Nomination's for most awkward jobs on an Esprit

[LOTUSMAN33]

Doing body repairs in situ with sunroofs being the worst as resin and hair aren’t a good combo 🫣

The spaniels clippers have been employed on a few occasions 🙂

[Sparky]

Respect, sir.  Hats off to anyone capable of doing that stuff.  I have neither patience nor expertise for it!

[Escape]

That's very impressive!

[LOTUSMAN33]

All a very long time ago or was it…..😁

[Chillidoggy]

23 hours ago, Bibs said:

But you look so happy

 

Reminds me of a midwife in the delivery room. 

[Clarky5150]

On 20/10/2022 at 22:27, tomcattom said:

Fitting the front bumper stud plates in the nose of the body, the one in front of the headlamp pod bucket in particular.

Only to find they strip the threads when you tighten em up and have to start all over again.

 

 

Taking the seats out............ is the only easy job on the whole bloody torture device. Front bumper removal with 35 year old rusted fasteners is up there for me, along with the exhaust manifold in situe

[jtmco]

The FIRST time I replaced the water pump and had to cut the head off the top bolt to get it out was a lot of fun.
 

When I discovered the replacement (that I rebuilt) was leaking, I was frustrated but at least the bolt had been replaced with an Allen head cap screw. 
 

The only two truly easy jobs have been the seats and the brake master cylinder removal. 

[Clarky5150]

Oh you bugger!! 🥵

[yeller77]

Another vote for heater core. At the factory, they apparently started with one, then built the car around it.

[CarBuff]

I've suffered from many (but not all) of the mentioned aggravations.

 

Haven't seen this one mentioned:  Threading that ONE BOLT to the Delco ABS mount, that needs to be removed to replace the clutch master cylinder. 🥵

[910Esprit]

Some of the hose clips at the lower front of the engine are 'tricky' to access with the engine in

[Clarky5150]

What about swapping the tanks out and forgetting to put the hatch cable release back in its bracket and then remembering and vividly seeing it in your minds eye as you snick the second catch closed 🤬🤬🤬🤬 

[omegaman]

On 24/10/2022 at 20:55, Clarky5150 said:

What about swapping the tanks out and forgetting to put the hatch cable release back in its bracket and then remembering and vividly seeing it in your minds eye as you snick the second catch closed 🤬🤬🤬🤬 

Hahahah

 

How about installing the tank and using your iphone for a torch, then it falling down the side of the tank. I should know not to do that, I had that happen on the BMW E31 ECU box, what a pain that was to retrieve. 

[JonSE]

No where near the level of expertise as seen on this thread but the toughest so far for me was drinking a gallon of coffee then trying to get the pedal box out. Must have gone back to it multiple times as could only turn the bolts a fraction at a time. 
 

…..to only find a little later down the line once the bulkhead heater cover was removed it would have been a five minute job 😁

[Fridge]

I agree with @JonSE that the pedal box removal and refitting is one of the most awkward of tasks. Harder on an S1 as access is even more limited.

[snowrx]

Mike Griese just removed the entire wiring harness out of his FrankEnSPRIT.  Beyond awkwardness....

https://www.lotustalk.com/threads/frankensprit.417690/page-5#post-6211541

[chris]

Cambelt with engine in situ - fiddly but not the end of the world.

Exhaust manifold removal with engine in situ - took days of patience (not something I’m known for).
Drivers side fuel tank with engine in situ - 2 days effort but achievable. Strangely the worst bit was getting the pipes and ducting refitted.

passengers side fuel tank with engine out - should have been a breeze but is still fighting me and yet again it’s the dam pipes and ducting!!

Worst one ever to date was replacing the hand brake cables. If it hadn’t been for my hero neighbour at the time, (wee jimmy) it would have defeated me. 

The routine one I loathe is taking the dam seats out. The bolts sheared years ago and were replaced with Allen key cap head bolts and nuts. Not helped by the introduction of sound proofing, new carpets and S4 seats. 
 

 

[KaeptnNemo]

Quote

On 29/10/2022 at 21:58, Fridge said:

I agree with @JonSE that the pedal box removal and refitting is one of the most awkward of tasks. Harder on an S1 as access is even more limited.

 

Well, getting it out was not too bad, but .....

With the steering column out, using the small WERA toolkit ratchet, it worked pretty well! Getting it in, was a pain in the ..... 🤬🤬🤬

After my wife AND me taking turns beeing in then Lotus position for hours, we stopped working in the late evening. 3 Bolts were back in, but the front right would not go in....

My neighbors must be sure, I have tourette syndrome! 😅

Next morning I jumped into the Lotus position again and it took me 10 minutes to get the bolt in.

Sometimes you just need a rest !

 

Patrick

😅

[APB]

On 20/10/2022 at 06:56, JR said:

Getting in and getting out.

Ha, ha, good one! I'm 56 and 6'2" and it didn't occur to me when I bought it what a challenge that would be. Not very James Bond suave when meeting a new date, LOL!

[APB]

Not me doing the work but I had it towed to my mechanic this morning. Something went wrong with the clutch, it wouldn't disengage and I couldn't get it into gear. It's going to be at least a $10K job as they have to remove the engine.

 

Just getting it out of the underground parking here was quite an ordeal.

[APB]

Picked it up today. 12 days and $10.8K later...

It sure is fun to drive but I'm learning that these cars are not for the faint of heart!

[Barrykearley]

Not sure why they needed to remove the engine to do the clutch. It’s a couple of hours to pull the gearbox on an Espirt.

[Escape]

27 minutes ago, Barrykearley said:

Not sure why they needed to remove the engine to do the clutch. It’s a couple of hours to pull the gearbox on an Espirt.

I was going to say the same thing. Prices for work on an Esprit are often exaggerated because it is an 'exotic', while in reality most work is fairly straightforward if you know what you're doing.

More on topic, I think I bruised a rib leaning over the rear buttress trying to remove a stubborn chargecooler pump from an SE without taking off the manifold. 🤕

[Sparky]

7 hours ago, Escape said:

More on topic, I think I bruised a rib leaning over the rear buttress trying to remove a stubborn chargecooler pump from an SE without taking off the manifold. 🤕

Soooo many times!  Some days I finish with LOTUS or CHARGECOOLER imprinted on my chest.

[Chillidoggy]

33 minutes ago, Sparky said:

Soooo many times!  Some days I finish with SUTOL or RELOOCEGRAHC imprinted on my chest.

FTFY