Bigsi's new car

[Loteuk]

so what your saying is you all had this basically hateful opinion of me and not once in all the times we met up did you have the guts to say anything to me, to my face about it, yet on the forum your suddenly able to vent it out and have it in the open??

only now ???

suddenly??

i think im going to leave it there and see what tomorrow brings.

A conscience hopefully...!

[arbell9]

Explain this one?

posted by you on 3rd 2008

well i havent posted much about the car for a little while now as i have been busy with other things. however im sure you will all be a little more than surprised by what your about to see!

when i originally got the car the interior was dirty and tatty, and with the original seats i could fit but not great, so i sold the seats to a forum member so i could get some elise skinny seats and with that seat change i was able to fit.

Reduced: 90% of original size [ 800 x 600 ] - Click to view full image

Reduced: 90% of original size [ 800 x 600 ] - Click to view full image

what i didnt know at the time and only after speaking with steve and nick fulcher recently did i find out that the leather in my car is one off to order leather that lotus did, and to have some leather made would cost an extortionate amount, however nick decided that by mixing up some dye he could colour match some new leather for me.

so the plan was to have some of the most dirty and most worn leather parts replaced, finish the sills and fit new seats.

i still had some original carpet left from the roll i bought off nick fulcher so i templated the sills and trimmed up some carpet, checked for it, chalked and cut the seatbelt slots and handbrake slot and then sent it to nick along with some other items.

i decided that the sills should be carpeted as that is how they were originally and would suit the car much better if they were doen that way, i have to say after fitting them i was more than pleased with the results and once again nick did a fantastic job.

the side panels of the transmission tunnel were down to me as i wanted something to do myself, the only problem was that that glue i had of nick a while ago was reaching the end of its life and was starting to firm up, so i warmed it up alittle and it went back to its goopy runny ways again.

altogether i sent the gearstick gaitor the arm rest and the sill carpets to be done, the drivers sill to have a new gaitor fitted for the handbrake and the seat belt guards in both sides also with a nice neat maroon edge binding.

Reduced: 90% of original size [ 800 x 601 ] - Click to view full image

Reduced: 90% of original size [ 800 x 601 ] - Click to view full image

while this was being done the car went to have a new cam belt fitted and i could get on with the side panels, now i usually take pictures of everything i do but on this occasion i didnt take any pics of the trimming process im sorry, i just didnt have the time to do it.

forward to today and this morning.

woke up with every intention of getting the job done, so first things first, i fitted the tow side panels and then fitted the top centre console, then the switch and chocke section and finally the arm rest, then i stood back and was amazed at the difference. it now looks so perfect against the red of the carpet.

next was the sills, once again i had to warm up the glue a little and then i coated the sills, laid the carpet up and pressed then pelled it back so both sides could tack up before contact bonding took hold. once in on both sides and the seat belts were fitted i stood back again and that was it, everything looked right finally!.

so out with the hoover and a good clean up of the floors etc and all was ready for the seats, wile my sterring wheel is being done i fitted one i had borrowed from punky, thats why there is a different one in there at the moment.

i was unable to find some original seats for the car anywhere and in the end i found some close in colour on ebay however i had to order them from germany, so i took a chance and went for them.

7 days later they arrived in a real big box and were also minus the runners ( i have yet to hear back from him about where they are) but i took one look and was astounded i got them so cheaply!

so i took them to the car and removed the plastic wrapping and fitted the first one in, follwed by the second one, adjusted the position and slope of the back and it was then i realised a big grin had come across my face!!!. it was perfect, clean fresh and looked new. i think i will get the seats recoloured by nick fulcher at some point.

Reduced: 90% of original size [ 800 x 601 ] - Click to view full image

so i thought i would jump in and try it out..... and then the smile went... i cannot get in comfortably and i cannot get my legs undet the cowling to reach the pedals as they are bent up too much, by fitting these im raised up too much and forward too much, i cant straighten my head and basically there is no way im going to drive the car! so now i have to figure out what im going to do.

--------------------------------- a few posts later--------------------

i have done my research the price for a pair, and it would have to be a pair of exige seats comes in at Price Inc. VAT:

Edited September 22, 2008 by Alex --GT3--

[Backmarker]

Si,

I didn't contribute to the restoration fund nor did I play an active role in the rebuilding of your Esprit so perhaps I am unworthy and not qualified to respond.

That said, Bibs has not locked the thread and as this is a public forum I'll state my opinion................democracy and all that.

You raise the issue of gratitude and suggest that thanking those involved is sufficient. I have to disagree.

Putting myself in your place I know that firstly and without delay I would have shown my appreciation by becoming a Forum Supporter. I think that would cost you

[Lisa Ward]

Troys personal life simon is up to him to tell the whole of the forum should he feel it necessary not you to blurt it all out ...enough is enough now think you should log off now because you are making an utter mockery of what this forum is about!! and also making a fool of your self!!

[bigsi]

with regards to the detailing word post they dont ask or know about the ins and outs of my health in that forum in the same way you guys do, that palce is all about making a car look nice, i showed the owrk i did in the interior, thats it, i worked hard on the interior and was pround of it.

and thats all it is a post about the interior work i did, ther eis no issue about that, i did the work, the issues regarding me and the car only realted to people here, it was the people here i needed to explain it too which i did in full.

im just going to go around and around, any proof aside you have made your opinions of me and the damage bibs sought to create has been done, so under advisement i am no longer going to add to the post or forum, i will take things further in the manner i have been requested to.

[theelanman]

Si

trying to play devils advocate here........

when did you pick up the Jag???....sounds like a miss sold lemon to me.....also from lookin at some of your recent posts youve only had the jag for a week........anyway

Id be tempted to use the cooling off period to swap it back.......

you know the esprit is worth

[Lisa Ward]

simon ...only person that has caused and made any damage is you ....youv'e done it all by yourself.....bibs is just telling all the truth!! deal with it and move on!!

[Bibs]

There is no malice nor did I cause any damage by my factual posts. My intentions were to vindicate the members of LEF whom had in my opinion been accused of sending malicious emails and to question your motivations with regards to LEF.

My posts are made after legal counsel, I am a cautious person and will not expose myself to legal claim.

Still no emails and I don't ever expect them, as I didn't when you first mentioned them.

[Daniel]

Bigsi

Were the nasty e-mails genuine?

Perhaps we could at very least, clear this one up?

[Simon350S]

Read the facts, quote the facts, stick to the facts....

Your trying to defend yourself by slandering others....

[ian heighway]

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/712486.htm

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1983-Y-Lotus-Esprit-...id=p3286.c0.m14

Dealer using it for his personal use?

Im 100% behind Bibs and the otheres that worked on the car.

I think it showed how a group of people could work together.

At the time i wish I could of helped out as every 1 seemed to be having so much fun, but i had a new born daughter and just borght a new house so I was skint and had Zero time.

After seeing silly exhaust beeing fitted to the car ( couldn't of been cheap ) and after 1 meet seeing the car being thrashed up the road I'm not surprised things where going wrong. I was glade I hadn't been able to help.

oh yes if the Jag has got so much wrong with it being from a dealer surely you got a warrenty ?

[Loteuk]

Bigsi

Were the nasty e-mails genuine?

Perhaps we could at very least, clear this one up?

Er.. he 's flying a kite mate...!!

Sorry, but that fabrication insults the average intelligence.

Produce the mails and I'll eat my toolkit.

Obviously the jag was bought on a blinder............? Dealers eh.........tinkers!!

[MPx]

Blimey, how sad is this!

FWIW

At the time of the project I made a couple of minor financial contributions and gave a couple of minor parts from my garage. Nothing significant and no hands on activity, but this minor contribution "bought" me a huge feeling of pride and belonging to LEF and got me feeling great about being a (tiny) part of what LEF achieved - I can only imagine how much more special that feeling must have been for those more closely involved. A real lump in the throat time at Castle Combe.

Recently I was surprised to read that BigSi wanted to sell the car - but life goes on and the project was the 2006/7 big deal not 2008. These recriminations are not good. BigSi has chosen a path that many of us would have prefered not to witness. What saddens me most is that as a result, such a project will be that much harder, if not impossible, to resource next time - not least all the favours called in from the Lotus business community - Lotus included. So the lesson must be that we must choose our beneficiary more carefully next time - or maybe spread it around more rather than lavish it all on one member who we dont know that well!

Meantime the build story is still there as one of the all time great community deeds. One more Esprit is in a lot better condition on the road than it would otherwise have been, and who knows the new owner may become a LEF stalwart. Whatever happens - if the new owner gets in touch, lets make her/him welcome and not guilty or embarrassed about benefitting from "our" car!

Bye bye BigSi.

Mike

[arbell9]

Simon350 wants facts?

Here are the facts!

My car broke going to south wales over a year ago - fact!

Simon350s fixed it - fact!

he gave me a part off his car for free- Fact!

My car still works in the bits he fixed - Fact!

Simon350s - you da man!

[theelanman]

Im sure you have to give a 28day cooling off period.....

Id be changing it back......especially if the garage think its that much.....

youd def get

[islandbloke]

I really enjoy being a regular here, but this thread is the most upsetting I've ever read. I sent Bibs a few quid to help the 'fighting fund' and treated it as a gift (actually I wish now I'd sent it as a subscription to LEF instead... I'll rectify that Bibs) so I don't care what happened to the car. Had I been more involved as some members were, I'd probably feel different.

I've never met Bibs or Simon, but I think that now they've both aired their views, the thread should be locked and/or deleted - no good will come of washing dirty linen in public, whatever the rights and wrongs.

[bigsi]

no as i stated earlier, the car deal was done with the dealers brother piers, now the older brother who runs the dealership, took the lotus away inspected it so as to decide if it was worth his brother having, he than complained about the 24 year old paint, and a mising heater dial knob. i spoke with dominic only last week about the issues i had with the jag, his response was take it up with piers as its his car and he had nothing to do with the deal. i had no warranty from him as it was a private deal, and this is what he took great pains to point out to me, so if i were to call him tomorrow he wouldnt swap the car back, he would probably want the car at the market value and then want money on me on top to his value of the lotus to make the difference.

all i have here is a signed piece of a4 paper from piers that says about doing an exchange for the jag, thats it, i will try tomorrow to exchange it back but i doubt very much he will.

so if i could goto them tomroow and say i want to exchange cars back, i doubt very much he would be so accomodatiing with me.

so the only option i have really is to sell the jag and give the proceeds to either this forum or to charity, or donate the car to a charity and let them sell it to raise funds.

[Loteuk]

Yep , I agree, Si 's charade should be locked down and the lesson should be put down to experience.

If, by chance, those emails land then the thread could be unlocked for further discussion and debate.

Somehow, I have the feeling it won t happen??

[dodgy]

OOOOH, i could say so many things here, even for a quiet person, but i would feel guilty for telling the truth and the way i feel.

so, the short version...

There are NO nasty emails.

The car will not be swapped back, as Simon knew Exactly what he was getting.

If the car had been maintained properly, instead of eg: polishing 1 week after 6 to 10 people polished it at the hand over.(as if we did nothing)

Saying 'the throttle cables sticking' then doing nothing about it for months!, (my cable came at the same time and was fitted all within the week he complained about sticking)

If the car had actually been run in properly, as apposed to thrashing it everywhere.

The engine was built and torqued down properly according to the manual, I WAS THERE and I made sure it was done properly! ( its what i do) and IMO, was buggered up from bad driving and bad maintenance, Polishing is NOT maintenance!

For the last 2 months , I have chose to 'IGNORE USER' on you Simon (there is no-one else), as i was fed up of the Me me me, poor me and look what i have/done! threads.

There! i have said it!

I really enjoyed the restoration, that was so much fun and i met so many new friends.

I Know If/when we do it again, the person receiving would be a lot more Thankful !

[t70]

Wow... 'bout time you posted Dave!.... been sitting in the background here.. waiting... patiently for the lion to tear of his lamb-suit and say something...

[garry_ludwar@hotmail.com]

ow my head hurts from reading 7 pages of whining and blaming this is not what this forum is about, its about the love ove the car and the friends, simon dont post anymore trying to put blame else where or give us anymore sob stories about your back your problems or your lemon jag. we all know about it and are tired about it. just forward the damn emails or shut the fuck up. im sorry if my swearing is offending some of the forum members but i dont have patience for bullshit

this one thread has not made me realize how self centered you are bigsi i have known it from reading your other post and just have never said anything about it because i never thought it deserved anything more than chuckle and a shake of the head while thinking how sad it is. ive read time and time again forum members giving you pats on the back and words of encouragement for things you have done or problems you have, even tho its the same "yay look at this" or "oh im in pain again" over and over again. you havent even tried once during this entire thread to raise your self out of the hole you are in, you even stoop so low as to bring somebody elses propblems into the light and try to break up a friendship. troy did not post everything hes dealing with right now because he doesnt want everybody knowing. not everybody wants to be the center of attention like you do. what give you the right to tell people his problems

there are so many things i want to say about all of this but the more i type the angrier i get when i think about your lack of compassion for others and complete lack of self respect for yourself. if im continue ill probably say something that will make me lose face with the rest of the members on this forum so im just gonna stop talking

hey there you go you wanted some advice right

there it is

JUST STOP TALKING

[Jonathan]

if i were to call him tomorrow he wouldnt swap the car back

Too fukin right he wouldn't - seen what he's marked it up as !!

[bigsi]

jonathan.

i had no one offer to buy the car the first time i out it up for sale, not one person from the forum offered to buy the car, and the same this time, had someone offered then i would have gladly let it go to someone here. as it was i only had one other option and that was an exchange.

i did what i thought was my oly option as the car would otherwise sit in the driveway for the forseeable future and that would have not done any good to it.

regarding my driving of the car, i broke it in as per troys instructions, after that i enjoyed that car as i was supposed to, but im not prepared to get further into a slinging match which is what this has become.

my reference to troy was basically to state simply that i had discussed this with the projects head mechanic, and in detail and shown him the video of the smoke out of the engine and other things. and that due to the problems he had faced and the coments raised against him on another thread here, that that also had had a detremental effect on him also and his family life.

i myself have had time to calm down now and as i did say earlier, to appease the situation the jag is going and the funds raised will come to the forum and they can do whatever they wish with the funds, wither refund members or give it to a charity.

im not prepared to start a swearing match and have no interest in doing so.

however i have taken on board all the comments directed against me, and read everything.

these are your personal opinions and you have the right to them as do i have mine.

i have been advised to make this offer and im hoping that you will accept it, if you do continue to feel the need to further attack myself then please do so, as i do not at any time want this to intrude on my familys life in any way, if you feel the need to destroy myself publicly on the internet so be it, however i would like your words that you will leave my wife and child out of it in any further posts or communications. this is about me an no-one else, i dont think thats too much to ask.

i will try and get as much for the jag as i can and i will pass the sale reciept and cheque to either bibs or someone who is preapred to accept it.

[Laura]

I'm not a vicious person and I had no intention of posting in this thread but like everyone else I feel inclined to add my 2p.

Si, nobody wants you to loose out in all this and to suggest selling the car and giving the proceeds to LEF wouldn't solve anything. The deeds have now been done, people have vented their spleen and hopefully water can now be left to pass under the bridge.

My contribution to the project was minimal, Bibs & I travelled to Wales a few times, I helped wherever I could in cleaning parts (don't ask me what I just done as I was told), I created the book and I purchased the number plates. Very minimal given what many people gave in terms of time and money. When it arose and Christmas time that bigsi was not happy with the work that had been done I was very upset, firstly because instead of going to the people that initially helped he decided to complain to an ex-LEFer who had previously documented his disdain for LEF on a number of occasions and some spiteful things were said. From what I understand the problems were a mixture of things that had gone wrong since the car was returned, a lack of maintenance and some mistakes that were made by the people working on the car. The reason it upset me is there was no denying that the car was in better condition when it was returned than when it was taken, it had passed an MOT and no end of time and money was spent on it. If it were me I don't think I'd have the cheek to complain about things that weren't done. It would be like my neighbours coming round and painting my entire house for me, only for them to leave and me point out 'you missed a spot'

Still, that blew over we carried on as normal.

When you came to sell the car Si I can't say it didn't look ungrateful but you obviously had your reasons. It does seem people have tried to help you get seats that fit and offer advice on seats but you had your reasons not to take this. You mention that nobody made an offer when you put it up on ebay well it was there for a few days maybe a week, not everybody had the chance to see it, the next you said on the matter was you couldn't bare to let it go and were going to find a solution for the seats. I'd imagine that the lack of offers was because you wanted

[Bibs]

Well that went well.

Simon, Troy's problems are his own making; you've had one moment of solidarity over one phone call, I've had my friend make mistake after mistake leading to where he is now, he will and has admitted this. Did you have him stay over at your house when he had no-where else, did you offer hours and hours of advice, help and assistance, did you loan him the money to pay the rent of his workshop? Read my posts, not once do I have anything bad to say as I don't have anything bad to say about Troy as a friend, I can only defend him so much but when there is so much stacked against him I have to stop for his own good so he can face matters and attempt to deal with them in his own way. You had no right to say what you have about him, that's very personal. Troy is still my friend, we spoke last week and he is dealing with his problems.

The only people who need to watch their backs are those with something to fear. I slept very well last night.

This 'car crash' of a thread is now closed. Simon, you've lost your LEF rights and this thread has proved who you are by your own hand and actions.