Esprit S3 James Bond Project car - part 4 - the continued continuation

[Lotusfab]

Yes your correct it’s me I’m back and so is the obsession! 🤣🤣🤣🤣

By pure unplanned luck I have a new exciting project. I am the proud custodian of a Lotus engineering car the missing link between the S3 and the Turbo! I have learned a lot over the past two days having no idea what I was buying apart from I had to own the For Your Eyes Only number plate OPW678W. Sadly, I no longer own the Turbo due to some life reasons.

Here she is in Ice Blue

The previous owner maintained this car for 34 years and had a part restoration of the bodywork and some mechanicals by the famous Miles Wilkins owner of Fibreglass Services. Probably the foremost fibreglass restorer in the UK prior tomthe business closure.

These cars are reliable if maintained. The proof is this car has covered 96,000 miles. Its has never let the previous owner down in 34 years of ownership. I drove it home 45 mins and it was a pleasure. But I am a perfectionist and under the stunning paint is lurking a car that needs work. 

 

[Gjk]

Awesome project, looking forward to this. 👍

[Lotusfab]

So you may be thinking the car looks great and yes superficially it does but with a Lotus its very important to concern yourself with whats underneath. I thought it might be useful to list all of the faults I find and how I fix them.

The car has been maintained only by professionals and it has been serviced but as we all know garages are under time pressure, as its a business I have the benefit of 10 years  of restoring two Esprits and lots of time, so lets start.

Firstly, thanks to the previous owner for allowing me to own and restore this special car.

The faults I have found so far. The clutch bite point is far too high.

The accelerator pedal is floppy before it operates.

There is a misfire at idle.

I noticed a knocking noise from the engine bay on the way home.

the coolant system has mostly original pipes and rubber so needs a full rebuild.

The cooling fans aren’t coming on at the correct temperature.

The drivers door isn’t closing fully.

The engine has an oil leak.

The suspension needs a complete refresh and check.

The gear change is sloppy and so needs attention.

The engine, gearbox and everything needs a degrease and deep clean.

The interior needs minor repairs.

The rear heated window needs fixing.

The nearside mirror (early type needs new trim)

The exhaust is leaking.

Carbs need full rebuild

These are the faults I have found so far. I will send before and after pictures of the engine bay and other items.

I have only had a small amount of time to start looking at the faults.

Throttle Pedal

Th8s fix is really easy. The throttle cable has a small barrel and screw at its end. It has slipped by about an inch allowing the pedal to flop. Five minute fix!

Clutch

The car is probably the first S3 ever made and an engineering car so it has odd things like the washer bottle in the boot! It has the clutch slave type of the S1 and not the Turbo. The adjustment maybe off causing the clutch issue, so I will investigate this first.

Drivers Door

I found this amusing as my S1 drivers door didn’t close correctly for many years and I finally solved the issue. When the body work was restored they replaced the door seals with the modern ones, as did I. The trouble is the new Seals are thicker than the original ones and the rubber is harder. This puts so much force on the catches it causes them to slip. You have to use the anti slip gauze under the catch and move it inwards in stages over several months so the rubber compresses. Shame these cause damage to the bodywork. The tightness is also the cause of the door lock malfunctioning.

well thats it for now. Will provide pictures and update as I go…

 

 

[Lotusfab]

whats wrong in this picture, apart from the door issue?

[910Esprit]

Filler caps seem to run very close to the ears?   Also struts are upside down

[Lotusfab]

Struts inverted, well done. My first job schoolboy error, but I have made that mistake before myself!

[Lotusfab]

Also its tricky to see in the picture, but the door handle is not flush because the rubber stop that sits behind the handle is missing. Really helps being familiar with these cars. Should be able to get this tip top pretty quickly. I will post some engine bay pics shortly. Its very very dirty and a lot of corrosion. I have degreaser and Aluminium cleaner on its way. I will post the products I use. Its £1800 for a dry ice blast. As I am controlling costs tightly I will avoid this and just put the elbow grease in instead.

 

 

[Lotusfab]

Fixing the drivers door is high priority as it randomly locks you out! When it does the key doesn’t work so I have to leave the passenger door open, 

I have also noticed, even though it starts first turn of the key, the original starter motor turns the engine far too slowly. This may be due to the starter itsself or high electrical resistance in the connectors. There are multiple electrical issues such as the rear heated screen, which has never worked and the wing mirrors, which have no life at all. Electrics is my thing and I have had lots of practice at renewing looms and remaking them. Will probably put new connectors all round and replace the wiring as required.
Really need to get stuck in, but my garage is full so I need nice weather to work on the car. 

[Bazza 907]

Fab

Congratulations on getting the car, looks like a great project 

What colour is it? A44 Glacier Blue? Asking because that colour only became available for the 1986 production year.

[williamtherebel]

9 hours ago, Lotusfab said:

Struts inverted, well done. My first job schoolboy error, but I have made that mistake before myself!

Can I ask what difference that would make? Ive just looked at mine and they are also inverted!!

2 minutes ago, williamtherebel said:

Can I ask what difference that would make? Ive just looked at mine and they are also inverted!!

Looking on the internet, there seems to be quite a lot!

[JonSE]

Looks lovely!

[Lotusfab]

7 hours ago, williamtherebel said:

Can I ask what difference that would make? Ive just looked at mine and they are also inverted!!

Looking on the internet, there seems to be quite a lot!

They can rub on the body where the tailgate closes if inverted depending on the car and the tailgate adjustment.

11 hours ago, Bazza 907 said:

Fab

Congratulations on getting the car, looks like a great project 

What colour is it? A44 Glacier Blue? Asking because that colour only became available for the 1986 production year.

Thanks Barry, not sure will have to check.

[Lotusfab]

Anyone know who printed the edge trim on this old type of mirror? One of mine is damaged and needs replacing

[TAR]

7 hours ago, Lotusfab said:

Anyone know who printed the edge trim on this old type of mirror?

[jonwat]

FYI the mirrors were used on the later model Ford Capri

[Lotusfab]

22 hours ago, TAR said:

Thats the same damage as the one on my car! Did you ever find the trim?

21 hours ago, jonwat said:

FYI the mirrors were used on the later model Ford Capri

Thanks the search begins! 

[Lotusfab]

Well started today fixing things. The accelerator pedal is adjusted. The tiny barrel with screw on the end of the throttle cable had slipped, five minute fix.

The clutch adjustment is the same as the S1. There needs to be some play when the spring is off. There was none! All cleaned up and adjusted. The bite point feels better, but was unable to test because the newish looking battery is flat! There must be quite a large current drain. I need to run tests tomorrow.The most likely culprits are the clock - although this drain takes about two weeks to flatten the battery, so I am thinking Alternator diode. Luckily I have another alternator spare. With test tomorrow. If I can stop the drain this will be another step forward.

Looks like both the front anti roll bar bushes are toast. The front lower spoiler needs a fibreglass repair and the cooling fan shroud needs repair as well. It has the Turbo Trunnion style front suspension. I already have two need shocks from when I switched them out to Avos.

Will be needing a lots of work! 

[Lotusfab]

Heres there true extent of the work needed….

[Lotusfab]

Certainly needs al lot of work. Services do not include engine cleaning. Unless a owner cleans it this is what happens even with a full service history. I reckon the previous owner spent over £30k in servicing and a resto over 34 years. Its my pleasure to bring this back. Funny thing is it drives really nicely. It had a C service about two years ago at a specialist. A new exhaust manifold and down pipe. The silencer is beyond repair so my first big item at £469 a silencer from PECO, via PNM engineering. The original manufacturer. What has happened to parts prices they have more than doubled in the past few years. This makes a specialist resto unviable. Even if you do the work your self like me its not viable to restore a Lotus, it will be a massive loss.😬😬😬😬

Right now for the current drain!

[Lotusfab]

Luckily I have some experience with current drains I fixed a Landrover discovery 3. The battery would go flat every two weeks. After connecting a current meter I found the drain was 0.72 amps. It should be 0.030 amps. I pulled fuses and traced it to the drivers seat power, external lights and the stability system. With the seat drawing 0.5 amps I figured there was something wrong with the seat. There is a module under the seat which controls seat memory, wing mirror etc. the seat was no longer remembering its position (a clue). I bought a seat module from ebay for £60 installed it and the car was fixed. When you switch a Landrover off its systems shutdown in a cascade. If there is a fault the system cascade stops, when it got to the seat module it didn’t know what was going on, so the sequence stoped leaving the external lighting system and stability drawing current- Luckily the Lotus is a million times easier.
I was introduces to John Mountain (Lotus electrical engineer in the 70s)  by Steve Fulcher. Steve introduced him as the man who designed your S1 electrics. I said hello and then said to John its all your fault then! He laughed and said it worked when I designed it! 🤣🤣🤣

[PhilW]

Current drains can be a nightmare.  I had one on a Passat.  Pinned it down over several attempts to a module in a rear door.  Got a replacement off ebay and problem solved.  Very difficult to find.

Already enjoying this thread and extremely envious of that plate!

[eeyoreish]

Looks like a nice bit of Dralon..?

[skiing]

For mine, the clock was a current drain - now I have removed to fit the roof stereo it keeps charge in the battery for so much longer. Curious as to what the chassis number is on this Fabian - I was led to believe that my car is the first S3 off the production line so curious if yours has an S2.2 chassis number or something? Or maybe mine is not the first one! the boot surround on yours also looks different to mine. 

[Lotusfab]

1 minute ago, skiing said:

For mine, the clock was a current drain - now I have removed to fit the roof stereo it keeps charge in the battery for so much longer. Curious as to what the chassis number is on this Fabian - I was led to believe that my car is the first S3 off the production line so curious if yours has an S2.2 chassis number or something? Or maybe mine is not the first one! the boot surround on yours also looks different to mine. 

Hi Henry will check when I have time

[Lotusfab]

Update

I have found the current drain. First I checked the clock - disconnected.

Then I checked the alternator by disconnecting it - still a drain.

Then I pulled all the fuses out one by one - still a drain.

Only thing left the retro fit stereo and Voila that was it! I can rewire it to a switched supply from the ignition. 
The door closing is also sorted. The door body catch had slipped. Reason is it needs a shim as the car door is jamming as its not far enough out from the body. 

I removed the door card and written on the inside is OPW678W. The reason the wing mirrors aren’t working is all the wiring is disconnected. I assume after the resto they couldn’t be bothered to figure out all the wires. 
The edge of door red lights are connected in the door but don’t come on so more work needed here. The rear heated screen has no wiring or realy. Maybe as an engineering car they didn’t bother. The fuse holder is great its built into the dash and has spade fuses. Much better idea than the glove box. 
Nearly sorted all the electrical bits already. Cleaning will begin today with degreasing.