CharlieCroker

Don't sell your elite whatever you do, the market is about to spike. Fwiw my feature is about to come out, so a little birdie tells me.

I did mine with Halfords (yellow tube) coarse cutting paste then Tcut then brasso, 3 stages. It's not hard work with the drill, impossible to get it really shiny by hand, trust me I've tried.

Trick for polishing alloy wheels, don't bother doing it by hand, buy a cloth wheel to fit a standard electric drill, get some coarse and fine cutting compound and a bucket of water to hand. Spread the paste all over the surface and sprinkle drops of water around the wheel and put the drill to work. Repeat with fine after a good sessionbwith coarse. I did the polished lip on the esprit that way and they came up like mirror and I never had them clear coated. A cheap alternative to getting the face recut.

I dunno Dunc, I didn't really look into the details to be honest. I'd be surprised if they didn't bolt straight on though, what offset are the original wheels (do the original wheels have a name?). Wheels, a whole heap of stress to get right, measure, measure, measure!

I've just played your video and it sounds almost exactly like mine did when I had all that trouble with the alternator, slowly turning over then eventually kicking in. Your volt readings are similar to what I was seeing. Could be a faulty alternator? As it was pointed out to me you should be seeing at least 13.5v to 14v at the battery, if you are not then the alternator is not charging. Are you getting the ignition light 'on' when you fire up, then 'off' once started?

Compomotive make these in a 15" x 8. Very close to the lotus original and I think they can drill these to any pcd. http://www.comp.co.uk/wheels/wheels.asp?section=th-82-17

It was funny, young bloke came over to me while we were setting up. His mate said to him, 'there's a lotus over there with skis on the back', so he promptly had to investigate further. Then the other kid shows up and began to tell me while he was polishing his car, he had a cool car to the left, then another cool car to the right, then just as he thought he'd seen all the cool cars, a flippin lotus rides by with friggin skis on the back! Also had another bloke come over, said he was going to sell his bmw and get an elite asking me how much can you find one for, told him he'd be lucky to find a project car for under 4k and a good one for 8k. Everybody loved the skis, went down a storm ;-)

Brilliant day out at ultimate stance today, I represented the Retro Rides stand and we won 'Best Stand' in the entire show! 5 cars stole the show and went up against some serious metal, Elite, Esprit, Imp, Mazda, and Volvo = win. There's some mind boggling cars on show and my best selection is on my instagram if you want to see. The Panther got some serious attention and was continually photographed and I was on hand most of the day chatting about the car and build, and had soo many nice compliments and interest, here's just a sneaky photo, loads more online.

Nice one, looks like a good'n. Look forward to seeing your progress.

And here they are, I have to say they are good quality and fit like a glove. Not only that, they even send you a packet of fizzy cola bottles for free!

That's the same, Rota BM8, I spent hours researching tyres, and that's a whole ball game on its own, there's loads of 15" tyres available, try camskill they have loads in stock with good prices.

Yes, of course, nothing changes at any point in the geometrics of the rear set up. Everything is the same, except for the spring, which is removed and replaced by the airbag. The handling is perftect, I can understand to those of you that are not familiar with airride, it may seem a unwise modification but I repeat nothing really changes at any point front or rear in the main points of geometry. You are (I say) simply replacing the spring with a bag over the strut. The main work, and you can ask rob, is at the airred out position, cos the bag is 'fat' in respect to a spring you have millimetres to play with as it sits within the control arms. However on my installation I must have had the bag in an out over a 20 times to make sure everything was in line, and clearing any obstruction at any point in the up or down position. Trust me to air ridean elite iisn't easy and it's not for the faint hearted, infact the esprit woukd be an easier project , but I'm not taking anything away from those builds cos I know just how much work is involved. Plus I'm not going to give all my secrets away when half the slammed community it watching and reading, Charlie has to keep one step ahead of the pack! Anyone who's ever tried a custom install knows what im talking about, but it's worth the hours cos at the end of it you'll probably have one of the coolest cars around. Happy Days, Charlie ;-)

How about this...

Very latest photo taken Sunday...

I really appreciate the positive comments gentlemen and it warms the soul that you 'lotus' guys respect what I've done even if you dont like the overall look. Make no mistake though that I love an original car, especially when you can see the effort someone has put into it, just on this occasion I decided to try something a little different. We'll all benefit from the exposure this car has generated in the long run as someone said to me it looked like a 20k car so prices are sure to rise, tge mods shiukd give me a free membership on here for the amount of publicity it creates, and I know a lot of people outside of the TLF read the thread as I don't always post on tge RR forum. Only yesterday I had a new photoshoot and these will end up in FastCar magazine which has a very young audience, more interest around the elite good for everyone. Plus I'm not a stuck up twat, I'll happily talk to anyone about the car at a show so if you see it, come over have a chat, it's all good fun, nothing too serious.

Well basically it is a complete custom build, there's simply no kit available off the shelf that you can bolt on. Basically there are all shapes and sizes of airbag on the market so it's entirely up to the builder to choose the best way for him/her. Bare in mind I know both airride esprit owners and they have been very helpful (particularly Rob) in the advising how they approached the problem and my VW days I installed aurride on a 67 bug I used to own which is close to the same process. However the S1 chassis is different at the rear to the esprit and you have to build your own bag mounts, the aim is to replace the spring with a bag, the bag in effect becomes the spring. I opted for a bag over strut , (same as the esprit guys) at the front, it's basically a bag with a hole in the middle for the strut to go through. Sounds easy but there's a hell of a lot of massaging needed to get the bag in. The rear is much simpler as there's more space to work with. The black elite you see above has been slammed on coilovers, I haven't seen the car up close and personal but from what I can see he has pratically removed the srping to get it that low! I hasten to add that car is a quick slam job to get it into the show and I believe it can't actually drive as it scrapes all over the place. The beauty of air ride is you get the touch down effect for a show but you can actually drive it tge5re and back. I have about 4" of travel in my bag so I run low but could run a touch higher. This is ride height. .. It's not for the faint hearted, the ride would be considered hard to some but I'm used to airride and I love it. Oh and I forgot to mention, you still have a damper, so that takes up any shock. I don't expect any hardcore originalphile to understand but I love lotus as much as anyone on here, just my vision as I see it, you're either on board with me or not.

Cheers lads, today I had another photoshoot with neil terry a young talented photographer who was simply bowled over by the panther when he saw it, I practically had to drag him away to end the shoot. He's a young guy and is very much intouch with lowered modified cars and drove 2 hours to do the shoot for free just because he loved the car. I'm getting the feeling that in the 'modified' community this car is so different that it has ruffled a few feathers with the old guard. Let's make no mistake here, there's a massive gulf between my elite and the black elite in terms of hours spent, mine is in the 1000 hour mark where as the black elite was modified this week to get it ready for the show, and I have been open and incredibly honest with my posts and photos which makes it very easy to criticise good or bad, plus I have lotus blood running through my viens. But I'm very proud that my elite has inspired another car, and maybe more cars will follow. Those of you that know me, know I hate to blow my own trumpet but the panther has practically single handedly raised the profile of the model to another level whether you like it or not, it's been a story, a never ending narrative which I know many of you have enjoyed the journey, and the story is on going and more to come... "Never underrate the English, they're not as stupid as they look." Altabani ;-) Yes Mike, What I could do with a open cheque book and a real garage...

He's just pulled it out of the workshop, just sent me this photo. The elite must be arguably one of the coolest retro shapes currently about, possibly the difinitve 70s wedge.

No RR thread, the guy just doesn't have time due to work load. We've planned a photoshoot and a feature together for Hayburner magazine (it's a VW thing, in the 'something different' section) after the show so there's gunna be loads of photos coming. Also I'm hoping the panther will get its feature in RetroCars magazine in the next couple of months, but they seem to drag their feet, can't wait to see it in there, plus you'll get a better idea of my build and how it came about once you read the feature. All good stuff and exciting times, oh and I have a few ideas planned for ultimate stance, should ruffle a few feathers even further. Let's just say, Charlie's taking an early winter break ;-) Buon Viaggio!

And here it is, sneaky preview. Looks flipping ace if you ask me, can't wait to see it in the flesh the black and gold is spot on. Getting ready for Ultimate Stance, a show not to miss.

Yeah they are effectively stickers albeit the embossed resin type, just a detail I've been meaning to do, with the show around the corner, it's time. They stick onto the the wheel cap center.

Just ordered some I'll get some photos up as soon as they arrive, hopefully they are as good as they look.

I've found this company ( http://www.signdezine.co.uk/vinyl_graphics/proddetail.php?prod=3D-Domed-Gel-LOTUS-black-chrome-wheelcenter) making center caps for wheels and they look correct with a resin dome to them, £16 for four delivered, anyone used them before? What I like about them is they can make them in the diameter you need, can anyone vouch for the quality? Cheers Charlie :-)

Cheers Barry, such a nervy hour though, isn't it but you're right I've given it every chance to pass, there's nothing really they can fail it on. Honestly, the garage I use really put it through its paces, and if they find anything unsafe they let me know, they're great lads though, real petrolheads and they have a ford race team and just love it when I pull the elite in, for them it's something a bit different so they enjoy the process. To my surprise even the headlights were aligned perfectly, and considering I did them yesterday evening using the garage wall as my giude, and after all the shenanigans with the mx5 conversion I was feeling quite smug. So, all go for another year or at least until the next problem raises it's ugly head. I do have to say, and you know I don't like to blow my own trumpet but it looked bloody cool under the lights and even better on the road when he took it out to test the brakes (on the street) it's too low to get on the rolling road!

PASS - No advisories.