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.

I'd be happy to make more up, as I now have the jig. It ends up being 4 layers of 3mm material so it is very stiff. I was concerned about the fit as each one was hand fitted originally. On mine this meant the holes do not match up perfectly, I simply redrilled holes in the wooden corners once I had it fitted in the right spot and it worked out great. I was going to make all the LED lights myself, but there are good off the shelf led globe replacements for everything. Unfortunately I had already cut off some of the rear tube of the warning light indicators so I will have to put my own LEDs into them now. I did find you can get the T7 LED bulbs for anyone else wanting to upgrade. The old bulbs create a lot of heat in the back of the binnacle which is best avoided. My wiring stiff and this makes it hard to get the left and right switch panels in and causes them to pop out. I have siliconed the switch housings into the panels now so that should be better. I also pulled out the fibre optics and will fit superbright white 3mm leds into the optic housings. Then replace any particularly crispy wires for new sexy flexible ones and fit a connector. I'll make up some more masks and if people are happy with them I'll work out what they are costing me and make them available if wanted. Dave

That's what I must have done. Good tip for next time, and I am sure there will be a next time.

The textured ABS sheet came yesterday, I ha to buy enough for 50 masks , it took all day to build a jig for cutting the panel, but the results have been good. This texture is more pronounced than the original, but that may be due to the fact the originals were vacuum formed which can reduce the texture as the plastic is heated and stretched. The big advantage is that the part that screws to the binnacle is 3mm thick and the overall thickness of the mask is now 12mm, making it much stronger. I am converting all lighting over to LED and will make a connector harness so I can get the thing in and out without spending half a day.

I can't recall what brand polishing compound I used, but everywhere I used it (and nowhere I didn't) the clear coat started bubbling up. I now need hours of sanding and a full respray. Dave

I've started making a new instrument mask, my old one is completely shot from the Aussie sun. The new one is made from 3 layers of black acrylic, laser cut. The top layer will be ABS with the correct texture, I have ordered it but I had to order a full sheet that could do probably 30 masks, I won't get this for a few days.. I have the gauges recessed correctly, and the indicator lights all now perfectly aligned.

Thanks for the reply. This morning I just decided to give it a yank and it came off without breaking or any swearing. My instrument mask is shot, so I started making a new one today. It will be very solid as the Aussie sun likes to warp them. I had to buy a tonne of material to get the right texture so if this works out I would be happy to offer replacements for others with S2 dashes. Dave

I'm attempting to remove the instruments from my S3. The speed connector doesn't look like any I have seen before and I am uncertain how to disconnect it. Can someone tell me how to remove it without damaging it please? Thanks.

Although I have not seen one they are similar to the number plate bracket. Imagine a flat bar folded in to a square with one end open. I wasn't impressed with this method and bolted in aluminium angle sections top and bottom, then I drilled and tapped through the fiberglass pod. I also used black silicone all around the pod as the new ones I got do not fit the body snugly even with foam round section in the lip. The lights themselves can still be removed easily and the pod less easily. Dave

Lex, I feel for you. That particular mob are incompetent. I strongly recommend no one go there. Hopefully you are back on the road now and we can have an Esprit run now the weather is warming up. I'm in West Ryde. My manifold was done at Quickfit mufflers. I have a workshop there and they always have sportscars in there, Ferrari, Maserati, British classics etc. I know the exhaust fitter well and he does a good job. Sadly they just got rid of their 2 post hoists. I think the job can be done on a 4-post, but it's harder. Check everything on your invoices. I helped a mate find an Esprit and one we looked at had tonnes of receipts from Cremorne Prestige. The first one I pulled out was for changing the clutch hose to braided, looked under the car, the original red plastic hose was still there. Dave Just saw this post mate. What is the current status, if I can give you a hand I will. Dave

I recently did this job too. My radiator surround was very badly damaged after catching on a paver which flipped up and tore the surround in 2. Taking that off I found the radiator mounting points were all rusted away as was most of the radiator capping rail. A local radiator mob replaced them, the core was fine but they could have done that too for about $200. I welded up some M8 nuts on washers and test fitted the radiator, then welded the washer/nut to the capping rail. once the radiator was bolted up at the top, I shoehorned the fibreglass surround on and used a paint pen to mark where the bottom bolt mounts would need to go through the surround (once I'd repaired all the fibreglass damage). I also glassed over the area where the tubular supports go as they were torn to pieces. Marked all of this out, removed the surround again and welded on the lower nut/washer combinations. All washers, nuts and bolts were replaced with marine grade stainless steel parts. I also made up brackets with nuts to go in the front compartment so the surround can be taken off by one person in the future. Otherwise, it's a 2 man job unless you have 8-ft arms with several more joints in each arm. In all I'd say it was 4hrs work. I had a 2-popst hoist to do the job on though. The radiator and surround are rock solid. I had planned to bend up a 40x3mm aluminium frame support and fibreglass that in around the length of the surround shape but it was unnecessary. Dave Everett