Esprit '88 Turbo stuff

[franjipane]

Starting work on my black Stevens '88 Turbo and i'm looking for a few parts and some advice, any help appreciated 

It drives very well so really looking to finish this nicely. Pics coming soon.

 

Weather seal for sunroof - can't seem to find one except from a V8 in the US, anyone got one they feel like selling?

Seal for front windows, this is leaking into the door, does this need to be like for like or will something from Halfords do the job?  Without removing it entirely i'm not entirely sure...

Side air intake needs a new grill - are these likely to be "Air intake ears" as listed on lotus bits?  And will they fit from a S3 on a X180?

 

Other things I'll be looking at -

New tanks from Axminster specialist panels.

Electrical issue with fans, also battery drains when not running.

Stretch and stitch leather driver side seat

Leather connolising 

Front left headlamp not raising

New (old) steering wheel

Driver door needs a little alignment. 

Painting some panels.

New mirrors - found some

 

 

[franjipane]

Right, found a place that'll do whatever trim/seals i need, i can just email them pictures and they'll post it 

[jonwat]

17 hours ago, franjipane said:

Weather seal for sunroof - can't seem to find one except from a V8 in the US, anyone got one they feel like selling?

Seal for front windows, this is leaking into the door, does this need to be like for like or will something from Halfords do the job?  Without removing it entirely i'm not entirely sure...

Sjsportscars.co.uk sell the weather seal, part number  A082U6123F  & the door seal is  E079U4434F  

[franjipane]

Lovely, thanks John!

[mdw]

The lamp lift motor might need new internals in the wheel box. Does the motor run but not  lift. They have 3 delrin drums that dissolve into a powder. New ones from the net. Woolies for trim and seals. My 88 side air intake only has the grill over the hole in the body not the front of the intake bit ( if you see what  I mean). 

[franjipane]

Thanks Malcolm, i'll check lamps this weekend.

Ordered some trim and a few other bits

I'll take a picture of the air intakes which might make it easier to understand what i've got.

[franjipane]

Axminster Andy has a very long lead time on tanks, anyone got any opinions on the fuel tanks from http://www.espritengineering.co.uk or http://www.sjsportscars.co.uk ?

Lots of rain got in the lamps and elsewhere while i was clearing out the garage, the car is in now and i've drained it all, once it's properly dry tonight i'll test the lamp motor.

Malcolm, here's the left and right side bits i was talking about, with the left side missing the grille.

 

 

[Jacques]

Steve,

I've just redone my headlamp gears. As the others wrote, the 3 nylon rollers inside had perished, Real easy job with quality parts from an American on fleabay, You can get either the new better rollers, or a kit with a new precision made aluminium gear as well. And you can get a kit for one side, or both sides. Get for both sides, as postage are the same, and if you take the other side apart, it will be crushed as well, and fail soon. Eventually, take alook at my thread about Little Red Riding Hood. I think I placed a fes pics there. Take good care when loosening the small bolts that hold the cover on the motordrive, as they are very thin. One side is different from the other, and you need to gently "pursuade" the gear to come out. No problem though. I think the American seller also can deliver some excelent grease for the job.

http://www.thelotusforums.com/forums/topic/67095-the-story-of-little-red-riding-hood/

Cheers,

Jacques.

[johnpwalsh]

8 minutes ago, Jacques said:

Steve,

I've just redone my headlamp gears. As the others wrote, the 3 nylon rollers inside had perished, Real easy job with quality parts from an American on fleabay, You can get either the new better rollers, or a kit with a new precision made aluminium gear as well. And you can get a kit for one side, or both sides. Get for both sides, as postage are the same, and if you take the other side apart, it will be crushed as well, and fail soon. Eventually, take alook at my thread about Little Red Riding Hood. I think I placed a fes pics there. Take good care when loosening the small bolts that hold the cover on the motordrive, as they are very thin. One side is different from the other, and you need to gently "pursuade" the gear to come out. No problem though. I think the American seller also can deliver some excelent grease for the job.

http://www.thelotusforums.com/forums/topic/67095-the-story-of-little-red-riding-hood/

Cheers,

Jacques.

This is what I love about TLF. What other forum gives in depth info like this to most issues on our cars.

[Jacques]

Thanks John, that's the least I can do to say thanks to such an excellent forum and it's members, which saves me lot's of Money, is fun and über helpfull. I mean: what other forum reads a request for cam belt change help, and two members fly out to me and some friends Esprits, change all belts, party and then fly home?  Or what other forums owner drives out and pick up some Esprit parts for me from a seller somewhere in the UK, and pack them all up and ship them to me in Denmark? That's the extent of TLF and it's members. Thanks Guys

So anyone WHO reads this, be a full member and support the Lotus community! They deserve it, you deserve it, and your Lotus deserves it! And you know it

Cheers,

Jacques.

[red vtec]

The air intakes are as they should be no grills.

[franjipane]

Jacques! I just sent the headlamp motor to PNM, hopefully they'll rebuild it for not too much money, shame i didn't catch your reply sooner!  Well, they'll give me an assessment first.

Haven't seen your thread before so i'll have a proper read through that tomorrow morning, scanned the first page and already hooked.

Chris, excellent thanks for confirmation, good to know!

 

I've had a few jobs on the go recently but haven't spent as much time on the car as i would have liked, working long hours, moving house and Christmas has meant i've only spent a few hours a week on it.  Here's what's been happening.

My dad said he rather liked the red interior but for me it's a little garish, so it's going black as the exterior is black and the carpet is grey.

 

Took ages to strip the red back enough to get the black to take properly, went for semi gloss finish, pleased with the results, well worth the time it took (several evenings) Seats and dash to do next, before headlining. using an airbrush made it pretty easy and gives me confidence that i can do the body panels that need paint.  Just a bit of metal paint to go on the ashtrays before going back on the car.

Header tank was looking rough so that was scraped and sanded down, treated for rust and then sprayed with hammerite.

 

And now a newby question, i'm almost at the right hand side fuel tank and need to remove the air intake, looking at the parts diagram it shows a bunch of holes but not the same bolts/fixings as i have.  I'm down to 2 vertical bolts that attach the air intake fibreglass panel to the body, i can get a picture tomorrow. but the bolts are just spinning when i undo them. What do you about spinning bolts on fibreglass panels bearing in mind there are no nuts on the other side.  If i rip the thing out that would surely be bad, levering the bolts as i turn them doesn't seem to amount to much. any tips?

[markt]

Trim panels are looking good! Are you using the Furniture Clinic colour Kit? Thinking of using the same, but unfortunately they won't ship the aerosol cans for the airbrush over here. Might have to use a hobby air compressor to get around that. Keen to see how you get on with the rest of the interior.

Haven't had the air intake panels off mine yet, so not much help there.

[franjipane]

Cheers Mark, the aerosols and little airbrush from furniture clinic did the job surprisingly well, they send 2 aerosols as they start to splutter after a little use, and you keep swapping them over. So next time I'll be using an iwata compressor and airbrush, which are both great.

Bibs posted a similar kit sold from the U.S. a while back that may have better shipping for you.

[franjipane]

Got the seats out, leather is mostly good, will need a little repair work before recolouring.

I've come to the conclusion that my garage is simply too small to lift the car up and do some of the more ambitious jobs I had in mind.  Good thing we'll be moving again in a year or so.  I'll be giving the air intake removal another crack on New Year's Day with a bit of a hangover...

 

 

[swindon_alan]

34 minutes ago, franjipane said:

Got the seats out, leather is mostly good, will need a little repair work before recolouring.

I've come to the conclusion that my garage is simply too small to lift the car up and do some of the more ambitious jobs I had in mind.  Good thing we'll be moving again in a year or so.  I'll be giving the air intake removal another crack on New Year's Day with a bit of a hangover...

What a load of baubles Steve.

[franjipane]

Should have seen the garage on Christmas Eve, it was 5 degrees so perfect for storing parboiled potatoes and other veg ahaha.

In case anyone is doing some interior work http://www.furnitureclinic.co.uk have a couple of promo codes on at the moment, I got 10% off with this code DEC1510, there's a 20% code here as well http://www.savoo.co.uk/Furniture-Clinic/search/merchant.html?id=5694546&clickid=171573521-1451551980961-5847767155578381639&placementid=29307295&gclid=CIy-wMHchcoCFYMewwodjcABmA&searchTerm=furniture+clinic+promo+code#p-4317674

[Rolls]

Hey that's great. May I ask what level of gloss did you select? 

[franjipane]

semi gloss, didn't want it too shiny!

[Jacques]

Hello Steve,

If the headlamp motors are fried, they might be taken apart and commutator etc looked at. Usually it's the 3 rolls which have split, and if left so, they will fry the motors. Better to redo both before that happens. I think new internals can still be had for the motors from the us, afaik.

Good Work on the interrior. I also used a set from Furniture Clinic and went for the biggest kit they have plus more stuff, as it was for my Corrado G60. Worked perfectly. Do not spray too thick layers on or too many llayers on, as they will vrack in two years time. And do look into their leather softening stuff and they also have a paint strenghening product. All of which I used. Worked well, and made the leather softer.

Are you using clear coat on top? If so, use a specific leather treatment for that when car is finished onwards, as it will not breathe as old style colourants do. Clear coat seals it off, and makes it stronger but does not breathe.

I quickly gave up the spray can aerosols and moved the Little airbruh on to my compressor with a restrictor. Much better flow of paint and uch less stains etc. Highly recommended. I quickly set up some paperwalls to make a "cabin", and kept it dustfree.

I then went on to change the side sbolsters fromCorrado Recaro ones to Gold II Edition One Recaro bolsters to gain more side support, welded on the BMW brackets, new leather and ironed it on with lots of steam, to take up any looseness. I also used some special filler on the worst cracks etc. You can see some of the other products I mentioned here.

It's about 4 years since I did the Corrado interrior, and it's holding up perfectly. Cannot be said of many other similar products.

Upload a Picture of said airbox. On my Little Red Riding Hood (1990 Turbo SE), I must NOT remove the bolts holding the air box in place. Only loosen them to take the air box off. Be carefull not to Loose the brackets,as they cannot be blought anywhere any more.

Kind regards,

Jacques.

I enclose a few pics from my Corrado cabin renovation.

[franjipane]

Thanks for the advice Jacques!  Great job with that Corrado, love that car.

FYI having worked with colouring leather before i remembered cheap nail polish remover takes off the factory finish and removes colour very well, and is much cheaper than the stuff furniture clinic sells.  I tried it yesterday as i'm starting on the seats now and it works just as well if not better, maybe there's a reason not to use it on older leather but so far it's working great.  It's also about a tenth of the cost.  Just make sure it has acetone in and isn't perfumed, i just got the cheap stuff from super drug.