1976 Elite restoration.

[Doris the dog]

Has anyone fitted the channel onto the glass ?

Is it glued to both glass and steel channel or idles it rely on a force fit to hold it together.  

[Tony D]

It's glued on. Fairly sure the service manual covers some details. I think the earliest cars used the same sorbit material as the quarter lights are stuck in with, but sure many modern adhesives will be just as good. 

I'd watch out for the right size channel to glue on. I can confirm that on my 74 Elite, the glass is 4.9mm thick. On my 91 Excel it is 4.1mm thick. I hadn't realised until your observations, but this seams like a case of Lotus adding lightness as the years went by. 

Tony 

[Doris the dog]

Thanks Tony , I did find section in workshop manual late last night.  
Have sorted the channel and glass, will be fitting it the afternoon.  
With the different thickness of glass, all the metal frames that the glass slides into that I have , all measure the same width. Whether the motor has the power to move the thicker glass in its channel I wouldn’t like to try, it took all my effort to move it.  
Noticed on near side glass it been etched with registration mark , surprise surprise not my car’s registration. 

[Doris the dog]

Simple job this morning, fitted new wiper blade refill.  One job actually finished.  

[Angus553]

If only all the jobs were this easy!!

[Doris the dog]

After a long pause on working on the Elite, it will be all systems go again as the trim is ready to collect after being re anodised.  
 Just a 320 mile round trip sometime this week.  
Then I can finally get all the glass in.  

[EXCEL V8]

Looking forward to hearing about the results of the trim refurbishing.

Pete

[Doris the dog]

Collect Wednesday. Hopefully get rear quarter glass in before the weekend.  Then back to the headlights. 

[ramjet]

Looking forward to seeing the finished car photos.

[Doris the dog]

Well collected the trim yesterday. 
 
 

[Trunnion 74]

Errm, they look.....different?

 

Roland

[Doris the dog]

Oh Roland !!!! Didn’t think anyone would notice 😂

The shiny one is a spare I have , the set that went to be anodised are all as the “dull” one. 
 

[Doris the dog]

For me I’m never going to have anything else re-anodised, as the car has a complete set.  
If your trim has any pitting , then think before spending on it as the pitting doesn’t polish out.  

Think it goes “You can’t make a silk purse out of a sows ear”. If it’s pitted it will come back pitted, well mine have .

Happy with what I have, wowed no.

 

 

[Dion]

2 hours ago, Doris the dog said:

Well collected the trim yesterday. 
 
 

So - the top one has been redone / re-anonised? If so than that is a bit disappointing.

[Trunnion 74]

9 hours ago, Doris the dog said:

Oh Roland !!!! Didn’t think anyone would notice 😂

The shiny one is a spare I have , the set that went to be anodised are all as the “dull” one. 
 

Got a keen eye, me.

[EXCEL V8]

Disappointing Tony.  Hope mine come out shinier!  I'll let you know when I finally get around to taking them (not to the same company).

Pete

[Doris the dog]

Is it to do with hard anodising and soft.  Couple of the vertical windscreen trim show a lot of pitting, but if polished away there would be nothing left of trim.  
For the money , probably a paint finish would have looked better close up.  But hey it’s a Heinz 57 car and is way short of concourse. 
Once it’s road ready and I’ve driven my  first Lotus, I could spray them ( probably not). I’m old I need to drive it. 😂

[ramjet]

I can't really see the pitting in the photo. What would happen if you got the pitting TIG welded then shape the welding back to shape and then go through reanodising? It may be a hell of a lot of work though?

I am not sure of the amount of pitting, but it could be quite possible that it would not be cost efficient either. I suppose it all depends on the availability of spares when restoring.

As anodising coats the material, what about preparing and then filling all the pitting with a product like Devcon? A difference in the surface where filled should not matter. Not difficult to use like a filler and then finish to shape and then reanodise.

[Doris the dog]

16 hours ago, Dion said:

So - the top one has been redone / re-anonised? If so than that is a bit disappointing.

Yep correct!

[Doris the dog]

Hi Ramjet, no that one doesn’t have any pitting. 
will put up a photo of vertical windscreen trim which is covered like chicken pox. 
Tig welding , just not practical.  
The process of anodising would not cover any fillers as it’s an electrolytic action. 
Basically if the trim I’d to thin to polish the pitting out. 
I had played around with vinyl wrapping them myself , but failed on the trim in photo , hard to hold and not leave any creases, my lack of skill.  
Did also go down the paint route, but , decided to stick to original  car  spec and have it anodised.   
Hey ho it will look fine from across the street 😂

[steve clack]

I covered mine with aluminum colour vinyl wrap, still looks good a year on.

Only cost £30 and a few hours of middley work.

The good thing about wrapping is everything looks exactly the same 

Steve

 

[EXCEL V8]

The other possibility is to get the anodic layer removed again (you're going to have to do this anyway if you end up painting them) and just polish the trim - much like the Turbine wheels - they are just polished aluminium.  It will need a good wax protection and fairly regular re-polishing but it would look great and the pitting would show up less.  As an indication of cost I've been quoted about £25 to have each roof rail de-anodised and polished by a local company.

How much did you pay for the work?  Are you seriously out of pocket?

Pete

[Doris the dog]

Couple of photos one is a close up and magnified X2 the other from 300mm away normal photo. 

[Doris the dog]

Pete , supermarkets would call it a loss leader. 
My trim mistakes !!!

1. Managed to get a set together. 
2. As some were black , brain said let’s do them   all black. 
3. Before getting to spray them Steve put up his post of wrapping.  So change to wrapping.  
Purchased wrap but didn’t like the wrap.  
Purchased Chrome wrap, looked brilliant on those A post trims , but my lack of skill failed on windscreen top corner trim , couldn’t remove all wrinkles.  
4. Decided to get them wrapped professionally.got that sorted , but before that happened I went to pick up front screen from Lotusbits, and of course they had nearly spotless top and bottom windscreen trims, loads better than mine. So brain then back to anodising remainder. 
The rest is as above in other posts. The money I paid for top and bottom windscreen trims just didn’t seem right to wrap them. 
 Should not do this but

Paint £40

Wrap £40 x 2

Anodizing costs

Postage £50 to suppliers 

Anodizing etc  £300

Collect trim £55 diesel 7 hours driving through 7 counties  

Now of to find a suitable length of rope and a tree  😂😂😂

 

[Doris the dog]

Might as well finish the trim with these stainless steel trim s that I guess fit onto the sills just below the door. There’s four holes drilled in for fixing, but am I missing an insert as the profile leads me to think some rubber goes between trim and fibreglass body ?