, only encountering one other car on the road (I even managed to get a quick video I'll share in the future). That trip, however, was not without its troubles - only a mile or so from home (on the way back), something I mentioned in a previous post as "I might kick myself for that later" has failed and caused big problems. The Elite is now sidelined for, I'm guessing, another month while I determine what's wrong and source new parts (I suspect a catastrophic rear wheel bearing and hub carrier failure).  This was just last weekend, so I'll save the entry until after I can do a proper post-mortem (still waiting on tools for that).

That may be a bitter-sweet ending to this entry, but it's all part of the process. No one said it was going to be easy.    The bright part is this: it now runs, runs very well, and is an absolute joy to drive!

Edited January 12 by BrianK

[EXCEL V8 159]

Well done Brian!  Costly exercise but worth it.  And you now have lots of knowledge about Dellortos 😀.  The rear wheel bearings aren't hard to deal with so long as the lower stud comes out of the casting - often a lot of heat is required!  Let us know how you get on.

Pete

[TAR 405]

If you need a hub, there are a couple on Ebay at the moment. Postage maybe an issue though.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Lotus-elite-eclat-rear-alloy-hub-carriers-bottom-bolts-removed/274640580479?hash=item3ff1daaf7f:g:C9cAAOSwXsBea7-2

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LOTUS-ELITE-REAR-HUB-AND-SHAFT-LEFT-N-S-R/163860638257?hash=item2626daea31:g:L0cAAOSw4G9de53l

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LOTUS-ELITE-REAR-HUB-AND-SHAFT-RIGHT-O-S-R/163860639283?hash=item2626daee33:g:DpQAAOSw2PNde5~k

hope it's just a bearing you need. 🙂

[BrianK 101]

Welp...   
 

 

When I pulled the hub off, I found that the circlip that retains the bearing was just floating between the carrier and hub. I’m not sure if the bearing failed and caused the circlip to weaken and pop out; or if the circlip wasn’t seated properly, which then caused the bearing to fail. Regardless, the bearing pushed through the hub carrier until the half shaft was grinding on the hub carrier - seems that was the only thing that prevented it from pushing all the way through. I suppose because of the difference in materials, I heard no noise and noticed no grinding as the half shaft removed material from the carrier. In fact, I thought I just had a sticky brake until I got out of the car to notice smoke (from burnt bearing grease) coming from the rear wheel.

My hope, now, is that we kept the rear hub carriers from the race car when we swapped in its jag XJS unit (for those not following along, I race an Elite with a V8 that now runs a complete Jag XJS IRS). My teammate is rummaging through our spares today looking for it (Thanks Steve!). If not, those eBay links above will come in handy. 
 

Also worthy of note: those bearings are pricey!

[EXCEL V8 159]

Ouch!!  Yes - the circlip is the only thing retaining the bearing in the hub carrier.  The bearings are ridiculously expensive just because they are rare now.  I'm going to have a chat (if they ever let us out again!) with the foundry I'm using for another project to talk to them about re-casting the hub carriers to allow the fitting of bigger, stronger bearings.

Is your damaged hub an early or late type?  

Pete

[BrianK 101]

7 minutes ago, EXCEL V8 said:

Ouch!!  Yes - the circlip is the only thing retaining the bearing in the hub carrier.  The bearings are ridiculously expensive just because they are rare now.  I'm going to have a chat (if they ever let us out again!) with the foundry I'm using for another project to talk to them about re-casting the hub carriers to allow the fitting of bigger, stronger bearings.

Is your damaged hub an early or late type?  

Pete

Hub carriers for different bearings would be amazing! I’ve fallen in love with the cartridge type - where the bearing comes in a housing, so the whole housing gets replaced instead of just the bearing... 4 bolts and you’re done. I figure, while I’m tossing coins into the wishing well that I’d make that suggestion.

 

I believe the hub is an early type simply because it’s a ‘74 elite. I read, on SJ, that the earlier models have a different “dirt flinger” but I don’t know what that is to determine which mine is. 

[EXCEL V8 159]

Cartridge-type bearing is top of the list, followed by beefier double-row like the Esprit used, or properly spaced/shimmed tapered roller bearings like your Jag hub carriers use.  Bearing availability/dimensions will probably dictate choice in the end if original driveshafts are to be retained.

The two hub carriers can be told apart by the machining on the "nose" - the early ones were not machined and had a larger diameter "dirt flinger", and vice versa for the later ones.  I'll have a look to see if I have a spare early one in the lock-up (may take a few days).

Pete

[BrianK 101]

Steve found the spares. New bearings are on the way. All is well in the world.   
 

 

During this process, I removed the brake drums to find that one side of the diff is leaking so bad that it’s made that brake useless. 
 

 

It might be a little hard to see in the pic, but those shoes are soaked in oil.

I think I’ll pull the diff and have it rebuilt - or at least re-sealed - while I’m back here (rebuilding the diff on my own is above my pay grade)