Re:
Bit more progress on the Lotus, still not got it MOT'd as i had other stuff on the go yesterday.
Got this done a few weeks ago.
As bought i knew it had a dodgy repair on the right top tailgate hinge, removed the tailgate and dug it out to find this horror, the bodywork that the hinge mounts to was gone.
Started by filling the stress cracks with fibre matting and resin, also drilled holes at the ends of the cracks to stop them spreading further.
The other side is pretty sound (though stress cracks are starting here too) so used this as a guide.
Made up a steel repair section, front part is in 1mm steel, rear part is in 2mm to take the weight of the tailgate.
Screwed, bolted and fibreglassed the repair section into place (forgot to take pics), trial fitted the tailgate.
Covered it with red primer for now, it's not pretty but a hell of a lot stronger than it was, trouble with a repair like this though is it'll be hard to make it invisible if i'm getting the car resprayed, proper solution would be to cut a section out of another car and let that in or i could cover the roof and the repaired section in carbon wrap.
Other stuff, i fitted a new Facet Silver top fuel pump to replace the duff SU item, replaced the filter and fuel lines at the same time, also fitted a pressure regulator, fitted a new larger battery in a custom (E-bay) alloy battery tray, centre mounted in the boot.
Got the centre console and gear stick stripped out at the moment, centre console is out to tidy it up as it had been butchered to fit a head unit, it's cheap fablon covered steel so will be easy to sort, once done i'll cover it with carbon wrap and do the glove box and centre console inserts to match.
Gear stick is out to try and improve the shift, will shorten the stick too while it's out.
How cool are these rear seats ?, obviously needing restored/coloured/conditioned, have tryed them out for size, suspect they are only really comfortable for someone my height (5'7") or shorter though.
Won a pair of new K&N filters for the twin Dellorto's on E-bay for £50, they turned out to be slightly too big so had to alter them a bit but really pleased with them, the alloy air horns in a previous pic are inside them so the motor sould sound ace at full chat, will clean up the alternator and it's mounting when i have less important things to do.
Also got the leaking cam cover gaskets replaced, painted the cam covers while they were off, replaced the frayed throttle cable which turned out to be a nightmare of a job :facepalm: .
Waiting on a timing belt kit, oil filter and a few other non essential bits, i've found a couple of excellent specialists for these cars so parts are really easy to get.
I'm finding though patience is needed as though it's a simple car even basic jobs can be time consuming :roll: .
Disappointingly one of the headlight pods is faulty, only the right one is raising and lowering with the switch so there is a fault in the plumbing somewhere, (the pods are opened with a spring and closed with engine vacuum so the system is quite complicated), so will just disable the system and present the car for MOT with the headlights raised till i can sort the system out.
So this is how it's looking at the moment :facepalm:
