350 tweaks and mods

[alias23]

18 minutes ago, MrP_ said:

It says next day on your advert! At the time of ordering you'd sold them all so I made the decision to bundle orders - stupid mistake!

Once you have a carbon alternative let me know 😀, now I am sold on the look I might change...... then skin the splitter in carbon to complete the look.....

Good point! Just edited the advert thanks for the pointer

The look is good - Like you I also now want carbon but its actually proving more difficult than had hoped when doing it properly...

Are you running standard front splitter?

[MrP_]

Just now, alias23 said:

The look is good - Like you I also now want carbon but its actually proving more difficult than had hoped... Are you running standard front splitter?

Nope extended version with rubber lip:

May well make a ply copy and skin it in carbon when I get a few weeks at home. I'm not at the level of making such a big part in carbon, but small parts and skinning have generally turned out well.

Considered the same for side sills if I was desperate for the look now I have a bang on template.

 

[alias23]

@MrP_ Oh yes I remember now you have the Komo-Tec front splitter - Very Nice!

So when are you replacing the Metro mirrors

[MrP_]

2 minutes ago, alias23 said:

So when are you replacing the Metro mirrors

When I find a base mount I like the look of!

@alias23 Do you have close up of your mounts, did you make a covering plate?

[MrP_]

New package arrived today. Different supplier for carbon and this is much better even though I am relying on my wife's opinion!

Unfortunately I am 200 miles away from the car, so wife opened and cat does initial inspection

Lets hope this turns out better than the last delivery of carbon!

[alias23]

Are those the wider side vents? If so link please

[Dan.G]

43 minutes ago, alias23 said:

Are those the wider side vents? If so link please

As above

[BatMobile]

Is that the eltech one? If so looks great.

love work MrP.

 

[MrP_]

2 hours ago, alias23 said:

Are those the wider side vents? If so link please

Yep wider vents, they are the WinAce items. Eltech were meant to be making me some, but I have lost all hope especially after the issues I had. Lets see if they fit better... No link as I arranged through their US distributer 

36 minutes ago, BatMobile said:

Is that the eltech one? If so looks great.

love work MrP.

 

Nope, the eltech ones are currently being fitted to the unicorn chariot in never never land I think

[BatMobile]

10 minutes ago, MrP_ said:

Nope, the eltech ones are currently being fitted to the unicorn chariot in never never land I think

Honestly it’s ridiculous how hard it is to deal with these firms and get what you want, for a fair price and good quality.

yvo in my experience is just nigh on impossible unless you are buying straight from the website. You start to request other parts from winace given he is the official European dealer and good god, it’s worse than water boarding. Had he been trying to get all my secrets he would have had them.....

interested to see how well these fit.

[alias23]

Very interested to see how they fit and in particular the internal vent quality as pics I saw didn’t show the internals in the best light.

[vd9]

@MrP_ what cat is that and why does the cat has to have a collar? Looks wonderful and just as curious with inspecting anything as our cats are. 

[MrP_]

11 hours ago, vd9 said:

@MrP_ what cat is that and why does the cat has to have a collar? Looks wonderful and just as curious with inspecting anything as our cats are. 

She's a Bengal, and wears a collar just because when the litter was young it was the only way to tell them all apart! They've always kept them, and they prefer the sound of the bell so they can find each other in the house when playing! She was just trying to get in the box really, she loves a good box!

13 hours ago, alias23 said:

Very interested to see how they fit and in particular the internal vent quality as pics I saw didn’t show the internals in the best light.

Should see tonight. They look very different from the non enlarged versions I have seen which were made to fit behind the OEM grills

[vd9]

1 hour ago, MrP_ said:

She's a Bengal, and wears a collar just because when the litter was young it was the only way to tell them all apart! They've always kept them, and they prefer the sound of the bell so they can find each other in the house when playing! She was just trying to get in the box really, she loves a good box!

Sounds very familiar!  We have two wonderful Bengals at home and they are 100% confident that Amazon is the company that provides them with steady supply of boxes of all kind for them to get in. They are amazing creatures constantly providing endless joy and entertainment. 🐈🐈 Apologise for topic drift, just can't stay away from Bengal cat talk. 

[MrP_]

I opted to refresh the interior with carbon. I didn't want to wrap stuff and I wanted matte carbon to cut down on glare and I just think matte looks better in the car.

So items ordered were:

• Back wheel cover (fitted above)
• Stack Binnacle
• Steering shroud
• Airbag cover

After months of waiting they finally arrived from Eltech (ordered from there as I needed Matte and the others all seemed to want to do gloss)

Then I came to fit it…

As you may have noticed I accept that I need to adjust everything to fit, these are handmade parts going onto handmade cars. Now handmade often is used to imply care and love, for me it means nothing fits without adjustment!

I wasn't wrong.

I was going to show all the steps but Eltech have some issues to sort so I won't badmouth them until I get it sorted one way or the other.

Just as an example, here is the attention to detail (!?!) on the fit of the shroud:

Now you wouldn't normally see this part as its behind the wheel, so it could be argued it doesn't matter. I don't buy that, and more importantly its exposed on my car as I have extended the wheel out - using parts that arrived in the same order. As said if you haven't spaced the wheel out then it's not an issue, but disappointed none the less.

In the end I couldn't get the steering shroud fitted as it just is formed wrong and requires more sanding, but the steering wheel rear cover and dash binnacle fitted after some adaption on the original parts I managed to get it to all fit back together. In reality it looked a bit too much carbon on carbon, so retaining the black shroud matches the black panel with switch gear. As the switches are so tight I cannot retrim so will be staying black plastic.

So overall the look works, but bloody annoyed I have a carbon part I can't use currently without more work, and probably just wouldn't be able to live with the gap. It was a risk going the route I did, and one that didn't pay off, hopefully it can be resolved. I am very happy with the stack binnacle and the rear wheel surround - but you better be handy with a Dremel, sandpaper and files to get the fit spot on.

The airbag cover should also be replaced, but that’s so much of a f**king joke I don't even know where to begin

Still to go: maybe carbon cover on airbag if I can source one in matte after the last failed attempt

And a bit more alcantara trimming

I might try one last attempt with the steering wheel shroud but not sold on the look once I saw it in place, we'll see after I go back to it with fresh perspective

[MrP_]

As I mentioned some carbon scoops arrived while I was away, I got back late last night and the only obvious thing to do was to go into the garage…

I didn't take many pictures as it was late, but here's the guide:

Remove intake grills with two torx bolts

Loosen inner bolts on the scoops (10mm head, M6 bolt) - don't remove fully.

Now two options here, remove the wheel and wheel liner, or as I did, if you have long arms remove engine bay covers and be prepared to reach!

There is a bolt on the back of the scoops that you need to get to located here (pic taken from Riverie install pics):

On the drivers side you can reach through, around the scoop and get to it. It is just about possible unless you hve chubby sausage finger hands, but on the passenger side because there is the air feed you don't have this option.

As said, you can either remove the wheel and archliner, or reach through. Either way on the drivers side remove the bolt. Then remove the two bolts you can get to and pull away from the car. Don't just pull the bolts out as there are washers behind the vents on the bolts, if you drop these you will likely drop into the sill leaving you fishing around with gaffa tape on a stick to get the plastic washer back and a magnet for the steel washer

On the passenger side, remove the intake duct between the duct and box. They are tightened on with a jubilee clip, 7mm head. Again taken from the Riverie guide, it looks like this. On the 350/380 there is now just a tube not the plastic bag thing:

Remove the passenger duct carefully as the snorkel elbow is attached. Then drill out the rivets and remount to your new scoop and rivet back on. Lotus did not use all hole, and I just reused the 3 they used. If you just use to it can pivot which makes refitting easier but it means it could bounce on the clam which would make one hell of a racket on a bumpy road or as the engine flexes on the mounts. It will look like this:

Now carefully put this back in, lightly secure the scoop with the two bolts on the outside, then refit the hidden bolt. You may need to adjust the mounting holes slightly. It appears the factory did this on the standard scoops too as they had irregular holes. Nothing major I just wanted to make sure the bolts went in without getting over a slight lip.

Check for alignment, then tighten all the bolts.

Refit the airbox duct. Give it all a wiggle and make sure its tight, then refit covers or wheel arch liners and wheels depending on how you did it.

Fitting guide from Riverie here which was useful in finding out about the secret bolt. If you are flexible with long arms, you can reach through

Then optionally polish the scoops and ceramic coat. It all ends up looking like this:

Will make some much grills for them at a later date.

A few final tweaks and the winter project is done. Next more road time and hopefully track time, and then suspension, ARB's, etc the list goes on. But visually I am happy where its ending up

[alias23]

Looks very good! Can you get us a pic inside the scoop please?

[MrP_]

56 minutes ago, alias23 said:

Looks very good! Can you get us a pic inside the scoop please?

See here, I have labelled the second with the major shelves and valleys that would restrict airflow creating pressure spots

 

Aesthetically I am making some grills, but you wouldn't if you are trying to optimise airflow

[Dan.G]

@MrP_

When are you opening your own garage? I dont think you will be short of work!

[Mark030358]

@MrP_ I think I agree with @Dan.G...

Think you should be kidnapped and forced to do all TLF members interior/ exterior upgrades..... pure class....

 

[NANO]

Very very good ... i like ...

Excuse me ... I, in the end, don't understand who these vents are made from ?
is there a link ? where are they bought ?

[MrP_]

47 minutes ago, Dan.G said:

@MrP_

When are you opening your own garage? I dont think you will be short of work!

 

28 minutes ago, Mark030358 said:

@MrP_ I think I agree with @Dan.G...

Think you should be kidnapped and forced to do all TLF members interior/ exterior upgrades..... pure class....

 

Cheers chaps, I like how it's turned out its exactly as I wanted and glad I did it rather than outsourcing which was part of the reason I went for this over something that was already done. Hopefully people can bypass some of the learning steps I had but with all these things it's just doing it step by step 😃

14 minutes ago, NANO said:

Very very good ... i like ...

Excuse me ... I, in the end, don't understand who these vents are made from ?
is there a link ? where are they bought ?

Thanks. Scoops were Winace items, as although I ordered some from Eltech they are still being made, and I got impatient! You should be able to get them through Elise-shop.com, but I got them through a more convoluted route via the US as Yvo couldn't say when they were coming in. He does get them but it's very random! He just seems to get a big box of random parts from Winace rather than ordering specifics

[GFWilliams]

Got to say, the fibreglass inside the scoop looks awful. Very similar to the factory items!

Overall a nice mod, but I'd be wanting to smooth it out as you've said.

You could do with some forged wheels next for your car

[MrP_]

9 minutes ago, GFWilliams said:

Got to say, the fibreglass inside the scoop looks awful. Very similar to the factory items!

Overall a nice mod, but I'd be wanting to smooth it out as you've said.

You could do with some forged wheels next for your car

Thats why I'm fabricating grills  

Maybe forged wheels next but not convinced on the styling of the Lotus items, but yet to make up my mind. The back wheels look good, but not in love with the front wheel. Not a popular view I know. Will look properly later and see what's out in the market

[RoflOnMyWaffle]

My mrs pointed out to be that I like the Lotus Forged items because of what they are, not how they look. Same as Rays TE37. I love them, because they're iconic, but always come across as lower end looking.