The Lotus Grand Tourers

Better late than never! Here's some pics from when I did the headlining on Lilith at the Resto show at the NEC back in March.





































In my rush to finish, I never got any photos of the finished article!! Besides, it STILL isn't, actually, finished... I've now at least got my wife Heather to re-cover the sun visors, although I still haven't fitted them, and the C-pillar trims are still waiting for me to finish them off...

I'll try and get some photos of it as it stands posted soon!

Looks like a very thorugh and great job!

Looks a very satisfying job. can you get spare or replacement rubber seals for your sunroof, as you would have had to finish around that area

I didn’t need to disturb the sunroof mechanism at all, only the internal trim. That said, the sunroof is whistling at speed so I need to do something about the seal anyway.

From the look of those pictures there does not appear to be any metal foil left on the roof around the sunroof.
I was reading up on DAB / FM car aerials the other day and learnt that this foil is probably fitted to provide a 'ground plane' that acts to significantly improve radio reception.

How is the quality of your radio reception?

Ive just replaced my headlining, and after the foil came off with the old headlining ended up putting foil lined Dynomat on the roof, but that was just luck as I didnt appreciate the role the foil played at that time.

Richard

Hi Richard,

Yeah, the foil came off as I tried to clean the surface up ready for the new lining. Radio reception remains as good as it ever was in my rural corner of Northamptonshire, so I don't think it's made any difference.

Does anyone know where I can get a suitable pieces of backing board for the large sections of headlining? It needs to be over 101cm wide (apparently ideal is 105cm) the widest I can find seems to be 1M..

Zaphod wrote: Tue Sep 13, 2022 16:09 Does anyone know where I can get a suitable pieces of backing board for the large sections of headlining? It needs to be over 101cm wide (apparently ideal is 105cm) the widest I can find seems to be 1M..

The factory approach is to glue the headlining directly to the fibreglass roof. Some people have used a backing board instead, I wouldn't do that personally as my height means I cannot afford to lose a millimeter of headroom!

The surface quality of my roof underside after previous owners efforts with various glues leaves me no options! and headroom is not an issue for me!

Zaphod wrote: Tue Sep 13, 2022 16:09 Does anyone know where I can get a suitable pieces of backing board for the large sections of headlining? It needs to be over 101cm wide (apparently ideal is 105cm) the widest I can find seems to be 1M..

Go to a scrapyard and look for the lining panel off a van or mpv

Hawaiis0 wrote: Wed Sep 14, 2022 17:10

Zaphod wrote: Tue Sep 13, 2022 16:09 Does anyone know where I can get a suitable pieces of backing board for the large sections of headlining? It needs to be over 101cm wide (apparently ideal is 105cm) the widest I can find seems to be 1M..

Go to a scrapyard and look for the lining panel off a van or mpv

Are there any local? Challows empty!

Zaphod wrote: Wed Sep 14, 2022 17:16

Are there any local? Challows empty!

Claridges - Carterton

https://www.claridgemotorsalvage.com

Is this one piece or three? as I those I have seen seem to be one section along the front and one each side, but this looks like one piece? (I don't have the original!)

Original was three pieces, but can be done on retrim in one piece.
Watch out though, the unwrapped template has the side pieces splayed out considerably more than you'd think. They don't run perpendicular to the front on the cut shape. - hope that makes some sense.
Tony

As Tony says if doing in one piece the two legs will splay out quite a bit when lying flat.
I would suggest making a paper template in 3 pieces and using these to cut three separate pieces or tape together the three pieces while still on the header rail to get the shape needed.

On the original the three pieces are stitched together. What some do is use three pieces, but double back the material at ehe joins to make neat edges that butt together.