Exige Cup260 - Restoration and some tweaks

[MrP_]

Carpets are all cut to order (allegedly) I think it was 5 weeks. 
 

Lotus parts supply is as bad as ever at the moment, if I get anything under a month it feels like next day with Lotus!

Rear bulkhead carpet is meant to have a cable bracket riveted on top as part of the factory install, so you’ll have to cut around and velcro. Not a problem and very obvious when you are there just thought worth mentioning 

[MrP_]

Still waiting on Decals so I can get the car back (hopefully resolved in the next 24 hours) so more trimming fun! This time the rear speakers, these (as most probably know) are to drop the speaker back out the way of the harness bar.

Getting used to it now, material stretched glued and held in place

 

All done

 

Thought I'd prep the dash with the new speakers. I am throwing in Focal 100AC's, last time I used PC100's but they were too brittle sounding, being reflected off the screen into your face. I know some would say I should delete the speakers but 1: I don't want to, and 2: the dash has already been cut by Lotus for the speakers from the factory and as its a different design to the normal dash the normal blanking panels won't fit

 

I'll be mounting them in foam baffles as the speakers are not infinite baffle, will give a mountain more mid bass than infinite baffle

 

To make fitting easier I made speaker extenders going through the foam. All mounted ready to go, with gaskets on the basket so seals up nicely

 

Foam baffles provide better base and some insulation against vibrations.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[TonyKL]

On 16/02/2021 at 13:40, MrP_ said:

I am throwing in Focal 100AC's, last time I used PC100's but they were too brittle sounding, being reflected off the screen into your face.  

Very nice!  I'm wondering whether to fit the PC range over the AC range in my new lotus.  Do you think there is a winner between the two and also an improvement installing the baffles?

[MrP_]

@TonyKL as with all sound stuff its very subjective. Last time I went with the PC100's and they were more HiFi and had better dynamic range. But they did just have this sharp edge that couldn't quite be taken out with EQ. Using the sub it made up for it, so was perfectly workable but they had a harshness that the AC range didn't have when I'd used them in the past.

Certainly I didn't feel it was worth the upgrade going to the PC range, even though its only about £30 difference

Baffle wise I would say it is an improvement, previously I had done it with Dynamat, but its not an ideal material and the baffles seemed much neater. The speakers aren't infinite baffle so it does make a difference, but its not going to double bass or anything like that

Being honest the dash is still sitting in my living room to be able to validate the changes, but I am hopeful that the baffles have beefed it up and it won't have the harsh high end. Should be able to test in the next week or so

Only other thing to add is the PC100 have lower tweeters height wise, so I used the factory grills with those. But using the 100AC's they are a bit higher and I needed to use the focal grills which aren't as good looking in my opinion 

[TonyKL]

28 minutes ago, MrP_ said:

Only other thing to add is the PC100 have lower tweeters height wise, so I used the factory grills with those. But using the 100AC's they are a bit higher and I needed to use the focal grills which aren't as good looking in my opinion 

Thanks, I fitted the AC100/AC130 in my current V6 and remember the faff it was fitting in the dash, can't actually remember how things ended up (it's that long ago I drove the car!) but the fitted well in the end.

[MrP_]

A short one but a major step - paint is done!

All looking good, it was a process that I'm sure many would say was overkill but as mentioned it was very stone chip heavy, sills had no clear left, someone had burnt through the drivers door clear coat etc

So I went for the full works everything removed all grills out, most seals replaced etc etc - end result whilst far from cheap is spot on. It will look fantastic once I detail properly and give it the at final touches. All credit to them, Oakmere did a great job

 

And tucked up in the warm again looking a lot brighter as the sun peaked out (Ignore messy garage)

 

Now I've got it home I can start to put the mountain of parts back in the car and making some progress rather than just doing stuff without the car 

Still waiting on some parts, but next steps are:

• Electrics/cameras/sensors
• Finish retrim and refit interior 
• Tidy up diffuser install (never been happy with it)
• Brake upgrade and calliper repaint
• Refinish spare wheels (waiting on tyres, may as well swap up the same time)
• Changes to engine breathing (again waiting on parts)
• A few external tweaks
• Detail
• PPF

Then final touch up and ceramic coating 

Then I should be done for the year, might even drive it but don't want to get ahead of myself

 

[MrP_]

Updates have been a bit slow after getting the car back, a number of reasons work as always these days is silly busy, lots of family stuff going on with a fair bit of cancer about as well as a couple of folk trying to end it all early (so far none from either group has caught death yet) - all added up to a stupid plastic car going to the back of the queue and put into the "I can't be arsed bucket!"

That being said the car is all over the garage, the interior has been in the living room since Christmas, roof has now sat next to the sofa for 2 weeks and in general there are piles of stuff that means I just have to crack on and stop wallowing - as its not fair on my missues to have all this crap everywhere.

So, car progress:

After an initial install of cabling pre paint I had tested my bargain smartycam I got, it was having trouble with GPS, and strangely after a while started crashing the CAN network… I could have sensors plugged in but as soon as I plugged in the video recorder knocked out the hubs and sensors - strangely still got CAN signals for the overlay so I could still see revs etc coming from the dash.

After trying all I could I rang Aim and they said send it in for repair, I picked it up as new but not from a retailer  but they'd still fix for £25 plus parts so off it went. I waited about 6 weeks and it had to go back to Italy, got stuck in customs in and outbound due to Brexit customs checks - Aim were very good and said they would push through to get it back to me. 

I kept checking for my bill so I knew it would be on its way, then one day a ring at the door and DHL dropped it off. Aim had fixed for me for free despite not buying from them with no proof of purchase, diagnosed in UK, sent back to Italy for board repair, changed out a bunch of diodes replaced the battery. Only explanation was it shouldn’t have happened here's the test report and that was that! 

 

Quick test of dash and indeed all was well!

 

So all the kit related to the dash that’s going in is this:

 

• Aim MX2E dash, with GPS 08 
• Smartcam HD GP Rev2.2 with bullet cam and mount
• 2 x Datahubs (allowing one in the dash, another in rear of cabin - discount day on Ebay meant it was the same price as cable)
• Expansion hub (allows for sensors
• Engine Oil temp sender
• Engine Oil Pressure sendor
• Various extensions and adaptors

As mention I had already put in cabling pre paint, with audio running through passenger side forthe dash, CAN and video through a small access hold by the steering column

I wasn't happy with it and I wanted to merge with more of the standard loom, so I ripped it all out again. Looked a bit like this:

 

 

In addition to the dash feeds and feed for camera, I needed rear view camera video and power feeds, power signal and audio for a small footwell sub, reverse signal trigger etc

I did think about going through the sill with this stolen pic (cheers to Kyle who gave me this)

 

But with much needed in cabin, I chose to stick going through dash, centre spine and out through existing gromit

After ripping out all the bits I built up a new look to go through my recently discovered access hole:

 

This will follow existing wiring so will look factory and obviously I'll wrap properly

Power will be taken direct from battery and will be given 6 new feeds for +ve and -ve using this

 

I can then take power out for sub, and any other circuits switching with relays and giving dedicated power now stretching factory loom

Signals will be switched with these switch's hidden in the cubbys, they will allow switching of sub, rear video (alowing use as rear view mirror on the motorway etc), and foot cam

 

On the subject of footcam, I picked up these (olfi one.fives) to add to the Smartycam main video so I can create totally awesome videos of me pootling around like a learner driver:

 

Another ebay bargain, well of sorts - it was the 3 cams for 60 quid - one was DOA, another works but I can't access the menu. One does work perfectly so I look at is £60 for a 4k camera plus two cases for much less than the new price so still up. With a spare case I can drill one for a USB feed meaning I can switch on and with it set to power via USB, and start recording as soon as power is on I can just flick the foot cam on and off at will. Main reason for the video is to help me learn, rather than show off (because I am crap so nothing to show off about)

Syncing shouldn't be too hard as I can see brake and accell signals on the Smartycam, so once on a few presses of each pedal should mean a can sync post edit pretty easily

Smartycam bullet cam mount is actually made by RAM, I would have been bitter but with discount it was actually cheaper from Aim than RAM

 

 

 

[MrP_]

Wiring was fed through the dash and has exited with the switchpack wiring - three clusters of cable meant it all fitted - no fouling on anything steering related, exactly as planned

 

 

At the same time I found lots of excess wiring, as my car has airbags they added in the normal non cup loom but left in all the central looking wiring etc, I shortened all that, reterminated and can add back in should it be needed, but I took out a ton of extra bits

At the same time I started adapting a new loom for the stereo. I am adding stalk controls, DAB splitter, and stereo loom. 

As you might have picked up I've not got an issue in adding a few things that make life a bit easier to the car, and after 6 of these cars being used from weekend toys to dailys you start adding a few bits. And if you always wear harnesses, often listen to music and don't have extendable arms then adding some stalk controls for the stereo makes like easier.

If I don’t like I'll do another version of the shroud with out it.

Here is another example on my 350

 

With all the looms going together I would have:

Factory ISO Loom > Modified ford loom to integrate stalk control>back to ISO loom> Iso back to Pioneer loom - wilst adding dab spliter and various take offs

Start off with these premade interfaces and some naked ISO blocks:

 

 

Instead I made my own loom going from ISO to Pioneer whilst adding stalk control box (works on resistance signal for button control), take offs for dash lights (needed for a few circuits later), trigger for sub, rear camera power, reverse signal etc

 

Ford stalk was modified for both mounting an integration with loom

 

 

 

[MrP_]

Now that I'd decided to move the switches down for the dash into the shroud, I thought I'd look to building out the shroud on the steering column. 

I showed wiring earlier, but I need to create a bit of shelf, access for cabling, as well as adding switches for the dash. 

First whack on a load of filler to start building out the side. As its so easy to shape, I just chuck a load of layers on and cut back freehand later

Filler added, Rough sand and offer up stalk

 

Putty and colour coat for proper shaping

 

Final shape, colour makes it look like the radius is sharp on the edge, but it’s the same radius:

 

Then on to trimming will fit stalk later, initial trim

 

Starting to mount properly down

 

Switches for dash control being put together, will build the other end of the harness later. Pinouts for connection are as follows

 

 

 

This is what the rear of the dash looks like if anyone wants to see

 

Switches are via Binder 712 4 pin, expansion (sensors, camera, GPS) is via Binder 712 5 pin, and Front and Rear Cameras is via Binder 712 5pin - I'm not using the Rear view via dash as you can’t have it on whilst the dash is on so you can't use it as a rear view mirror when driving

Switches in the left do screen up and down, on the right, enter and exit

 

Mounted in the shroud

 

 

Wiring Terminated to go from my switches to the 4 pin 712 Binder connectors

 

 

[MrP_]

Back to in cabin wiring (exciting eh!)

Cables were all through dash and now taped up to match OEM.

It follows existing wiring that I had already pulled apart so wouldn’t be obvious. Like most wiring I just had to measure up the various take offs spurs would be as follows

• Start at dash
• Break out to underdash for live, remote turn on, dash lights signal, 
• Break out of signals to sub (audio, power turn on, remote control)
• Down central tunnel
• Break out for AIM data hub before remerging with power, video feeds and engine sensors into engine bay

Various spurs out of it added

 

Routed so I can change gear cables later and done! It may seem a really small thing but just having the centre console back in place has made a huge difference, it suddenly feels like a real car again and less like an unfinished POS.

Back to this with a bunch of wires coming out the back

 

Under the dash I'll be adding USB power for the camera using this:

 

As part of the dash setup I mentioned earlier I have a data hub for the dash allowing splitting of the CAN signal, this allows connecting of the Smartycam to allow GPS send and data overlay, and also the Expansion hub which is needed to add sensors so these have all needed to be found homes for. 

First up was the Smartycam record, I have 1m, 2m and 3m cables made up meaning I hade more options made up to place the recorder away from the camera. My first thought was to place the recorder on the treadplate so I could just reach over and switch on and off

But when I placed the seat back in I find out goes really far forward! And if my wife was driving, pulled the seat forward and smashed the box, well that would be another shortcut to an argument!

 

All the way back then each side of the hip there is space, the inside is take by the centre console but there is space over your right hip

 

So rear wall area was decided on for SmartyCam - it should be fired by dash, but I can just scrunch around to see it. Most report it fit and forget

Then Datahub was mounted on opposite side of the cabin. I decided to do this in case I had to quickly plug something in, or pull something out - Didn’t seem any harm in keeping it accessible if needed

The expansion hub, I originally mounted in the boot by the battery, routed through engine bay and into cabin. My thinking was it was watertight, and I could easily add more sensors later…

But the downside I figured after putting the cabling in, was it was hidden in the loom for camera power etc, so if I needed to pull the clam - I have to take out the bulkhead trim, pull apart the loom, pull the cable (basically the connector was at the wrong on of the loom compared to normal boot wiring)

So after installing it all, I took it all out again and started again before settling on this, which means I only need to do the normal wiring push through and accusump disconnect to take rear clam off

Expansion for sensors is on main bulkhead then sensors go through grommet into Engine bay, Data hub is lower down by passengers left hip

 

Then both sides with SmartyCam on the drivers side along with sub controls, hubs on passenger side and camera connector routed up to interior light run as they will exit around the same point (not going to follow harness bar, too much increase on cable snagging)

 

As you can see everything is now taped up and put into position, so keeps the OEM feel even though I hope to never need to look again!

Next up was more tarting up, sub looked like this (small but ugly) - It will be kept in for road, but removed in about 30 seconds for track so no need to get all pedantic about weight

 

But like this pulled apart

 

Then carpeted and it will be lost against the carpet already in place

 

Weight is not much more that the footrest I removed (too short for me, to far away for wife, plus I use the car to escape the world so rarely want a passenger:)) 

 

 

[MrP_]

The interior door handle had been mounted cack handed after respray, so was hanging off at the front, looked like this - maybe not too many would notice but annoying I keep finding these bits

 

Upon removing it was clear it hadn’t stuck first time so they just shoved more on

 

Trimmed it all out and will rebond

 

I've also found various other areas that are less than impressive like poorly fitting seals and paint defects needing wet sanding- frustrating as hell after all that money but at the minute easier for me to fix than face the fight of what's 'acceptable' combined with having to take the car back sort lifts etc. I just have too much going on at the moment

Defects amount to poor denibbing so I can resolve generally, but I'd hoped to not have to be wetsanding the car - at present it is looking like quite a few spots of wetsanding, removal of those plus bodyshops sanding then pretty much a two stage polish.

Defects are hard to spot and balancing a camera with inspection lights etc makes it hard to photograph as the only chance I get to look at the car is post midnight due to work (much easier to highlight defects in the day, but strangely harder to find) - if I can't remove I'll document, otherwise I'll just show the wider detail later

 

[MrP_]

As all the carpets were replaced, most of the interior retrimmed etc there wasn't much to clean, but the seats needed doing. 10 years of farts are never a good thing to have in your seats

With my seats I can just rip the cushions out as they are velcroed in

 

Wet and drying drivers seat only produced this concentrated ass juice

 

I repeated until it ran clear, then did the same for passenger seat

Then all carpets were removed, interior as well as boot and treated

 

Using Gtecnhniq smart fabric

 

If doing this, spray onto sheeting of a box, as if you get it onto hard floors, you basically create the slipperiest floor known to man. Your wife then falls over, spills her wine and your evening is ruined

I also got some custom made floor mats, as I needed long passenger after removing the footrest plus I wanted the logo

 

Now testing all the cabling properly (continuity testing etc was done but best to trial fit kit), before interior starts to get refitted. Waiting on new harnesses and some retrimming of the hard bits I outsourced, but those bits are with a COVID hit trimmer who has been hit hardso my material and trim are stuck at his for the time being!

[MrP_]

Yet more dull as wiring - progress is still slow and taking place in the wee small hours, so I'm just trying to nibble away at it…

Test fit of the dab stereo went badly, not a single station found on FM or DAB, very very frustrating. Refiting old stereo to prove I had a faulty unit and that worked fine on FM - FML!!

Until I unplugged the arial on the old head unit and it carried on, it appeared to make no different to radio reception if the arial was unplugged or not… So it was broken somewhere.

Thankfully I found the break at this connector under the front access panel - replaced that and all was well again 

 

Created an extension harness enabling me to switch off the sub and rear view camera

 

Under dash wiring now tidied up trying to make sure of no rubbing or annoying rattles

 

One thing I noticed when testing the AIM dash is that the logic of lights on buzzer doesn't make sense, if you have the key in light on and open the door, you get a ping. If you take the key out you don't. They may fix it in firmware, but they might not so I thought I should fix myself, but I needed to make it bypassable as I still can't work out if I should out the AiM dash in or not!

Lights on pinger bought:

 

Then wired in with two bypass switches - the first defeats it completely, so running the OEM dash I can just forget (seemed sensible as two buzzers are annoying), then a second to add defeat if ignition on allowing you to open a door with the engine on and it not skwark at you . Switches added here:

 

You can also see a third switch and LED in that pic, that turns on the USB power for footcam and LED tells me when its on. Camera is set to auto switch on with USB, and start recording at switch  on. 

Then panel in position

 

Looking messy, and I found an old seat cushion from one of those bouncy ikea chairs makes laying in the footwell much more comfy (but not really easy to extract from)

 

Various bits of wiring about to be hidden under dash

 

Programmable relay added for wipers  - allows you to programme wipe interval from 1 - 40 secs (utterly pointless, car doesn't really see rain)

 

Wiring all taped up and hidden

 

Access hole cut in case for Footcam, pre neaten up, allowing camera to be hardwired - I could have gone frame case but I had this one spare and it worked so why not

 

Footcam now in place:

 

And the final monumental piece was the dash was put in - after removing just before new year, my car finally has its dash back in!!

 

 

Still waiting for my vents and dash binnacle to be trimmed, trimmer is ill so both the spare parts and the material is trapped at his - worst comes to the worst I stay with the black plastic versions I retained (I knew getting spares had merit)

Shiny new harnesses arrived yesterday, but with the wrong buckle -so they are being picked up tomorrow and wait for another set to come from Germany

 

[MrP_]

Toyo UK finally got stock of 205 fronts on the R888r so I have a full set at last - now I have these I can take my spare wheels to be refinished - just booked them in for drop off! 

 

These are the wheels in question,  I'm sure I posted about them in the past but for those that missed it

 

They will be refinished Lotus OEM colour, Hi Power Silver - it’s a layered paint process by Feilacke so will be getting Radar wheels in manchester do it. Heres the finish on an Elise to show the look I hope will come out against the red, hopefully I get the same effect

 

[MrP_]

Righ,t boot was a bit of a mess - I had done an initial tidy up when I got the car, but knew I wouldn't do it properly until the car was back from paint due to rear clam coming off and all the cabling and oil pipe having to be dragged through

As I mentioned before I found deposits of oil in the carpet, so I knew the Accusump had been a bit leaky at some point…

After speaking with Canton they thought it would be the pressure release valve - if you keep pumping full of oil and don’t' dump it, pressure will rise and it will mist oil. When I got my car I found the Accusump wasn't actually wired in in terms of the release valve, so this seems to have been what was happening. Oil kept being added but the valve did not allow it to release so before it blew it released pressure.

As a precaution I changed the control solenoid valve and pressure switch anyway, this is the switch and solenoid in question, library pic as I can't find the pics I took of replacing

 

I didn't really know how the Accusump worked before I looked into so here is an explanation if you are really bored, only reason I mention it is several people have just said to rip it out - but I quite like its simplicity now I understand it. I thought it might be useful when people are trying to work out the point of them

The Accusump is just a simple syringe which fills with oil and has a spring (air in this case), oil is pushed in by the engine under normal running and the spring is compressed

 

When the oil is needed due to low pressure in the engine, the valve is opened and the oil is dumped back into the engine to prevent starvation

 

This is an augmented view of the Accusump showing the air spring against the 'syringe' head

 

When the Accusump is completely empty you need to precharge the system, effectively providing the spring to push against the oil, so the dial even when empty will show about 15PSI

Here is an actual Accusump pulled apart:

 

So under normal operation the oil pumps around and slowly (well within a few secs) fills the tank, so apart from needing an extra litre of oil on fillup you don't notice it

 

When low oil pressure coming after the pump is detected, the signal is given to the valve to release the oil and it dumps it back into the fuel circuit, a check valve prevents it flowing back to the sump

 

And that’s it really, it also does this just before start up so the engine is preoiled, this is the main reason I have retained it. That and the kids still think I have a can of NOS in my boot after watching the documentary Fast and Furious

In the future I may add a T piece on the pressure guage to put in a sendor, then I can use this to run a guage on the dash so I can seen when I am empty - this is clearly in pointless nerd territory, but then so are most of the changes I made…

Heres and example of the setup I plan to copy

 

 

School lesson over, carpets and mounting brackets all stripped out and cleaning began

 

Looms were stripped of felt tape as some were either gummy, or had a some oil - all were stripped then retaped so it was all OEM looking again, wiring itself was all good so no issues to report

 

Battery mount was looking a bit tired:

 

So was wetsanded and polished:

 

Wiring like the alarm switch was tacked in properly, not used gaffa tape like Lotus thought would do

 

For those that want to know, here is the Accusump routing out of the boot, the mirror of the wiring harness, and you can also see the reinforcement plate for the wing that I wondered it it existed, it does

 

I need a new can of tyre gunk as mine is 10 years old looking at the date, so doubt I can rely on it

Carpets that are now protected, replaced, and trimmed the wheel arches as they just had primer so looked crappy rather than 'because racecar', power feed to cabin added - the yellow and blue cables are camera and reverse signal routed from cabin and will be wired in shortly and hidden out of sight like the rest of the cables

 

 

[MrP_]

Wheels now back colour looks good, the milling in the spokes show up well which is exactly what I was trying to how up v's the black wheel

Here they are under daylight:

 

3500k light

 

5500 light

 

So they appear to have a bit of life to them. I'll let them settle for a few days, then properly inspect then hopefully coat them…

Rear Bulk head cover  was reinstalled, but of a bugger being a bit more bulky with the Alcantara, overall happy with the results - room for improvements no doubt, but dot lift the interior 

 

Bullet cam for the SmartyCam was routed through the bulkhead, need to set up final alignment later

 

The mount as the AiM one but I suspected it was. RAM mount, and on arrival that’s exactly what it was. Here are the part numbers if you want to make up your own kit

 

Interior looking messy again, good news is it all works as was the point of the test so happy in that respect

 

Frustrating that I can't fit the trimmed dash bits as they are still not done, so have gone back to OEM clocks with GPS wired in for smartycam should I want it - I sort of have an overpriced dash cam at the moment, but at least I know and can verify:

• All AiM wiring works, including expansion hubs and Oil Pressure and Temp (although those aren't fitted)
• AiM switches I moved to cowl work perfectly
• All audio and video working works, including video remote, sub remote
• Foot cam remote works including indicator

Basically everything works, so I am now reinstalling it all over the next few nights and put this interior messing about to bed

 

[MrP_]

Bit more trimming

My current steering wheel is the first gen, leather airbag wheel, I was going to get retrimmed but then I got my hands on a Lotus OEM alcantara version for a bargain price (think it was misspriced) so rude not to:

 

Then as I pretty much trim any piece I can unscrew I thought I would try the rear wheel housing as its pretty hard black plastic. I also run a 30mm spacer on my wheel for better fit, and on the OE wheel you have the problem that the spacers are about 1mm too big to get through the rear cover and  it sits on top like this

 

You either machine the extender or wider the hole. As I was trimming anyway I thought I'd slightly expand the hole, and see where if it works., all was good but it was really hard to get it all to flow right in a single piece.

 

Now that was all done I thought I'd fix another problem that comes with a space, the transition between the shroud and the wheel due to the spacer, this is what I am talking about on my old car

 

I run a 30mm spacer, so needed set about making a cosmetic spacer. I have various foams about the place for other jobs so started creating a stack of them the would align with the shroud and I would cut out the middle around the space

Starting the stack:

 

And building it up

 

Done, actual spacer and cosmetic spacer sorted - just need to tidy up a bit and fit to the car

 

[MrP_]

So bank holiday weekend didn't go exactly to plan, it was meant to be 4 days full of car stuff and some nice food. Reality was I was stuck working so it was back to midnight sessions again, really need to sort the new career thing…

Time to get rid of this crappy wheel whilst the rest of the interior goes back in:

 

Usual power down so it doesn’t blow up in my face, and airbag was taken out, just thought I would show it as people seem to not post much on removing the airbag

 

Remove this green tab to release the connector

 

4 bolts to be removed

 

And wheel off

 

Then simply swap the old wheel, for the new wheel and spacer with longer bolts, installation is a bit tighter as the cable is about its limit, you could maybe run a 40mm spacer if you wanted to push it, but cables will be at their max on installation

 

New wheel, spacer and steering shroud done:

 

 

[Bibs]

Big improvement, love an alcantara wheel

[MrP_]

Next up was reinstalling the interior. It took forever to get lined up and neatly installed, but the interim step looked like this:

 

Unfortunately I hit a problem at this stage, the tabs that hold the drivers switch panel and passenger cover panel, both had one broken tab and had to be fixed. Then I found some of the mounting tabs were also snapped. I stupidly didn’t take any pics, but had to rebuild the tabs which delayed things. As the panels were carbon and unique to the car they are not made any more, so I had no choice but to fix..

I won't affix the passenger airbag cover or put in the dash binnacle, as I'm waiting on trimming and as it won't be on the road for a few more weeks it’s a bit pointless wasting the sacrificial tabs. 

Due to Covid apparently I can't get anyone to embroider the Cup260 Logo on material at present! Its been going on months, I finally found somewhere that was going to do it in November but got delayed as they had backlog, by the time they were free lockdown2 came, repeat again then lockdown 3. They will embroider on their own material but not if I supply it due to covid risks, the alcantara has been locked in an airtight back for 4 months now - so if any bugs have survived that it probably deserves to take over the the world. Shorter story is getting custom embroidery is a complete ballache, and I think due to a lack of team sports they are all on furlough or doing corporate gigs only… So I will be trimming in plain alcantara then replacing with logo version later in the year. As with all things I have no issues with people not being able to do stuff, but long drawn out excuses and constant missed deadlines really bug me..

Another delay as I mentioned was harnesses, they had arrived but were wrong buckle. So whilst waiting for another set to be made (which took Schroth 2 months last time) I put in the set that came with the car, also added an alcantara pad to the harness bar where the seat just touches and previously chipped it, so bar was resprayed:

 

Seat subframes were a bit ratty, so I stripped and resprayed:

 

And all done

 

I wanted to keep both 3 points and harnesses, I rarely use 3 points but its nice to have the options, passenger harness will be rarely used but I prefer to have the pair. I am mounting with the Sector 111 kit that is now sold by Seriously Dave and MSAR, it was sitting in the parts bin from a past car as it doesn’t work with the new subframes. I'm sure its been seen a billion times, but here is the kit:

 

Thanks to my seat cushions being velcroed not glued in I made up some more lumbar support pads to try out in the summer, made with 3mm closed cell foam and trimmed with soft carpet

 

The Velcro strips on the other side to match the seats

 

Passenger seat back in for the first time since December:

 

And both seats back in (HANS logos are same colour, it was just I had a 3500k light on the drivers side)

 

 

Head Unit was also properly fitted. I previously used flip screens in other cars, but went for floating screen this time. There are a couple of options out there, from Alpine, Sony and Pioneer with screens ranging from 6.8" screens up to 9" screens. Dimension wise the big 9" screens slightly overlap the airbag cover, which would mean in the event of deployment the pass airbag may not deploy properly or I would find an LCD screen being fired at my face…

So I though I'd go for the smaller screen and picked up a Pioneer SPHEVO62DAB - 6.8" fixed screen, carplay, time correction, crossover, reverse cam etc etc - best of all it came up on ebay for half the price of a new one. Finally fitted back in:

 

I will probably swap to the new version that is about to be released (SPH-EVO64DAB) as it has a skinnier screen and wifi

Stereo will of course have to come out again as I wait on retrimmed airbag cover, centre vents and binnacle - but that’s life I couldn't have it on hold forever. So three more stages to interior:

• Replace airbag cover, centre vents and binnacle with trimmed version
• Seats back out to fit new harnesses and polish inside of carbon roof (I forgot)
• Replace airbag cover with embroidered version when the sewing machine folk start working again

 

[MrP_]

No updates for a while, usual story of work being insane so zero evenings or weekends to do anything, and the car naturally drops down the list.

I will say, for this post if you think a car should be a bit battered and mirror finishes etc are pointless, probably best skip this read

Now the paint had been on for a month or so, I could PPF to protect the main contact areas. I'm not really a fan of the look of PPF being honest, it looks fine from a distance but will never give the shine of naked paint so didn't want to go full car or anything

Before I could PPF I had to prep the paint, I had barely touched the paint but it was obvious the bodyshop had dragged many a dry rag over it, so was swirled to buggery. Also there was many defects as I already mentioned. As the car sits under bright lights, I'll admit some of them you wouldn't see in daylight, but they were still there. Since I've had it back I've been wet sanding theses defects out, some are dust nibs, some a pinholes from too thick lacquer, some even small drips - but its taken weeks to find them all and remove them.

I know I maybe look at it differently as I'm a detailing nerd and want the small defects fixed, plus I look for these things. But I would have been really frustrated if I needed to get someone else to remediate. As it was it just depressed me after all the time and money that went into the car.

Anyway, once all the touch ups and wet sanding was completed (countless hours) I could polish properly for PPF. I was going for full front clam, splitter and access panel, full sills and some bits behind the rear wheels. These would be the areas I'dd focus and get flawless. Doors, roof and rear clam would get a single stage but I'd do them properly later, as I knew I've still got jobs leaning in the engine bay etc

So she looked fine from a distance:

 

And look better with actual light, but harder to find defects being honest. Either way start taping up and spot polishing on the wetsanding areas. You can see in this shot, although it looks shiny, you can see the swirls and light scratches on the outside of the wing. You'll also see the repaired splitter which will be replaced 

 

A view of some of the remaining issues

Sanding marks on the top of the doors:

 

General swirlaramma on the clam:

 

Buffer marks from bodyshop:

 

Even more on the door:

 

Splitter removed, I found this was much easier than doing this on a v6 - which had about 20 bolts, weighed a ton and to do on the floor required you to balance it with your head and foot, whilst bolting it in. Another win for the s2

 

So I now have 3 splitters:  manky GRP, slightly wonky carbon, perfect carbon. I may change for track, but its probably easier to not drive into stuff

 

Actually polishing is the next step

[MrP_]

Onto the proper paint correction, it was a fairly standard approach

I generally use Rupes pads, I doubt they are the best these days (each year sees a new 'game changer'), but like most its easier to get a system working for you and to work around that.

This paint was relatively soft, but the scratches where it had been dry wiped at the body shop were done when the paint was very soft - making it quite hard to remove, but also very easy to inflict fine finishing marks - an extremely frustrating combo.

Anyway combos I used on the car were (as people always ask):

Sanding removal:

Rupes Blue microfibre pad, Menz 400 heavy cut

Defect removal:

Rupes Green Foam Pad, Menz 2500 polish

Swirl removal: 

Rupes yellow pad, Menz 2500 polish

Refinement:

Rupes yellow pad, Menz 3800 polish

I'd always try to go lightest first, but if there we a panel (like the door) that I needed to fix lacquer issues I need to go through 2 or 3 passes of each step

I also use 3ich pads on an LHR75E, I'd prefer to use the long throw LHR21Mk3 as its has a 21mm throw, but its pointless on the exige, the panels are just too small!

Anyway, heres an example panel (pass side wing), during refinement, starting with swirly, going to refined:

 

 

 

I then spent many many hours going through multiple stages on every panel

Here is single stage done on the roof and rear clam and front refined - you can see the overall definition difference on the door which hasn't been done

 

Here are some shots post correction

Front wing now like this:

 

Rear clam:

 

Front Clam:

 

Reflection shot from front clam (all unedited and straight out of phone)

 

Beauty of removable panels is you can take them off and reflect the car on itself

 

Now paint was done I could start adding these stickers TitaniumDan (https://divinehandcraft.co.uk)  made me (which were perfect and would recommend Dan for all your sticker needs, if all suppliers worked to his standard the world would be a better place 😞

 

Wing stickers on

 

All done at about midnight before dropping off to do the PPF, splitter, wing and pods all back on. 

 

I lost an hour at this point when I couldn't find my number plates, it turns out they were under the carpet pads on the floor

[MrP_]

PPF now done and back, pretty happy with the results. I'm never in love with PPF, its shiny but due to its nature  you can't get it utterly insane bonkers

  

PPF was done at Invisifilm in middlewich, good service and good job and very happy with the outcome. Fair to say I had a proper poor mans car, with a Mac 620r being done before me, and various Ferraris, GT3s etc lined up after

Price was very good, but fair to say he'd underquoted me when I booked it, after a slightly shocked face the original price was honoured so all was good. 

Here it is in real life, on a dreary day as it was just about to rain and its still looking good but gives a kind of worst case look on the finish without bright lights or sun, it really does need some bright light to give the punchy colour

 

 

 

Now I need to sticker it up on the rear clam, I thought the silver LOTUS badge looked off. I got Dan to do a black and silver Exige sticker so I had the option

I sprayed up a spare set of LOTUS badges to be gloss black

 

Then mounted in 3M VHB tape (red bits the backing sheet not the tape)

 

So I have the option of OEM badging, but also going all black as I have no other silver bits

I've also sorted the slightly larger intercooler from Proalloy, and the ducting kit. I went with Proalloy as it didn't involve drilling the clam to mount the ducting, so its all fully reversable. Will also be adding the catch cans

 

I would have preferred to add a charge cooler, and I did seriously consider it as I've had the clams off a few times this year, but it was just changes that you couldn't remove, certainly not easily. So although better, this was firmly a nod to not keeping it roughly OEM or at least revertible 

Now the car is back I have quite a few bits to do:

• Rear diffuser polish and tidy up
• Refit trimmed interior
• Rear panel, removal and powder coat or paint (it’s a bit ratty)
• Lightweight handbrake callipers
• Change to floating rotors front and rear
• TRD airbox
• Repaint front callipers (people have been a bit lazy putting wheels on)
• Polish the rest of the car
• Sticker up rear clam
• Ceramic coat
• Rear reverse camera (cabling already roughly in place)
• Plus a million smaller things, and I may drop some from the list depending on how much I can be bothered….

 

[MrP_]

Obviously I've neglected this thread and the car - I haven't really done anything for months to be honest.

I'll be finishing things up, then moving on, times have changed for me so id rather see it being used in a good home not sitting there not being used  - so shout if anyone is after a mint MY10 Cup260

Tried out the wheels, love the look (I'm sure not to everyones tastes) but may never see the road on this car:

 

Anyway, final bits - the panel above the diffuser was Ok, but needed a refresh, it had some marks under the number plate so couldn't go with a smaller plate. Plus you always know its there, its the final bit of not quite right being sorted so feels good knowing the rest is purely for the sake of it rather than it bothers me

 

so a quick rub back and prime

 

Then laid down some paint and let it dry before refitting

 

Rest of the weekend will be to  clean up exhaust, fit diffuser as the carbon diffuser needs a few holes adjusting and the previous owner (or the fitting garage) never did. Then remove some bits from the interior that are no longer needed cameras etc, before a proper rear clam polish

 

[PaulLF1]

I may be interested!

Have you the original Cup wheels in black?