Early Elite Boot Trim.

[TonyDakin 5]

Hi all.

Looking for information about boot trim on the early Elite (74).

I've seen many Battery covers with the jack opening at the front, with a kind of Hinged flap and stud. They also have a rubber retainer at the rear, presumably to hook onto something to hold it in place.

But picture below and a line drawing of the battery area in the manual suggest opening to the rear. I've also read test reports on early cars saying the battery cover is top heavy and keeps falling forward.

Anyone know if the one with rubber retainer was a later "improved version"?

Thanks, Tony

 

 

[Testdriver 117]

looks totally different in my '75 - mine is not stock, but diy, will post a photo as soon as I'm back home

On that image, it looks much nicer!

[ChrisJ 1,470]

Welcome to the forum Tony.

Tell us more about your Elite.

And we will definitely need some photos

Where are you located?

Chris

[Ranald 9]

Hi Tony,

Ref your battery box quandary, I can confirm that, the hinged flat and press stud is used on the 2.2 Elite, and the plain two tier design box is used on the Series 1 cars. I managed to source the rubber eye retainer from the original suppliers a few years ago. The eye hooks onto a strip like hook pop rivetted to the boot wall underneath the carpet. I Have had to unhook mine though, as the tension was tending to strain the box and pull it apart.

Hope this clarifies,

Cheers,

Iain

[TonyDakin 5]

Thanks Iain.

That's very much confirmed my thoughts. I made a box when I first bought the car along the lines of the "rear opening". Although I can't recall modelling on anything,  I recon I'll just be recovering that in a consistent carpet finish as I retrim the rest of the boot.

History in Brief:

I bought the car in 84, ran it for 4 or 5 years then one winter got fed up of de icing the inside as much as the outside !!!  That's Lotus for you - - Don't we just love 'em.  Took it off the road - Body off - Chassis refurbished by Spyder - Rebuilt chassis with new shocks and bushes and body back on. Body work rubbed back and did 75% of a re-spray ( couldn't afford to get a professional job), --- That took us up to about 1992, then marriage, kids, house moves and you can guess the rest.... It kinda stopped progressing ( and in reality started going backwards). Several false starts to get going again, but then 6 weeks ago went along to the show at NEC, met the guy's on the Éclat stand and the bug seems to be returning.  I may well start a post on the refurb section of the site. - Starting with something simple and contained like the boot area. Attached a couple of photo's from about 3 years ago when I rolled it out the garage and come closest to the danger zone of restarting

Another request : Anyone got the items 9, 11 and 12 from the diagram at top of post still in their car, who could measure and send me the dimensions (including cut outs). I can always make to eye, but the closer I can keep to original the happier I'll be on these details.

Now back to catching up on 8 years of post ( 18 pages worth) on this Elite / Excel / Éclat section. Coming across some usefull detail

Tony

 

 

[Testdriver 117]

3 hours ago, TonyDakin said:

and come closest to the danger zone of restarting

I love your growing enthusiasm

[Charlie504 3]

Pretty sure I have items 11 and 12, or at least one of them... will have a look tonight.

[TonyDakin 5]

Quick update. Making progress. but has anyone succeeded with an electric boot release? I'm struggling to find any actuator that looks to have enough pull force with required travel.

[rjwooll 205]

Personally I'd stick with the cable release. An electronic actuator is one more thing to go wrong, and if in the boot area by the lock would be prone to water damage from any leaks. The S2.2 has also a manual release, operated via a rotary key lock, but this would get in the way of your wiper.

[mikeeech 349]

An electric option would be and, not or. #somera was going this route as well as me. He had already use central locking pulls. I've used starter motor solonoids on suicide doors back in the day. The is spot of pull on those but you'll need a thick cable.

[mikeeech 349]

This gives 10kg...

http://www.thesolenoidcompany.com/products/15mm-to-40mm-stroke-round-profile-linear-solenoids

 

[TonyDakin 5]

Thanks Mike. link seems to be to 24V units, but will have a search for 12V.

I've been experimenting a bit. With a spring balance, looks like approx. 10Kg force is needed with stroke at 20mm at the point standard pull cable attaches. Acquired a central locking kit with 20mm stroke actuators.

First attempt was a direct mounting. Complicated as actuator needs to pivot, but quickly learnt one actuators was not strong enough. It also took up too much space around the lever arm for my new boards ( not yet carpeted) to fit. Force is about 12kg once energised, but appears mechanism needs more to "break out". Second generation is 2 actuators strapped in parallel and pulling on a cable. If I can make this work, I can mount on the back bulk head of the boot. Almost there. It works, but only just (Photo of the lash up attached). Spring return is not quite enough to reset it, but could easily add some springs - but then I'd need more force. It's also very sensitive to a good straight cable run - which I'll struggle to get if I mount it where there's room on the bulkhead.

Picking up on Richards point, I'd plan to keep the manual pull as a reserve, so next step maybe is to lengthen the lever arm slightly. Hopefully I can maintain enough stroke and obviously get more force with the longer lever. That will also allow the manual cable to go back where it's designed to connect to.- More development work needed, but I feel I'm on the right line - Will keep all informed - but don't expect quick answers, this is a slow, long term renovation !!! 

 

[mikeeech 349]

Didn't think about 2 central locking actuators in parallel! That looks like a neat mounting for them too!

[Farmer Bob 90]

My advice would be, stick with the original, and spend your time getting the Elite back on the road! 

[TonyDakin 5]

Very sound advise Bob. Trouble is if I don't do it now , it will never get done. Once I've trimmed the boot out, the idea of returning to it to add or change doesn't appeal.

Planning to play around with lengthening the lever arm this week end. I recon I can extend from 75mm arm to 100mm, which will increase effective force by 30%. I think I can maintain enough stroke although might need a bit of pre load on the cable to the lock. It did occur to me that 3 in parallel is always an option, but then is that a bit OTT?