S300 No. 25 Restoration resumed

[red vtec]

You may be mistaken Chris. In keeping with the Lotus philosophy, Bud Light would be far more preferable to Bud Heavy.

No?

is that not what I said?

Dave,

Is there any reason for painting the body before seperating from the chassis?

Chris

Edited January 20, 2012 by red vtec

[Nellie]

Great post this one,

Dave, pretty please lots of photo's when you take the body off, will be good to see where the fixings are as thinking of restoring my chassis in the next couple of years

Nellie

[CHANGES]

Dave,

Is there any reason for painting the body before seperating from the chassis?

Chris

Hi Chris,

I have always done it that way, it saves getting any dust and over spray on the new chassis parts.

I also find that the bodywork is the biggest and messiest job so i like to get it out of the way...

It does have the advantage when done to inspire you to do the rest to the same standard...

Nellie, I will get some pics of the body lift and detail some of the procedure in next post ...

[ramjet]

Ah Chris, I read your post without a comma.

No Lotus etc.

v/s

No, Lotus etc.

My sincere apologies for being nit picky.

[Artie]

Fantastic work Dave! She is looking spectacular! What on earth did you use to get her so high in the air to put her on those big jackstands? I barely fit under my jackstands at their full height(full safe height I should say)! Of course I'd put her on my lift, if I didn't have a blown up RX7 occupying the space atm! Damn right foot!

[CHANGES]

Hi Artie,

Thanks , you have been hard at it yourself with great looking results, well done.

To get the Esprit's up high i use a low profile long reach Snap-on jack, it will lift 1.5 ton 30 inches.

[Artie]

Thanks sir! Not quite the same fantastic results you are getting, but I'm pretty happy with the results I have gotten, especially considering we painted it in my garage "booth" I made out of plastic and HVAC filters and a high volume fan! Lol! I guess I'll have to invest in a new jack......Or get my sorry arse in gear and get my FD running so the Esprit can have her throne back!

[CHANGES]

Hi Again,

Things have moved forward this week with the the separation and lift off of the body,

This can prove trying if you don't follow a set procedure, I usually start with the simple main bolts starting at the rear working forward. As i remove the individual bolts i bag them and note any spacer shims that have been fitted between the chassis and body. This is important as I will be refitting the same body back after. You need to lift the carpet to get to the front/rear bulk head bolts also the four centre tunnel bolts,

The safety belt stalks also need removing along with the two front compartment bolts. I then remove the gear lever. You will also on later models need to remove the centre dash lower section in front of the gear lever. You will find that under all the wires ect . just in front of the heater assembly there are two 17mm A/F bolts that go down and attach to the top of the chassis, these can be a pain to get at...They also have spacing collars which will either stay with the chassis or stick to the body and drop off later.!!! you don't want to loose these..

As the engine is already out and tanks drained in this case , it was a simple procedure to undo any remaining pipes and wires still attaching the two halves. Once I have systematically checked everything at the rear i then concentrate on the front . I start by undoing the earth wire then hoses and feeding out the clutch line from the underside,also removing the radiator duct stays. I then undo the brake lines and carefully straighten them so they can pass through the floor section.

The next part is the steering column/peddle box, To undo these it is necessary to first remove the heater cover, then the fan motor assembly. this allows clean access to the back plate which is secured with small screws and sealed with silicone. remove the screws and carefully cut the silicone seal . Remove the panel and you will be able to see the two inner bolts securing the peddle box to the chassis. these can be removed with ease now..However you will see between the p/box and body a plastic seal plate.

This is held down by grip washers pressed onto the chassis protrusions and they will need removing. They are a real pain in the ass... To get to the other two you undo the two screws holding the fuse box in place and push it inside , This will allow access to them and those dam grip washers. The last part in my procedure is to undo the column at the joint in the drivers foot well. I also loosen the rest of the column to

allow this joint to fall free.

The body is now just resting on the chassis... I now raise the Esprit and locate the lift frame in position.

The next procedure is to lower the chassis away from the body. I first slowly lower it an inch. then check that the two halves are coming apart cleanly. At this point the very front top of the chassis will have just dropped clear of the radiator fan cowling. This will allow me to move the chassis 1/2 inch forward so that the top front wishbone pivot pins do not catch in the body recess . Then i slowly drop the chassis clear making sure nothing has been left attached or is caught up. Job done..... The only thing left to do is to park the body out the way while we get on with the next stage......Chassis strip.....

[Bibs]

Did you know someone had been in and nicked the lump?

[CHANGES]

Did you know someone had been in and nicked the lump?

Yep... Mike S took it out in France, I have it safely in the workshop awaiting its rebuild as stage three in the restoration process.....

Firstly i have to get this chassis prepared and rebuilt. I have now systematically stripped it of every single part.

It will now be carefully cleaned and checked along with all the components that have been removed ,

Anything that does not meet the required specification will be replaced or reconditioned where appropriate.

[dodge1979]

Are those spring clamps in picture two being recond too were they an early version of adjustable suspension :-P

[Vulcan Grey]

more pictures of the shifter reinforcement and rear chassis reinforcement mounting positions please!

[CHANGES]

more pictures of the shifter reinforcement and rear chassis reinforcement mounting positions please!

Hope these are of help, if you require more details , dimensions etc, let me know exactly what you need and i will sort out for you.

Dave

[Artie]

Dave,

What's the thickness of the coverplate over the shifter hole? Also, any closer pictures of the rear triangulated over the engine chassis bracing? Thanks.

Artie

[CHANGES]

Dave,

What's the thickness of the coverplate over the shifter hole? Also, any closer pictures of the rear triangulated over the engine chassis bracing? Thanks.

Artie

Hi Artie,

I have a lot of running around and things to do with the chassis this week, but will get the info and pictures you require

next weekend ish....

Dave.

[Artie]

Thanks Dave! Whenever you get some time to do that, great! My car has a 16ga steel plate that is sheet metal screwed over the shifter opening. Would love to add some rigidity there!

Artie

[CHANGES]

Hi all,

Well i have just finished some of that running about for the chassis i referred to...

After carefully checking the chassis it was found that in some areas the zinc was deficient.

The area adjacent to the exhaust manifold i expected to be poor, it had less than 6 microns as

opposed to the 65 microns you would normally expect. There was evidence of white rust or zinc

oxidation in other areas that was not expected, this went as low as 10 microns in places and 20 in

others. Anything less than 10 microns would be classed as just etch and would not last very long at all.

Because of this the decision was taken to have the chassis stripped and re-galvanised..

This process was carried out successfully today.

After a degrease the chassis was dipped in acid for just under 4 hours to remove all the existing zinc.

It was then washed checked and put into a hot pre flux tank.

From there, checked it was fully drained and hung over the molten zinc.

After a few minutes it was lowered into the zinc quite quickly but smooth and controlled to minimise distortion.

I was present during the all processes and took some pic's that you may find informative.

Here is a few of it just before dipping / coming out / and cooling after...

[slewthy]

Wouldn't want to upset the owner of that company!

Frying tonight?

[red vtec]

Dave,

Great work, Have you ever used a product called Zinga? it is a paint on galvanised coating that combines with the coating already in place. My chassis is suffering near the turbo as you mentioned. I'm thinking of using Zinga any idea if this is a good solution?

Chris

[lotus4s]

What's the cost to have a whole chassis galvanized?

[Vulcan Grey]

Thanks Dave!

I had thought about adding the shifter hole reinforcement to my 89SE, since I can feel the chassis flex there...

I would probably have to do something similar to what Mike Fennell did here

http://www.exit109.com/~mfennell/lotus/chassis/

He had noticed cracking at the edges of the hole in the chassis

[Artie]

Travis,

Would welding in the backing plate distort the thin metal of the boxed frame section much? I have some pretty significant cracking on mine as well, and a buddy is a very good welder, but I'm worried about damaging or warping the frame. I would be sure this would reinforce the chassis reasonably better than the gym locker thick piece of steel on mine that's attached with 8 sheet metal screws!

ARtie

[Vulcan Grey]

Frame distortion, weld contamination from the zinc, dissimilar steels having a brittle joint... Some of the potential issues.

Normally not a good idea to weld on zinc plated parts, you definitely do have to grind away the zinc. Then you have to re-coat it to prevent rust.

The plate looks to be 1/8" on Mike's old S4s.

[Artie]

Hmmm! It's never meant to be easy is it?

[dodge1979]

I used zinga on my esprit on the chassis by the manifold. But I covered it over with heat shielding too so it cant be seen. I also zinga'd all my suspension components before powder coating everything too. Its a fantastic product, but if matt grey finish isnt your thing tyen youll have to cover it over. Its overpaintable, powder coatable etc. Its the best product there is.