beginning the body work

[slewthy]

Wow - they look loverly!

[mr.oogieboogie]

_{well wheels are done. i was abit pushed for time (they could have been a bit better) but all the imperfections are mine.wheels are a bit darker but not too much as i think they loose their look if they are too dark against a dark car.}

_{off on holiday for a week or so then will look at getting the s4 mot'ed}

Edited October 19, 2012 by mr.oogieboogie

[mr.oogieboogie]

well after looking at the fans the other day with Derek a.k.a. sailorbob. all 3 fan fuses had blown. so they were replaced but on testing there was smoke coming from the fuse box and the fuses went again. Derek had a spare set of fans which he brought down this evening. once i removed the 1st fan it was obvious that they were siezed as they would not spin easily which the ones Derek brought do.I managed to take all three fans off without jacking the car up and put the replacements on. (these are the earlier 4 blade ones but fitted straight in with only a little bit of bending on the three supports (as the bodies are longer than on the later 5 blade ford fans). just need to tidy the wireing up tomorrow night and then see if i can track down the water leak once and for all

[slewthy]

Looking great!

[mr.oogieboogie]

well fans wired and heat shrinked. took the car up to temp and they come on and off as they should. A bit more tidying then off to the mot in December.

[UPAUTO]

Well done Looking great too

[mr.oogieboogie]

well i have been rubbing down the paint chips on the bonnet as there were quite a few craters, spent around 4 hours doing them each by hand so i should be able to apply paint into them tomorrow and then flat and polish before the weekend . also noticed one of the front fog light snot lighting up so i may have disturbed a wire when i did the fans the other day. so should look at that tomorrow

[mr.oogieboogie]

well i should be buffing the paint up tomorrow. all of the big chips and craters now flatted and filled with paint pretty time consumeing as i spent a further 3 hrs on them today but that was flatting down the paint i had applied yesterday and with some of these being deep they required a bit more paint. I took great care not to go through the laquer so once compounded and polished they should be almost invisiable.

[mr.oogieboogie]

well most of the craters are gone. just the very large one reqires a touch more paint so should have that done tomorrow.

[mr.oogieboogie]

well my headlights arrived thge other day. good delivery service from pnm. so i put the light son and marked where they shone on the wall, then turned off the lights and disconneted the bar that pushes the light pods up. off with the light cover. then greeted by much rust on the passenger side lights. twist the manky and rusted headlight outer rings os the lights come free,then grinder out grind off the 8 rivet tops then tap them through. outer light stainless steel bracket re-rivited on. but there is some moving and grinding and drilling to do on the mainbeam side (both brackets are the same in the kit I got so its not a straight bolt on as the new bracket will not fit into the holes in the pod)otherwise the headlamp cover will not fit on.

The drivers side was a lot easier to remove as once the headlight cover was removed the lights were so rusty that the glass fell off. still made it easier.

pics below. I only have the main beam on the drivers side to fit as I ran out of time.

[mr.oogieboogie]

well hinally managed to get the last light complete, surrounds on and re-attached

[UPAUTO]

Lovely job

[mr.oogieboogie]

Right. Undertray on. Brake and p.a.s. Lines cleaned. Now to book m.o.t. For next weekend

[mr.oogieboogie]

right well the p.a.s. pipes are now undersealed. managed to get the car out of the unit and warm it up. should have the m.o.t. on the 5th of Jan. noticed that the drivers side wing mirror is not moving, im pretty sure there are x 2 settings as all im seeing is the rear wing qtr panel on the car, but I did not want to force it as it felt like it would snap. small video link below

http://s1005.photobucket.com/albums/af176/oogieboogie1/lotus%20esprit%20restoration/?action=view&current=20121229_153629.mp4

Edited December 29, 2012 by mr.oogieboogie

[mr.oogieboogie]

well i'm going to look at the drivers side door mirror tomorrow afternoon, as the top body moves but not far enough, so im wondering if the spring clip has stuck inside as the door mirror moves fine towards the car but does not come out far enough for me to be able to see what is on the outside of me (the glass and motor work fine)i'm thinkigh that because the mirror has been folded in for months its got stiff. any ideas on the best way to get in to it. I'm thinking move the black plastic cover and loosen the screw off, but is it the grub screw that holds it in position or just holds it on?

[fjmuurling]

Hi Peter

 

The grub screw holds the bracket onto the part mounted on the door. The top of the bracket has a couple of notches in which a strong leaf spring ratches. In order to get the whole thing from the car you have to remove the mirrorglass and disconnect the wires to the heating element and the plug for the motor.

 

Tower shape bracket, the bottom has the hole for the grub screw, the top has the teeth.

 

Spring modification, originally the spring is riveted to the aluminum body. (mine broke)

 

To prevent the mirror from creeping down (normally the black bracket is held in place by double sided adhesive only) I glued it into place with some 2 component glue. Before glueing (red arrows) i removed the adhesive tape (watch out for the traces on the heating element). The blue arrows are the 4 locking holes which connect to the motor meachanism. The yellow arrow is the notch which operates the locking ring for removal / fitting of the mirror onto the motor.

 

Cleaning and some grease onto the ratchet mechanism works like a dream (I had the same problem).

 

Happy new year,

Freek

 

 

 

[mr.oogieboogie]

Thank you. I should be doing it today or in the morning

[mr.oogieboogie]

well I took the grub screw off so the whole top section of the door mirror could be moved and then sprayed a bit of wd40 up teh inside. re-attached and it now works fine. a 5min job that took 5mins. now needs a good run on the way to the m.o.t. station for next weekend.

[mr.oogieboogie]

Well s4 now mot'ed and was monstering on the 8 miles to the test station nice to drive it again

[mr.oogieboogie]

Well cant drive the car due to the snow so im getting the paint and stuff ready to spray the glassfibre roof when it arrives hopeing itcwill be here for next weekend. should be a mask off sand. Prime then paint and laquer. Will post pics when doing

[sailorbob]

You shouldn't have MOT'd it, we wouldn't have had the snow

[mr.oogieboogie]

Yep. But if i had moted it in june or july that would have been worse as snow in june would be pretty bad.

[slewthy]

Congrats on your MOT Peter. Just done mine so I guess we are both to blame.

[mr.oogieboogie]

nice to share the blame ...and the snow....at least it was sunny when i moted it so go an 16 mile round trip in it. apart from that its only moved in and out the garage a couple of times. good to hear yours is on the road. although i would not reccomend them in snow and ice been ther,e exciting though

[winners]

looking good Pete, it'll be good to see it on the road again.