1976 orange/tartan S1

[Paul Coleman]

There must be something about me that attracts abandoned cars or maybe I'm just a sucker for an unloved project? Either way I recently bought this 1976 orange/tartan S1 which had been in a barn for 20 years without seeing the light of day. 

My wife says it's the evil ginger twin of my white car...

 

[LOTUSMAN33]

Now time to get your ass in gear and make it beautiful again 😉

[Paul Coleman]

51 minutes ago, LOTUSMAN33 said:

Now time to get your ass in gear and make it beautiful again 😉

Steve at SJ is already looking through the holiday brochures

This could be world cruise worthy this one!

Edited July 8, 2023 by Paul Coleman

[LOTUSMAN33]

Well that’s it, now you’ve made the first post we all want to see some regular progress?

You have the best colour combo so no painting it retail white 😁

[JonSE]

Twin white Esprits, Paul imagine what your garage would look like!

I’m not a betting man but reckon if you put a colour swatch in front of him, he’d skip pass white pretty quickly 😁

[Fridge]

Let us know if Happy Dazes cracks a smile when you put your £15,000 order in.

[Paul Coleman]

I think I'd rather spend the money on a world cruise

[Paul Coleman]

Very little progress so far. I have been stripping the paint which all needs to come off. But so far I've done very little as it's a boring job and enthusiasm has been lacking somewhat. I have done one of the front wings...

You can begin to see where the new front end was grafted onto this car at some point in the past. The donor car 214G was obviously a yellow gelcoat car, so it's safe to assume that it no longer exists now! I know the front came off 214G as it's written on the underside of the panel but I will remove that at some point as it confuses the issue.

I have also stripped the front section...

It has had a replacement wing on the other side as well which will need a bit of work. I don't know where that panel came from as it has no gelcoat at all and the joins need reworking. It's beginning to look like a patchwork quilt and by the time I replace the roof and do a few other repairs it will be even worse.

I have sourced an original steering wheel (thanks Dave) and I can donate a spare wheel to the project so those are 2 pieces crossed off my 'to find' shopping list.

The only other thing I've done is to get the original number plate put back on the car. When I bought it it had CXI909 on it but I've managed to get the original RON469R back on it now.

Edited November 1, 2023 by Paul Coleman

[LOTUSMAN33]

A rightful home for the wheel 😉

Keep chipping away, at the rate you did the last one you’ll be drawing your old age pension 😁

 

[Paul Coleman]

2 hours ago, LOTUSMAN33 said:

A rightful home for the wheel 😉

Keep chipping away, at the rate you did the last one you’ll be drawing your old age pension 😁

 

Yes and too old and decrepit to get into it

[obi-nu]

So are you restoring or selling this one?!

Or restoring slowly unless someone decides they want it more?😄

How many S1's have you owned now/ passed through you?! You must be on par with Bell & Colvill circa early 1978 by now!😂

Edited November 4, 2023 by obi-nu

[Paul Coleman]

4 hours ago, obi-nu said:

So are you restoring or selling this one?!

Or restoring slowly unless someone decides they want it more?😄

How many S1's have you owned now/ passed through you?! You must be on par with Bell & Colvill circa early 1978 by now!😂

I haven't had that many cars - I've had a Turbo, 2 S2s and 4 S1s (2 of which I still own) plus I've part owned an S2 and 2 S1s.

Edited November 4, 2023 by Paul Coleman

[LOTUSMAN33]

Just out of lotus virgin territory, I must be a lotus gigolo 🫣

[obi-nu]

11 hours ago, Paul Coleman said:

I haven't had that many cars - I've had a Turbo, 2 S2s and 4 S1s (2 of which I still own) plus I've part owned an S2 and 2 S1s.

So you're into double digits.😉

I think 'that many' is all relative... benchmarking against Dave will clearly skew your view!😄

[Paul Coleman]

2 hours ago, LOTUSMAN33 said:

Just out of lotus virgin territory, I must be a lotus gigolo 🫣

I was thinking Lotus whore?

[Paul Coleman]

I sold this car at the end of February. I'm not sure if the new owner is a member here but if he is then maybe he will keep us posted on progress

[b041ac1]

I am now the proud owner of RON469R. It’s in storage for a few weeks then full steam ahead. I’ve started restoring the instrument cluster and the headlight lifter, seen as these were off the car. 

[drdoom]

Hi Tony, what you have there is the cluster native only to the S1.  In case you hadn't spotted that.

Guess that was needless to say, now that I have spotted the thread topic. Was focused on your personal profile inset which presents term "S3"

[b041ac1]

Ah, that’s because I used to own an S3 many years ago and not changed my profile. 
This is me and WLP48X back in 2009. 
 

[b041ac1]

And sadly this is the same car now, up for auction