78070100S Progress

[drdoom]

Having cleared up the latest home reno program successfully by late May I have since put my head down and given great effort at moving forward the restoration of my S2. I feel it will be helpful to present here what evidence of the work I have, not only in the spirit of community but also to help me gauge the rate of progress. I can say this campaign demands rather more than most would anticipate as, though Lotus designed a truly lovely car in the Esprit, they could not have built it to endure such neglect as mine has seen without consequences. As I may have noted earlier the previous owner lived the life of Riley, freely trundling back and forth through the salted slush to enjoy his days on our nearby destination ski resorts and while that may left him in a fine state it was not so great for the Lotus. That he had dank storage in which to garage the car did nothing but add to the grief which would develop and I must admit my own storage after acquiring it left much to be desired as well. In summation it has been my experience that practically every fitting was in need of refinishing, if not replacement, and a piss-poor repair of the driver's doorshell was revealed when that was stripped. Blah, blah, blah - the years roll by and I can report now of the state of things moving along into the closing months of the year.

Chassis:  This wasn't altogether great, with surface rust in need of cleaning and re-coating and troubling elongation of the body-chassis attachment holes ( the 4 along the backbone ) that I put down to neglect of tightening the fasteners plus the salty exposure/dank storage. That said, having seen some of the ghastly corrosion evident underneath a number of Esprit whose photos have been shared in various threads on TLF I'm pleased to say mine was far from the worst case. As to the brackets I have just cut, replaced and re-drilled those to resolve the matter with some permanence.

On another of several fronts in action I have been logging long hours in preparing for interior re-trim, carefully scraping parts clean of fabric ( taken intact in case useful as patterns ), foam and adhesive. The  door speaker holes have all been closed and filled, new vent locations formed in the dash outboard near doors just under the chrome trim, the console-dash bridging  piece for vents/stereo reinforced behind with aluminum  for support during re-trim, and just today I refinished the pod gauge/switch panels. The panels were in need, with a touch of rust evident here and there so after beadblast, sanding, cleaning and meticulous masking of the letters/symbols I sprayed with a wrinkle black finish. Will leave it at that for now, must trot off to watch Netflix with the missus. 

[silverfrost]

Great project you have going Steve,  look forward to the updates on your resto thread,  I found the trimming of one of my Esprits to actually be enjoyable which i was not expecting and wish i had done it myself many years before !

Good luck,  can you get away without re painting the bodyshell or is this going to be a full restoration on your S2 ?

[drdoom]

Thanks, Dan, your views are always appreciated. I do hope to hire out the work at re-trimming the lot, likely in full leather, due to value of materials, the necessity of a fine outcome, and expediting the program via outside help ( for a change!! ).

As to the bodyshell I've committed to full refinishing there as well. The Roman Bronze did not appear too bad from a distance though the usual stress crack patterns were displayed upon closer viewing. Esprit look fab in just about any sort of finish, including RBM, but respray affords me the luxury of selecting what I would best enjoy while presenting this car in top form for all to appreciate. These things were always rare but are by now almost non-existent due to collision write-off, fires, or abominable chop-job re-imagining efforts. So, yes, full restoration if not outright re-manufacture😲.

[ChrisJ]

Steve - I still think that the full cloth interior in an S2 is the best of the G cars - mine included.

 

[drdoom]

Chris, I agree that the S2 interior is brilliant, for the most part, and stands as one of Giugiaro's most memorable achievements. I'd be happy to consider the re-do in cloth if something truly comparable to Marcasite was available in black or charcoal. I gathered in samples of a fabric called "Krypton" from an American supplier on advice of a forum member and found it quite unsuitable. The grey piece was too light with a disagreeable tint and the black was without surface character whatsoever - just sheer black like a cheap magician's cape in velvet. Anything you might suggest as alternative?

[ChrisJ]

I have no alternatives in mind, but there must be something out there. Maybe Alcantara? I know that when I get round to redoing my Excel I'm going for 1/2 leather with Alcantara in a similar colour scheme for an updated take on it.

I'm fortunate in that if I ever have to do my Esprit interior, I just need to shoot a few teddy bears.

 

 

[drdoom]

On the matter of painting, when the time arrives, I'm looking at an OEM metallic finish from a contemporary car but thinking it might be improved if the metallic sheen could be enhanced. Can anyone advise whether this could be achieved either by application method or paint mix, for example?

[Fridge]

I too wasn't happy with Kypton Suede, though it is a decent enough material otherwise. Have you looked at synthetic velvet? From looking at about 18 carefully selected black/gunmetal/anthracite samples I found nothing in the UK that had the same fine pile as Marcasite.

Alcantara, if carefully selected for similar properties ie thickness and flexibility may be the most up to date and quality you can expect. 

[drdoom]

Carrying on over the past week I've finally got the chassis finish coated in an agreeable colour of 1K acrylic lacquer, that over 3 coats of 2K marine epoxy primer done promptly after the blast cleaning. 

On the interior front I have now refurbished switch panels as shown in prior posting plus have now remade the instrument panel, guided somewhat by older postings found here in TLF. Attached picture of the pod shows several items of note including panels/gauges loosely assembled and offered up and my rework of the outboard dash vents.

Cheers

[peteyg]

Without wishing to be too pedantic, your dials are the wrong way round...

Originally, Fuel was top right, Temp bottom right, Volts top left, Oil bottom left.

Pete

[GTK]

On 03/10/2019 at 03:46, drdoom said:

 

 

 

SNAP!

[drdoom]

7 hours ago, peteyg said:

Without wishing to be too pedantic, your dials are the wrong way round...

Originally, Fuel was top right, Temp bottom right, Volts top left, Oil bottom left.

Pete

Thanks for that Pete, with great appreciation for all insights offered TLF members are forgiven all pedantry at least until the damned thing is on the road! I routinely review the photos you posted of your interior while working on deciding how mine is to be done. Thought I'd consider setting the fuel gauge upper left so that passenger might have something to worry about, other than the rate at which i'll be taking corners.😄

[drdoom]

Brief word today. Like Fabian, Jani, Giorgio and others who have persevered through the endless work of deep restoration I feel the fabric of my sanity is stretched a bit thin from time to time. Simply refusing to be beaten I find it serves nicely just to get quietly back on task, whatever the chore. Press on regardless, not long before something puts a new smile on my face.

Current tedium revolves around completion of interior trim preps in anticipation of jobbing the lot out. Happily I have made contact with a highly reputable local trimmer who has done several (!) Esprit and is interested in my project. Bearing down hard on this interior work has also brought clarity to my decision on what materials the S2 will be finished in, leather for the seats, armrest, gearchange puff and door inserts, Alcantara for the remainder. In other words, in the fashion of its original build.

Getting pretty crafty with my techniques for repair of the bloody moulded plastic bits, by the way. On tap at the moment is dealing with fractures in that vast trim panel for the firewall.

Cheers

[drdoom]

Best news to share as I have hired probably the most highly regarded local trimmer for the S2 interior. He's a broadly skilled ex-Brit who's done the work trimming the very highest value automobiles going around here, the likes of '20's and '30's Alfa , Rolls etc. and has several Esprit to his credit. My best solution to be sure! Will soon be posting photos of seats and sundry in leather, pod, dash and door cards in Alcantara. 

Cheers!

[Clive59]

On 12/10/2019 at 03:23, drdoom said:

Getting pretty crafty with my techniques for repair of the bloody moulded plastic bits, by the way

Can you share your techniques, we all need to know better ways to do that sort of thing. Thanks

[drdoom]

Well, I was feeling some mojo when last posting some weeks ago, now just a bit wearied from the tedium of patching and scraping. To Clive's request I offer my endorsement of a product called G-Flex, not a sexual position but rather an epoxy formulated for flexibility and maximum adhesion to plastics. While advice found elsewhere in our threads suggested welding breaks in the plastic parts with a soldering iron I declined that approach as likely to fail owing to stress concentration. The myriad fractures/breaks in the firewall panel, for example, were all related to stress risers. Coarse cloth was laid in on the backside after surface prep, establishing some lasting integrity to the repairs. Thought I was off to the races until the trimmer extraordinaire instructed that the OEM vinyl was not to be skinned over as I had presumed but needed removal. It was a great deal more work by the time the clean-up was complete and, in addition, more cracks were revealed in need of repair. Along the way I closed off the original outlet ports for cabin air, relocating them to the area above the headrests in an effort to reduce wind noise. Attached photo displays extent of fractures in need of repair.

Methods found worthwhile through all this involve the indispensably useful Dremel, with toothed cutters and sanding rolls for plastic and cut-off wheels for rivet removal. By far the single most essential tool was a sharp, curved blade knife which served through countless hours in scraping old glue remnants and leveling the finish on newly glued repairs showing on the cabin side of the panel. Plastics as soft as that used on these Lotus interior bits will clog a sanding roll rather quickly whereas a sharp knife enables material removal at a productive pace without raising disagreeable dust in the process. It's quite mad to submit oneself to such a campaign as this but I'm modestly proud of what is being accomplished, looking forward to getting this series of the most tedious of chores resolved.

Cheers

[Lotusfab]

Thinners for glue removal is must easier than sanding.

[drdoom]

On 24/11/2019 at 04:11, Lotusfab said:

Thinners for glue removal is must easier than sanding.

Thanks Fabian, I have employed thinner solutions judiciously when able to work outside however the weather hereabouts becomes generally less accommodating around late October. I'm pleased to have full rights to our 2 car garage until something like New Year's, when winter is expected to assert its first spell of nastiness, after that I'll need to operate in the area remaining once the wife's precious coupe takes refuge. Having done a bit of research my wariness of solvent toxicities has been elevated so I take ever more care to employ a mask with VOC absorbent cartridges around the vapours.

Cheers 

[Lotusfab]

Yep, there are some very nasty fumes when you do these restorations. Ive got through many masks!

[drdoom]

First pieces completed by the trimmer are the door armrest inserts, here's one.👏

[drdoom]

First seat finished in leather and vinyl per OEM methods, new Pirelli webbing, foam supplemented where broken down in the hip area. 

[Lotusfab]

Very nice!

[Rolls]

That is exceptional. Well done.

For the benefit of all, do you mind sharing which components are leather  and vinyl?

[drdoom]

Leather is used in all surfaces typically in contact with the occupant's body, so top surface of seat cushion and bolsters right out to the edge, the headrest choker, and the headrest including its sides for appearance sake I suppose. The vinyl (PVC) therefore is seen on the seat flanks and the very top of the headrest only, with that covering the backside of seat not shown in the photo. This is the form in which my S2 was originally trimmed.

Cheers

[Fridge]

15 minutes ago, drdoom said:

Leather is used in all surfaces typically in contact with the occupant's body, so top surface of seat cushion and bolsters right out to the edge, the headrest choker, and the headrest including its sides for appearance sake I suppose. The vinyl (PVC) therefore is seen on the seat flanks and the very top of the headrest only, with that covering the backside of seat not shown in the photo. This is the form in which my S2 was originally trimmed.

Cheers

Always great to see a car restored to original detail.

Too much is lost over time by over restoring them.