S2!

[JonSE]

Hi,

I don’t know if pieces were added at some point in the past when the chassis was off before, as it had been painted red and was generally in very good condition. The additional bits themselves have started to rust through so it’s a good point about the strengthening…

[Fridge]

6 hours ago, JonSE said:

Hi,

I don’t know if pieces were added at some point in the past when the chassis was off before, as it had been painted red and was generally in very good condition. The additional bits themselves have started to rust through so it’s a good point about the strengthening…

Standard.

 

[JonSE]

Thanks, do you know if they were supposed to be drilled to allow water out? Mine were full of crud and starting to go from the inside, I jet washed the chassis to stop me getting filthy every time I needed to move it and 20 years of grit and road kill came out of there! 
 

I’m going to ensure there are drain holes when it’s done and fill the whole thing with cavity wax…

[Fridge]

8 minutes ago, JonSE said:

Thanks, do you know if they were supposed to be drilled to allow water out? Mine were full of crud and starting to go from the inside, I jet washed the chassis to stop me getting filthy every time I needed to move it and 20 years of grit and road kill came out of there! 
 

I’m going to ensure there are drain holes when it’s done and fill the whole thing with cavity wax…

Drain hole central to the bottom of the box section. I won't worry about the slider retainers for the steering rack, unless you're intending to go rallying.

I've no idea if they're filled, or partially. I left them partial as it is a lot easier to fit the and adjust the rack with them filled.

[Djs44]

Jon 

This is the bottom of my steering mount FYI 

[JonSE]

The rather lovely gentleman that previously owned my car kindly got in touch and let me know he had found a large bag of history for the car, this over a year after we did the deal.

I’ll put some photos up in time, but it goes from having no history to being able to see ownership history back to the mid eighties.

There are also some photos of the car in period and images of the last body off restoration.

In hindsight, the chassis looks great 25 years after it’s last separation from the car, but it made sense being this deep in to split it from the car and do it again.

@Fridgeit looks like the car spent some decent time in your neck of the woods for a good proportion of its life.

I’ll not post up personal details but might try and track some of the previous owners down to see if they recall the car.

 

[drdoom]

A good Lotus is a thing to love, and owners often carry a torch after parting ways.

[JonSE]

Some images that I collected from the cars history referring to the above.
 

I’m a little melancholy regards the little pup in the posh new seats of his owners car all those years ago tbh….

I’ve similar photographs of my old car somewhere.

Might have mentioned before but this car was very local to me for 20 years, around half its life, but I never saw it, there’s a chance it used to visit a few doors up from me as the previous owner had family on the same street.
 

That was a long time after these pics, which I believe were either Billingham or Sunderland in around 1996 after the car was brought up from the South Coast where it lived 91-96.

[JonSE]

Body shop has added a few inches of GRP to the front end to mimic the shape of the S1, below the waist line.
 

The body shop who is a Lotus specialist left the majority of the S2 front structure in place so it can be reverted back if a future lucky owner decided that was the way to go, which also means the bobbins in the front boot space are in the same place as a benefit.

They are just sharpening the lines up using a few images of S1’s I provided them, which they used originally to scale up the amendments I wanted.

Also moulded a new spoiler and radiator cowl from his mould to dry fit while the car is inverted. Hopefully my S1 type radiator will fit OK into this assembly as it seems a better fit than mine was, where the radiator was just bolted into the boot floor using thin bolts and suspended from a very crude cage that had rotted out.

He had a GRP bumper made up to ensure the front looked ok during the works which I’m going to buy as mine is cracked in several places and very brittle.

Sun roof was filled using an original roof mould and various repairs done. I’ve also filled the radio antenna hole and the front badge holes as I’d prefer to use a decal on the nose.

Chassis has been repaired by the specialist most of the lower surfaces were replaced plus a new tube added around the manifold. Now powder coated and checked for true on the jig and was surprisingly straight……

 

[JonSE]

The plan is to get the body back and then refit the doors that were off the car to ensure they don’t foul the unpainted body, ditto the front and rear hatch and the light pods.

I understand this is a time intensive process and I’m no expert, so this next step may delay getting the car back together, but wouldn’t make sense to pay someone else to do if I can manage it myself.

Then I’ll disassemble it again and bag the shims up with reference notes to limit any damage on reassembly after paint then have the body painted.

Replacing the body onto the chassis I hope won’t bring the doors / hatches back out of true as it didn’t seem to be carrying lots of shims when it was together so hopefully minimal stress for remounting and bolting all back together again.

This is where the front end has been slightly modified, added a colour to show the effect…

[LOTUSMAN33]

Good effort Jon, looks smart now.

Are you adding X19 rear lights and plinths as well?

Dave  

[JonSE]

At this phase no, I’ll re use the Rover ones to get the car mobile and then do the rear lights down the line if I can’t live with the look.

I weighed up the cost and it looked like being £1000 to get the parts together I needed!

Priority is to get the car moving under its own steam asap…

[Fridge]

£1,000?

The glassing isn't difficult.

SJ Sportcars sell reproduction rear light surrounds for £62 each+VAT.

Including an S1 recessed rear number plate surround they would be less than £200 delivered.

Fiat X1/9 lights come up at reasonable prices on eBay quite often.

I'm not sure how you've come up with that figure. IMO it is something to do whilst in the bodyshop, or at least prior to painting.

For me these elements are as much defining of the S1 as the barge board front spoiler.

[LOTUSMAN33]

David is right this is the time to do it as you do need fibreglass modifications to fit the S1 light plinths, to do after without dry lines would be a full rear end paint.

You could buy just the plinths to get the glass work done and while building the car await some X19 light to come up. I have bought several for around £50 over the years.

All three panels with postage is £267, you can make the retaining straps easily and happy to give you templates/sizes?

Worth thinking about Jon?

Dave  

[JonSE]

Thanks for that, I’ll reconsider, the price was around the X19 lights mostly, saw them for huge cost on eBay etc….

[Paul Coleman]

18 minutes ago, JonSE said:

Thanks for that, I’ll reconsider, the price was around the X19 lights mostly, saw them for huge cost on eBay etc….

There's a pair on eBay now for £140 or so.

[Fridge]

46 minutes ago, JonSE said:

Thanks for that, I’ll reconsider, the price was around the X19 lights mostly, saw them for huge cost on eBay etc….

Those ones have been on years and the price is a joke. A bit like my enamel Lotus badge 😆

[JonSE]

I’ve asked the body shop today to fill the rear light cut outs in readiness for me to cut in the new SJ surrounds and find a set of X19 clusters, I’ll get the surrounds etc in order, cheers!

If anyone sees any decent clusters, let me know 👍

[LOTUSMAN33]

They don’t need to fill much in really Jon as below.

[snowrx]

On 26/03/2022 at 16:05, drdoom said:

A good Lotus is a thing to love, and owners often carry a torch after parting ways.

Yes, my PO kept the tool kit for his car...

[Paul Coleman]

Don't take a pattern for the holes for the X1/9 lights off an early car as they're way too big on my car!

[drdoom]

I had looked into this some years ago when contemplating what to do with the homely Rover based lamp units as fitted to  N/A  GG Esprit, post S1. Got a set of ex-Fiat units purchased locally before deciding on a different solution. If I recall correctly, the units are carried within ABS surrounds produced by Lotus for the S1 application, unlike the Fiat installation. If so, one would need to acquire those for the full conversion.

Cheers

[LOTUSMAN33]

The surrounds for the lights and number plate are available from SJ at £267 posted. I believe Jon has ordered these so just awaiting the lights to come up at a sensible price.👍

[Fridge]

3 hours ago, LOTUSMAN33 said:

The surrounds for the lights and number plate are available from SJ at £267 posted. I believe Jon has ordered these so just awaiting the lights to come up at a sensible price.👍

Wow! Those have shot up in price since 2016.

[JonSE]

Body arrived back from Chris at BOSS motors yesterday, very quick turnaround time, great progress reports and fantastic quality of work.

Steve the Lotus transporter brought it back and really went out of his way to meet the deadline, so great thanks to both for helping me with this part of the work!

BOSS have done a fantastic job of “simply” grafting on a couple of amendments onto the existing S2 front end to more mimic the S1. Boot floor and other areas left as-is so they can be reverted back to S2 in future if required.

Sun roof filled and a new GRP front bumper as part of the deal that mimics the texture of the plastic one very closely.

Body stripped ready for paint and to check for any repairs, which were pretty limited thankfully.

Late S1 blade / duct arrangement dropped straight onto the S2 revised front end (thanks for that info Paul).

I’ll get more pics when I get back home later but I’m delighted at turning this corner!