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All going well then im in

Hi Josh Take a deep breath, open a beer and relax, DON'T GIVE UP!! You have a very rare and valuable car, in the UK there are currently 3 or 4 S1s for sale, ranging from £50,000 ($66,991) up to £100,000 ($133,982) and i know of one that sold recently for over that. As im currently restoring a 1980 S2.2 i speak from experience, No matter how well things are going, something will always go wrong, check out all the restoration threads and see how many of us have suffered for the dream! We are all in it together. Ive spent 7 years so far restoring mine and i know theres people on here that have spent even longer, i can't tell you the frustration ive had restoring it and at times ive wanted to chuck the towel in and run, but i close the garage door, give it a few days and try again. Its your car and its your choice, i will post a couple of pictures of where i started out and where i am today will it, hopefully to give you some inspiration. good luck Paul

A beautiful red i believe V8 past me yesterday, and then a few hours later i think the same car was on a low loader?

I would of thought it would be harder trying to take the engine out from underneath?! Especially if you can't get the car high enough to clear the engine once its out? Splitting the gearbox from the engine would make it easier, im about to put my engine back in from above using an engine crane. paul

I just used black stone chip

Love the colour and Great work so far. Although it wouldn't be original and by the sound of it you want to keep it original, have you thought of converting it to right hand drive? I would of thought it would be relatively easy with the body off? paul

Thanks Kev, I shall post a few pictures of what it was like when i first bought it. paul

Its been a long long time since i last posted an update, where does the time go?! so i thought its time to update you guys where i am today and whats planned. So pretty much everything i need to finish the car has been bought and is either on the car or in my spare bedroom! Although i didn't work on the car as much as i wanted to last year, i wanted to get everything together for the big push,. That doesn't mean nothing has been done, in fact quite alot has been done, two of the big jobs that were done was the gearbox and engine rebuilds. Now for the purest this is not going to easy for you and you may want to sit down?! Let me assure you this car was always my dream and i hope ive done it proud, remembering that the car was pretty much a wreck when i bought it and being told that it was a good spares car! Let me start with the interior, so ive made a slight modification, instead of the black cloth and leather interior, ive decided to go with charcoal grey alcantara and black leather with silver stitching. The front brakes are being upgraded to four pots and groved discs. The oil cooler will now be placed behind the radiator, the radiator is now a 3 core with kenlowe fans. Theres also a ECU for the timing on its way and all of this because (and this is where i beg forgiveness) the engine has had an upgrade at Lotusbits, it should now produce between 250-270 HP. So last week i took the car up to Mike at Lotusbits for him to have a good look over and check what ive done is correct, the next stage will be for Mike and his guys to drop the engine and gearbox in, Ive asked Mike if i can spend some time with him and his team when this happens and he's kindly agreed. Theres plenty more planned for the next few months and i will keep you updated as it happens, things should start moving at a pace now hallelujah!

Hi Rolland, What basic upgrades have you gone for? If you have gone for one of Mikes manifolds then thats £1200, then i would of thought a carb rebuild is around £500 plus VAT. I was lucky enough to go out in his Excel not so long ago, Wow just Wow! Amazing, fast, very fast, it pushes you in the seat fast, it has all the upgrades including the 2.5 modification and an ecu for the timing. I had my engine and gearbox rebuilt by Mike and in a couple of weeks they go back in, very excited.

Thanks guys for the advise, i shall give it another go, im going to do an up date shortly in the restro section, very exciting times next month as the engine goes back in and fingers crossed, the car will be finished in March.

Can anyone tell me if the window felt goes all the way down the frame? Im rebuilding the doors and have the window felt all the way down the frame but the window just jams when i try to go up and down. paul

Hi Daniel, well worth having a word with mike at Lotusbits, hes just rebuilt mine, he really knows what hes doing. For a standard rebuild i think he charges about £3500, i had a few tweaks done on mine so it came to a bit more. paul

Hi Giorgio, Im putting my S2.2 back together and i don't recognize those parts? I know i didn't take anything like them off my car? paul