The White Evora Thread

[cdco]

I've posted a few different threads on here to do with mods to my Evora , but based on @Daveb99 and @EvoraBob threads I've decided to pull my "build" / life log thread over from NORLOG 

So the car , a 2009 Launch Edition N/A Evora 2+2 in Aspen White , first registered 05/08/2009.

As an LE it’s got the Tech Pack, Sport Pack and the Premium Pack - which translates according to the brochure of the time as:

And as I found out after buying it the Lotus Stage 1 Exhaust and 3rd Cat delete has been fitted , probably at the delivering dealers (Silverstone).

On top of this prior to me getting it there are a raft of bills and history including having the Gear linkage cables (not the 2012 updates but replacement originals), New Clutch, Release Bearing and Gearbox bearings replaced. 

So not a bad starting point for a bit of a project…

Initial  stuff I found than needed looking at :

1) Service

2) Brakes - New Rear discs and Pads needed

3) Geo

4) Alpine Stereo / Satnav is Archaic (see thread here for that one) 

 

5) Air-con is asthmatic

6) Front Service hatch not opening

7) Cruise Control Doesn’t work

😎 Plastic rings around the rear lights are no longer chrome all the coating has either corroded or fallen off.

9) A-Pillar Plastic Trims are both cracked in several places.

10) Engine Vent Panel cracked , same issue as A-Pillars.

11) Headlights fogging over and in need of refurb

12) Interior Leather could do with some TLC especially Seats and Sills.

13) All the mesh needs re coating

14) Diffuser needs re powder coating

15) Front bumper needs better alignment

Plan wasn't and still isn't to overly mod or up the power on this but to get it to a nice spec for gatherings/events, touring and the odd track day.

[cdco]

First tasks where the really annoying day to day bits and pieces

1) Couldn’t open the front access panel…. After finding the damn lever buried way under the middle of the dashboard at full arm’s length – why couldn’t Lotus have just added a switch like the boot or fuel cap! Found that the cable was jumping out of the (Jag sourced) lever.

The plastic has broken where the cable is held on both sides so its been swapped round once. Solution Print a plug to bolt in and trap the cable

….. the difficult bit as usual getting under the dash to fasten it all together!!

2) This then lets me get to the pollen filter to start improving the HVAC …

I don’t think this has been changed for a while Sorted the flow a bit but it does seem to drop off as the system runs for a while so don’t know if the resistor pack is on its way out so sort the HVAC stays on the list. - eventually found our via various forum threads and playing with the settings on journeys its just the “normal” freezing issue.

3) Finally for this update, the only green and yellow on the outside of the car were the wheel center caps. So a few hours on Fusion 360 and ebay and et voila black and silver ones to go with the monochrome exterior.

Also added 2 more jobs to the list...

Headlight washers are not working and the clutch needs bleeding....
 

[cdco]

Job 4:  The back light rings were p*****g me off. They should have been chromed plastic but have aged to a crappy grey with no chrome ... So a start , just a small one

 

Looking at the various parts lists etc there is a fair bit of tweaking between the LE Evoras and the following cars, one of those is Lotus suddenly remembered the clutch fluid can get hot when the pipes are buried in the engine bay. So in an effort to improve the recalcitrant second gear, I bled the clutch circuit, what a bugger to get to that is and lagged the pipe to try and minimise the heat soak…

Also whilst I was in the garage and faffing with the clutch system I managed to sort the cruise control problem, the sensor that picks up clutch position had become detached from the clutch pedal leaver.... ten mins faffing upside down under the dash and all was well.

As you'll see later I wasn't overly convinced the clutch bleed had solved my problems or if really there where any problems.

[cdco]

At the few sunny events we got to in 2020 the yellowing of the factory fit PPF was quite noticeable in the sunlight so that had to go. Not a pleasant or easy job especially with temps dropping to single figures but its done and here is a pile of plastic to prove it. I don't think I'm going to bother replacing it seems unnecessary  now on an 12+ year old car. 

Also and after lots of Fing about under the front wheel arch and getting soaked, both headlamp washers now pop up

 the old unit was that gummed up on amount of cleaning was going to resolve the issue so bought a new unit off EBAY (cant remember the link / unit) and fitted the lotus nozzle and headlamp finisher bit.

.... but still only one sprays so the next port of call was to replace the pump.  However I might just do what Bob did and pull the fuse as even when they work the're more effective at spraying all over the front end rather than actually cleaning the headlights.
 

[cdco]

Whilst on the subject of headlights, I'm no where near as brave as @Daveb99 so I didn't fancy doing the refurb work myself and found a local company that came out and did it for me . So the headlights have had their lacquer removed , polished and rather than have them resprayed I've had a ceramic anti UV coating put on.

So from this -

To this -

Photos don't show how bad they were but I'm sure they hadn't been touched since the car was new .... Or when the front bumper was replaced ...

For £70 happy I'm happy with the results ... 

Also later I decided to give them an extra layer of protection and added PPF UV protecting film from Aliath.

[cdco]

Next up was a continuation of external cosmetic work , all the painted black elements on the car where well past their sell by date and looking either crusty (Grille work) of faded, diffuser and rear vent panel. 

Firstly Rear vent panel and diffuser off cleaned and sent for powder coating at Fastline Coatings in Preston, I've used them before when I did a similar job on the Elsie and again they did a good job with a quick turn round time. 

Before :

After :

Then a more serious strip down to get at the front grille work in the bumper and whilst I was at that all the bracketry  under the wheel arch. All ended up on the washing line....

 

 

 

 

 

[cdco]

Like the bracketry the grilles in the front bumper could be removed attached with the wire brush , wire wool and scrubbing pad before a coat of anti rust and then satin black, the other s however without removing the clams posed more of a challenge... the car ended up looking like this :

With various old sheets stuffed up into the cavities to catch any over spray,  it took a level of James Herriot impressions to stuff my arm far enough into the car to get padding on the back of the grilles in the duct work.

Very happy with the overall results.

Everything has gone back on with new fasteners, for the diffuser and back panel all new Black coated Ally cap head screws and washers and the main undertrays new stainless fasteners and a generous coating of Duralac as required.

[cdco]

Whilst all the underneath was off and the car was on stands it seemed a reasonable time to sort the clonks and creaks, especially reading on here of the "consumable" nature of the drop links. I inherited a fair pile of paperwork and bills with the car but nowhere could I see these having ever being touched. Fair to say it took more than just sockets and spanners....

New bits-

The remnants

Not really much to see once this is done - 

Although looking at this now and comparing it to @Daveb99's work I think I need to get back under there and do some more cleaning.......

It did cure the clonks and groans though and I felt much better knowing it was done before I took the car on track for the first time.

 

[cdco]

The final external job of winter 20/21 (god that feels like more than 12 months ago!) was to replace the cracked plastic A pillar trims and Roof Vent Panel, I toyed with just ordering plastic replacements or black gel coated fiber glass versions but after "peer pressure" over on NORLOG decided to got he whole hog and order the CF versions from Elise-Shop.

With the old panel removed .

and new one in place, fairly easy with only 4 fastenings and i think 2 spigots but I might be wrong and no foam tape , the only annoying / difficult bits were (1)  not dropping the fastenings / sockets into the depth of the engine bay and 2 shimming it to get a decent profile with the roof / hatch glass. Which I'm still not 100% happy with but haven't got round to removing and redoing the center section.

The A-Pillars were much  more time consuming and annoying, firstly due to the level of corrosion on the original fasteners that took liberal coatings of WD-40 to release without sheering and secondly the time it took to remove the old foam adhesive tape from the car before the surface could be cleaned and prepped for the new units.

New CF trim with 3M tape applied ready to fit :

and fitted

I'm happy with that little lot so far.

[trcm]

Superb, when can I drop mine round for the same? 😁

[Cdm2018]

I will be joining you

like Dave superb work and deeply envious wish I had ability and tools etc 

[cdco]

@trcm and @cdm2018 thanks gents more to come, but I'll have to turn you down on the offer of more cars to faff with , between the Evora and my lads Fiesta I spend more than enough time in the garage as far as my "boss" is concerned 

[Rambo]

On 13/02/2022 at 15:42, cdco said:

Whilst on the subject of headlights, I'm no where near as brave as @Daveb99 so I didn't fancy doing the refurb work myself and found a local company that came out and did it for me . So the headlights have had their lacquer removed , polished and rather than have them resprayed I've had a ceramic anti UV coating put on.

So from this -

To this -

Photos don't show how bad they were but I'm sure they hadn't been touched since the car was new .... Or when the front bumper was replaced ...

For £70 happy I'm happy with the results ... 

Also later I decided to give them an extra layer of protection and added PPF UV protecting film from Aliath.

Looks a good job. I think I'll need to find someone near me. 

[Rambo]

White cars look stunning when clean. But it doesn't last very long in this country 😒

[EvoraBob]

A good write up and if you enjoy working on your car as much as driving, it gives you a lot more pleasure and satisfaction owning the Evora. Keep up the excellent work and look forward to next details.

[cdco]

So to close down the "work to date" before I start this years jobs list in March, Like a couple of other threads.

First one after smacking my head on the boot lid a few times as it slowly lowered itself when open, so new struts in :

using the obvious industry standard safety prop...

Then sort the obvious issues with the interior and worst was the the leather shrinkage on the instrument binnacle cover, I know some have recovered but that is way beyond my skill set and probably patience , so new one ordered. Old one on the left.

Quick yank and hey presto swapped out, probably the easiest fix I've done on this journey.

And finally for this set of updates the old LE specific it I think Gear knob was looking tired and had damage on its leather so off it came and on with the later one.... I'll leave every one else to the "cold knob in the hand in the morning" jokes.

 Since fitting I spotted my obvious mistake and flipped it round to hide the grub screw hole.

Final thing for 21 was ti replace the missing LE sticker int he door jamb and as many have done a quick order with Dan at Divine and et-voila, I'm guessing mine was removed when the PPF was fitted.

 

[cdco]

Over the summer between runs out and TD's a couple of other little jobs were done. Firstly I changed the clutch slave cylinder, for some reason this hadn't been replaced when the Gearbox was out for rebuild and the clutch replaced. Seems bonkers for the cost but now its done and the Shift to second is better and I'm used to it but I might just have a crack at adjusting it a little more and lubricating as others have done.

Also the other half was grumbling about the inability to get warm feet on runs due to the cold air blast into the foot well so after a bit of googling and some more 3D design and printing I've put a valved baffle over the recirc slot behind the fuse box that stops the reverse flow and allows a level or re-circ when selected , though I hardly use it.

 

appears to work ok no more cold feet and recic works on lower settings if needed, depending on what I do next month I might re print it with a few tweaks and fit 2 as due to printer size I could only print it half the size of the slot and the other half just has a blanking plate.

Also replaced both Pre cat Oxygen Sensors due to an intermittent MIL light and had the Geo Done by Ollie at Phoenix.

New rear disks have gone on, disk bells sprayed with dark grey HTP as I couldn't stand how much rusty metal was visible behind the wheels and did a full bleed with Motul RBF600 and none of which I photo documented.

That was it for 21, apart from using it , so just now writing the list for 22 and deciding how much how far......

 

[Cdm2018]

Carl

out of interest do you take only pictures of your work ? 
I was wondering if you create any video of the steps you had taken to maybe help dopes like me try to attempt some of simpler works you undertaken ?

I saw the replacement of the gear knob and always considered this but needed some very clear guidance to make an attempt !

[cdco]

Clive, no I don't and half the time I forget to take the photos as well. If I took video it would no doubt need so much editing to get it through YouTube's profanity filters there would be nothing left to watch. If I was more organised taking more and better photos you could I guess piece together step by step guides but I'm always in too much of a rush to get it done and just documenting bits n pieces as and when I remember to.

[cdco]

So it slowly continues , been too many things going on over winter this year for the usual big jobs but starting to gather bits for a few freshen up jobs.

So interior Lights now White LEDs , cloth tape and Focal AS165s , Paprika Red Leather Dye and also

New mats courtesy of Our Glorious Leader . Just need find a decent sample of the black leather used on the sill panels to send off as a sample for more leather dye as they don't seem to have that on file and for a few bits to turn up from B&C , airbag clips and new MY12 all leather door pulls handles before I pull the interior apart.

 

 

[Cdm2018]

Have you done anything to sub / amp enclosure out of curiosity ? 
my son replaced my unit but the connector came loose some time ago and he tells me to stop this the enclosure needs a structure to house the amp and sub better ? 

[cdco]

@Cdm2018, I'm not planning on doing , I've not pulled anything apart enough to see if there are any issues that need looking at but my sub is working so assumptions are at the moment nothing remedial is needed there . I know people criticise the subs but its good enough for my ears/what gets played on it.

[cdco]

So progress last night and today, Interior spread across the garage

A rat's nest of wiring a chuck of which can go now the alpine systems gone.

And ive found out why my airbag cover is lifting at one corner... Bodge glued on to the metal plate with a fairly thick wodge of some sort of gloup which is going to take a bit of removal to get the corner back to a level

 

 

[cdco]

So it's interesting when you pull a car a part what you find. Not sure what @Daveb99 car was like being another LE but mine has been apart before . All the major joints have already been cloth taped to stop squeeks and creaks some had dried out and come loose so that's being replaced , and as well as the bodged airbag cover and a few missing fastenings it has 2 FM Ariel's one in each A Pilar, passenger side has the original early model one that looks like an old school outside pole on a massive ground plane and in the driver's side the later tape type with the small ground plane. I've been using the old LE one with a digital splitter quite happily so I'm thinking of stripping the later type out as part of the loom tidy up as the cable is tywrapped to the loom .

The seat bolster is now re coloured

Nice and even so I'm happy with that.

On top of that both tweeters are in the dash and the crossovers mounted, I've added new rivnuts so they could be kept vertical.

And the speakers are mounted in the doors I've not bothered with the additional sound deadening matting and foam in the doors ... It feels wrong adding the weight .. So slow progress but progress

[Daveb99]

Great work!   Hopefully my thread has helped you with some of this as I covered the same things here and there I think.

For the passenger airbag cover, I gently heated it and then rolled / pushed it against an old tyre to bend it back to flat.   And I drilled it to add screws to the steel plate too, to keep it straight.