EliteMike

Hi Will and welcome to the Lotus forum. Lots of knowledgeable and talented individuals lurk amongst the topics and posts, and all have one thing in common Lotus. You will find if you ask, nearly anything you need to know, there is some one here who will help, or advise, mainly from personal experience. I agree rebuild it, and first thing I would suggest is try to get it under cover, as makes it so much easier. I'm about 10 miles west from Exeter, and part way through an Elite restoration, and like most people on the forum its a labour of love that has to fit in around life. So if I can help with hands on advice, let me know. Welcome to the world of lotus Mike

May sound daft, again on an Elite, don't forget to drain gearbox oil, I did, brain was not functioning at that moment, but suddenly came back to life with jolt when drive suddenly became covered with gear oil, as prop shaft flange dropped out of box, and the oily contents ran everywhere. Hope all goes well.

Hi Ken On my car the Power steering pump bracket that bolts on to the side of engine, is slotted to allow the pump to be rotated sufficiently to tighten the belt, bit like tightening an alternator. Have tried to take photograph, but not any success due to where it is, and and when get camera in it is too close to make out the detail. Hope this may help a little Regards Mike

Well Done Dan, Lump looks nice on bench, but much better back in the car where it should be, have you any races left this season or will it just be some shake down testing. Good Luck with her Mike

Hi All sorry I dont have them fitted, I just laid them in drivers side of car to have quick look, took them all out immidiatly and put into storage in spare bedroom, as not ready to install yet, e mail Ian and he will send you a small sample of your choise of colours. Good luck with your rebuilds. mike

Hi All Recently purchased, and had delivered, a set of carpets for the Elite, from Carhoods, sims_ian@hotmail.com Settled on after looking at couple of colours, on the Antique Red as extremly close shade to the red leather seats, and although not fitted yet, we have laid in a few bits to look at, and looks great. Really well made, all exposed edges are bound in leathercloth like originals. Quite suprised that 9 pieces make up each side of car. I found him a nice guy to do business with, helpfull, and a really good product. Regards Mike

Hi Mat I have diagram, and list of what parts are which shows where pipes go etc, scanned into my computer, from the Bible acording to Lotus, however like you have no idea of how to attach scanned document to this, if you want to let me have you e mail and I will send across. Regards Mike

Hi Mat I used the basic nylon headlining that comes complete with the foam and scrim backing, I only put glue on the fiberglass and not the material itself, and it has stuck perfectly, did a test run with offcut and that stuck fine only glueing base. I started with the side trim panels, which when I was doing them, gave them 3 coats of glue immidiatly, and then placed the cut out material straight on top and pulled it into shape, it seemes to be very forgiving, as if you get it a little out of shape you can pull it off and reposition and it still sticks perfectly. This gave me the confidence to start on the roof headlining itself, again three coats of glue, did not need to mask windows as quite narrow spray and you dont have to bring material to window edge as that is covered by the trim pieces, but covered seats and dash board and all other bits that thought may get glue on if i got things wrong. I cut the 2 pieces for the headlining a little larger than required to give me enough material should I have postioned it slightly incorrectly that could still get away with it, I used a new small paint roller to smooth it out, and my son helped hold material at one end initialy so could get first piece positioned properly, trimmed the excess material away, waited for it all to dry and then fitted the side trim pieces which clip in. Now working on the sunvisors, having stripped them down, rubbed metal frame down and sprayed that, bought some card same thickness as what was originaly there, which in mine was all bent and buckled, sewed all pieces material together ready to re make them up, but before stuck it found that one piece of card is not enough, you need a piece either side of the frame to stop frame showing through material and give it a better thickness, have to say I have used headlining material on both sides and not the black leathercloth that was on one side of mine, as didnt think my wifes sewing machine would cope with that. Regards Mike

Hi Duncan, It is a slight possibility to do what you say, but the positioning of the pump means not very much room to get a rubber pipe between and at right angles from pump, miss chassis/body, also be out the way of the belts and come across front of crossmember to rack. The metal pipe that fits to the pump is (was) bent in three different planes, so that it comes out of pump, does a 90 bend, short straight, another 2 bends before it joins rubber pipe so not easy to get new metal one fabricated, Unfortunatly the original is buckled too badly to use. Phoned Mike at Lotus Bits and he is anticipating having a couple of Elites in onTuesday with power steering, so possibility there, just thought a member may have spare one they wanted to sell. Otherwise will take damaged one and pump in to Hydraulic hose company we use, and get them to fabricate one. Regards Mike

Hi All, does any one have either a good complete high pressure power steering pipe, the one that runs from power steering pump to the rack, for sale. Or failing that, does any one have just the solid metal end pipe that attaches to the power steering pump end, that i could buy and get swaged into my rubber pipe?? Regards Mike

Having now completely refitted my headlining and side trim pieces in my 1978 Elite, and how nice it looks, even if i say so myself, much better than fiberglass and no fitted trim pieces to the sides. I have the old bits of headlining and side trims material, plus surround material for rear window trim, if any one wants them to use as paterns to cut the pieces out when they do their headlining retrim, saves wasting too much. Also should some one need all the fiberglass trim pieces i think i have a full set available as well, needless to say they require retriming. I purchased my headling from Wollies, like most people, but bought some high temperature spray glue from AS Trim, www.as-trim.co.uk so much easier than having to use a brush to apply, and very forgiving too, bought three cans but 2 would do, with some left over, have to say i gave it three coats in opposite directions, having practices on the trim pieces. Regards Mike

Paul Dan is your man for a replacement one, and buying bits from him helps his Racing Eclat to continue gracing the tracks. However it is very easy to get the stud out and retap the thread with manifold insitue, I had to do it on one of mine on the Elite, and have done same or similar on many cars in past. Regards Mike

Paul plenty of penetrating fluid then as Steve says undo stud and retap the thread before fitting new bolts, if you have to drill out re tap one size up, but you may have to drill out exhaust flange holes slightly larger to acomodate larger bolts. Regards Mike

Hi Paul Not tried either, but have removed stainless system from 76 Elite was breaking for spares for my 78 one, and there was too much wrong to make it viable to do up the 76 one. If you are at all intrested I have both back boxes, matched pair of pipes that go over drive shafts, and centre box all in stainless, the original pipe was cut just in front of centre box where box was clamped on. So if you do not want to spend that sort of money on new system, will do this for £90.00 plus post and packaging, will go towards doing some more to mine. Regards Mike

Also Done, Good luck Leigh you did say the Mini didnt you !!!, O Ops, sorry, voted for that old Elite as lot better than mine, will get there one day when time allows.. Regards Mike