Don't remove your 88 Esprit Turbo front indicator this way!

[Jamie Garroch]

I thought I'd share my experience in the hope that I can save other owners the agony of a mistake I made last week.

 

I had my Esprit wrapped in chrome (I'll be posting some pics in a gallery soon) and had to strip all the lights off of the car. When I got to the front indicators, I removed the lens and then turned the bolt that holds the housing in the bumper.  The bolt just turned and didn't undo and I thought no more of it, giving up removing the indicator housing.

 

A week later, the wrap was done and I started putting all the lights back. To my dismay, the front indicator I had messed with wasn't working. In fact, the side light flashed when the indicator was on.

 

Here's my advice as a result of my error:

 

 

[ramjet]

Oops!

 

Good post in case someone else isn't aware of this.

[Whirlybird]

Come on Jamie,

 

You can't put a post up and 'casually' throw in "Esprit wrapped in chrome" without pictures for everyone to see.

 

I was lucky enough to be passing and have seen it, but there are less fortunate on the forum!

[Jamie Garroch]

Come on Jamie,

 

You can't put a post up and 'casually' throw in "Esprit wrapped in chrome" without pictures for everyone to see.

 

I was lucky enough to be passing and have seen it, but there are less fortunate on the forum!

 

I know I know. It's amazing how things have got in the way of me getting the car out to take some pics. I had to put it all back together after the wrap, get the wheels refurbished, dismantle the bumper as above, then it broke down (first time in 5 years) when the throttle return spring broke and now my wife has it to go to work today. So, as soon as it stops raining, I promise to take some pics :-)

[Jamie Garroch]

Right - I think I've uploaded some pictures to a gallery now and it should be viewable here:

 

http://www.thelotusforums.com/forums/gallery/album/291-the-first-chrome-esprit-turbo/

 

There's also a video but it's published privately on my Facebook account.

[red vtec]

Ah you are a GOD!!! I think you have just cleared up the reason I have this issue with my indicator, It must be the earth wire!.  How can I run a new one to it?

[andydclements]

I like the chrome, as you state it's not to everybody's taste but that's fine, nor is any colour. It seems to work well on the car, so much I was now thinking about it on one of mine, but not for a long while.

 

 

Chris, either you drill holes in the body, indicator and bumper or you remove the front bumper and do it properly.

[red vtec]

HI Andy,

 

How do I remove the bumper? I gather it has bolts but where do I get to them? is it from underneath? I don't mind taking it off and doing it properly and also replacing the bolts.

[mdw]

Look into the very nose of the car from inside the bonnet. The rusted on and fully seized nuts you see are what you will have to grind or sheer  off.  They all sheered on mine .  There are 2 more each side in the wings and 1 odd one in each front corner although on mine they were not fitted from the factory. If you are doing it take the bonnet of its much easier and if you can make new ones in stainless.

Oh forgot the bolts up from under the rad tray have to go as well.

[red vtec]

I think this is the cause of my earth issue with all the lights, I may have a go tomorrow

[Jamie Garroch]

Hi Chris. God here (I have to let my wife know!).

 

Before you do all this, you can confirm if it's an earth issue by temporarily connecting a wire from a reliable earth point to the bolt with the existing earth wire connected to it in the side/indicator housing and/or directly to the bulb connector.

 

Unlike Scott, I didn't find mine easy to take off at all (perhaps different by model).  Here's a summarised explantation of my experience, which took me the best part of 2 x 6hr days (one to remove and one to reassemble).  I am a bit rusty though on working on my own car (and old).

 

1. To get to the 5 top nuts, 2 lower bolts and 2 nuts inside the bonnet compartment, I had to remove the bonnet so I could lean over the front of the car (to get to the lower ones, you'll need to be able to get one arm in the bonnet compartment and the other under the front valance.

2. To remove the 2 nuts inside the left & right wing areas of the top edge, I had to remove the windscreen water bottle, alarm and air con drier and even then, my hands hurt from contorting them in the available space. The two rearmost nuts can't even be seen.

3. To remove the 2 setscrews in each of the corners, I had to mix and match socket sets with UJ sections and extensions to again, get these invisible 2 out. You have to lay under the car to get to these and this was the most difficult part for me.

4. Easier points include disconnecting all the wiring inside the luggage compartment, removing the 4 wheel arch screws, the air intake mouth fibre glass cosmetic part, the 3 spire bolts securing the lower edge to the radiator mount and the air horn cover.

 

If I hadn't had the drawing from the Lotus Service Notes (PM me if you need it), I would never have discovered the 3rd point.

 

Before putting it all back together again, I replaced old/rusty nuts/bolts/setscrews/washers.  I also resprayed the various metal load spreading plates, air intake mouth 'chicken wire' and two vertical steel tubes in the air intake mouth, hammerited the air intake fibre glass cosmetic thing and fog light plates (had to de-rivet first) and made two new adjustable rear fog light mounts for the almost non-existant corroded aluminium ones from domestic thermostatic radiator valve plastic caps!

 

These jobs always have a habit of exposing other stuff!

 

Good luck.

[Mark Blanchard]

The Chrome looks good. You just need to sort the wheels. Some nice deep dish alloys or Awi's would look great.

[Jamie Garroch]

Cheers Mark. I forgot you are in HoT and I was over in Wargrave for lunch on Saturday. Regarding the wheels, I've just paid several hundred quid to get them refurbished!  Not sure if you're looking at the latest pics but the interior is the next challenge. Taking it to pieces after the Bearwood show and then dropping off the bits to Trimmania on Nine Mile Ride for a royal purple and silver two tone design I'm working on.

[red vtec]

Have found an easier way to replace the sidelight/indicator unit, no need to remove bumper   will post images when done

[lotus4s]

I like the chrome look, very unique and fits the car. Would be nice to see a full side view.

 

Kudos on having the nerve to make that plunge...

[Jamie Garroch]

I like the chrome look, very unique and fits the car. Would be nice to see a full side view.

 

Kudos on having the nerve to make that plunge...

 

 

I have just returned from The Bearwood College Car & Motorcycle Show where the Chrome Lotus Esprit picked up the Best in Show trophy! Quite amazing as there were around 300 cars of all marks, including Ferraris, Astons, TVRs loads of classics and opened by none other than Uri Geller (he had a car covered in bent cutlery!)

 

I am stunned at winning the top prize. Photos will probably appear in the local Wokingham newspaper.

 

There are some amazing professionally shot photos on a brand new dedicated website for this car and I'll post them very shortly.

 

As for the nerve to take the plunge, it's great to be able to show the car and it generates huge 'Marmite' interest (people either love it or hate it) but it's like owning a huge iPhone... with the need to carry a considerably scaled up polishing cloth wherever I go 

[Mark Blanchard]

Shinfield, that's where I get my guitars repaired, Rosecroft Way.

[Whirlybird]

Well done Jamie, one more thing to polish !

 

Would have liked to have gone to that as it's just down the road.

[David Corns]

On ‎18‎/‎05‎/‎2013 at 20:16, red vtec said:

Have found an easier way to replace the sidelight/indicator unit, no need to remove bumper   will post images when done

Hi

just read your post, any chance of sharing the secret.  I have an intermittent indicator which I presume is a dodgy wire at the back.

 

Cheers

David