deverett

I needed to install new chrome strip under the capping rail. This meant I had to drill out the rivets and pries up the capping rail from it's gluey home. To do this I needed to take out the rear quarter glass as it is in the way. If anyone is planning on doing this it is quite a mission. The glass was put in with a electrically set glue sausage. Some had suggested that applying 6v to the wires would remelt the glue but it had gone completely solid. I found the best way was to attack the join between the glass and car using a multi-tool. These tools have a vibrating cutting head. The nice thing about these tools is they do not work so well on soft objects, like hands etc, but that does pose a challenge for removing the glass. I would recommend if you are doing this to use a corded one, not a cordless. The cordless ones have a battery on the end that makes the tool longer and harder to fit into tight spaces. I had cuts all over my upper arm from the ridiculous positions I had to get in to, to attack the join. The key is to apply only light pressure, as I mentioned the softer the material, the less cutting you get, by applying only light pressure I found I could cut through most areas with only extreme pain rather than the excruciating kind. I reshaped a few of the heads to get into all the areas. I bought several windscreen cutting kits and even made a hotwire tool to try and speed this up, none worked out though. The end result was good, but the tool did manage to score the glass in a few places. I found a windscreen repair kit at a local car supplier and this has worked great for filling the scrapes. The kit is a UV cured epoxy and comes with some flexible clear sheets that will press against the epoxy and glass to help flatten the bond. Afterwards a razor blade is used to scrape anything level that remains. You can see the result is pretty good. As the glass was out, I could lay it flat and get a really good result. I'd recommend it.

I may try a hot knife, but it's very hard to get in to the space without touching the blade. I already have bruises all over my right arm, and many cuts to my fingers. The bright side is I have an undamaged left arm and left fingers to do the other side

Aha, yes I wondered about the wire. I thought it might have been left over from a failed removal. I think I've probably destroyed that wire now, but I'll test it tomorrow to see if it still has continuity. Thanks.

I've been working on mine for 4 days. It's so hard to get in to. I have used , knives, spatulas, bonded windscreen wires and an oscillating tool . If anyone has some advice i would very much appreciate it. I have the glass about 3/4 cut out, but the silastic or whatever bonds the back edge (towards the air intake), is so tough even the oscillating tool is having trouble cutting through, and I can't put mush pressure on the tool due to the angle. All this so I can remove the ridge cap. I'll still need to do the other side, so any tricks would very very helpful. Dave

It's worth a try mate, I'll give it a go. Thanks, Dave

Yes, I ordered the strip from Banggood.com.: https://www.banggood.com/5M-5054-Pure-White-Warm-White-Red-Green-Blue-Pink-Ice-Blue-Non-waterproof-600LEDs-Strip-Light-DC12V-p-1203436.html?rmmds=search&ID=225&cur_warehouse=CN I see at the moment they are out of stock of green, but you could probably find it on ebay as well. 5054 led strip 12v. You can cut the strip in segments of 3 leds. Each LED has a current resistor, so you don't need to do anything else. On the cut points are solder pads so you can connect up small pieces to wire. I will run these in parallel through the dash dimmer. I have a lot of LEDs in the speedo, that strip draws about 600ma. Which is still probably less than the incandescent bulb I had in there before. I bought some agressive le sided tape. The tape that comes on the led strip is very thin and there are electrical contacts on the back so I didn't want it to short on the metal of the instruments. The Voltmeter is shown there with about 6 leds (2 segments). I used only 3 on the other small instruments since light can only come out through a hole at the top and shine downward onto the scale and needle.

Man, I wish my tacho was the same. It definitely seems to be glued in there. Gis, that screw is loose because I started tapping it with a rubber mallet to see if it was holding things together, it moved in about 10mm but the internals did not move. I pulled it back out and the plastic sleeve was still up as I had not reseated it yet. I'd cut this case open if I had a spare tacho, but that seems more crazy than usual for my work. I have a fireoptic camera i will try and stick inside in the next few days. That might answer some questions. But at present I'm back to using a bulb. For the tacho, the bulb can only go halfway in and the holder shrouds the other half so the light does not leak into the dash. I really want to fit LED strips as they are working out great on all the other instruments. The dash mounted dimmer also works with them. Dave

Actually you have the speedo in your hand. That came apart fine for me. The tacho has a clear green sleeve that takes the light, 2 mounting screws and holds the connector.

Thanks everyone. The issue is not the glass or bezel, those are easy to get off, you just twist to line up the cutouts. The issue is the internals. All the other gauges come apart fine, the tacho is rock solid in there and I'm not certain what that is due to. I did try led bulbs originally but the design of the lighting makes it worse as the led bulbs tend to use leds that point forward, while an incandescent bulb emits light all around the bulb. This leads to even darker corners. I imported my Esprit from Wales, so the speedo is in MPH and the KPH figures are smaller and in the dark more. When approaching a speed camera at night it was a struggle to work out my speed in KPH. Now I can see all numbers evenly, except for the odometer which is even brighter (I might have to put a shade behind it). Dave

I'm currently fitting green led lighting inside the gauges in my dash (S2) and I am struggling to get the tacho apart. The other gauges are easy, but with all screws removed the insides are still not budging. The number on the tacho is 4784 if that helps. Hopefully someone has pulled one apart, I'm concerned about applying too much force, if that is what it needs. Attached is the speedo lit up with the led strip inside. I plan on detailing where to get the parts and do the work here when it's finished. Thanks, Dave

Thanks for the great replies. The insides of the visors are history too, so I will look into the alternate visors mentioned. Dave

My headlining has suffered from water ingress decades ago and the hot Aussie sun. It is literally disintegrating as you touch it. I've removed all the headlining pieces and recovering them is not a problem, but the sun visors are. Does anyone know of a set available? Mine are black vinyl one side and what would have been some light colour on the other side. Obviously they came from some other car, perhaps someone knows which one as it would be easier to find them on an original wreck rather than a Lotus wreck. Thanks, Dave

I ended up getting them out, but not in a nice way. I managed to pull the console out enough to stretch it around so I could drill out the rivets on the bottom edge of each attachment. Getting to the top ones was never a problem. It's a terrible solution, but it got me there. I'm planning to make a better install solution in case I need to take this apart in the future. Thanks for the advice.

Thanks Steve, I could not see deep enough in there to find where it was connected. I'll have a more substantial look today. Dave

Can anyone adivse as to the best way to remove the centre console? My car is an early S3 so it has an S2 dash and S2 centre console with the vents in it. I can see the vents are pop rivetted top and bottom so I can't get a drill in there to drill them out. Is there another method? Thanks.