Dipping for the finish line

It’s been at the back of my mind to update my blog. Almost 7 months have passed. I was aware of the lapse but it was intentional. I decided to get my head down and just get the car done without stopping for pictures. A fair amount has happened in that time as I raced to try and get the car on the road before winter set in. It was a partial success. I did drive the car on the road in November. Winter usually kicks in around December and dumps snow. This means snow tyres are mandatory and I don’t have the funds for a second set of tyres. The interior was completed except for the header trim and everything prepared for the road worthiness test. I booked the car in for a dyno session to get the engine properly set up. I had temporary plates to be legal as the drive would be a 20km journey through commuting traffic. I wanted to get up very early to avoid congestion should the car disgrace itself on the way. i had no intention of being the subject of an early morning traffic radio report on the local stations. I drove to the petrol station the night before and filled up and prepared for an early start. At 4:30am I got up and by 5:00 I was ready to set off. I jumped in turned the key and nothing. It just turned and turned with no firing. Lots of popping and banging. I bet the neighbours loved that. I struggled for 6 hours with no success. In the end I admitted defeat and called the engine builder in the uk. He suggested it was running to rich and told me to disconnect the water temperature sensor and trick into thinking it was already warm. I did so and it fired off the button. I was so angry and elated at the same time. Off I went for the first drive!! At least I had succeeded in avoiding the traffic. It drove superbly. The engine was relatively smooth but I was taking it easy. The steering and suspension really are as good as any modern car which surprised me. Bear in mind I had never actually driven the car in the 9 years I’ve owned it. My “eye balled” steering adjustment was spot on. Well it felt spot on. It drives dead straight and feels good. I will get it done professionally soon. The electrics were a disaster though. The turn signals gave up half way there, the driver window blew a fuse in the down position, the speedo stopped from the outset, the temperature gauge gave up and the fuel gauge was reading back to front. Some work to do there. Luckily the weather was unusually mild so the window wasn’t an issue and the stereo had navigation with a speedo so I could tell how fast I was going. I got to the rolling road and with luck there was no afternoon bookings so the session went ahead. I arrived with around 140bhp and left a happy man with 210bhp and still some more to come. I have a standard filter in and the engine still needs to be run in properly. I will return for a second session and some more fine tuning. The tuner reckons 220bhp might be possible. I’m very happy with that. The return journey was trouble free apart from the electrical gremlins and the car felt a lot more eager to get down the road. It’s not mega fast (my daily has 325bhp) but it’s feels light and very willing. I don’t need this car to be the fastest car on the road. Just to keep up with GTIs and the likes. From that stand point it’s job done.

Over Christmas I got some time to start fixing the gremlins and for the last two weeks I ripped out the fuse box and replaced it with another new one. I did a bad job of fitting a new box and to be fair my knowledge was somewhat lacking. I have learned a lot in the interim and discovered many mistakes and found a few broken components. The electrics are all reliably working now except the water gauge which requires a new sender unit. There are two temperature sensors now, one for the ecu and one for the gauge. At least I know the water temperature is fine with the laptop plugged in. I will call the test centre next week to book a date for the test and hopefully this time it will be finally on the road. The finish line is virtually under my nose.

What’s still to do. Well not much. There’s an oil leak that needs attention, the alternator belt is too long and the suspension sits way too high. I’m not sure why but if it doesn’t settle then I will get some shorter springs. It looks ready to wade across a large lake never mind a flooded road. The summer is looking set, finally for some driving fun.

Almost there…

The interior is coming along now and list is getting shorter each weekend. The electrics have been time consuming and are not exactly photogenic but the project is very close to the end. So close in fact that I have had time to fit the in car entertainment!! I decided on a very modern head unit. I would have preferred something retro in keeping with the rest of the interior but I intend to use the car on a regular basis and for long journeys. I fitted a head unit with apple play capability and a decent sized navigation screen. One of my colleagues at work is a sound engineer and an automotive ICE engineer and was responsible for the stereo systems in some of the current Teslas. Realizing I was in good hands I took his advice and fitted Scanspeak speakers and omitted the (normally) obligatory external amp. Apparently modern amps are tiny and very cheap and tend to be fitted internally to decent head units. For my needs this was more than enough. I don’t listen to music so much and prefer spoken word. Audiobooks, documentaries, comedy and so on. The speakers and their mounting stability and positions are important. Luckily for me the speaker placement in the Esprit are near perfect as well as thick glassfibre for solid and rattle free mounting. I retained the dash top positions, which are nearly ideal. The top front of the door would be better – Aston martin place them in the right place for anyone looking for a good reference. I wanted to stay with the original positions and keep the interior relatively uncluttered however The result is really incredible. I am no audiophile but considering the basic setup I am so impressed. My colleague has offered to spend some time setting up the system with the graphic equalizer. Remember those in the 80s? Well here was I thinking they were a gimmick. Apparently not!! I have really lucked in here and the final product is perfect for my needs. This weekend I will be renovating our bathroom and have been tending to a flooded basement after some freak weather here. Next Thursday is a public holiday and I will take Friday off. Hopefully I can get stuck in and finish the lower half of the interior. The headlining and some higher up parts still need to be trimmed and material purchased. I have the new wheels painted and new tyres mounted. I could have bought the original size and brand of tyres as they are back in production as a classic tyre. But the costs are astronomical!! €350 for each rear tyre!! I didn’t bother pricing the front. I had to settle on 225 width at the rear instead of the ultra rare 235 60 15. The only other car ever fitted with this size is the Jaguar XJS. Also built in fairly limited numbers. The fronts were much more common and the choice therefore greater. As the rear was limited, Vredetein seemed to offer a good allrounder for a reasonable price. I paid the same as one rear Pirelli for all four!! I understand that the classic tyre uses modern compounds but retaining the original pattern would surely compromise its abilities well as my wallet!! I fitted the rear tyres as those rims are three piece as opposed to the two pice fronts. The rears are 9in wide. Getting the tyre fitted was a chore. I spent 6 hours trying to inflate it. In the end, I took the chance and used a flammable liquid as shown in numerous YouTube videos. I can happily say that the process of exploding the tyre onto the rim works very efficiently!! 6 hours wasted for a 30 second job. The tyres offered a very happy surprise printed on the side wall. Same designer as the car!! As the new rims are a different stud pattern it is not a case of simply bolting them on. I have some nice Lotusbits Aluminium front hubs to fit and the rears have been double drilled. This will be a job for next weekend. I realise the updates have been sparse but as always I have been busy with work and family as well as consumed by electrical boredom. It’s not my thing but has to be done.

Time off for good behaviour.

Easter holidays and the kids and wife are off to the in-laws far far away. Which gives me time to really make progress.

The engine is now running reasonably well. A session on a rolling road is required and will happen once the car is road worthy. There was a frustrating two or so weeks of the engine refusing to start or running poorly. It turns out that ECUs are a little sensitive to voltage. Or lack of it. It seems that there is a major drain on the battery which would explain the difficulty starting and running the engine with a constantly flat battery. I have narrowed it down to one fuse and will investigate the problem tomorrow. The engine now fires up on the button and sounds very healthy. Still too loud though.

I have driven it up and down the driveway. The brakes are a little scary. I think the servo is not getting much of a vacuum. Again, something to be investigated later.

The engine bay is now trimmed and complete except for a few minor details, mostly clips and a breather hose. I repainted the air box with crackle finish paint. It took me three attempts to get it ok. It’s the best I could do. Not easy paint to use.

Next is the cabin. Time to get that interior trimmed and the passenger door fitted.

In the mean time, pics of the engine bay.

It lives!! Again

Finally the engine is alive again. I didn’t make a video this time because there were some teething issues and I ran out of time. It’s Sunday evening and I don’t want to upset the neighbours too much. I’d forgotten how loud it is!! I suspect the authorities might have something to say. The exhaust can be repacked so it’s wouldn’t be a disaster. Teething issues were both silly and utterly perplexing. Two were sorted and the other I need to ask an expert. It took most of Saturday to work out the first issue which was a lack of fuel. A silly mistake in the end. There’s a foam sleeve over the fuel pump that covers the flow direction. It took until Sunday morning, whilst lying in bed thinking about what the issue could be, to dawn on me that the pump was fitted back to front. Once that was done the next issue took another 8 hours to realise. Another moment of peace whilst watching my kids playing in the park. It really pays to stand back from an issue sometimes and let a little peace and quiet allow the brain to really dig down and go through all the possibilities. I uploaded the temporary map for the ecu to the computer. But I forgot to actually flash the ecu. As soon as I got back into the garage, I flashed the ecu and turned the key. It spluttered almost immediately into life. What a buzz to hear it again. Blipping the throttle is such a joy. Lightweight flywheel and a free revving engine make for very big smiles!! The final issue is the most perplexing. As I said previously, my electrical skills are not the best. Taking a while to get the engine running was expected but getting it to stop is normally quite a quick job. This being a lotus though, nothing is easy. Turning the key off had no effect, disconnecting the battery made no difference. In the end I pulled the plug from the coil pack to kill it. Another electrical issue that needs time and patience. Hopefully I will have the solution soon.

There isn’t much else to report. Most of my time has gone into getting the engine running. The cam belt change was ridiculously hard in the end. Why lotus didn’t have some solution to change the belt with the engine in I will never know. My guess is that if Ferrari were making it an engine out service item back in the day then it gave Lotus license to do the same. With no glass in the car, access was easier and doable with the engine in situ but still an utter pig. Three years until the next one. Really looking forward to that little job….. Other than that, I started to modify the mould I made for the heater cover. I made a long time ago a lhd Version heater cover. The upshot was that the mould was not quite right and the cover is hitting the front lid. I have started to modify the mould and will complete that job this week. I installed a new miniature fuse box in the glove box also. Looks very neat. Much better than the last effort. There is still some finessing to do there as well. It’s possible that this is the issue with the ecu not switching off. Also I made a stainless bracket for the coil pack out of an off cut that seemed to fit almost too well. It was supposed to be temporary as I didn’t throw much time at it but it seems to fit well so it will stay. Some head scratching to do between now and the next installment. Finally I am genuinely close to driving it out of the garage under its own steam.

Spoiler alert…

A couple of things done today. Finally fitted the pesky fuel breather hoses after ordering the wrong clamps twice. I found some smaller diameter hose also to neaten things up.

I fitted the bulkhead to chassis bolts a few weeks ago but was very dissatisfied with the outcome. The bolts were sitting at an angle and I had read somewhere that they loosen after a while as the wood on the bulkhead compresses. It seems this is an issue associated with the later Stevens Esprit but I added spacers as the set up is very similar. Some spacers ordered from eBay happened to be exactly the size I needed. Nice to get it right first time after the hose clamp debacle.

The engine bay parts are all painted and heat reflective material added. I’ve no idea if it is worth it or not but I had a load left over and ran out of black paint!! Fate seemed to determine that outcome and it did a very nice job I think.

The cooling fans are now wired up and connected to the ecu (I hope anyway-wiring is really not my forte)

Lastly the front spoiler is on. It makes a big difference to the front of the car. It’s starting to look complete now. Even after 8 years I remember the seized and snapped bolts that came off when removing the spoiler. I fitted some nice stainless rivnuts and stainless fittings this time. Hopefully I don’t need to remove anything again but the piece of mind is worth it.

Next job, refit the cam belt finally and see if it fires up!! I’m sure I’ve said this a few times already. I feel some head scratching coming up soon. Even though I have had the motor running, it was a while ago. Let’s see….

Details details details

This seems to be the extend of my Christmas break progress. The final details are dragging on and on. I wish is could have had some more time this Christmas break but work demands are greater this year and it’s back to the grind on the 2nd. Oh yes, it’s the new year. Happy new year to all!!

So what did I get done. There were no fuel breather hoses fitted to the car when I purchased it. I suppose the previous owner thought they were surplus to requirement. Apparently they are very important and have non return valves fitted in case of a roll over. I bought a pair and hope they never get used! I used hose that i had hanging around but the diameter was too big which meant it was visible through the bulkhead glass. Not pretty. New hose on order. I can’t decide if the hose is left exposed from the factory as there are no clear pictures on the internet. There are areas around the body that are painted black, which so far I have ignored and the area below the tailgate is one such area. It disguises the hose I presume and works well in grainy internet pictures but in reality they are quite visible. So I have bonded a strip of Aluminium into the large gap between the bulkhead glass and frame and will fabricate some trim to cover it.

I still haven’t refitted the cam belt. I will wait for the fuel breather hose as I want to prime the engine again. Once the engine is running then I will turn the engine over regularly with the starter motor to keep the engine primed until the car is finished.

Some more trim fitted. The A pillar capping trim is fitted to the driver side. The chrome edging strip was a bit of a pig to fit and doesn’t quite sit on the edge at the windscreen area. I’m hoping that the windscreen will hold it in place. Otherwise there will be some more head scratching. On the earlier cars there is a black trim near the base of the capping which was removed on the later cars and integrated into the main capping trim. It looks cheap without it and I wanted to retrofit the parts. This involved cutting part of my nice painted capping trim and hoping not to make any errors. Measure twice cut once as they say. I succeeded in doing this for a change and trimmed it nicely with nerves thoroughly jangling. After offering it up to the car it needed a very minor trimming. Confident this time I made the one final cut and was cutting from the underside up. I let the cutting disc travel too far and went straight through the outer side of the trim. No palm to face but rather a whole lot of cursing. I was incandescent with rage at myself. After a walk around to calm down again I formulated a plan. I bought some self adhesive black grained trim a while back. I have fitted the secondary seal found on the later car which means the black area on the side glass profile is slightly larger than the original car. The cut just falls in this area. A small sliver of black effectively extends the top edge of the black triangle trim and so i saved the situation. Phew. Not ideal but even close up it looks factory finish.

What else, the vacuum system is all plumbed in, the carpet for the engine bay is on order from an sportscars. (2month wait! Gulp – getting all the stuff I still need before bloody brexit kicks in), the engine surround is painted, the frame around the bulkhead glass is painted and ready to fit (I’ll wait until, the cam belt is refitted of course as it allows better than usual access). I had to remake the handbrake cable bracket inside the car as the previous one didn’t fit properly. The cable adjustment was on the limit despite new pads and discs. I had refitted the original rear brake discs that came with the car because there was little wear on them. They were really rusty though so I decided to replace them. That was another pig of a job. The handbrake cables were bothering me with the upgraded rear calipers too. Turns out I had the calipers on the wrong side which doesn’t help. Calipers now swapped and the right hand cable works well now but the left one is still too long. I will have it shortened rather than loop it up as directed by Lotusbits. I’ve invested so much in this car anyway. Lots of rework which is why I have not made the progress I would have liked. Another recurring theme. I have lots of clips and odds and ends ordered. Hopefully I can tick off a few details and make some proper progress.

Another year has rolled by and I am now into my eighth year of this restoration. So here we go again. Did I mention this was supposed to be a two to three year project. Like any major undertaking, over budget and very late. Ahh who cares. I’m still enjoying it. 🙂

Oil pressure.

Sorry, no pics this time. I had to write this little entry for potentially others with oil pressure issues. My engine has been motionless for about 3 years and I know that priming the engine before firing it up again is the wise thing to do. With the cam belt disconnected and a nut welded to an old distributor (kindly sent to me from Mike at Lotusbits-mine is a distributorless system normally) I got my trusty Bosch drill out and attached a socket and adapter to it. I spun it up and low and behold, nothing. Not a single psi of pressure. Not to panic. I changed only one thing which was the pressure gauge and the housing that the fitting for the gauge goes into. I swapped my new electrical gauge back to the mechanical one including the housing as I knew it all worked albeit with a few minor leaks. Still nothing. It’s late in the workshop and my drill has been spinning dutifully but with a fair bit of noise and a little bit of smoke I might add. It’s struggling I have to say and in need of a rest. Much like myself but without the smoke! Smoking ain’t cool remember kids!! Anyway after that little public announcement, I set 22:30 as the limit so as not to really annoy the neighbours. Having read a thread on the lotus forums, a light bulb moment came to me. The thread mentioned drawing in air. I removed the old distributor I was using to spin the oil pump and checked the seal. It was so old that it actually broke into numerous pieces when it fell to the floor upon removal. Bear in mind it’s supposed to be flexible rubber!! New seal in place and I spun it up again. This time I got about 10psi!! Progress!! But way short of the 50psi on a healthy engine. It’s 22:35 at this point and so I gave up for the night as I was out of ideas. Now I know these engine are a little stubborn when it comes to building pressure but this is definitely not stubbornness. Clearly there is an issue. Light bulb moment number 2 came to me just before counting the sheep. I checked YouTube for a running Esprit engine and time for another palm to face moment. The video showed the motor running in an anti-clockwise direction. I was spinning the pump in the wrong direction. Idiot. It’s too late to go and have another go. I’m tired, the neighbours curtains are twitching and the wife would not be pleased I’m sure. At least I am hopeful again and with that I can get a decent nights sleep. Back to it tomorrow when the trusty drill will be well rested. It will need to be because it will doing some more warp factor 9 but in reverse this time!! Beam me up Scotty. It’s time to count those sheep…..zzzzzz

Edit: small update. Proper tool for the drill has arrived, been fitted and the pump spun up in the correct direction. Exactly 50psi showing on the gauge. Relief, palm withdrawn from face and finally an early night…. zzzzzz again

Up in the air.

Some more progress made this weekend. The replacement ECU is wired up. I had the prospect of multiple relays and random fuses dotted around the rear luggage area. Not a good idea with loose items in the luggage area. I bought a universal fuse box and consolidated the wiring at the rear. The 3D printing came in useful again. I made a protective cover to carry some of the sensor cables to their respective sensors. They have large connectors and I decided against another large hole in the structure for two wires. The new part protects the cables and allows easier maintenance. Talking of which. I realised that the new cam belt that I installed when I fitted the engine to the bare chassis was three years ago and is no longer a new cam belt. It’s an old cam belt and had to be discarded. Now I see why it’s normally an engine out process to change the belt. Luckily I have still not fitted any glass including the rear bulkhead glass. It gives just enough access to leave the engine in place. Old belt off and ready to fit the new one. I will prime the engine again ready for start up. I promised this start up would happen about two months ago. I promised this would be a two to three year project. 8 year later, no more promises. Next job is fit the new electric oil pressure gauge, prime the engine, refit the cam belt and let’s see if it starts! I’m making no promises when this will happen. And finally, I have a lift!! It’s a pallet lifter which I got cheap and is rated to two tons. It will do the job nicely to get at the suspension etc and tidy up a few brackets. Perhaps I will buy a dedicated vehicle lift in the future but for now it serves my needs perfectly. Onwards and up in the airwards.

Slowly getting there.

I wish I had loads to say about how the car is almost done but it would be a big fat lie. The truth is, work and family have consumed all my spare time and any motivation when the time is available. In short, I’m constantly knackered and the little free time I get I want to devote to the kids. Which is not nearly enough as it is!! Ok, excuses out of the way. I have done some bits and bobs. The interior is complete. I’m happier with it now although I let the standards slip on the seats. Too many creases but they are more than fine. I just want to drive the car!! I got new wheels and went through the process of re-drilling the rear hubs and ordered a new set of alloy hubs from Lotusbits. The rears were easy and my good friend Nick came up trumps again and had a close friend of his drill them “properly” on a lathe. I had a go myself with my cheap press drill but they were not straight by any means. Luckily I was drilling them for m12 bolts and I then switched to press in studs which required a 14mm hole. Any misalignment was removed with he bigger hole on the lathe! Phew!! The fronts have still not arrived though. I ordered them sometime last century it seems. Not that I’m in a hurry so i haven’t pressed them for a delivery date.

The fuel system is complete. I think in my last post I talked about driving the car out. Well the fuel hoses were another debacle of my own making. I ordered all the parts, assembled most of it, realised there was something not quite right called Lotusbits for advice (their stuff takes a while to arrive but Mike is always on hand to answer technical questions. I can’t fault him there). Mike reminded me that i was trying to fit rubber hoses and he had recommended PTFE hoses. Hand, face, slap. Oops. It was so long ago that I had that conversation that it had totally slipped my mind. Fuel hoses attempt number two. A theme running here. Ahem. Anyway, correct fittings and hoses ordered, arrived and mostly fitted. Some wires for the ecu to connect and the all important flammable liquid to add and it should be driving out of the garage under its own steam.

I have added a new tool to my workshop in the way of a 3D printer. So far I have made some spacers for the rear bumper from ABS and one Centre cap for the new rims. All in all I am very impressed with the performance considering the paltry 250€ that I paid for it. I saw recently on a Facebook page regarding my fiesta that someone had described a part they had for sale as “not cheap Chinese rubbish”. I work for a Chinese car manufacturer and the printer is Chinese. I can say that those days are long in the past. Cheap yes, rubbish, most definitely not. As I said, I made some spacers for the rear bumper. I converted the bumpers from S3 to S2 bumpers. The fronts were straightforward it the rear was a pig. All the mounting holes were in the wrong place and the rear valance I have just discovered is different. Mine is painted to match the car. Another palm to face slapping moment. I will need a new valance and will have to have it painted again. Where will it ever end!! Onwards…… again….

Inside job

The interior had flipped from one theme to another so many times in my head that I wrote them down, arranged them in a circle and spun a bottle. The theme is set and I went about reworking what I had already done. Essentially because the stitching from my old sewing machine was worse than amateur. With a new walking foot sewing machine in my possession I retrimmed the dash and centre console again. I retrimmed the top half of the dash in Alcantara and left the existing black leather on the lower half. The S1 and S2 have chrome trim which i purchased. I cut away the poor stitching and will cover the join with chrome. The tartan theme will stay but I will change to an original tartan used by Lotus. The S1 used a green and red Menzies hunting tartan but green and red doesn’t sit well with me so I will use the red and black version which looks to be the same that Lotus use in the current exige. The Centre console, window lift panel, arm rest and dash are all done now. The steering column shroud is very poorly executed by Lotus. The top half overlaps the lower half and is simply screwed together. I couldn’t do away with exposed screws without expensive 3D printing so they stay. But I smoothed the lower cover to give a flush fit. I will tackle the A pillars next and finally the seats again. I have bought another steering wheel as well. I managed to find a horn pad for an Andretti Momo wheel that was originally fitted to the JPS car. I found the pad in Australia. The base wheel is quite a common item albeit without the Andretti signature. I found a decent wheel and refurbed it with a dye kit. The signature isn’t important for me and I am very impressed with the result from the dye kit. Very easy to do as well.

On the exterior I have not done a great deal as I have been tied up on the interior. I did assemble the air intakes and the fuel filler assembly. One of the fuel caps disintegrated so a second hand one is on the way along with, rather painfully, a replacement ECU. When I moved to my newly built garage, i misplaced the ecu. I expected it to turn up but after twice turning the garage upside down I have accepted that it is gone. A very painful wallet emptying order. I will assemble the fuel pump and fit the ECU when it arrives and hope to drive it out of the garage for the first time. Only a short journey to clean up before putting back in again.

A small addition to the pics. I added a completion pic of the garage by demand from a couple of friends. The inside is already a mess so I will let the exterior do the talking instead. 😉