front bumper removal

[mr.oogieboogie]

well i typed this up when i removed the front bumper so it may help others

Front bumper removal. This will take a few hours if you are lucky and 10 – 20 hrs if unlucky

Tools needed:-

Blanket / Chair / screwdriver / 10mm spanners and sockets & extensions / dremel with flexi attachment / grinder / good light / nut remover / gloves to protect hands

• Remove under trays.
  
• Remove horns and oil cooler air intake (both sides)
  
• Turn wheels and remove x 4screws inside wheel arch (2 per side)
  
• Remove front lip.
  
• Remove front fogs (unbolt and disconnect wires)
  
• Remove front grill & number plate holder disconnect ice sensor
  
• Remove lower front spoiler (note if the nuts are rusted and the plates begin to spin then the rivets holding them have come away as the stud is riveted to the bumper and you may need to remove the bumper and lower spoiler in one, also some of the lower spoiler nuts will be hard to access.
  
• There are a couple of studs pointing down that attach the front bumper with 10mm nuts and can only be got to with the lower spoiler off, you will see two small slots at the back of the bumper a long 10mm socket and a long extension will access these.(if you cannot get the lower spoiler off there is another way. undo the front indicator lenses and pullback the rubber tabs to expose the screws that attach the indicator housing to the bumper. These may round or snap or just spin. Drill the heads off and the housing can be turned to allow access to the hidden nuts) the screws in the indicator housings can be drilled out later (easier off the car).
  
• x2 per side 10mm nuts on the inside of the wings (inside the bonnet) if they are held on with nylock nuts then grind the stud down to the top of the nut (this will save much time) only on the one nearest the headlights access is tight so be patient. You will also need to undo the bracket holding the abs to get in (this is the one where people have cut through the outside of the wing to get a spanner on it) don’t do it. Once the stud is cut. If the nut rounds put a nut remover on it (silverline do a set that you use a spanner on and work great ) better than repairing the wing. This is where a blanket to protect the wing and a chair to sit on help.
  
• Remove the nuts and brackets on the floor of the bonnet. Its one bracket underneath but two on the inside of the bonnet.
  
• there are x5 nuts in the recess at the front of the bonnet (small slit get a light in there) if these are rusted and begin to round off you can get a standard size grinder in (upside down) to cut off the middle one and the ones next to it (the two outside ones are best got at from underneath as once everything else is undone or ground off then the front spoiler can be pulled forwards and you can get a grinder up and into where the head of the two bolts are and grind them off.
  

[Whirlybird]

Nice write up.

I do hope I never have to use it, but if I do, thanks.

[dodge1979]

Yes, good no nonsense and usefull!

[Scotty2]

As you may have seen, I, or rather Jim at Beverley Paint and Body Centre, now knows what is involved too! Not a job I'd have the patience for. Nice to see another BRG beast looking good.

[UPAUTO]

Great write up !

[Paul93Lotus]

You also forgot to add "Tell wife, children or significant other to cover their ears while very loud expletives echo from garage". It really is a bastard of a job...especially if you live where it is wet and everything is rusted.

I may also add that if possible, replace with stainless bolts/nuts for anything that was rusted the first time.

Edited November 18, 2012 by Paul93Lotus

[mr.oogieboogie]

ahh the joys of removing the front bumper when everything is rusted which if you live in the uk may well be. as for the swearing i thought that standard for any jobs on the esprit....ahhh i remember them well. anyway i hoped it helped

[jammy-pop]

Oh yes, I had to remove my front bumper last year as the wife reversed into it and cracked it. What a pain of a job, sounds so easy removing a front bumper!

My biggest mistake was thinking the lights/indicator would go in AFTER the bumper went on! Doh!!!

[Loose Cannon]

Just in the middle of this hell at the moment. Another job for which Lotus engineers should be brought to task like the Nuremberg trials. I mean, phillips headed bolts, where is that going to lead with a bit of corrosion?

 

A quick query - did you have to partially drain the coolant? There are some solid pipes which are attached to the nearside oil cooler intake for some bizarre reason. The duct refuses to wiggle out (especially with horns attached), so thinking of clamping the hoses but still expecting a mess

 

PS query 2; I haven't got to them yet but these nasty bolts by the headlamp pods that people have cut holes in the wing for......could a hole be cut somewhere inside the headlamp pod bowl and filled with a rubber bung?

[mr.oogieboogie]

Read the post at the top. Dont cut the wings. A nut extractor a dremmil and a chair

And some paitence. Plus much swearing

All the best

[Clarky5150]

What in gods name were Lotus thinking!!!

Just finished removing the front bumper. Goes into the top three PITA jobs I've ever had with coolant pipes on a Cayenne turbo and clutch swap on the driveway on a V8 Vantage. 

the sad thing is even as I was chopping and drilling out all the fastenings I was mocking up in my head the reverse brackets that will go inside the wings and be bolted from underneath upon refit. Same for the bumper to lower spoiler.

would have cost pence to fabricate in the factory and would drop the strip down time for the front end to about an hour.

did quite enjoy getting in the front tub to do the front 5 nuts....Getting out again was another matter. I was sprottling around like an upturned turtle. 

[Chillidoggy]

Wait till you try changing an exhaust manifold, they're really fun to do. The good news is that @Barrykearleywill be able to give you all the sordid details and tips of how to do it in a few week's time.

[Loose Cannon]

Indeed. I went through £80 odd worth of stainless bar and fasteners, not to mention hours of cutting drilling and welding replacing all the cruddy rusted brackets. I'm not in a rush to drill 3mm stainless again. Those captive nuts in the outer corners hidden by the headlamp pods should have carried a jail sentence to the designer. Someone in the future, and hopefully not me, will have a much easier time taking the bumper off to do that concours restoration .

In fairness to Lotus the platform engineers regularly tried to convince the beancounters on  to use a full stainless pack on the whole car and got as far as a complete schedule with part numbers etc, but were always turned down by the men with calculators and grey complexions.

As Ian (Chillidoggy?) says when you get to the manifold you will lie awake at night dreaming of doing another bumper job instead.

[Barrykearley]

14 minutes ago, Loose Cannon said:

As Ian (Chillidoggy?) says when you get to the manifold you will lie awake at night dreaming of doing another bumper job instead.

He's changed his name cos he's bracing himself in that position for the red hot chilli that's gonna get rammed up his ass

[Clarky5150]

Look on the bright side Loose Cannon, the only reason I had to endure that pain was because some b@$+@}d didn't put the hidden bolts back in!

[Loose Cannon]

3 minutes ago, Clarky5150 said:

Look on the bright side Loose Cannon, the only reason I had to endure that pain was because some b@$+@}d didn't put the hidden bolts back in!

From memory I turned my replacements upside down; it was easier (!) blindly getting a fabricated boltplate (as opposed to nutplate) to locate with the bolt protruding down through the hole.

This then allowed a nut on the bolt to brace the thing in place whilst pop rivetting from below. I actually cannot fathom how the original nutplate was secured in place short of Lotus employing very strong Leprechauns to climb down into the void. Must remember to ask Brian Angus about this ship in a bottle moment next time I see him.

[Clarky5150]

The reverse plates are the idea I am going to employ. Not going down thestainless route tho will prime and paint the main bracket and dowse in motorcycle extreme chain lube when in place the stuff is amazing and dries to an almost tack free finish. Use it on my MTB chains and they never show any rust. They don't get a particularly kind life either 

[Clarky5150]

Imagine the mischievous joy of being the initial assembler, unhindered by rust and ancillaries as you spin the new 10mm nuts on those captive bolts with your fingers and a cheeky half turn with a spanner for good measure, knowing full well that some poor bastard ha got to go thro hell in later years to get em out..... I bet it was this fella...

 

[mr.oogieboogie]

I cut plates then threaded them. Then put stainless bolts through them and used new rivits as well as stainless nuts.

[Clarky5150]

Just picked up the prerequisite hardware to get this sorted,hopeully later today.

[mr.oogieboogie]

AHH the exhaust manifold. I remember it well. Along with the radiator replacement  by oneself. 

[jimmybondi]

Turn wheels and remove x 4screws inside wheel arch (2 per side)

Could anyone post a photo of the screws inside the wheel arch? I seem to have trouble finding them.

And yeah, removing the front bumper is a PITA!

[ragingfool35]

the wheel arch screws are sheet metal screws, maybe covered with wheel well undercoating, maybe vibrated out.  10.23A item 17 of the parts manual.  

nutplates?  my SE has all factory stud plates

[jimmybondi]

Now that the bumper is off, any other tasks I could/should look at in this area.

 

And a friendly note to the guy who placed the 2 screws/nuts on each side of the wing:

[Clarky5150]

Give the rad pack a good coat of looking at. Check for  and remove debris and sort any corroded connectors.

Make sure you use ceratec lube or similar to coat the fastenings when you put em back in the rebuild in case they ever have to come off again.

Don't overtighten the corner fastenings on the corner of the bumper, they strip the nuts glassed into the body quite easily.

Replace the horn if its on its way out.