Exige Cup260 - Restoration and some tweaks

[MrP_ 289]

So I thought I'd do a bit of a thread on my resto build of my Exige MY10 Cup260 - on the v6 area we had a build area, but its not something that seems to be here so I thought I'd just put it here. Its always useful for other owners to find what has been done before so they don't need to repeat the same mistakes. 

It's going to be pretty long so will come in chunks.Mods please feel free to move if there is a better place!

First few posts set a bit of scene, so please forgive the wordy elements  - what turned into a pit of a tart up, has turned into a rebuild with no end in sight… 

Anyway long time Exige/Elise owner: Elise Sport160, Exige S1 x2, Exige S2 x 2 and an Exige Sport 350 - there was a bit of gap between the S1's/S2's and the S3. I built the S3 into exactly what I wanted (thread here):

And for whatever reason I never really gelled with it, I loved it and it was a great car - but for me an Exige needs a delicacy about it, and the extra weight of the v6 just lost me that connection. But this isn't an s3 vs s2 debate so I won't dwell on it too long! At the end of lockdown a chance to sell came up to a very enthusiastic owner and it seemed like the right time, deal was done and off she went

 

So whilst good, I had no idea what to get next. Tried a GT3, lovely but too fast on the road, but I will get one on day though. Atom was always something I fancied, but I tried one and it was clear it was not something I would use enough (couldn't take wife or kids on a day out sort of thing), S1 Elise to get back to basics, Caterham, anyway lots were suggested, but nothing was fitting the bill. The Exige is pretty rare in that its fun, connected, but still practical you can drive on the motorway in the rain and its fine - not many fun weekend cars do that without being in the supercar category.

So after all that I just thought why not get an S2 again, it was always my favourite and the one I have in my head in terms of feel - so why not just get another one and build what I want. Build it as a keeper and with the demise of the petrol car it would be a possible keeper for life - so I started looking… For those of you that have tried to do the same recently, the number of Exige S2's on the market has shrunk massively, and their price increased massively.  So kept waiting for the right one to come up whilst working on the build I would do once I found the suitable car, nothing menta or cutting edge, l just building exactly what I wanted: Roughly these were:

 - Mint bodywork, which I suspected would be a full respray

 - Plenty of carbon: Big scoop roof, access panels, boot lid

 - Decent manifold, sports cat, exhaust

 - 260 map, TRD etc

 - 3way suspension, full refresh suspension on bearings , forged wheels

 - Decent interior, retrim throughout, carbon seats

 

After looking at a couple of cars (just due to lack of volume) it was becoming clear that my version of a well looked after car, and everyone else's seemed wildly different so I thought I'd give up on my idea of an S2 and that would be that. Then a MY10 Cup260 came up, I car I meant to buy but moved to the states, and frankly had never seen one come up for as long as I can remember. Long story short: got tempted, wife told me to have a look, we trotted off to have a look.

For those that don’t know the Cup260 was a pretty special model with some of the following features:

 - Carbon Roof

 - Carbon tailgate

 - Carbon access panels

 - Carbon parts in rear clam

 - Carbon side ducts

 - Carbon splitter

 - Carbon spoiler

 - Carbon Dash/Vents/Side sills

 - Carbon Seats

 - Forged wheels (lightest at the time)

 - Lightweight subframe

 - Lightweight flywheel, uprated clutch

 - Lightweight bulkhead (no window)

 - Lightweight supercharger pipes

 - Accusump

 - Additional sheer panel to increase lateral stiffness

 - Ohlins 2 way remote reservoir dampers

 - AP 4 pots

+lots of other bits

 

Found it looking like this:

 

Pretty good for a 10 year old car, felt pretty special but still the S2 that I remembered. I had seen several people refer to the car in question as 'mint', 'immaculate' etc so went with high hopes - it was not beaten up at all, but plenty of stonechips, suspension needed a refurb (but pickup points all good just normal lotus suspension).

Eventually we came to a deal with me knowing I would be essentially taking on a project. The car was loved and it was used, it was not kept in a bubble, but I know that I want my cars mint so pretending that I wouldn't go down that route.. It certainly was a world away from immaculate in my eyes - a winter project awaits

For a cup it’s a slight more road spec, so doesn't have external cut-offs, or A-frame but does have Airbags and a Radio. Apparently if you wanted the radio you had to have the airbags at the time (loom change) and you lost the external cut-offs. They also deleted the A-frame as you can't fit the cage that attaches to it with the airbags. 

As said deal agreed and after checking for really serious damage I was on my way, ready for a deep clean and see where we were

Downsides were mainly cosmetic so in a heart over head decision I went for it….

 

[MrP_ 289]

Drive home was good, exactly how I expected it to feel

It feel so light compared to the 350, despite being only a few inches smaller it felt much smaller - back to the B-road blaster that I missed

Engine felt good, pretty much noise free (apart from a badly adjust roof)

Happy days

A proper clean (you can't not clean a new car):

I then started to go through some of the 'unique features' of the car. I found this wiring after trying to make sure my Accusump preoil the engine as it didn’t appear to be.

No one seemed to know what it was, so I thought I'd find out as I didn't want to just tuck it away. I seemed to have: a connector that just looped itself back, a connector that I could select one or two feeds by flipping a connector, a random lead I had no idea what it did and a fuse for something

So after searching to death on the internet I started to piece it together, I'm putting this here in case anyone else follows the same confusion

In the end the leads turned out to be (from top)

• Loop back to immobiliser (for the cup260's they put it back here, I presume to link into the cut-off switches, which I don't have)
• Fuse for Immob and Interior light (relocated from front fusebox for reasons unknown)
• Another link to immobiliser, you can invert the connector putting it in bypass this was to allow FIA compliance for the battery cutouts fitted to some cars
• Earth for accusump (not been connected for a while it seems)
• Rear 3rd brake light connector (left over from Elise loom, they have an extra connector where we have our 3rd brake light

Tidied it up as an interim, but not too much as I know that the clam will come off later…

Result, Accusump now working! Pre charged to 20 PSI and it now fills, and discharges when the fuel pump is primed exactly as needed

I found info on the Accusump a real challenge, but got there in the end

[philcool 153]

Thanks for taking the time good info

[MrP_ 289]

@philcool the fun pulling apart bits are to come I promise!

[MrP_ 289]

Right, the downsides:

I already knew the splitter had been repaired, fine from a distance but was not perfect, good to keep as a spare but I knew a new one would be ordered

 

 

 Paint had plenty of stonechips, but nothing odd for a low car that has been on runs with other groups for the past few years.

 

  

I started planning out the suspension refresh. The arms were filthy by I knew under there would be surface rust, and the bushes whilst seeming OK would need a refresh soon as they were 10 years old.

Faced with the option of leave as is run it for a few years in its grubby state or make mint and get it exactly as I wanted. I was all set to say that I was going to do the former, not worry and just enjoy it as it was already grubby.

I then started the deep clean underneath so see what I was really dealing with. Wheels off liners out I scrubbed and rinses for a few hours. Tons of mud and crap were all over the drive. 

I would like at this point to show you a gleaming set of suspension, but in reality what I found under all the years of mud  was this:

 

 

 That’s right, surface rust over all the wishbones but also subframe. On  the Cup260 the subframe is not galvanised, it was essentially painted to save weight and I presume an early owner was based near the coast (found more clues later) and it just had salt hanging around it. Leaving that mess above. It was only surface rust and much could be chipped away but it looked hideous and I knew it would need sorting long term...

I was gutted at this point and felt a right idiot, I should have scrubbed under the dirt when looking at it and not got all excited. I had planned for it to be a bit of a job, but this felt like it would become a career. Lesson learnt, but I knew that I was now going to have to throw some cash at this…

Now had to work out what to do next. I put the car away thinking I'd made a terrible mistake and grabbed a bottle of rum…

Trying to be positive the non steel bits were cleaning up great, but I'm clutching at straws to be positive 

[Neal H 864]

Back in 2012 I bought a 2007 2-11 which I had stripped and completely refurbished and resprayed. The wishbones looked far worse than that! It’s only surface rust though and following refurbishment they looked like new again. It may take some effort to get it immaculate but it will be worth it, that’s a fantastic and rare car and will only appreciate in the future.

[MrP_ 289]

@Neal H Yep I know everything is fixable and to be honest it could be ignored at that level as its just surface rust. 

Wishbones  were already expected no matter what I was finding as it 's a ten your old car, the bad bit was the subframe needing to come out. You could treat in situ and cover it up, but not really my style to cover up a problem, I either fix properly and make it better than new or annoy myself  until I go with the fix properly option

This threads is in catch up to the current time, so I know we're  well on the path to recovery, its not going to turn into a sob story!

 

[Neal H 864]

Excellent. I look forward to future instalments 

[scotty435 1,024]

On 08/01/2021 at 17:27, MrP_ said:

So I thought I'd do a bit of a thread on my resto build of my Exige MY10 Cup260 - on the v6 area we had a build area, but its not something that seems to be here so I thought I'd just put it here. Its always useful for other owners to find what has been done before so they don't need to repeat the same mistakes. 

It's going to be pretty long so will come in chunks.Mods please feel free to move if there is a better place!

First few posts set a bit of scene, so please forgive the wordy elements  - what turned into a pit of a tart up, has turned into a rebuild with no end in sight… 

Anyway long time Exige/Elise owner: Elise Sport160, Exige S1 x2, Exige S2 x 2 and an Exige Sport 350 - there was a bit of gap between the S1's/S2's and the S3. I built the S3 into exactly what I wanted (thread here):

And for whatever reason I never really gelled with it, I loved it and it was a great car - but for me an Exige needs a delicacy about it, and the extra weight of the v6 just lost me that connection. But this isn't an s3 vs s2 debate so I won't dwell on it too long! At the end of lockdown a chance to sell came up to a very enthusiastic owner and it seemed like the right time, deal was done and off she went

 

So whilst good, I had no idea what to get next. Tried a GT3, lovely but too fast on the road, but I will get one on day though. Atom was always something I fancied, but I tried one and it was clear it was not something I would use enough (couldn't take wife or kids on a day out sort of thing), S1 Elise to get back to basics, Caterham, anyway lots were suggested, but nothing was fitting the bill. The Exige is pretty rare in that its fun, connected, but still practical you can drive on the motorway in the rain and its fine - not many fun weekend cars do that without being in the supercar category.

So after all that I just thought why not get an S2 again, it was always my favourite and the one I have in my head in terms of feel - so why not just get another one and build what I want. Build it as a keeper and with the demise of the petrol car it would be a possible keeper for life - so I started looking… For those of you that have tried to do the same recently, the number of Exige S2's on the market has shrunk massively, and their price increased massively.  So kept waiting for the right one to come up whilst working on the build I would do once I found the suitable car, nothing menta or cutting edge, l just building exactly what I wanted: Roughly these were:

 - Mint bodywork, which I suspected would be a full respray

 - Plenty of carbon: Big scoop roof, access panels, boot lid

 - Decent manifold, sports cat, exhaust

 - 260 map, TRD etc

 - 3way suspension, full refresh suspension on bearings , forged wheels

 - Decent interior, retrim throughout, carbon seats

 

After looking at a couple of cars (just due to lack of volume) it was becoming clear that my version of a well looked after car, and everyone else's seemed wildly different so I thought I'd give up on my idea of an S2 and that would be that. Then a MY10 Cup260 came up, I car I meant to buy but moved to the states, and frankly had never seen one come up for as long as I can remember. Long story short: got tempted, wife told me to have a look, we trotted off to have a look.

For those that don’t know the Cup260 was a pretty special model with some of the following features:

 - Carbon Roof

 - Carbon tailgate

 - Carbon access panels

 - Carbon parts in rear clam

 - Carbon side ducts

 - Carbon splitter

 - Carbon spoiler

 - Carbon Dash/Vents/Side sills

 - Carbon Seats

 - Forged wheels (lightest at the time)

 - Lightweight subframe

 - Lightweight flywheel, uprated clutch

 - Lightweight bulkhead (no window)

 - Lightweight supercharger pipes

 - Accusump

 - Additional sheer panel to increase lateral stiffness

 - Ohlins 2 way remote reservoir dampers

 - AP 4 pots

+lots of other bits

 

Found it looking like this:

 

Pretty good for a 10 year old car, felt pretty special but still the S2 that I remembered. I had seen several people refer to the car in question as 'mint', 'immaculate' etc so went with high hopes - it was not beaten up at all, but plenty of stonechips, suspension needed a refurb (but pickup points all good just normal lotus suspension).

Eventually we came to a deal with me knowing I would be essentially taking on a project. The car was loved and it was used, it was not kept in a bubble, but I know that I want my cars mint so pretending that I wouldn't go down that route.. It certainly was a world away from immaculate in my eyes - a winter project awaits

For a cup it’s a slight more road spec, so doesn't have external cut-offs, or A-frame but does have Airbags and a Radio. Apparently if you wanted the radio you had to have the airbags at the time (loom change) and you lost the external cut-offs. They also deleted the A-frame as you can't fit the cage that attaches to it with the airbags. 

As said deal agreed and after checking for really serious damage I was on my way, ready for a deep clean and see where we were

Downsides were mainly cosmetic so in a heart over head decision I went for it….

 

Been on a few runs with your new 260 always looked stunning and like you say the previous owner was not scared to use it congratulations on your new purchase. Looking forward to seeing the results of your refresh. A very special car

[MrP_ 289]

Right time to fix all of this...

After a good clean I could really assess the paintwork: overall, its a car thats been driven but not abused.

Stone chips all over the front, sills more than chipped, most of the lacquer was missing, stone chips on lower edge of all door, arches chipped to buggery, odd chips to the rear clam, and someone had burnt through the lacquer on the driver’s door polishing out a stone chip I presume.

Various not great pics:

 

 

 

 

 

None of this really fazed me as this bit was in the plan to fix and fix properly, and with paintwork being my thing I knew that I had to get it perfect - the only way would be a respray, the sheer volume of stone chips meant that it would be beyond viable to touch in. In my head I was now thinking of taking it from good to perfect, just need to find the right bodyshop.

New carbon splitter arrived though - so I'll mark that down as progress!

 

I also started playing with a bit of paint correction, just to see how correctable the non chipped paint was

Before

 

After

 

Nothing special and a long way from being refined, but gave me a bit of confidence if I couldn’t get the Bodyshop sorted I could refine the paint pretty quickly

50/50 of wing, most of the carbon is in good nick. Clearcaot is much the same as paint hardness wise, which is different to the Sport350 as Prodrive made the carbon for those, so the clear is much harder than the lotus paint

 

 

 

[MrP_ 289]

So from here on in stuff actually gets fixed/improved, so less of a focus on the bad bits, more of a focus on the fun bits

With the world being what it is plan had been put on hold like many. What was meant to be a year of less corporate work and more car stuff doing more and more detailing, turned into an all hands to the pump working two jobs at the same time to meet client needs - meaning I had zero time, but I still needed to get this car sorted.

At a minimum I needed subframe off, and either replaced with a new coated one, or blasted and recoated

Suspension refurbed to shiny wishbones, replace consumables such as bushings with a few upgrades - basically get another  10 years

As I knew if I was doing this at night and at weekends, I would likely die/end up living in a shed due to my actual jobs workload and my family's patience would start to wear a bit thin. The only alternative was stepping away from work to do it myself, but if I don't work I don't get paid so if outsourcing it was cheaper that’s what I would have to do.

I spoke to a couple of places, but [email protected] seemed to be about the best fit. Others I know trusted him to the point they toss him their keys and trust  him, so it felt like a good fit.

So whilst concocting all the bits I wanted doing I took it to Ollie to see if it was viable or if my winter would indeed be knee deep in rusty suspension parts…

Standard Phoenix gallery shot as it always looks good there, Brian the Dog doing his usual inspection, she looks good from above too!

While suspension, clam and bits were off I decided to do a few other bits. Plan I agreed was:

• Subframe off, blast and recoat - then we'll coat it throughout with ACF-50 to aid rust prevention and I don't drive in salt, so hoped to get 10 more years out of it
• Strip all suspension, blast, zinc, powdercoat and clearcoat
• Move to Nitron Spherical Bearings
• OEM Ball joints
• New Drop Links
• New Trackrod ends
• Replace all bolts etc
• Upgraded engine mounts
• Remove, replace various brackets with stainless or blasted and coated where needing to remain 
• Replace main rad with ProAlloy rad
• Replace Aircon rad with Pro alloy rad

I also had a chat with [email protected] Motorsports (https://www.raceshocks.uk) about refurbing dampers (cup260 runs 2 way adjustable remote reservoir Ohlins), his advice was if adjusters still firmly clicked we were all good, and there is no leaking then no refurb needed needed. The were last done 5k miles ago so it seemed to make sense

Knowing we had a plan in place I thought I'd enjoy the car a bit lockdown was being relaxed so we took a drive out to see what she was like when I wasn't trying to find fault. As always North Wales provided stunning roads and views

It was bloody brilliant, so I was pretty happy overall despite the setbacks I had started seeing, so a chance for some pretty pics. 

 

I've probably driven this car more in the first few weeks than I did in a year for the Sport350, so I am definitely gelling with this car much more

 

  

[duncx 100]

Lovely car and a great thread, I will be watching with interest

Like Scotty I know the car (and previous owner) well, it's been on quite a few of the MLOC runs in the Peak District, it's been well loved but used as intended!

One question, when you have it in truly perfect condition will you be brave enough to drive it? I hope so

[MrP_ 289]

@duncx cheers! Of course it’ll be used, she’ll share run out duty with the M5 (an epic mind blowing car in it’s own right) but track days will be all Cup this year I’d imagine.

 She’s going to be a long way from a daily but that was never the aim, I’ve got another car more suited to manky conditions 

[scotty435 1,024]

Chasing a 260 Cup down before cows stop play.

[MrP_ 289]

That explains the coating of cow dung I kept finding! That really is the gift that keeps giving !

[MrP_ 289]

Actual progress... After dropping the car off at Ollies  and after what felt like a lifetime (it wasn’t but anything more than a few hours without the car feels a lifetime)  the car started coming together…

So off to Phoenix and after a few weeks I found this:

Things are suddenly looking shiny!

Massive improvements so feeling much happier

After going through the dampers after they were off the car, in the end decided to get them rebuilt, I had one bump adjustor no longer clicking and you don't do one corner at a time - so the rather costly exercise of rebuilding all 4 was completed… 

Ohlins are bloody expensive to refurb but I had to keep as a CUP 260 needs them I may replace later and keep them in a box, who knows. Main frustration was keeping them as any future owner would expect them, as I'd normally upgrade and think damper tech has moved on. But I'll refurb and then may change later knowing I have them sitting in a box for a future owner. 

Whilst at it I had increased scope after time so in addition I had added:

• Spitfire Toelinks and a chassis brace
• Dampers rebuilt as already said
• Also added a ProAlloy long range tank
• Added Baffled Sump (I need temp take off for later, plus belt and braces for oil starvation issues)
• Fans replaced
• Heater box refurbed/cleaned - generally dig out 10 years of mank that exists under the clam.
• Swapped out resister pack while it was out (didn't need doing but the hard part was done)
• Add two pots to the rear (plenty more brake upgrades to come later so its an interim measure
• All brake lines replaced for HEL items