Found first S1

[LOTUSMAN33]

The car had suffered an engine failure hence ending up at SJ’s, he changed the wheels to the comps just before the engine let go. These wheels cost just under a £1000 back in 1993, the repair costs to the damaged engine were too expensive so a deal was done on a turbo with Steve. 

At this point I bought the car, hopefully the owner before who contacted me years ago will reply again, not expecting anything back from the first couple keepers as so long ago now although I may try and track John Cooper down to find out about the colour change to black when so new.

I have asked for some photos so fingers crossed.

Dave  

[jep]

Off-topic but I do love an old keyring. This Lotus one from Cheshunt factory, so pre-66. 

Sorry to have pee'd on your bonfire @LOTUSMAN33, I can totally understand the joy of being sent the B&C one for your car - you know it is original to that car which makes it special. The one @Dave Edspictured I think is the reproduction one - the original 70s ones have the metal logo plate stuck on, the newer ones you can lift the logo plate, it is mounted on a leather hoop. It also has a blue logo - 70s are brown logo and repro ones are also brown logo but lift not stuck. So blue logo one is another (later?) variant. 

I do also love a dealer sticker on the back window. They can be reproduced, I found one for my 928 - supplying dealer Roger Clark Cars. 

Justin 

[LOTUSMAN33]

When I owned TNR160R it still had the running in sticker on the front windscreen in your vision area at the top, obviously these were put in place to be removed but someone kept it on, it was one of my favourite features of that car along with the original faded raised plastic letter number plates.

Such a shame Ken Baird changed the immaculate Marcasite interior for Tartan as only original once, that car was in time warp condition.

I have a few old key rings so will have to turn them out and post pics 👍🏻
Dave  

[Fridge]

That's a shame Dave. Marcasite isn't a bad interior choice if it is in good condition. What colour was it? Black I assume, but looks cream/brown perhaps?

TNR160R is a lovely car and has been inspiration for me these past 4-5 years whilst restoring mine.

I tried to obtain a London Sportscars Centre window sticker some time back, as that's where my car was purchased from having been sent down from a Lotus dealership in Mont Sorell, Leicestershire. Since it's on its original central London registered plates, and I had a tax disk reproduced for its first registration at the Chelsea post office.

BTW I could write a whole thread on period UK registration number plates and their font styles.... A pet hate of mine when folk get age related plates wrong. My creative OCD begins to kick in 😂

Hope you're making progress down there. The JPS rear valance looked good, hope that turned out well.

Nothing doing here as it's too cold in the garage, and finances running on empty.

Edited December 29, 2020 by Fridge

[LOTUSMAN33]

Yes I was gutted to see TNR at SJ having Tartan done and Steve agreed it was sacrilege on such a good interior in the first place. It was brown with cream cloth, if you look at some of the interior photos now it still has the rare brown leather rim on the steering wheel.

I really like the raised plastic letters on the metal plates, they were quite faded but original.

Its cold down here but still tinkering away for a couple hours a day on the JPS doing mundane work like brakes and clutch bleeding along with removing that horrible foam from the tunnel which is turning to dust.

Like many I tend to ease off in the winter months as just miserable out the garage albeit dry and well lit I much prefer natural light with the door open.

Dave  

[Fridge]

Yes, a great shame indeed. Tartan and green makes for a pleasant interior, but it not the be all that ends all.

The one downside of the raised plastic numbered plates is that they did become tatty with use. Then again, so do the black alloy plates favoured by earlier (and recently later cars...don't get me on that subject!). Acrylic plates are the most resilient and a huge improvement. Though the ones on my Honda are beginning to look tatty. With some delamination it seems. Nothing lasts forever. Even thorough restorations. Especially if used. Which is their best mode.

I have a spare brown leather S1 wheel. Which came with my car, which I suspect was swapped out by the seller. Typical.

[LOTUSMAN33]

I like Tartan very much and think it’s very nice on a restoration build just found it a pity to take originality away from a time warp S1. Getting the Marcasite reproduced to factory standards has yet to be seen although some have come close.

There’s a lovely red LHD S1 on ebay at the moment with the same interior as TNR in fantastic condition also, let’s hope the buyer keeps it that way 🤞🏼

I’m no fan of black/silver plates on anything past a 72/73 year car either.

The brown wheels look really good in a marcasite car 😎

Dave  

 

[jep]

5 hours ago, Fridge said:

I could write a whole thread on period UK registration number plates and their font styles.... A pet hate of mine when folk get age related plates wrong. My creative OCD begins to kick in

100% agree. I spent an age choosing the plates for my XJ6. 1973 should be white (front) and yellow (rear) with black plastic digits and they do look fab but you were still allowed black and silver for '73. Mirrorline acrylic, although 70s, does not look right, die-pressed aluminum sits better on a 60s car, so I went for black metal back plate with raised silver letters. 

No-one would make up the rear plate to the spacing I wanted so I had to make it myself, sourcing the digits from Fleabay and spraying them silver with Humbrol model paint. 

Good info here:  Vintage and classic registration or licence plates by Tippers Vintage Plates

Some may say black with silver digits is wrong on a '73 car but in period some would have had this but most would be white/yellow with black digits. I think if the car originated in the 60s it is fair game. On a 70s Lotus wedge, I would use white/yellow with black plastic digits. 

Justin

 

 

[Tocus]

my car had those stickers still on the car when i bought it,

they had put it on the car from new,

5 years ago i removed it, so orginal is my car.... never been rebuild or restored....

only a respray, i put the stripes back on...

[LOTUSMAN33]

I visited Steve today at SJ and collected my panels to repair the S1 body restoring it back to its original shape. Really pleased with the quality but not looking forward to the itching when I start😬 

Steve made me some custom panels to undertake the repair including a complete lower front and full rear section to give me scope to cut.

This really will be measure twice then measure again then out with the air saw to commence surgery.

I really want to start but have to finish the JPS off first which is pretty close now.

I have been lucky enough to obtain a 77 pod mirror as well so that’s all the hard to get bits sorted.

 

Dave  

[Fridge]

So you're going to revert it back to S1 spec? I wasn't aware of that.

Good decision IMO.

Congratulations on finding the mirror. I envy you chaps with contacts. Living in the woolly wilds of the North East seems so far away for Lotus World.

Edited March 26, 2021 by Fridge

[LOTUSMAN33]

It’s not much better living in the South West David, I was lucky with the mirror having a close family member with one tucked away.

Its taken quite a number of years since discovering the car to find all the missing bits.

I now have the 5x Wolfrace wheels with centre caps and nuts, S1 seats, mirror, rear screen, rear lights, all the body panels, Steering wheel, centre console, centre ashtray and lots of mechanical bits to get me going including new tanks and refurbished carbs.

I will be getting Steve to make me a dash board as mine has a turbo one fitted so wrong around the centre console area along with vents all over the place not fitted to the S1, new air box and air box silencer (late 78 spec).

The rest of the build will just be the usual mountain of expensive parts putting it back to roadworthiness.
Still not decided fully on interior choice so will decide later but may just go tartan and be done with it.

I wanted to do this in the early/mid 90’s when I owned it but finding parts without the internet was near impossible scanning freeads and club lotus ads so I owe it to the car now 😉👍🏻

Dave   

[Fridge]

Yes, I don't know how I managed in the late 1980's with my other car, which was my daily back then as a 23 year old. I did have one of the UK's parts suppliers within cycling distance if I got stuck. And that formed part of my decision to buy it.

Big classic car magazine buyer then, so plenty of advert scouring.

[LOTUSMAN33]

I actually quite enjoyed the chase back then waiting for the news agents to open and scanning the autotrader and such like. Mind I used to be a big Ford nut as well so even car boot sales were a source and Sunday auto jumbles.

The other fun part back then was visiting scrap yards and climbing on cars three high filling your pockets full of odds and sods then negotiating a good deal. Fabulous times........ feeling positively old now 😁

[JonSE]

It’s good to see how that S1 front end fits together, thanks for posting those photos.

[LOTUSMAN33]

What lies beneath....

The turbo front is actually a body section riveted over the original cut S1 front with glue, filler and a bit of fibreglass here and there!

 

The front has been cut in an awkward place so more of the original will have to go before the new section can be joined and grafted on.

Thankfully the repair panel more than covers what’s needed allowing me to trim the original body back to suit the best access allowing a strong two sided repair.

The rear sections seems to be a the same mix of glue, cheap fibreglass kit and aluminium with rivets so hopefully won’t put up to much of a fight.

The rear duck tail wasn’t cut back far enough so overhangs the bumper more and is actually taller than a standard turbo, you can see the join has started to crack.

Can’t wait to get stuck into this car but need to finish the JPS first so it’s back under cover for the time.

Dave  

 

[LOTUSMAN33]

My latest S1 accessory, think the tailgate can stay shut for the time😬 

[Fridge]

He's in the wrong film!

[jep]

I didn't know they did a spyder version of the S1 Esprit.

Justin

[LOTUSMAN33]

The S1 is finally in the garage so time to start getting the engine out.

First job was removing the tailgate so I thought I would remove the dry sump lourved panel at the same time, thankfully the original tailgate hasn’t been modified and still shows it’s original lagoon blue paint. I have a screen to install once painted.

Next job was marking up the wiring then a compression test to see what baseline I have.

Feels like I was at this stage not so long ago with the JPS.

Unfortunately the compression test has highlighted a shortfall on No3 cylinder as the photos below show which will need further investigation once out.

It could be rings, liner wear or valves, next job will be to check valve clearances. Actually when I started the test I only had 2 bar then it came to life so small chance it could be choked up rings. 
Either way I will pull it apart and replace anything suspect during the overhaul so no real drama.

I hope to have the engine out in the next week.

More of a pain is this lot as I don’t have the original keys, I hate wiring 🙄😁

When I owned the car in the 90’s theft was really common and I never had a garage so I had an immobiliser fitted, alarm including a pager which informed you if the alarm had been set off. It cost me around £600 at the time and now it’s going to be a irritation stripping it all out.

To do the compression test I had to run a wire from the battery to the solenoid .

Dave   

 

[LOTUSMAN33]

Engine removal is underway, I might have a go pulling the box back and taking the motor out from the top just to mix things up a bit and see if it can be done (I have heard of people doing it but never seen any pics), someone has kindly cut a section of the fibreglass away where the water pump pulley is. I was going to repair this but if it helps it can stay or I can make a portable section.

It has a 4 branch manifold which needs to come off first as unlike the cast one it won’t allow the engine out either way.

What lies beneath….. first proper chance I’ve had now on ramps to see what state my old girl is in….Hmmm! 
It actually looks worse than it is so should all clean up fine.

I can now see where the rear has been cut to allow the turbo kit to be fitted, it’s interesting how they added the rear as the car is actually longer than a standard turbo now, the bumper photo shows the extra overhang of the duck tail.

Cut and a flat panel added to bolt the spoiler on, you can see where it has pulled away.

TBC

Dave  

[JonSE]

Dave,

Why isn’t this gem in the restoration part of the forum?

Lots of really useful pics and advice on here….

[LOTUSMAN33]

The post was started a long time ago when I first found the car so just sort of grown from there. 
You are right though so perhaps @Bibscan move it sometime now it’s going to be restored. (Pretty please with cherry on top 😊)

Dave  

21 minutes ago, JonSE said:

Dave,

Why isn’t this gem in the restoration part of the forum?

Lots of really useful pics and advice on here….

 

[Fridge]

Can't wait to see this being tackled.

[LOTUSMAN33]

A little more progress today…

Exhaust system off after a wee fight which is expected 😁

I removed the oil cooler assembly, released the cross gate cable and both chassis cross bars.

To remove the silencer I thought it best to get the lower spoiler removed and after over an hour attacking rusted bolts I used a little brut force and the added panel just pulled away.

Next was the bumper which is actually in perfect condition including the brackets so I’m sure this will be on another Esprit at some point.

Good new is the back panel is still original only with multiple holes to repair, better than that though is the duck tail is not attached at the bottom so the car would not have performed well in a rear collision.

Even better news is it’s cut above the original waist line which makes the repair easier and gives a good datum point.

Spot the difference?

Thankfully the ears only have two 4mm screws holding them on and haven’t been cut like many of these conversions.

Dave