Elite 4.9

best product to prevent such corrosion is called "Never-Seez" https://duckduckgo.com/?q=neverseez&t=chromentp&ia=web This stuff works and is especially good on exhaust manifold bolts or nuts and really any place on threads you some day want to take apart. I have used this product for many years. First heard about it from a friend who worked at Todd shipyards here in Seattle. cheers, Richard

Years ago, I built my own house (6,000 sq. ft. with very high ceilings in my living room (20 ft.) and three of the bedrooms from 19 to 16 ft. So a lot of cubic space to heat. My heating system was a super, solar enhanced heat pump with 66 lbs of freon 12. It had as collectors of heat, 14 aluminum panels 7 ft x 30 inches. Each panel was thin with 8 internal viens for the freon to flow through and they were painted black and formed a fence for part for my yard. It was a very efficient heating system which also heated my water for about .25 cents (US)/ day. It was the cadillac of heating systems and was super cheap to run although fairly expensive to install. But the most cost of the life of a heating system isn't initial cost but the daily cost to run the system. As freon boils at 17 F below freezing, ( turns from a liquid to a gas ) there isn't much heat in the air or rain drops below 32 F so a backup was needed ( I used wood stoves ) during some cold spells at winter time but most of the time this system really couldn't be beat and I loved it. Cheers, Richard

Maybe it is time to learn the skill of painting your own car. I have done this years ago simply by meeting and learning how from a pro. It is a dirty job but is worth it for the product you can put out yourself can be better than what you pay someone for. All you need it is a paint booth for rent and to develop skill to do so. In the states here, we have many trade votec institutions that teach body work and paint so one could take a course and maybe even use this kind of place to actually paint their own car at the learning center. A friend of mine did this and his paint job turned out pretty nice and was very inexpensive relatively. Find a good painter who may want to work on the side so one doesn't have to pay the ridiculous high shop hourly rate. Years ago, I spent about $1,000 US to paint my Elite and that was just for materials and a great quality product from PPG. I also painted a '63 Morgan after a so called body shop guy botched the job. Guy should have been a butcher as he used lots of bondo to fill holes in the body. Had to replace about 80% of body work with new parts. This skill also will follow you your whole life and allow many other places to use it. Possibly just another option. cheers, Richard

One thing which could cause a vibration would be if there is too much oil in the sump and when this happens, oil is slug onto the crankshaft and puts it out of balance. Also a possibility is that part of your clutch or pressure plate has come apart, enough to put it off balance. just thinking out loud and not knowing exactly the circumstances makes it difficult to imagine just what is going on here. cheers, Richard

Welcome to the Lotus forum and nice choice finding this gem. Love the Esprit and of course it looks stunning in white. Not a fan of the decals but that is an option you can deal with easily. Getting the cam belt changed is a good idea right from the get go as already mentioned. This can be a weakness with this engine, but only if neglected as it if it breaks or slips, your motor will be toast and needing some expensive repairs. Not to worry though if you do your diligence. These cars are simply iconic and lovely to not only look at but also drive so may you have many great outings with this supercar. Once the Lotus gets into your blood, you will be hooked for life. Sounds like this has already happened and the price is never low for one of the ultimate handling cars of all time, the Esprit! Great buy and kudo's for connecting here as there is an abundance of experience with Lotus cars so take advantage of that for sure. atb, Richard

Found this on BAT ( bring a trailer here in the states ) and it looks to be over the top in performance. Check out this monster if you like fast. https://bringatrailer.com/listing/2005-lotus-elise-174/ cheers, Richard

WAY COOL. Ya gotta start-em young Dave !

one thing on my Jag 120 FHC dash that I did was the cigar holder on top the dash. It was a metal tray inside a boot of walnut veneer. So I had to have a sharp corner all around the top edge. In this case no amount of steam was going to bend it 90 degrees so I cut and pasted another piece that was nearly identical matching the grain to the body so the top would match. Basically, I sanded by hand, the edge to a sharp 45 degrees on both the body and top so as to meet something like a speaker box does at each corner. If you are careful, you may be able to find some matching wood grain that is close and if done right, the eye won't be drawn to looks that closely but it takes extra time to match each edge perfectly so it really doesn't show that two separate pieces of wood made the corners. cheers, Richard

Looks great Grahame with very nice figure. Should pop with you apply the finish! I redid my '74 Elite with burled Elm which was all flat surfaces. Easy. I also, years ago, re-veneered my Jag 120 FHC dash. It had a 5/8th inch bevel contoured, from the front of the dash into the larger gages so I used steam heat to help bend the thin veneer without cracking it, and a wood plug to match the contour and pressed it with a clamp and glued it up. Worked well. atb, Richard

Hi Mike, You didn't say what car you have. Elans used walnut and on the early Esprits, they used the same as I did a number of years earlier and that is Carpeatheum Elm burl which is more figurative than walnut burl ( all Jaguars and many Mercedes cars used walnut burl ) and a bit cheaper as well. Check out my albums here to see what it looks like. I just glued a thin veneer over all my parts, (dash, door panels and counsel ) and used a Urethane automotive clear finish ( 4 coats sanding between each coat ) which has uv inhibitors helping it last longer in the sun. Don't use a lacquer finish as it will crack in time but almost any type of urethane clear finish will work much better and look great. Also another great finish is Waterlux which is a natural tung oil with synthetic driers which is now my go to finish on all my woodworking projects including gunstocks. Can't be beat IMHO. Bubinga is more beautiful and an option on Rolls Royce cars. My favorite wood for figure, color and beauty not to mention it is very dense and hard but in veneer form, easy to use. Richard

Original Equipment Manufacturer

1969 Lotus Elan - Jay Leno's Garage

Yeah, Jimmy was the best. Even Juan Manuel Fangio said he was the best. Clark was in a class by himself. When Ford teamed up with Lotus, thanks to Dan Gurney, at Indy, the racers Lotus put out were spectacular especially made for the 500 and Jimmy could have easily won 3 or even 4 years in a row. My dad worked for Ford so I was already a Ford fan coupled with Lotus it was a marriage made in Heaven for me. 1965 Indy was a run away for Clark. I listened to the race on the radio. And now many of Clarks races, including F1, have been uploaded to youtube so now they can seen. After reading Road and Track articles on each and every race it is the next best thing to actually watching in person. I have also been eyeballing an Elan and hope to find one for myself. Also one of my favorite Lotus car of all time. 1967 big valve is the one I am looking for. There was a yellow one on bringatrailer recently. Soooooooooo nice!

Welcome Holy, glad to see another US Lotus fan. Very cool Elise you have there. Love the colors too. There are a lot of Lotus fanatics on here so you are in the right place my friend. My brother had an 05 red Elise and a '74 JPS Europa so we are all in the same boat loving Lotus cars. My daughter lives in Aliso Viejo. You guys are so Lived in San Diego back 20 years ago. Jimmy Clark was my boyhood hero and I started watching F1 racing back in 1963 when he won his first title. hope to see more pictures of your baby there. Cheers, Richard

Yellow is an awesome color on your car Gavin. Love that vintage. My favorite for the Esprit. By the way, my mother was from Michell.

I think there is a '74 twincam Europa on bringatrailer.com live auction here in the states. These are timed auctions and I think this one hasn't expired but it will tell you aprox. value this car has. My brother had a '74 JPS and it was very fun and smoothe riding to drive. One weakness in this engine is the water pumps don't last long and they are difficult to replace one as you have to pull the engine because the pump is right close to the cabin rear window bulkhead.

Hi Michael, Any quality auto paint store can match nearly any color. Either by a guy who knows how to do it by his skill or by a camera that takes a picture of your car or a part of it and will match very closely the color. This is old school stuff so find a quality auto paint store that sells to auto body repair shops. I live in the Seattle area and know of a good number of them that do this exact matching and have had it done for me more than once. atb, Richard

Aluminum is the fastest metal to dissipate heat so anything out of Al would work even self made guards you could roll yourself. I have made some for my '74 V8 Elite with tube headers only half and inch away from the fiberglass body. I made it out some thin Al and it never gets even warm on the fiberglass body. You could use zip ties to hold it in place. If you are worried it will get hot then use two layers. Easy and very inexpensive and effective. Cheers, Richard

There are at least 2 reasons that electric won't make it as the main source of power without some major inventions to improve areas that simply are not there yet. One is that, here in the US, and already mentioned, is the electric grid simply can't handle it and is already in trouble. Two most never think about this one and I know I am late to the party here on electric vehicles, but there are electric fields generated around any such devices and no mention of any safety protection are even studies have been mentioned to protect the occupants in the vehicle. Another reason this is not a good idea, IMHO, is that these are the dirtiest of all vehicles on the road. For instance, a brand new toyota prius has already polluted , @ zero miles on the od, 80,000 miles of equivalent pollution because of the added battery construction. This is true on any and all cars and trucks with internal combustion engines. I am sure, given enough time, there will be devices, in the future, that one can charge his own vehicle at home or maybe anywhere, without a hookup to the electrical grid and that batteries will continue to advance and become more efficient down the road. And I would bet that there are already such devices, in the works, being built by inventors. Back in, I think it was 2012, the total world knowledge was doubling every 72 hours and will continue for the next 30 years at that rate which is an exponentially increase. I for one don't ever plan on an electric car or truck in my possession. Same reason I don't follow Formula E. And I have been following F1 since the early days of Jimmy Clark back in the early 1960's. This was the reason I became a Lotus lover in the first place along with Ford entering the picture to power Lotus both in Indy car racing as well as funding Cosworth who probably would have never become prominent on their own without some large company funding them. just my two cents. cheers, Richard

Welcome John to the Lotus Forum and a very nice Lotus you have there. A real beauty for sure!! Good place to have a Lotus is in Cal.

Nice to see this vintage as it is one of my favorites in the Esprit class. Great that you are doing the body work and fixing all the flaws. I used a product called Duraglass (https://duckduckgo.com/?q=duraglass+body+filler&t=chromentp&ia=web ) with is much harder than bondo and has fiberglass in the mix so it will cover any sins much better than bondo. Combines resin and chopped fiberglass, giving Duraglas superior strength over ordinary plastic fillers. It also insures that your fixes won't be telescoped through once your paint goes on. Very important step for long term beautiful body. This stuff hardens like concrete so you have to use it sparingly and use a cheese grater before it fully hardens close to what you are trying to achieve, then put a thin layer of bondo on top of that just to get a ultra smooth finish and blocked it down. After primer is all done filling in scratches and sanding it down with 600 grit, I put a guide coat one to insure a no flaw finish before any top coats go on. I spent over 400 hours on my '74 Elite even before any primer went on using this process and my body turned out very smooth....much improved from the original. My Elite was the 110th built and the body molds used were anything but straight and good. What color have you decided on? Take your time and you will be rewarded with a much straighter and smooth finish which will become apparent when you are block color sanding it at the end making your Esprit stand out from the rest. Love your car Harald !! atb, Richard

Actually there are other ways of eliminating dry bearings at start up and that is by using the proper oil and additives. I use Royal Purple synthetic oil in all my rigs both old and new as synthetic oils are far superior to old petroleum base oils on all fronts. This oil clings to surfaces and prevents any damage or at least minimizes them to a great degree. It also produces a measurable amount of added hp even to other good synthetic oils. I also use, in all my engines including lawn mowers and small engines, Lucas oil treatment. It is an additive that is a heavy oil and basically does the same thing as Royal Purple. Most people think RP is too expensive but we are talking about your engine here and you can make it last longer than almost any part of your car if you desire. Cheap insurance IMHO. I learned about Lucas oil treatment from a friend who drives a big rig semi and he told me most all truckers, that he knows, buy this by the gallon. He bought a semi with a Detroit diesel engine, 14 liters, that uses many gallons of oil in its sump so buying synthetic simply wasn't an option as it was just too much money put out to change the oil. But he took this truck with 700,000 miles on it ( never rebuilt ) to a million miles and even achieved as much as 8.7 mpg ( his best ). This stuff works and can be added to any engine oil so you can rest in knowing you can protect your engine bearings from wear at startup. It also will give you a little more oil pressure giving better power and mileage especially in a car with more miles on it. It will also stop your smoking engine almost totally from excessive ring wear. Funny story, another friend who also swears by it, had an older, small Chevy pickup, with many miles on it. He put 100 % Lucas oil treatment in because a rod started to knock...but he still needed to drive it to work. It stopped the noise and continued to run without noise, believe it or not. cheers, Richard

I have read that 80% of engine wear occurs at the initial start up and have seen a couple of devices that eliminate this lack of oil pressure at start up. One is another canister ( about one quart in size ) that has a valve on it and a lever inside the car. This was on a race car. Before shutting down the engine you simply shut the valve using the lever which traps oil under pressure. Then you shut off the engine. Next time you want to fire it up, simply open the valve using the lever giving immediate oil pressure then crank it over. I used to just crank my engine, old school with automatic choke, for 10-15 seconds and then blip the throttle to start it thus giving enough time for some oil pressure. Having an electric oil pump is also an excellent idea as you can achieve full pressure before even cranking it over similar to the first example I mentioned on a race car. No one wants your engine to last except you, the owner, so you don't see these devices from auto manufactures. Many here thinking the same to protect and elongate their engine condition as much as possible. Smart IMHO. cheers, Richard

Peter, This job is really quite difficult the first time you do it. However, there are some tricks that make it much easier. The hardest thing to do is actually disconnecting the emergency brake cable and taking out the cotter pins which actually can be a very easy thing to do by cutting a square hole through the fiberglass ( aprox. 6 inch x 8 inch just up from the floor ) behind the rear seat from inside the car which gives you easy access. You will need to drop the whole rear end to do the brake job and it really quite easy once you get it all apart but super difficult and maybe not doable if you don't. The best tool to make it much easier is a air powered rivet gun (flat disc driver on the end of the gun ) which is used like a hammer driving out the long bolts that hold the bottom suspension horizontal arms to the uprights on each side. You will need a longer and smaller diameter rod than the long bolt to drive them out without damaging anything like you would do with just a hammer. Only takes a few seconds to under a minute on each bold with a hammer rivet gun. Easy peasy. So next disconnect the drive shaft, then both the half shaft axles to the drums which you will have to rotate the wheel or axle to get a box end wrench or spanner to access each of the 4 nuts on each side right next to the drum. If you don't want to cut the holes behind the back seat, the cotter pins are now exposed and reachable quite easily once you drop the rear end a few inches but nearly impossible to reach until you do. Once you do this it is really quite easy to drop the whole rear end, brakes and all in under an hour. I think the last time I did this it only took about 30 minutes. Putting the cotter pin back in the small rod or pin holding the emergency cable to the brakes is a nightmare if you don't cut a hole like I mentioned as you can't get there from here, as the saying goes. Very difficult to say the least and most people would probably give up trying as it is very difficult to reach. You can also connect the emergency cable cotter pins before raising the whole rear end once you are done with the brakes. But once you drop the rear end, it is quite an easy job to work on the brakes. The only other problem is if the seals, that are exposed once you have it all apart, that keep the rear end fluid from getting on your brake shoes has failed, you will need to replace them which is quite another process in itself but still not all the difficult just a little more information from someone who has already done it, as you have to cut the metal rings with a cold chisel and hammer to get the failed seals off and then heat up the new ones to install as they are a tight forced fit and don't simply slide on. And it is very easy to damage the new seals installing them. Ask me how I know? And if you have any rear end fluid on the brake shoes you will have to replace the seals. This may sound difficult but if you have any mechanical skill is really don't all the bad of job just a little intimidating the first time you need to drop the rear end. Probably one of the jobs an Elite owner would really like to skip ie, rear brake job. atb, Richard

One of my favorite Lotus's of all time. Super Cool Georg !!!!!!