The Lotus Grand Tourers

Hi guys, i've been thinking for a while now about replacing the nasty"wooden" dash surrounds with aluminium ones as i think it would suit my interior far better (black leather). At the same time i think i would re-configure the panel with the stereo in it as well and have the stereo higher up as i hate where it is now.

Has anyone done this or anything similar???

I'd love to see any pictures you have to get some more ideas

p.s. i fancy an Esprit SE steering wheel too (as in the airbag one) i know it looks chunky but i think it would modernize the interior whilst keeping it OEM LOL

Mine is still standard and I will keep it like that.
If you fancy a more racy interior you might concider wraping the wooden panels with foliatec carbon look.
http://www.foliatecshop.co.uk/shop/foli ... -p-81.html
I have seen results and was impressed by the result.

mmm not really a fan of carbon effect. Looks good when the item in question could possibly be carbon but on the dsah of an excel i don't think many people could spend that sort of money LOL.

Boomer wrote:mmm not really a fan of carbon effect. Looks good when the item in question could possibly be carbon but on the dsah of an excel i don't think many people could spend that sort of money LOL.

Yes, unfortunately the poorper/ lower-class / poor taste end of Excel ownership seems to be growing.


<...hoists nose in the air and minces off...>

I've never seen a home brewed dashboard that looked anything other than a hacked up mess, especially ally ones. Unless you are a craftsman of Aston Martin standard (and by posting on here I doubt it) just leave it alone.

Well each to their own. Personally i think the standard item looks pretty shocking and have never liked the wood/black combination. I agree that someone who doesn't know what their doing will probably make a right pig's ear of it but lets not tar with the same brush.

Anyway, someone must have a picture to show?

Std looks pretty good to me.

If i had a cream interior i'd be inclined to keep it as wood and cream leather go well together. I just think black and silver are a better combo.

Although I felt partly in love with the Excel because of the wooden dash, I could follow your idea concerning the black interior. Any carbonplates, even in good shape built in aircrafting-procedures are cheap in this little measurements. Buy some and try it.

For any comparison you could use pictures of the Eclat/Elite with the black dashs

My dash is carbon covered, will dig out a picture. I think it looks ok and fits with the rest of my modified interior (Previous owner spent a serious amount of money on it). Trick is to buy good quality vinyl stuff that stretched in the right way, cheap stuff does look nasty I agree and a bit chavish!

Hi

Ex-owner again.

Making your own dashboard------- can be done but not exactly easy. I've made the complete interiors on two cars one a 73 Reliant Scimitar GTE and a 72 Lotus Elan. By the term "make" I mean literally just that. I replaced every panel on the cabin of the Scimitar with grp ones I moulded- and trimmed them myself. Can't say it looked at all amateurish in any way (judging by the interest shown by a few commercial Scimitar restoration specialists who asked me to replicate my efforts for them) and it was certainly a marked improvement on the std fitments. As for the elan- not bad as the factory produced it (better than the Scimitar) but not by much!. Again, I had to make every panel and trim them. Not a job for the fainthearted. Not pricey to do- cost me about £100 or so for materials but certainly very longwinded. I was interested in achieving 3 things when I did the elan- firstly vastly improve the fit overall and between adjacent panels, eliminate rattles/squeaks and finally make it much more robust than the original. As for the Excel I reckon it would be easier to "upgrade" the interior with a bit of patience. Probably not cheap though- you could always have the wooden panels replaced with laser cut brushed stainless ones but providing a pattern for the cutter to work to would be an issue-or- if those panels were slightly redesigned they could be replicated in grp and trimmed accordingly (probably in thin high grade leathercloth would be best. The fixing screw holes in the panels could be deepened and the heads of the screws could then be hidden under snap fasten covers. Really that's probably all you'd need to do as the rest of the cabin- certain centre console features notwithstanding and assuming the leather hasn't been
warped by the sun- is not bad as std.


John