Jamie Garroch

I had mine done by a professional trimmer in isolation to the rest of the interior (which I stripped out the following year) so while I can't say exactly how difficult it is, I can say you'll save £500 doing it yourself. Having said that, when I stripped the rest of the interior, I learned how to get it all out and the headliner is only a couple of screws and some glue to remove so should be a fairly easy job compared with getting leather out. The sun visors were done at the same time to match the new material and one of those has never had enough friction to stay stowed so watch out for that.

If you use http://www.royalmail.com/price-finder it says that for 860g the cost for tracked & signed service to Malta is £13.05 but SJ will have to add costs of the packaging. I don't know why they are charging UK VAT on an EU sale. In another thread where I was looking for the sponge seal between the front compartment panel and the heater air intake, someone recommended this company : http://www.sealsdirect.co.uk/

That's quite some scenery. Super photo. Someone remind me why I live in the South East please? Closest I get to home these days is doing the 14 hour round trip to Kirkcudbright once a year in an 88 Esprit with 'Scottish' plates. Ho hum.

I love the rain. Without rain, lovingly polished cars wouldn't yield their beauty when coupled with nature :-)

Still happy with DAB on my Kenwood unit. The only complaints I have is that the front USB doesn't seem to charge my phones (even though the phone says it is) and there's not enough contrast in the display to overcome the reflections from here there and everywhere. So I bought a remote control for 12 quid off of Ebay as I couldn't control the unit safely while driving.

Hi Laura. I belive I am the first in the reserve list afte Nyj who was the last to be promoted.

Mine is finally back on the road after it's engine rebuild and I've been promising Malcolm F that I'd get myself out of bed to one of these. Many others going? Also, any idea why searching for "Newland" turns up the event in March 2013? (Dumb user?)

A quick follow up. I've made a sketch of the seal and uploaded it to sealsdirect.co.uk with a request "what do you have that's best for this" as they know their products better than I do! I'll report back when I have a response and perhaps there's a chance to make a batch if they recommend sheet rather than strip.

That is SOME site Simon. My wife wasn't quite as excited to be sat next to me last night while I was browsing through it!!! Thanks :-) Thanks Jim. At least I know my search was not a failure now!

Does anyone know where I can find one of these for a 1988 Esprit Turbo? SJ Sportscars have one listed as A079U4007F for S1/S2 but I assume that won't fit?

Only just seen this following my 3 month engine rebuilt. The 1988 chrome Esprit Turbo is interested should another reserve be needed.

I got interrupted by someone wanting a tree cut down while writing this post so I had to throw the chainsaw in the boot of the Esprit and hike off to storm damage. I do like to see the look on people's faces when I turn up like that. So, on to respond to a couple of comments/questions: Buddsy : it's something I could have done myself back in the "old days" but just don't have the time or patience now. Dave did a sterling job and he is extremely methodical, patient and his attention to detail is second to none. Very pleased with what he achieved. Vince: - Ancillary items and carb strip down were going to blow the budget and since they are working perfectly fine and one can't see them, I didn't bother. - In terms of replacement items, the obvious things like water pump, every single seal and gasket, then bearing shells, and most expensively, four new Nikasil piston liners (that was a grand alone). - Machining was kept to a minimum with the head only. Crank and cams were ok. - Finally, the cam covers and plenum chamber are actually purple (Dave's camera did lie in this case) and I requested that to match the interior which is vibrant to contrast the total lack of colour on the exterior as in the pics below. Here you can see the engine/interior colour match. Another camera lying! It doesn't look that pink at all. I'll have to take some in natural daylight. Plenty more of these great shots from Malcolm Feth at chromelotusesprit.com

This is a small lesson in keeping your car well maintained but I guess TLF readers won't be as stupid as me! In the summer of last year, I pulled the entire interior out of my Esprit and had it re-trimmed by a professional. On putting it all back in again, I had a coolant level indicator on permanently on the dash binnacle. I checked the level and as it was normal, assumed that I'd messed up some wiring when refitting the binnacle and promised myself I'd sort it out... soon. Timing can sometimes be catastrophic. A week later, I blew one of the main water pump hoses and as the coolant warning light was permanently on and I didn't see the temperature gauge creeping up, the first I knew about it was plumes of stem coming from the tailgate. It was recovered on a flatbed truck and taken away to my local Lotus specialist in Maidenhead where the hose was replaced and a full engine check made which seemed to show I had been lucky. I then drove down to Brands Hatch and used a hell of a lot of water. And that was that. After a lot of chat on TLF, I found Dave (CHANGES) who came and towed the car away and spend the next few months rebuilding the engine. I opted for a rebuild rather than an exchange because I would have photographic evidence of everything that was done and Dave, true to his word performed an excellent job. Finally, it turned out that the coolant level warning light was permanently on due to dirty contacts on the sensor in the ignition compartment of the boot :-( The moral of the story : don't be a lazy bugger like me! Here's several of the 170 or so photos Dave took during the rebuild to remind you of this simple fact!

I just got my car back after it's been away for a total engine rebuild sinceOctober 2013 and it won't start due to no earth on the coil. I initially thought it was the immobiliser but am not sure now since the MP5 unit still enables/disables the other expected sub systems. I'd love to get a system diagram for the MaxPower MP5 but also interested in anyone knowing what could possible interrupt the earth connection to the coil (there is 12V on the positive side but only when earthing anywhere but the -ve side of the coil!)

It could be the control module if one of the four motor live wires is failing. I had a similar issue after a tiny leaf blocked the drain hole in the near side (left) of the front compartment, causing it to flood up to the level of the pod control module. I had to replace that at a cost of around £80 from SJ and all was fine after. It's mounted on the inner side of the near side front wing and has a single connector, although I failed to remove the old one so positioned the new one next the rear of the pod itself.