nfulcher

Hi Massimo, There was NEVER a black Marcasite, there was brown and dark grey only. The piece of black material that you have found could well be black crushed Nylon, if you care to send me a very small sample I can tell you exactly what type of material it is, then I will be able to advise you as to what materials will give you a close match. If you decide to send me a piece my address is as follows. N. Fulcher Coachtrimmer, 50A, New Road, Hethersett, Norwich, Norfolk NR9 3HH. UK. I am not back at work untill the 4th January. If I can help you I will, and put you on the right road so you can restore your interior as you want to. Kind regards, Nick Fulcher.

Hi Matt, just for your information, Lotus have NEVER made a car with a sun roof, only the Esprit's with the big glass roof panel that lift out and have two curved attachment toungs mounted on the front edge of the glass, and that is the only Type that has one, Never in the S1s or S2s. Nick Fulcher.

I am right behind you with that one Kimbers/ sorry the real Tony K! I hope all goes well for them in the next season.

Moxie, I think I should make you a skirt or kilt as you look very sweet in the sample. Hope Kevin is well on the mend now, please send him my best wishes. It was a pleasure to meet you all at the dinner and now I can put a face to whoever rings us up. Happy Holidays to you all. Nick.

Not a problem the real Tony K. I close at 6pm but will not be there on Tuesday and Stephen will knock off at 5pm. cheers mate..

My apologies to Laura and Bibbs as I did not take up their very kind offer to go to their house after the party to carry on, but I had a couple of issue's with my legs and they just seized up and would not go, not enough WD40 I guess. I would not have been much company to say the least, I think Laura and Bibbs are very brave people you unruly lot round theirs anyway, they must have bloody good neighbours lol. N. Fulcher.

It was nice to see so many happy Lotus owners at the dinner, And my thanks go to Bibbs and Laura too, If you read this Kimbers I still have the beer in my Land Rover, found it when I got home. Hope every one all got home safe and sound. N. Fulcher.

just picked your thread (excuse the pun) I would advise you to try and find an old Singer 41K 15 it is old/ sturdy/ and no computers and they never break down, I might have a machine in our stores that would do for what you want. Trousers should not be machined any way, but finely hand stitched with a herring bone stitch, and if they are plain bottoms the fronts should be shorter than the back but turn-ups are level all round, trust me as I used to be a master Tailor. Cheers, Nick Fulcher.

I spoke with Roger on Friday and told him that I was sad that he had taken the action that he did and retire from Lotus. He is out of the country at the moment trying to get over it all at the moment. I have been lucky enough to have worked with Roger at Lotus Engineering R&D division for about 10 years or so before I left Lotus to start up my own trim business, and still had the pleasure in working with him on the Delorean project and other projects right up to the Evora. The passion and enthusiasm and technical know how that Roger has will be sorely missed big time at Lotus. I think the CEO has a lot to learn about Lotus and Norfolk folk and sadly it will all be to late, hope I am wrong but that's a feeling held by many. Roger was so passionate about the Esprit that he would even take time out from the factory and come and visit Esprit owners at our workshops and tell them all about their cars and how it was born and then even to my surprise bring a signed book of the Esprit and present it to the owners, who else would have done that. Then of course there was the James Bond project but I guess you all know about that. He has told me that he will come in and see us when the dust has settled and will post any comments that he wishes to pass on. Nick Fulcher.

I was lucky enough to work with Roger for 10 years while in R&D and with other projects after running my own trim business, I am afraid a lot of Lotus "know how" and history that was never written down has now gone with him forever and not sure if the Italians even care. As you all know Roger is super bloke and has always been helpful to me in our workshops in taking the time from Lotus to meet some of our Esprit customers and talking about their cars to them and signing books for them who else would have done that!. I for one wish him and his wife a very happy and deserved retirement and can assure you that he WILL be missed. Nick Fulcher.

Tough luck Andy,you should have had your Landy finished, I as out in my series 1 86" and it was fun to say the least nice 4 wheel drifts.

Leon has just picked his S1 up from us here in Hethersett and he thought he'd take for an 8 hour test drive to Edinburgh...........! Keep your eyes peeled

You need to feed your leather with Connolly Hide Food so long as it's the celulose type up to circa 1990, and if you can't find any we stock it and have done for years. Nick Fulcher.

In Answer to your question the black efect in the grain of the leather was put there on purpose after the hide was finished, it was usually on Vaumol leather (top of the range) and we used it at Lotus mainly 3234 colour, it looked a dirty beige/magnolia. It was polished in by hand by two skilled workers who worked on either side of the hide while it was on a surface table it was like black shoe polish that was rubbed all over the leather and then polished off again leaving the deep grain black and this was repeated a few times untill the two workers were happy with the effect and then left to dry. Mr Tim Connolly spent a whole day with me at the tannery showing how it was produced from start to finish and some areas stank a bit to say the least. I do not think you will ever be able to put the black effect back into your leather and if you re-colour it it will all be gone so feed it and look after it. Nick Fulcher.