The last two weeks have been characterised by not much progress on the chassis (none), but lots of work elsewhere. Neil, rightly, is doing no work to the chassis as the body will not come back for at least two months, possibly three. No point in having a chassis cluttering up the workshop. Andy has lived up to his word and sent the refurbished drive shafts to Neil along with new brake and fuel pipes. I have dug out more bits from the attic ? Lotus dash switches and fuse box.
A quick inspection of the gearbox bell-housing from the car shows worrying damage and the casting is scrap. Fortunately, my new gearbox comes with a bell-housing as well. Suspect damage may have had something to do with partial flywheel break up a few years ago, but that?s another story ? don?t lighten your flywheel too much.
Paid a visit to Matty?s en route to Options1 (a happy coincidence that they are close). Bought two new Doughnuts and a complete wiring loom for the car (430GBP - Ouch!). Here I am going to upset the purists, so apols in advance. I have made the decision to use the late +2S 130, three piece loom, with the fusebox in the Dash. Reason for this is simplicity and closeness to the custom harness that was in the car. The car will never be ?original? as it may have been a works hack for a while, hence the high mileage, number of oddities about it and the early history. As usual, met up with a couple of +2 nuts in PM?s parts area and took the opportunity to look at a customer?s early +2 boot interior, as mine has been severely messed about with in the past so I have no point of reference. I brought in my quarterlight window, with the rubber seals in place to see if PM had any replacements ? no chance! Does anyone know of a source for these? An email to SM has not produced any response yet, so I may have to phone. I will attach a picture of the seal showing the profile if anyone is interested?.
On to Options1 to see their progress with the body shell. Met Frank, deskbound, trying to get to grips with the filing logic on the office computer ? this is not Frank?s natural habitat. Sue, who had looked at all the pretty cars at Matty?s was now very interested to see the progress on ?her? car (yes dear). I quipped that they must have had an easy job stripping it as the paint had been nearly all polished off by me! ?If only it was that simple…? Frank replied, rather too sardonically. The body was up on a lift for all to see and had been half stripped (with a pile of sander discs in the nose). The reason for the strength of the body was now clear. It appears that an additional layer of glass mat has been applied; even Frank said they had done a good job, but the labour involved must have been huge. This ties up with Neil?s comment that someone in the car?s past ownership must have enjoyed working with glassfibre, as there was lots of it added here and there. No major repairs have shown up (so far) apart from some work confined to adding fog lamp cutouts, which may have been for the look rather than accident damage. Some minor repairs and reinforcing are indicated at the headlamp corners and a star craze above the non standard radiator where the cap touches. This is being addressed by removing the filler neck altogether and relying on the excellent thermostat housing produced by Cliveyboy (fitted a couple of years ago and proving a worthwhile mod).
Had a long discussion about the final colour for the body. I (Sue, actually) had already decided to keep the same colours, including the gold metalflake roof, as these are what caught the eye in the first place. Apparently the two reds used by Lotus are Carnival and Calypso ? Calypso is very red and Carnival is orangey red as far as I can tell (or is it the other way round?). Anyway we want the orangey red, which is more in keeping with the groovey sixties?. (debatable?). Left Frank battling with the office computer to find the photographic record of their work so far ? ?I know its here somewhere, but she has her own filing system? ? yes Frank, they do.
More progress on the exhaust front; the header appears sound and talking to the guys at Zircotec (www.zircotec.com ) was interesting. I am interested in the thermal (and sound) insulation properties of the coating in the confined space of the engine bay, with no appreciable added thickness of the pipes. I saw the finish at their stand at the NEC and was impressed by its quality and robustness. I was assured that the coating is not particularly brittle and would take normal handling and light knocks without damage. Hitting it with a hammer would cause localised chipping but no more. In terms of thermal performance I asked how it would compare to thermal wraps. ?Very well? was the reply? apparently there are all sorts of wraps with different thermal properties, and application methods. His assertion was that the process would give better thermal performance than even the best woven wrap. The budget cost for three pieces ? manifold and ?Y? piece ? was 230-300GBP for the base ceramic coat, with 30-45GBP for the optional colour coat ? plus the now much lower tax (!) and would take 10 working days. This work would make another cracked manifold very expensive. I am sorely tempted by this route, but cash is cash and recent expenses are biting… Plenty of time to make that decision later.
I have finally got to the bottom (!) of where the seats in my car come from ? a late MGB! They had been recovered in the Lotus style and had their headrests removed. Purists look away now ? I have always been happy with the comfort and practicality of the seats so will probably replace with new(er) MGB seats with headrests, as I now know they fit pretty well (slightly wide, but then so is my rear). I also note that the MGB seats are lighter than the later Lotus seats ? a bonus there. A cursory glance on the internet shows that these seats are pretty common and well catered for. Now I know what to look for, I may even get away with buying a pair of headrests and new seat covers, saving a bit of cash for the exhaust?.
I am now wrestling with other bits of trivia associated with the decision to go for the late wiring loom. Should I go for a Burr Walnut dash, or have a custom Teak veneer one made, like the existing one? Dash people say no extra cost, but custom finish will have to be made to order ? 3 weeks. What about door puddle lights? Low brake fluid warning switch? Should I solder up all the connectors on the new loom? Where do I get a handbrake warning switch? How about a modern fuse box with blade fuses? Choices, choices…
Still got to get to grips with the Webers.
Jeremy
PS Should I keep this activity log to myself or keep posting?