TheOrs

Cool! If I remember correctly, the Phaeton I had was the follow on to the B-type. They weren't exactly good cars, but they were fantastic fun. I still have (the remains of) my Phaeton.

They are where the original door speakers would have been. Looking at the picture of the yellow car, above, it appears to have a series of holes in the marcasite on the upper, forward part of the door panel. I imagine this is original. My car has a speaker nailed on here. The GRP inner door panel being suitably butchered in the process. It's not the end of the world; I can just fit some nice looking speakers. You can see the speaker, peeking out past the binnacle, in my interior pic at the beginning of this thread.

I'm really tending towards keeping the interior as is and just cleaning and fixing it up as best as I can. I really like the green/black combo. Looks like it was meant to be that way. The only real problem with mine are the seat bolsters and the fact that a previous owner has fitted aftermarket speakers.

So, Big thanks to Dave (Lotusman33). Dave popped round this morning to take a look at my car and give some advice. It was mostly good news with a couple of minor issues but Dave also suggested a different approach to my project, which seems to make more sense, so I now need to have a bit of a think... I also got the chance to look at the two S1 cars Dave is currently working on. Both fantastic! Thanks again to Dave & for the warm welcome from other members here.

So, problem solved. Dave (Lotusman33) popped round this morning and just pulled it off! Thanks Dave! To be fair to me, he did say it was a bit more stuck than usual. Now I can see how it fits, I have more confidence to pull a bit harder when I come to do the driver's side. I've added a couple of photo's for future reference.

Thanks for all the replies guys! I must admit I initially thought the green and black interior was original. It actually works quite well. I'm undecided what to do with the interior. I'm pretty sure I'm going to leave the paintwork as is. I didn't really want a silver car, but the paint is fairly good and the silver is really growing on me. My main priority is having a car that is reliable enough to enjoy; that's why I'm planning on taking the body off.

OK, thanks guys. I think I'm missing something. They seem solid. Maybe they've been modified. I'll take some photo's.

Thanks. Pics added. I like that... If I had a pound for every time I had 'Lots of trouble...' quoted at me in the last 8 or so months, I could probably buy another car! Yes, I've been reading your thread. Very interesting. My living room is slowly filling with car parts! One of the benefits of being single, I suppose. Unusually, as normally everything seems to be somewhere miles away! Yes, I'm taking photo's of everything I touch. Unfortunately, I have a brain like a sieve, so it's very necessary.

Some pics of my car, from when I picked it up. Spitfire is my son's.

Hi Dave Thank you very much, that might be really helpful. I really enjoyed your 'Found first S1' thread. Darren

Hi there Firstly, I have introduced myself to the forum here: https://forums.thelotusforums.com/topic/121599-1st-lotus-1978-esprit-s2-needs-work-🙂-/ I've been lurking for a little while, mostly reading people's resto threads, but I am now well into my own partial rebuild & I have questions. I am wondering how the interior A pillar capping trim piece is removed. I have removed the rubber seal from around the door aperture & I can see in behind the interior trim on the A pillar. It appears to be held on by two plastic pins, about 1/3rd & 2/3rds of the way down the pillar. I can get a punch on these pins by pulling the trim gently away from the body, but the pins don't seem to want to move. I'm guessing they have some sort of barb on them & they're intended to be a sacrificial part. Any ideas on how to get these trims off without damaging them or the car? TIA 👍 Darren

Hi My name is Darren. I live in Plymouth in the South West of England. In April last year I bought myself an S2 Esprit that had been dry stored for about 25 years. The car seems basically sound but I quite like tinkering and I want something (relatively) reliable, so I decided to take the body off & go through the chassis, engine/trans, suspension etc., rather than just trying to get it going. I left it sitting in my garage for a few months, whilst I plucked up the courage to start pulling it apart, but I've now started dismantling. The initial parts were fairly straight forward but as I'm getting into it further, I've got questions ("why am I doing this?" is a frequently recurring one! 🙂), so I thought I'd introduce myself here. I work as an engineer and I've spent a fair bit of time working on different cars; I built myself a Dutton Phaeton when I was 17/18 & I used to work for Marlin cars back in the late 80's, early 90's but I'm by no means an expert. Despite that, I have found the Lotus surprisingly easy to work on so far, especially compared to more modern stuff. I've done a bit of lurking here & there's a wealth of information; I've learnt plenty already. I'm stuck on a couple of things though, so prepare yourselves for the stupid questions! Cheers Darren