Stainless Esprit front bumper mounting brackets

[tomcattom]

Following expressions of interest in my project thread regarding the replacement front bumper mounting plates I've had manufactured from Stainless Steel I thought I would start a separate thread to see what level of interest there was before I speak to the engineering company that made them for me about a volume discount if there is sufficient interest. @Bibs hopefully I'm not breaking any rules by posting this, but if there is anything I should be doing now or before going ahead with any potential group buy please let me know.

The brackets I've had made are for the front bumper only on my S4s at this stage. As far as I know these brackets are common to the S4, GT3 and V8s too? Not sure if all V8s apply or if any of the earlier Stevens Esprit can use them. If anyone can confirm if there are any differences etc that would save me some effort.

Quantities are based on what I found on my S4s, I haven't yet checked if all cars are the same or if Lotus chopped and changed what items they used where on the different models.

• A082B5002F - x8 large stud plate - x6 front bumper to lower spoiler and x2 front bumper corner to body shell (£8.86 each inc. VAT from Lotus)
• A082B7321F - x2 small stud plate - Front bumper to lower spoiler (£13.34 each inc. VAT from Lotus)
• B082B4811F - x8 large nut plate - Front lower spoiler to oil cooler duct undertrays (£15.68 each inc. VAT from Lotus)
• Part number unknown - x2 diamond nut plate - Front bumper corner to body shell (I don't know the Lotus retail price because I can't find the part number)

These are the stud and nut plates that go in the nose of the body shell just in front of the headlamp pods (x2 A082B5002F and x2 the unknown diamond shaped nut plate)

 

These are the stud plates that go into the lower edge of the front bumper which the lower spoiler is secured to (x6 A082B5002F and x2 A082B7321F)

 

These are the nut plates in the bottom of the lower spoiler that the oil cooler duct undetrays bolt to (x8 B082B4811F)

 

Based on the individual prices above the total cost of a complete set from Lotus is £223 pounds and that doesn't include the diamond shaped part I couldn't find a part number for, so based on the price of the other parts you could probably add another £15-£20 for those two. The one off run of all the stainless parts I had made cost me £180 but this did include two spare of each part just in case I missed any in the parts list; my car was missing most of the plates so I wasn't really sure how many of each I would actually need and the parts list isn't especially clear either. The cost of parts that actually ended up on the car was probably nearer £130 as a rough percentage. As you might expect, the more I get made the lower the unit cost will be. I don't want to try and second guess what sort of discount I might get until I know what sort of numbers I might be looking at or if there is even enough interest.

At this stage I'm just interested in knowing if people might be interested in buying complete sets or part sets of these stainless brackets so I have some numbers to enquire with. No one is on the hook to buy anything at this stage.

[cweeden]

Hi Tom,

I'm interested in a full set but there are some additional plates that have no captive parts as well, I'd like to see if these can be made up too?

Items 5,6,8 and 2x 12. I will have them off my car over the weekend and can share dimensions or post them as examples if you fancy completing the set?

I'm not sure if I have items 92 and 93 or not or if I'm supposed to??

cheers

-Chris

[tomcattom]

If you can get dimensions/photos/drawings to me can certainly enquire on prices for any additional parts.

Items 92 and 93 are present on my car but they are plastic parts that self tapping screws in the ends of the bumper screw into so not sure making them in metal will work.

[Clarky5150]

Hi. Really interested in these. Can you confirm regarding the diamonds which go in the pod area. Are these to affix the very corners of the front bumper which if not used cause the front corners of the bumper to sag? 

I removed and replaced the bumper getting a better alignment but the corners still look a little droopy and would like to get this sorted correctly come repaint time 👍

[tomcattom]

Yes, those parts go in the corner of the front bumper @Clarky5150

[Clarky5150]

Damn those brackets. I think the captive bolts may well have stripped in one of mine. I will definitely be in the market fir a pair of those if not all the brackets. The thought of removing that front assembly again tho reduces me to tears. What a pig of a job!

[tomcattom]

On 23/02/2021 at 20:13, cweeden said:

Items 5,6,8 and 2x 12. I will have them off my car over the weekend and can share dimensions or post them as examples if you fancy completing the set?

I began stripping down the spare bumper I obtained for my car yesterday and I have most of those items to be able to measure myself now.

I don't have item 8 available to measure and if you could measure the position and size of the notches cut into item 5 that would be handy too.

[cweeden]

I have item 5 handy, I'll have to dig out 8 from wherever I put it. 🤷‍♂️ should have that tomorrow.

Item 5 is 670mm x 20mm (it's 1.5mm thick but it looks like your plates are a little thicker than standard which is a good thing)

There are 5 slotted holes that are 6.7mm x 9mm

From each end there are two with centres at 15.5mm, 135.5mm plus one centres on the plate.

In addition there are two grooves with a semi-circular end, these are 6.5mm wide and 15.7mm deep centred 278.25mm from each end.

 

Sorry for the fractions of a mm, I got my calipers out and couldn't help myself.

cheers

-Chris

[cweeden]

I found item 8, it is still riveted to my bumper. 🤣

That made life a little more challenging as its stored on the rafters above the car in the garage, so some careful crawling around was needed.

The plate is a 'U' section piece 790mm long, 20mm wide and 5mm high, foolishly I forgot to measure where the rivets are located (I'll grab that later), you have the stud spacing based on the hole location in the above supporting plate.

The curve of the bumper prevents the bar from being any longer as it is already being flexed slightly at the ends but the shape of the ridge. It also means you don't want to make it any wider and in fact the radius of the curve in the 'U' is helping a but here. It might be a design idea to offset the studs to one edge of the bar a little (maybe 2mm or 3mm) to position the bar that much further back and away from the ridge. You can just about make out what I mean in the first photo below.

          

I'll grab the length of the studs (bolts too). Let me know if I've missed anything else?

cheers

-Chris

[tomcattom]

That's item 6 isn't @cweeden? Assuming it's in the top edge of the bumper as it looks to be, I've already one of those here that I can measure.

Item 8 goes into the bottom edge of the bumper and bolts up into the frunk floor I think. I just had a quartet of M6 nuts and bolts in there on mine because that bracket was missing entirely. I sourced a new one from SJ, albeit not in stainless because I didn't have one to measure to get a stainless one made. Mine is now inaccessible for measuring having put all the front undertrays back in place in the last few days 🤦‍♂️

[cweeden]

1 hour ago, tomcattom said:

That's item 6 isn't @cweeden? Assuming it's in the top edge of the bumper as it looks to be, I've already one of those here that I can measure.

Item 8 goes into the bottom edge of the bumper and bolts up into the frunk floor I think. I just had a quartet of M6 nuts and bolts in there on mine because that bracket was missing entirely. I sourced a new one from SJ, albeit not in stainless because I didn't have one to measure to get a stainless one made. Mine is now inaccessible for measuring having put all the front undertrays back in place in the last few days 🤦‍♂️

Doh! Yup, my bad. Let me see what I can find, it will be in one of the boxes. 

[tomcattom]

If you can't find it all we really need is the hole spacings so we could compare my spare bumper with yours to check they're consistent.

[cweeden]

Hopefully you can make sense of this, let me know if you have any questions. It's flimsy like all the others. I didn't mention the length of the studs but I'm sure they are the same as the others.

[tomcattom]

Thanks Chris. I'll start creating the new CAD models and drawings for these extra parts at the weekend and get them over to the engineering company for a quote as soon as I can.

[cweeden]

11 minutes ago, tomcattom said:

Thanks Chris. I'll start creating the new CAD models and drawings for these extra parts at the weekend and get them over to the engineering company for a quote as soon as I can.

What, you mean my drawing is not good enough to send as it is? 🤣

[tomcattom]

They probably would be fine, but I know they accepted my CAD models last time 🙂

[tomcattom]

Apologies for the slight radio silence on this, getting my Esprit back on the road was taking all my attention and so I've only got around to sorting the drawings for this now.

I've completed the first batch of drawings and emailed them over to the engineering company this afternoon, so hopefully I'll hear back from them during the week. The parts I've requested quotes for are:

• A082B5002F
• A082B7321F
• B082B4811F
• Front bumper corner nut plate (doesn't seem to exist in the 1993 parts list 😕 so I don't have a part number for it)

I have just noticed that I've missed a couple of the brackets that you've provided details for @cweeden so I'll get them drawn during the week and emailed over to them too; those being:

• A082B4810F
• A082B4820F

[cweeden]

👍

[tomcattom]

I'm expecting to hear back from the guys tomorrow with a quote 🤞

What with the new arrival and other work pressures I kept on forgetting to chase them up 😞

[tomcattom]

I've got the prices from the supplier now. There are a couple of notes on the quote that I need to call them about tomorrow to clarify a few things, but these are the prices as they currently stand and if there are any changes following the call I'll update tomorrow. All prices are cost price to me including VAT, but no delivery cost, that will be extra if required.

The descriptions and quantities per vehicle are based on my S4s, if you're interested in a any of the parts I recommend you double check what quantities of each bracket you require for your specific model. I can't guarantee there aren't subtle differences between models. I'll include photos/diagrams of each part if anyone thinks that will be useful, although a lot of them are included earlier in this thread.

The cost saving compared to Lotus retail price, for the items they still supply is quite substantial in some cases

Lotus part number	Item description/location	Quantity per vehicle	Unit price	Total price per vehicle
A082B5002F	x6 stud plates in bottom of front bumper to secure lower valance x2 stud plates in body shell to secure corner of front bumper	8	£4.20	£33.60
A082B7321F	Stud plate in bottom of front bumoer to secure lower valance	2	£8.40	£16.80
B082B4811F	Nut plate fixed to bottom of front lower valance that the lower splitter and oil cooler undertrays bolt into	8	£4.20	£33.60
Unknown	Diamond shaped nut plate in corner of body to for front bumper	2	£8.40	£16.80
A082B4820F	Item 8 below	1	£30.00	£30.00
A082B4809F	Item 6 below	1	£30.00	£30.00
A082B4810F	Item 5 below	1	£28.80	£28.80
A082B4813F	Item 13 below	2	£14.40	£28.80
A082U4680K	Washer plate in rear wheel arch for fuel tank board bracket	2	£8.40	£16.80

 

If anyone would like some or all of the above items please let me know quantities in this thread so I can keep track. Lead time is about seven days from point of order.

[madmax]

Hi

This isn't a job I have in my current plan but I do like to replace with stainless fittings where I can. From what I can see from the above, for my S4, a full kit would cost £235.20 - is that right?

From peoples experience (and I appreciate that our cars can very), should all the above parts provide all the fixing plates for this onerous task?

If so, please count me in although they're certainly not something I'd require this side of Xmas.

Thanks for this - great stuff!

 

PS - Does anyone know if the bumper has to be removed to gain access to and remove and replace the central front mesh grille ?

 

[dave excell]

On my V8 the front grill is bonded and has to be cut off in some way. It possibly could be done on the car but its bad enough with the bumpr removed.

[tomcattom]

20 hours ago, madmax said:

From peoples experience (and I appreciate that our cars can very), should all the above parts provide all the fixing plates for this onerous task?

The full quantity of everything in that list, excep for the last item in the table will be all the stud/nut plates you need for the front bumper, valance and splitter on the bottom. The only parts not included are parts 7 and 11 in the diagram above, bit they are simply plates with holes in so can be readily reused.

It will depend on levels of interest as to whether I place an order before or after Christmas.

20 hours ago, madmax said:

PS - Does anyone know if the bumper has to be removed to gain access to and remove and replace the central front mesh grille ?

On my S4s I was able to fit the grille mesh with the bumper and valance fitted. You just need to remove the front corner undertrays and radiator aid duct to gain access from underneath. The grille should be secured to the frunk floor with two bolts. Only trouble might be getting the old bolts out if everything has rusted.

[madmax]

Thanks Tom - that’s brilliant. 

When I looked at it I thought it might be possible with the bumper in place and coming at it from underneath. 

Certainly no hurry for me on the plates  as it probably will be a job I deal with next winter lay up 👍

[cweeden]

Hi Tom,

This is great, I'm up for the full kit except the two diamond stud plates, mine aren't too bad and seem to be totally inaccessible. 

I'm not in a burning hurry but would rather have something before March. It would also be a good excuse to pop over to Buckinghamshire, say hi and collect them when ready. 🙂

cheers

-Chris