The Lotus Grand Tourers

Pretty productive week this week, with good progress on a number of fronts
Took the trip to Lotusbits and now have the seat belt plates ready to refit when the rear seat is ready to go back in. Picked up a drive shaft at the same time ( the off side outer CV joint is shot). Having met up with Trevor on Wednesday evening and seeing how well "latched" his boot was when raised, I also invested in a set of boot hinges. My boot barely holds it's own weight.
As commented on other threads, whilst at LB, realised the steering clonk I've been getting was a loose steering wheel !! and a quick investigation yesterday resulted in a working horn, just by ensuring the pump polarity was correct and blowing into the right hose. - One less thing for the MOT man to pick up on .

Back to the boot springs, swopped them over this afternoon and to be honest, it's not much better . I've got a few thoughts though about how things might be improved, so maybe more to come on that subject.

On a more successful note, a new toy got delivered on Friday, along with some cutting compounds and finishing paste.

It's an EP 803, which looks ideal for a car like the Excel with minimal large flat areas. Max mop size is 75mm and it also came with a 50mm and 25mm pads and attachments, plus a couple of extention bars for the spindle for when reaching into deeper recesses. Very happy with initial results. The lacquer applied 6 weeks ago really took the treatment well. Just need to be patient now and let the paint I applied last week really harden up before trying to bring the whole car ( at least the areas repaired) up to a common point.

Shiny!! The rotary polishers are nice to use, especially with good quality compounds. Good work!

Pete

Seeing as yesterday looked like being the last day of summer, thought it would be a good time to take the car out and snap a few photo's that don't just show lacquer peal
Time to record the fruits of some of the last 3 months of work. And a chance to drive the car somewhere other than across to Lotusbits !!!





Can't post any near side pictures, 'cos there's still work to do there (and it shows), but I no longer feel like the first thing I do is make excuses for first appearances.

Tony

She looks beautiful Tony.

I just noticed that you're already up to 4 pages on this thread!!

Cheers, Richard

Looks like you have the self-designed (and manufactured) head rest fitted to the driver's seat.

Yes. Bespoke headrest on one side. Just got to make another now. I'll put a picture on the thread I'm running about de-browning the interior trim sometime soon.
Tony

Good day today. MOT box ticked with no advisories. .
The Excel or Eclat issue worried the tester a bit (Excel on the boot, Eclat on the gov Web site) . He thought he was looking at a cloned car I think until I explained it was Lotus pulling a fast one back in the 80's.
The emissions were technically a bit out of spec, but from previous discussions I've had with this guy, I know he has contacts with an engine tuner who knows the Lotus engine. He had obviously rung him and as soon as he was told "they're all like that if they are to run properly" it seems common sense prevailed.

Now back to the rear seat repairs. They were out of the car for the MOT, but I don't think he found a check box checking the seats are actually there... Just that the seat belts are intact and working.

Tony

Congrats on the MOT. Was one of my first posts,

Good news and a weight off your mind, I guess.

Brilliant! Well done Tony. Get working on that Elite now!

Pete

Can't quite believe what I'm about to admit to, but I gave the Excel a "close shave" today. LITERALLY.

On the paintwork, I made good progress over the summer, but it was a time consuming job doing the rubbing down, and with the colder weather, I thought I'd leave further lacquer repairs until the early part of next year.
The near side cant / roof rail was the main item still to do, with a blister of lacquer that had not yet burst. I happened to rub it with my thumb, which effectively made the blister bigger ( maybe there was some air under the lacquer ?). My initial thought was that the bigger it got, the less I'd have to rub down, so I kept pushing it around until it burst. (I didn't go out to work on the car this morning, but you know how one thing leads to another )
So then I thought maybe I could get some sharp wood and see if I could flake more paint off, but somehow I ended up with a razor blade in my hand

Much to my surprise, it is simply a brilliant, quick way to remove lacquer, leaving the base coat untouched beneath - No risk of rubbing through to the primer with this method. Just 30 minutes later, I was ready for a quick rub over with 1000 grade Wet'n'dry, let it all dry completely during the Gran Prix, then a flash over with the base coat I've got, then onto the lacquer. I could quite reasonably have gone straight to lacquer only, but since 50% of the car has had the new base coat I thought I might as well keep it consistent.



It became a game in the end to see just how big a strip of lacquer I could get off in one slice !!! - You can even see where it came from !!!


Tony

That looks as though it could become addictive! Must have been very satisfying when a long strip came off.

A compressor with an air blow gun will do a good job of blasting poorly adhered clear coat off with no damage to base.

And a jetwash..... As I found out to my cost a few years ago on a different car.
Bash

Duck tape works too