NG5

Well Lotus no 1 was a trials car, and they don't come much more grass roots than trialing. Complete with with the soil and mud they grow in 😁

It's probably also related to the new tolls on the blackwall/silvertown tunnels. They are probably expecting quite a few commuters from near dartford and kent that drove straight into London via the Blackwall tunnel before are now crossing at Dartford and going in via the A13 etc. Blackwall/Silvertown being £4 at peak making Dartford very attractive if doing it every day. But in general there is no real alternative, £1 change is not going to change anybody's routing. If going via Heathrow was viable they would already be doing it. So 100% just a money grabbing exercise. Given they have just announced the award of the tunneling contract for the new Lower Thames Crossing, you would have thought they could at least have claimed it was to help finance that, even if it isn't true. What ever happened to good old spin doctors 😎

If you have found a filter with an efficient anti drain back valve that will keep oil in the filter for weeks of standing give us the details it would be great to have it. My experience of all horizontally or vertically up mounted filters with anti drain back valves on a wide variety of filters and different engines, including the official Lotus filter on esprit engines is that they gradually seep oil past the valve. They keep the oil in for a few hours or a few days if lucky, but longer than that and almost all has drained out. It's not just the anti drain back valve, even with the small hydraulic head from the filter oil also will gradually seep past the crank bearings.

Corvette salvage seem to have both new and second hand ones at $15 and $10 Doesn't say if they would ship to the UK though. https://www.corvettesalvage.com/product/c3-c4-new-fuel-tank-filler-cap-w-o-handle-1978-1992 https://www.corvettesalvage.com/product/c3-c4-used-fuel-tank-filler-cap-w-o-handle-1978-1992

I'm fortunate in that I have a couple of index linked employer pensions that act like an annuity and also money in a draw down. So I'm insulated to a large degree. I was tongue in cheek above but unfortunately the comment is largely valid. When looking to possibly convert any of the pensions all the calcs come down to how long are you going to live. When i was looking break even was about 80. But rates change all the time. Trump, Putin and Liz Truss haven't helped any form of pension. But also remember you tend to need more money early in retirement, rather than later. Annuities don't generally give you that option. Get advice, but even then it's unlikely to be a 100% clear cut decision.

If you are going to live to 100 then an annuity is the best. If you are going to die before 75 then draw down is best. In between.......it depends. When were you planning on dying? 💀 🤔

As a temp fix it's usually possible to solder a wire onto the remains of the broken spade, even if almost flush with the body. Used a tempory fix like that for years at one time. The switch is common to almost all renault transaxles from the 60's onwards so loads about.

Mine isn't bad, but could be better and so looked a while back. Which is how I found the Japanese site. But from memory the price for just the pad was a lot more than the ebay seller wanted for the whole wheel. I decided at that price mine wasn't worth changing. Not seen one, other than the ebay complete wheel since. Good luck in your search.

There is a complete wheel for sale atm on fleabay https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/205411897974 There is also a site in Japan selling them that I can't find atm but the price was eye watering.

Also with any old car beware of any products which state "suitable for any car" or similar. To manufacturers and suppliers the life of a car is 10 years, they generally in practice push this to 20 years. Anything older than that doesn't exist in their world, neither does anything unusual. So "suitable for any car" actually means "suitable for any main stream car less than 20 years old". Anything older you are on your own as far as suitability is concerned. This was never clearer than when e10 petrol was introduced and all manufacturers had to state which of their cars were suitable/unsuitable for e10. Loads including BMW and Vauxhall simply stated "all cars can use e10" when of course most of their ranges pre 1990 couldn't. There be dragons out there.

If you still have your original radiator, doing that will pretty much guarantee you a radiator leak in about a years time. The pink stuff is OAT and it eats away at the solder in the rad. Avoid OAT or HOAT antifreeze.

It's a long time since I had an 2+2 but from memory the lock barrel is only prevented from turning in the door by a nut and friction washer. Therefore a screwdriver forced into the lock is all it needs to turn it and unlock the door. Favorite method for thieves back in the day. That in theory just gives you just a door lock barrel to replace, but it can also easily damage the paint round the locks and after 30 years it still might not open the doors as if the lock itself is stiff/seized the actuating rods might just bend. I think the better way would be to remove the rear window (or windscreen if an early car without the bonded screen). You should be able to do that without damaging the glass. You will need a new rubber and filler strip to put it back as after 30+ years they will be too hard to re use. Once inside you then have more options.

Didn't realise that, learn something new every day

Probably easier to go to one of the specialists that do R12 compatible servicing with R24 such as https://www.bee-cool-aircon.co.uk/services/r12-a-c-systems/ There are other outfits that do it scattered round the country, but not particularly common. Certainly more expensive than a R134 fill and not just a drive round the corner to your local garage

As John said, what's wrong with it? If it's still OK then leave well alone. It's a major job, the bulkhead provides almost all the lateral stiffness to the shell and some fore and aft stiffness as well. The shell literally flops about without the bulkhead so when replacing you have to ensure everything is straight and true when glassing it in, particularly the door and windscreen openings. Not easy and loads of care needed. I've done the bulkheads on two series 2's which are very similar to the 74 and breathed some big sighs of relief when the doors and the screen fitted OK. Certainly not something I would do just for the hell of it.