Hi all

[dj2038]

Hi all,

I'm Dave from West Bromwich and have been lurking on here a while and decided it was time to say hello.

I bought a rather shabby 89 / 90 Esprit SE Turbo Chargecooler last year and since then have had a shedload of work done to it in order to get her back to showroom condition.

Started off with a major service, brake upgrade, gear linkage mod, suspension tweek & pretty much everything mechanically put to rights.

She's now stripped down to the guts and most of the way through a complete respray to get her back to the original Lotus Red instead of the nasty faded pinkish colour that it had turned through excessive exposure to the sun. I last saw her today minus boot, bonnet, doors, roof and lights but at least back to her original colour.

Can't extend enough thanks to Mike & Wendy at Horizon Motorsports in Cradley Heath for pointing me in the right direction in regards to the mechnical aspects of what to do and what not to do and for making a stunningly good job of the respray.

If anyone is interested I have kept a photo diary of the works starting from the condition I picked it up in and (so far) ending at the 60% completed respray and rebuild.

Compliments on an excellent site and an excellent resource for those of us daft enough to want to plow our hard earned into these beautiful cars.

Regards

Dave

The car so far

[Bibs]

Welcome to the forum as an active member Dave.

I am positive we'd all love to see the work done so far, from beginning to now and well done on ressurecting your car. Hope to see you on a hoon soon

[fmxa]

Hello and welcome Dave!

She's going to look stunning once complete!

[Mark Blanchard]

Welcome Dave,

Good to hear another Esprit is being brought back from the grave .

[sbarc]

Welcome!!! I'd love to see the link to more pics....the new paint looks stunning. gotta love the shine on a freshly painted car.

[oneshot]

Dave

Welcome from someone who was born in West Bromwich. When you finally get her back on the road you will have to hook up with the North Midland Esprit Group. See the events section for the next meet - you could turn up without the car and meet the people.

I still regularly visit West Brom so if you want to meet up - drop me a PM.

[SE Owner :-D]

Welcome Geeza,

I hope it was all worth it?

I would love to see all the pics and know how much of the hard earned it has cost in total - unless you are keeping all that private?

Well done for keeping us informed and having the nuts to take it all on in the first place!

Rog

[esprit350]

Hi,welcome to the mad house, please do come to the next North Midlands Esprit Group meet (NMEG) see event section

we welcome owners and enthusiasts with or with out cars

our next meet is in FEB a run up to Oulton Park to meet some other Esprit owners

Howard

[Tim in Belgium]

Hi there,

Bet you can't wait to get her back on the road, have you set yourself a launch date, or just when it's finished?

Tim

[dj2038]

Many thanks for all the kind words so far, it's great to have somewhere to come to glean advice and discuss matters.

As for the launch date, it's more of a "when it's finished" than a set date, as long as it's before the good weather reappears I'll be happy, I learned in the "early" days that they can be very unforgiving when the roads are wet or greasy (sideways power slides down dual carriageways when you remember that it has a quite powerful turbocharger tends to focus the mind!)

I'll be putting the pictures together shortly and will publish them all together.

Costs so far haven't been astronomical, but not cheap either. I paid 6.5K for the car initially, have spent about 2K on it mechanically with probably another 1K to go for the last upgrades I want doing and then around 2K eventually for the strip down respray, powder coating of the wheels and a few other cosmetic refurbs that I want doing.

So, altogether probably 11.5K - 12K for a car that (should!) look like new, drive better than new due to the mechanical upgrades and will fulfill a dream I have had since I saw that exact model and colour as new nearly 17 years ago.

Personally I think 12K for a car that was drawing admirers on car parks even whilst it was still that nasty faded pink colour, had a blowing exhaust, wouldn't go into reverse or 2nd, wouldn't let me into the boot (bonnet? always confuses what to call the back bit when the lump sits in the middle!) and had brakes that bad that I was better off holding my hands out of the window and allowing the drag of my palms to slow me down, a damn good deal.

Going by that precedence, I'll be beating them off with a stick once it emerges looking like it's just rolled off the production line

Once again, thanks for the welcomes and you can be sure to see me at some of the meetings once she's back on the road

Regards

Dave

Edited January 14, 2006 by dj2038

[esprit350]

Once again, thanks for the welcomes and you can be sure to see me at some of the meetings once she's back on the road

Regards

Dave

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Dave you dont have to have your car on the road to come along to a meet, we should be able to find you a passenger ride in one of our cars if you come to a NMEG meet

Howard

[Kimbers]

Hi and welcome to the den of .....well us blokes who just sit around and talk about cars, lotus's, cars....ermm Esprits, occasionally Elites and Europas.....cars.............anyone got a life? seem to have misplaced mine!

[WayneB]

Hi West Brom Dave, welcome to the forum

Looks like a nice job your doing on the car B)

Kinda interesting to see the stevens era car guys getting into restoring their cars now they are getting old

As a Giugiaro owner , I have already been there, done that and bought the postcard

[dj2038]

Hi all,

been a while since I last posted, to be honest I'd forgotten all about you all I got that wrapped up in finishing the car after I'd originally posted that I forgot that I'd registered!

Many thanks to Oneshot for dropping a card through my door the other day after spotting the Esprit on the driveway, this reminded me that I had forgotten to conclude the story!

"Lois" is now back on the road in her full glory, although obviously she is in hibernation at the moment thanks to our great British weather and my desire to both continue breathing AND to face in the correct direction on the roads.

Anyway, here's a selection of the photos up to her being parked on the drive waiting to be wintered. Did try to put them in the gallery but for some reason it won't recognise my user name Will be looking at getting a lot more involved come the driving months, so hopefully I'll bump in to some of you then.

[matk]

Can't believe you kept quiet while you did all that work. Well done! Look forward to seeing you and car in the future.

[talon]

Looks like new!

[andydclements]

Looks very different paint finish to what you'd expect on a 17 year old car, so that's a fantastic plus point, and the engine& transmission being photographed while out of the car is frighteningly common (does that say something about the cars, or maybe the owners?).

Well done in doing the restorations, so by the "car waiting to be wintered" I assume you don't plan to go ice dancing with it for the next few months? With it looking that good I don't blame you.

Andy

[oneshot]

Hi

Glad you got the card - The car looked superb in the flesh although the weather wasn't that good at the time!

It was actually my wife who spotted the car first and she told me about it. So I thought I would pop a card through your door.

The NMEG bunch meet all the year round - our next meet is December 16th (See the events section). We are going to a dogs home and then on for a meal. You are most welcome to join us even if you don't bring the Esprit - there will be spare seats available.

[iainskea]

Nice job! - she looks great.

Iain

[esprit350]

come alomg to the next NMEG meet, as Dave says with or without car,,, and its a dogs rehoming center not a dogs home ...please