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andydclements

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Blog Entries posted by andydclements

  1. andydclements
    Short day on car due to cold weather and my spine.

    Anyway, fitted the new rubber seal to the driver's side window and the glass now goes up and down all the way, it stuck approx 1/3 way down with old rubber seal. That concludes the planned work on that door (forgot to check mirror function) so trim is back on although I do plan to replace the speaker at some point.


    Passenger door, frame is worse than the other side was, I may be able to repair it as I did for the driver's side, I may have to just scrap that frame. I could see the bottom bolt fixing for the middle leg had nothing to attach to, the frame having rusted away completely leaving a gap of circa 2 inches. The leg near the back of the door isn't much better with it have swelled so much with rust it initially prevented the latching mechanism moving. I haven't looked at the front leg.
    The window not moving up or down has been identified as a motor being FUBAR. It's the old black AC Delco type, the inside was full of rust, the armature was well worn. I've fitted a front one off a Range Rover, it isn't a straight fit but it's close. It does mean I need to change the wiring dramatically. The original motor relied upon one coil for up, one coil for down and earth via the motor body, the new one requires wired earth and power, one orientation for up the other for down. As it's a car designed to have relays I'll need to alter the wiring of those in the car, add a few connections and that should sort it.

    Making progress, but very slowly now as my spine isn't recovering and I do not want to do anything that will cause it to go into a serious spasm again.
  2. andydclements

    It's taxed

    By andydclements,

    Waiting for tax disc to arrive so I can try it on the road.

    Today I worked on the carbs, balanced them to get air pressures aligned and it does seem to run a little better on tick-over and rev up nicely but the real test will be when it's on the road.

    I've replaced the otter valve (complete with ali tube) with one I ad in the store and the fans no longer come on as soon as the ignition does, they do however come on when it gets hot so that's a good sign. I've replaced the rusty header tank with one I'd repainted so that's a little tidier.

    I'm now really keen to get it on the road and find out how it behaves while driving, hopefully that tax disc will arrive soon.
  3. andydclements

    Damper failed

    By andydclements,

    Well, since restoring this car I've not used it much. That's not much for a car that I planned to be my daily driver. I used the red one quite a bit until I finally traced the misfire issues and so had confidence in being able to get to the destinations and return under the car's own power. I used the Berlingo when the weather was cold as it has a heather that is effective in less than 10 mins of engine running. I've now purchased a Signum as I'm ferrying my elderly parents around a lot and they cannot fit in the Excel and my Mother had difficulty getting in the rear seats of the Berlingo, and the Signum is more reassuring to drive than the Berlingo so there's less of a fear issue driving the Signum.

    The last few times I drove the gold Excel I noticed a knocking noise on uneven road surfaces. I tried the exhaust, driveshafts,. I tried spacing the damper further from the A arm so that they couldn't possibly make contact.
    With the car on the ramps (supported by its wheels) I discovered that the knock was replicated if I merely applied a small amount of upward force to the subframe. I managed to eliminate the body/subframe mounting form the list of options and so remove the damper. On inspection I have discovered that the damper has a knock in it giving circa 5mm of longitudinal movement without dampening, almost as though low on oil I suspect something inside has come apart. As the dampers are probably more than 2 years old despite the low mileage I doubt I'll the the manufacturer to honour the warranty, and without finding purchase info I doubt they'll even agree to assist in the funding of the repair, so I'm going top purchase just one damper (which is something I'd normally not do) on the basis the other damper (driver's side) is very new and has had very little use so it should be a reasonable match to the new one.
  4. andydclements

    It failed

    By andydclements,

    Not much to worry me.

    Headlight aim- I didn't check as I hadn't moved it.

    The issues identified late Saturday then Sunday morning, carb needle not stopping fuel from pump, well I think that's most of one of the issues. It failed on emissions, being too rich and I think excessive fuel height in the chamber would do that, I already had it planned in to do a re-build of the cars due to the issue I found Saturday.

    Advisory on one top ball joint, both will be replaced as I have them just in case.
    Advisory on road wheels having lots of corrosion where tyre bead sits, again, have a set of refurbed wheels , not just in case, they are to go on here but wanted to drive it somewhere and only have to carry 4 wheels.
  5. andydclements

    Ignition etc

    By andydclements,

    Last time I was working on the car all seemed sort of OK and it was starting except, one final time and when I pulled the lugs I found the spark was awful, even straight out of the coil.

    With some help (remotely) from Matt I've reviewed, cleaned replaced bits and now the spark at the plugs seems better. Today, the car started almost as soon as the starter moved. Hopefully that's the last pulling the dissy etc for a while. I hope this also solves the problem of difficulty getting HC and CO parts of the exhaust emissions both down.

    Door lock (glued back together) is back on the car but the little blue piece of plastic fell when it was in the door and I cannot see it, so will have to obtain a new one. So, door trim back on as well.

    I also fitted one of the pair of new rear dampers, I am to do the other tomorrow. The old dampers were advised from the MOT test to be watched and with only 40 miles after the test it was obvious the light oil trace the tester had seen was coming fro the damper and wasn't the WD40 we both hoped / thought it was. I had wondered if the shock could be re-sealed but then I noticed why the seals had failed, the plating on the shaft had failed so it would have to be re-chrome shaft and then re-seal or what will actually happen- dump them.
  6. andydclements
    Well, I had a go with the Glyptone stuff and whilst I have no reason to doubt it's better than the current Furniture Clinic approach (G= one coat, FC = colour and top coat)) it doesn't set very firm nor does it adhere very well. i think it's going to have rubbed off very soon.

    For the green Excel (long since gone to Mike's) I had planned to re-colour the leather to a lighter colour than it was. That never happened (car went) but I had purchased the FC solvent based (cellulose) paint and still have it. In terms of colour, the Glyptone stuff which I had matched to the original colour of the leather (piece sent was cut from inside the door trim) was a lot more vivid than the parts of the leather exposed to the sun for the last 25 years. The FC stuff I already had is a little bit more vivid than that FC stuff. Based on that I've decided to re-colour using the existing FC stuff.

    I've so far done the driver's door trim & handle, centre tunnel storage box, gear stick gaiter, handbrake gaiter and the trim between those two gaiters. It looks rather vivid, but I suspect the original colour would have looked rather vivid against the faded (almost cream) old leather colour.



    So, all in all, a bit annoyed that the G stuff doesn't stick well and that I paid circa 3100 for the kit and conditioner etc. A bit annoyed that I didn't think sooner about using the FC stuff I had, I could have achieved more of the re-colouring this week.
  7. andydclements

    Engine service

    By andydclements,

    Hmm. I stated today was going to be exhaust and seatbelt mounts.
    Seatbelt mounts are still in place (were to be cut off) , and that's not because they are acceptable. I just didn't get a chance.
    Exhaust, still in place, but not un-touched. Work that has been done on it previously: The rear pipes that go round the drive shafts have been cut and partially replaced with flexible pipe, the Y section has been lengthened. In short, it has been hacked beyond all use. I now need to make a choice, replace with decent second-hand one, replace with new standard one or replace with uprated one. Anyway, once the engine is running again I'll check to see how bad the leaks are note, did not assume there will be none) and possibly patch it to get through the MOT then make the decision.

    So, what did I do?
    The day focussed on bleeding all the old fluid out of the clutch and replacing with new, by the look of the fluid it was decades old and the seals are starting to go. Hopefully it's the slave cylinder seals as thy will be easier to fit.
    I changed the oil, oil filter, cam belt and V belts.

    So, not a bad day's work considering the sun was setting at 5pm and it took me a couple of hours to get the car up on the ramps this morning (winching it on as I didn't want to keep relying on a cam belt that is 8+ years old.
  8. andydclements

    Misfire

    By andydclements,

    Ever since taking the car out of the garage (spring time) I had a misfire, slight at tick-over, fine at full throttle but very pronounced under acceleration, although it went away sometimes. I'd tried carb adjustment, ignition system and finally noticed a correlation between issue and fuel level in the tank (I'd initially though it was fresh fuel made it go the first time).
    In the knowledge the issue only became really noticable at 1/2 full tank and got worse until at 1/4 full it was a real PITA, I ordered a new fuel pump. Today I fitted it (Facet type) and despite the car being nearly at 1/4 tank it seems to idle without a misfire, although it may become more smooth once I've re-adjusted the mixture (it must have been slightly over-rich compared to optimum to counter the pump issue).

    Now, to get on with other things and possibly go shopping and take the car for a test run.
  9. andydclements
    A few weeks ago I mailed the local dealer (Stratton Motor Company, Longstratton, Norfolk) asking if there was any chance of a recall activity being done FOC. I had by now assumed they'd either not received the mail or were not getting any info from Lotus Cars. Yesterday I received an email from Ian (Service Manager) confirming the work hadn't been done and so was outstanding and that he would now order the parts.

    What's noteworthy about this is not what they are doing but how long it is after the recall was issued but they are still happy to do it. There's no requirement for a manufacturer to undertake recall work on an unlimited time-scale they can easily argue the customer has taken many years longer than normal to respond, the car has no issues despite being 25+ years old so really doesn't need the work, but they are doing it with no hesitation.

    Thank you Lotus Cars
    Thank you Stratton Motor Comany.

    Now to book the car in.
  10. andydclements

    She starts

    By andydclements,

    I had hoped that the other week when I tried to start it, that it would fire but I'd found no fuel in the carbs so checked the fuel tank and found it empty and I do mean empty not just below the take-off level. The small amount of fuel that had been there had obviously evaporated.

    I put fresh fuel in, checked that the shut-off valve was making a noise when powered and tried to get fuel to the carbs. After approx 30 mins of the pump (not an SU) running I found I still had no fuel in the carbs, nor was there fuel to the supply to the carbs (so ruled out blocked float valve. yesterday I checked and had fuel to the pump but none past it. I replaced the (plastic cylindrical) pump with a facet one. Lots of brown (rust) coloured sludge came out of the old pump. By the change in pump noise I could tell it had managed to fill the carbs but alas no fire in the cylinders. I then checked for a spark and couldn't find one. After checking a few things I replaced the coil, still no good and finally traced it to a poor connection on the dissy-amp lead. It was good enough to give some AC volage when I span the dissy by hand but was found to be high resistance. I've found that lead is brittle, so brittle that i had to clear insulation away with a knife and solder good wire to it in order to crimp to it, the old wire just snapped each time. I now have a spark.

    With fresh spark plugs (old Bosch ones were wet with fuel), new dissy cap, new rotor arm (non-rivet type), new coil it starts. It's a bit loud having no rear boxes and no air box, it's also a bit metallic as the exhaust pipes are resting on the suspension. This should be OK enough to drive it up the ramp that is in the garage, so I can get decent access.

    That is success for the weekend almost met, the definition I set myself was to have it on the ramp, that now means I need to clear away the tools I used yesterday to replace a neighbour's CV join and the other things in the way, winch the car backwards , set the ramp and drive it on.
  11. andydclements
    It went for its second MOT test (since I've owned it) and it passed, one failure point was the RHS rear fog lamp not working but I fiddled with the lamp at the station so he re-tested it and passed it.
    The car was an absolute PITA that day, started well, drove OK for most of the journey but become troublesome once it got hot, almost stalling as I arrived at the testing station.
    During the test it refused to run well and refused to start well. I left with the certificate, and it stalled approx 100m down the road, then another 20m on, then 1/2 mile later it stalled on a roundabout and refused to start. Thankfully it was a roundabout with more than one lane but despite coasting as tight to the kerb and putting hazards on I still had three drivers pull right behind my car and blow their horn for me to move.
    Greenflag arrived within 45 mins and helped push it off the roundabout, having checked it out decided it was ignition, which tied in with my diagnosis and so had it recovered as he thought there was a good chance it would break down again despite it having decided it would start again (seemed like something breaking down when hot).

    I spent the day on the car, from 8am today, and having replaced various bit I found that replacing the rotor arm and dissy cap didn't fully sort it but replacing the AB14 seemed to remove the misfire.

    I was getting exhausted (lunch would have been a nice thing) and so made a few schoolboy errors such as setting the timing light to 0 degrees advance then knocking the knob and setting it to 60 degrees without realising and then wondering why the timing seemed so far off despite having set it to 10 degrees static. I also managed to rotate the plug leads when swapping over to the new cap, I'm sure i held them the same way round.

    Anyway, it runs and runs a lot more evenly than it had since being recommissioned so I suspect the AB14 was causing me issues all the while and this was the first real run that it got hot.


    Tomorrow I need to replace the rubbers on the upper ball joints, the passed as they don#'t allow dirt in but they have a split so will be replaced to keep grease in.
  12. andydclements

    LHS rear

    By andydclements,

    The weather did well to attempt to stop me doing anything on the car, having succeeded for a couple of weekends with the snow. Today it was a mix of snow, hail and rain, combined with strong winds, so generally unpleasant.

    I managed (between showers) to get the rear hub carrier off, clean it up, weld on the new dust/stone guard, paint it all, cut and press out the old rubber bushes, fit the new ones. Cut the damper out of the frame. Finally refitting the carrier but not the braking system. Due to the LHS rear spring being broken I have not bolted the new damper in pace fully, it's there with 80% of the old spring (that's 2 of the 3 bits) in place just so that I could return the car to 4 wheels and close the garage door.

    The list of parts required is growing, rear spring, front spring, long bonnet pull cable, possibly seatbelt mounts (I may make some), my hope is to make one decent list so that I can have it sent by Mike in one lot.
  13. andydclements
    I had to get my hair cut this morning so it delayed the start a bit, with breakfast it was effectively 10:00.

    I started trying to remove the water pump with the bonnet on but very soon decided I'd need if off as it would save time overall. I gave up and removed the timing belt as well. I decided given the choice, struggle with two suborn bolts into cast ali that secure the steering pump bracket to the water pump or remove one bolt from the sump and do those two bolts using the bench vice, the one sump bolt was soon out.

    I spent ages looking for,
    1) refurbished water pump I lent Terry (I may have not collected it back from him)
    2) water pump refurbishment kit. I know I have one somewhere.
    3) Brand new water pump.

    After a couple of hours I found no3. Great? No. I now recall it's the sort with no boss at the bottom for the pump etc. It's destined for the Turbo Esprit as I plan to move from mechanical pump to electric vac pump. Pump bearing pressed out and it's easy to see where the old coolant had crept past the seal.

    So I cleaned the old ali water pump body and prepared to paint it in ali engine lacquer. Oh well, that tin of paint is empty and what little had been left was dried as the lid must have leaked slightly. I'll have to get some during the week.

    Ah well, onto the dampers.

    Old one off on the passenger side and it's easy to see why two things happen. 1) it bounces a bit on the front end, 2) it passed the MOT test as there was no oil leaking form it.
    This was because the oil must have left many years ago and as the car had been standing unused by the previous owner the oil on the outside must have slowly drained off the metal.
    2nd hand AVO now fitted to that side.

    While I had that wheel off I removed the track rod end, freed off the locking nut (2 big hammers) and replaced the steering rack gaiter. The other side had been done before the MOT test but this was seen as a "nice to do" although once off I found a small hole in the old one. I also set the TRE in by half a turn to straighten up the steering wheel, I'll have to adjust the other one out half a turn to equal it out.


    So, abit more progress but not all that I wanted to do was achieved mainly due to wasted time looking in that really untidy garage.
  14. andydclements

    Yet more carpet in

    By andydclements,

    The boo boo on the rear seatbelt mounting has been resolved and the seat base back in.
    The carpet in the driver's side has been removed along with all-but-one of the metal fixings (the one that acts the the stop for the accelerator pedal). I may have to re-manufacture that fitting as the nut and thread section both look very bad in the wheel well area.
    The long section of carpet with the pocket, the section that goes to the base of the door, the two sections that cover the seat mounting area and the rear seat calf-area section are all in place. Rain started so I packed lots of stuff away, rain stopped and I was feeling cold and tired so didn't re-start.

    I sat on the interior light, so will need to glue that back together.
  15. andydclements

    Slowing progress

    By andydclements,

    Some of the day was taken up with carpet cleaning in the house, but that prompted me to do a job I hadn't planned to do before the car goes for its MOT test.

    I removed the rear panel one side, fitted glass tint (which will have to be removed anyway- dust got under it somehow). I have cleaned the rear seat bases, back and the one side trim using carpet/ upholstery cleaner and the VAX. The water coming off was a sort of black/ green colour and the stench makes me think the car was owned for a long time by somebody who smoked in it. The front seats, door cards and other rear trim will still need to be done but there is a massive difference in the look of the pieces once dry.

    I also replaced the Track Rod End (£10.34 from local motor factors).
  16. andydclements
    I must stop planing to do things, I tend not to get them done in the order planned so I then fell that I've not achieved as much as I need to. I planned to get up early today and get on with the car before popping out (day of holiday today). Migraine put pay to that, I had to be driven to the local housing association office as I didn't feel up to driving, anyway, rent for garage paid, keys received.

    Eventually (approX 2pm) I felt able to stand and not keel over, so power tools became an option again.

    I cut the old seatbelt anchor mounts off, well the nuts and washer-like piece of metal that was left at each end.

    Exhaust, I haven't taken it off because, I couldn't find a leak. The system seemed to pressurise well.


    That brings me to the engine, I needed that running in order to check the exhaust. With a charged battery borrowed from the Elf I tried and could only get it to start then die. After battery full of charge was applied again I realised I hadn't heard the pump tick (old SU type still on there), found the wire off, that done and fuel enrichment device operated, it started. Oil pressure came up well, and quickly. It was very lumpy, found one cylinder was missing. Pulled the leads in sequence and found no4 had no change, then with wiggling of no 3, no 4 started to fire occasionally. that hinted at a lead/ dissy cap moving type issue. The leads are pretty poor, so get box of new Magnacor ones from shelf and prepare to fit, consider the dissy cap etc so remove air box and pull off cap.
    Rotor arm is shot, it looks 10s of 1000s of miles beyond serviceable use, the rotor cap is brand new.
    I broke the clip for the dissy cap, so will get a new one of those and new Rotor arm then check if it fires evenly on all 4.

    The clutch thrust bearing made a fair bit of noise initially but went off after approx 60 seconds, so it may be OK, it may fail in a short period of service, we'll see.
  17. andydclements

    Front brakes

    By andydclements,

    Today I fitted the modified front brakes, not finished because of a slight mis-measurement I will need to have a small amount of material machines off the shim and the calliper spacers.

    [s]2mm needs to come off the shim that pushes the disc outwards from the car [/s] The shims that push the discs away from the wheel need to be at least 2mm thicker, and that same amount plus another 2mm to come off the spacers that move the callipers in the same direction. Despite this, I will still need to fit a thin shim between the hub and the wheel as it currently has 3 washers per wheel stud to give enough clearance for the wheel to turn. Moving the callipers inwards 4mm will mean the wheels turn without fouling the callipers but to allow for flex in the wheels when cornering I need to give another 2-3mm. I can also gain another 1mm by shaving a part of the calliper which isn't really required.

    So, with the temporary washers in place I have bled the brakes and have a decent pedal with very little movement without servo assistance, tomorrow the car goes up on the ramps for work on the exhaust and seat belt mounts.

    Edit: Realised much later that night that the change I was planning to do to the shim was the wrong change. I may be able to get enough additional movement on the disc position so as to no need to put a spacer on the wheels, that's the desire because spacing them means putting longer studs in the hub.
  18. andydclements
    Carrying on from the thread which I started as I didn't think it was possible to have more than one blog.

    [url="http://www.thelotusforums.com/forums/topic/54840-silver-g-reg-excel-se-restoration/"]http://www.thelotusforums.com/forums/topic/54840-silver-g-reg-excel-se-restoration/[/url]

    Today was set aside for electrics and that's what I did, so that's unusual in itself, me doing what I planned.
    There were multiple wires chopped through and damaged near the fusebox and today I went at them with the soldering iron.
    I've had a few moments of one step forward one step back, due to getting the last wire of a certain colour joined only to realise it's no the last of that colour and I've just connected the wrong bits together so having to remove the heat-shrink, unsolder the joint and start again.
    Too many greens and too many purples, thankfully although there were 6 ends of green and red they all join together in a daisy-chain and there were two thicknesses of wire.
    Several were a pain in that the wire had been pulled right at the terminal so it meant getting the terminal out of the block , attaching new wire to it with solder then soldering that new wire to the cut/ ripped end.


    Has it been a success? I think so.

    I do have one nagging worry, there's a green wire to the otter switch (with a diode in series) and I cannot seem to register a connection there. It was the last green one I soldered together and after the mistakes I'd checked that the clock etc were connected to the correct one, so it [i]must [/i]be the otter switch wire but may have a fault elsewhere.

    The lights now work, the hazards and indicators now work, save for the OSR due to a Failed lamp holder and the NS repeater due to a failed whole repeater.

    The window motors did not respond, however there is power at the switch so (unless it's a poor connection not allowing sufficient current) I need to look at the motors themselves. that's not a surprise given how rusty everything else in the door seems to be.

    The Driver's side mirror motor did respond but not the passenger side one, so could be many reasons, that will wait until I get the door off (door beam needs to be done).

    I've now had enough for the day, it's cold outside and my feet feel like blocks of ice. I also managed to reattach the vent grill having painted it and the AB14 module having painted that. I didn't get round to removing the old header tank and fitting the newly painted one in its place.
  19. andydclements

    Motor OK

    By andydclements,

    Well, the windows are still not operating but I think that's more to do with dodgy switches than anything major. I've had the motor off and the frame off the door.
    The frame needs work, rust at the top corner and the bit near where it is secured to the front of the door skin. With the non-availability of replacement new frames and the lack of second hand ones is states much better than this I expect this will be repaired and continue in service.

    The window lift channel that is secured to the bottom of the glass has rusted quite badly and I can either obtain a new bit and adhere to the glass of simply use a spare window glass that I have. I expect it will be the latter.
    The motor seems OK and I've now put copious amounts of grease in the usual places to keep the water from making the rust much worse.

    The driver's door beam has been replaced but the person who did it didn't quite get the door to align so I'll have to adjust that. The person also didn't add a grease nipple to allow packing of the hinge pin, I may alter that situation with it in place. The door movement already seems to require excessive force and that's despite me having put grease on the moving parts of the check strap.

    The cold weather didn't make me inclined to do too much today as I don't want to put the spine into spasm.

    The driver's door trim has been cleaned and given a coating of hide food, the switch plate has been painted and reattached, and the ashtray is in the process of being repainted.
  20. andydclements

    Door beam

    By andydclements,

    The previous owner replaced the door beam on the driver's side but didn't get the passenger's side one done. I have a second hand passenger's side beam sitting in the shed (as you do) so today I knocked the hinge pin out (it was seized), cleaned up the rust on the one end of it that had rusted, drilled and tapped a thread into the beam tube that the hinge runs through and re-assembled. I've fitted a grease nipple in the tube so not only will it be full of grease to start with rather than just a small amount each end, it will allow topping up at service times.
    Unfortunately the snow outside hasn't gone away and I don't fancy working in it so the door is not coming off the car yet. When it does the plan will be to use an engine crane to lift the shell (door drops when opened) - Ah I've loaned crane out...
    Anyway, use crane to lift shell, then remove glass and metal frame, unbolt shell from beam, unbolt top hinge plate from body of car, manoeuvre door shell so as to remove beam from it and insert replacement beam without having to remove wiring etc. once it's done I may end up posting that I had to remove the door shell from the car and wiring etc. It's not a lot of difference but that may save me having to adjust whatever support I use for the door when attempting to re-attach shell and beam to the car.
  21. andydclements

    Rear brakes RHS

    By andydclements,

    With the weather as bad as it is and the car outside I decided it was better to work on something that I could remove and perform work in the garage which although not heated is at least out of the wind.
    I've removed the RHS rear hub carrier with brakes etc. I've fabricated and welded to it a new dust/ stone shield (fabricated the other side also but need to get that hub off to weld it). The backplate for the brake shoes has been wire-brushed and painted with a zinc primer and now I'll wait for a few days in order to paint it with a top coat. I'll use this time to press the old bushes out and new poly ones in. Ill also need to remove the old damper but I decided it was just too cold to do more out there.
  22. andydclements

    RHS suspension

    By andydclements,

    Despite the temperature outside being rather cold and my spine being very sensitive to the cold I have managed some progress today.
    The Right Hand Side rear damper has been cut off and a new one fitted, 4 rubber bushes (top link and hub carrier ones) removed and poly ones put in the place, that means I didn't do the ones that secure to the subframe, those other two will have to wait until I have the car in the garage.
    The RHS rear calliper has been fitted although not plumbed in and the rest of that side braking system now needs to be fitted. Once done I can then return the car to resting on its suspension and move it.
    I had to cut the nuts off the drive shaft flange so will have to obtain some more, obtainable but a pig of a size, m10 fine (1.25mm) 14mm across flats.
  23. andydclements

    RHS rear brakes

    By andydclements,

    At least it's a bit warmer outside today than the last few days, so I managed to fit the rear shoes, plumb in the rear calliper (copper pie from T to flexi and new stainless flexi). fit the rear pads and new disc. Adjusted the shoes to hopefully the right place (I will tell when both sides are done and I can apply the handbrake.
    Refitted the wheel (with new centre cap).
    I also fitted the clear lenses to the front (as clear as I could get by repeatedly washing the paint off with acetone) and amber lamps.

    I managed to connect the battery with reversed polarity and wondered why I was getting quite a spark on the battery terminal, it's the battery off the Elf and I'd just placed it in the battery tray as I'd been using it for the window motors. Oops, hopefully nothing damaged.

    I took the RHS rear spat off the car ready to be repaired as I clumsily broke it in several stages by hitting it with the dead-blow hammer, leaning against it and grabbing it whilst falling over.
  24. andydclements
    Well, I had progressed with the car quite well, needing to finish the leather and that would be about it, or so I thought.
    I spent a fair bit of my free time doing bits about the garden etc, so with the good weather over I realised I needed the garage as a working space, tidying that has been (and continues to be) hard work. It's fairly tidy now but the plan is to not do much more on the gold one for a while, I do need to dry it out (not happy) and fit new door seals (Hopefully that's the cause of the wet carpets as the windscreen is newly fitted, the rear screen is secure and the water is not visible on the headlining).

    Once that's done the plan is to move it to the rented garage and let it dry out a bit more. The silver Excel that's in that garage at present then becomes the winter project. I've been and removed the rear brake discs and now nee to remove the fronts/ free them off so that it can be moved onto the truck/trailer easily.

    So, hopefully starting the next restoration thread very soon.
  25. andydclements
    I've been laid up with 'flu for a week or so (didn't feel up to working on car sat & Sun, had to work from home yesterday & today as I am worse and couldn't drive in to work). So, I've done nothing physically to the car.
    I have just called Mike at Lotusbits and will soon have nearly £900 debited to my credit card. reconditioned cooling rad, reconditioned air con rad, pipes to rad (fittings have changed) and drier. Bushes, ARB mounts, seatbelt mounts and carpet set. In a way it hurts having to order £900 of parts as the car cost me only approx 50% more than that, however the plan is to have a good example and so I'd be paying circa £5k for one that's ready and then not know what is in store for me any time after that. This way I'll get to inspect most parts and replace lots of bits that I'm not happy with, and it should still be way under that cost.
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