Tony D

Long long looooong while since I worked on mine, but I think they were aluminium also. Tony

Buy a good Excel and you won't regret it. If reliable daily running with minimal garage time is the goal, it Gauls me to say avoid Elite / Éclat, the majority of which had non galvanised chassis and BL based running gear ( personally, I think the Elite is the best shape of the lot). Excels are galvanised and Toyota running gear. Generally that means post 82, so you can just go road tax free as well😄. Check out excelnet forum which focussed on the Grand Tourers. Huge amount of advise on look outs when buying on there. Tony

Good find. Sounds like that could have let you down in a catastrophic way at best needing recovery. Tony

It's not that difficult a job. Give it a go yourself. What's the worst that could happen - you loose the cost of the materials and a weekends work. Lots of advise from those that have already done it on various forums. Tony

That's way over priced. As previous post, there are only a few pounds worth of material, the rest is labour. Excels are virtually identical and I don't recall anyone paying more than a few hundred. Tony

I can help you. Took the carpet pieces out a few years back and made patterns. Due to glacial progress, I'm still to cut and fit. Drop me a PM with contact details. Tony

It's not a Celebration, but is to a virtually identical spec. 34 cars were produced after the Celebrations. This car is the 20th of those. Tony

I know that repair. Top of the door on the inside, end that meets to the B post. Very weak spot. I made an alloy plate to rivet on the inside, then blended the outside with filler. It's a neatish job, but hidden behind the door trim in any case. Tony

Nice work in the boot carpet and paint. Carpets on my to do list and lacquer peal is just something to stay on top of. If you leave it, it just goes wild. At least once rubbed down and a new top coat, it stops growing. The colour match is probably that the lacquer on the old paint has yellowed, changing the original colour. Tony

I've not not tips yet, as still on my to do list, but my comment would be too look after the two longer horizontal pieces VERY carefully. They are unobtainium. Tony

I have an Elite in the garage, an Excel on the drive and a new Lotusbits screen in the spare bedroom. It was bought for the Elite and will get fitted one day - honestly. When I get a few minutes, I'll lay it over both cars and see how they compare. Tony

Don't they look tiny these days. 👍 Tony

Good choice of car. Where in the country are you? Lagoon Blue is a great colour for these and was on most of the early publicity. Look forward to seeing some piccies. Like Pete, I have a 74 ongoing project (32 years and counting). Tony

There should be 3 or 4 of us at least. I remember your car well - was a good chat. Think we are aiming for the same car park, but we're not that organised yet to have a plan. 😀😀. Tony