My Esprit V8 project

[V8-ESPRITS3]

yeah I like the idea maybe in the future but for now I don't want to get into body work and paint, cars been half finished for to long I want to get it back on the road and drive it, still have a long list of unfinished jobs........was also thinking of having the rear body flip up and over like a clam like on an F40.

[steve930]

Yeah it's a lot of work but may help with hot air escaping from the rad.  

 

I'd love a clamshell, it'll make life sooo much easier.  I think someone on hear has already done it

[eddie lotus nj]

Im actually going to open the  radiator where the spare was similar to yours Rob and glass in an area that will lead to a louvered section on the bonnet. Also going to clam the extra body I have, along with making new grill and rear section to lose the big bumpers.

[V8-ESPRITS3]

Yeah it's a lot of work but may help with hot air escaping from the rad.  

 

I'd love a clamshell, it'll make life sooo much easier.  I think someone on hear has already done it

Yes it has been done many times, all race cars I have not yet seen it done to a road car?

 

 

 

 

 

I hate the S3 front bumper! really want to fit a S1/S2 front bumper, another job added to the long list of things to do!

[V8-ESPRITS3]

On my quest to improve cooling getting more cold air into the engine bay is the biggest problem due to engine location and lack of space, engine size and exhaust. Lotus only fitted small intakes on the side of the car often referred to as “Ears”.

This is what the intake\outlets look like without the cover (Ear), as you can see the lower hole is for cold air intake and the upper for air out.

I have made both holes now cold air intakes and made the outside cover (Ears) spaced out 15mm from the body to increase air flow into the inlets. The bottom hole is going to flow air towards the engine (exhaust manifolds) and the top hole is going to feed cold air to the air filter.

view from rear, most people may not even notice the difference at first glance

also painted the fuel caps satin black, never really liked the colour coded nonsense

not sure if I am going to leave the fronts open or fit some sort of grill/mesh. Keeping them open will make life easier and less hassle cleaning the car.

[V8-ESPRITS3]

While I was in the mood for painting things satin black, I wanted to refresh my door frame trims. The door cap/seal was pitted with rust so I decided to remove it to do a better job as it’s hard to paint it in situ with the rubber glass seal, as it also had a few areas that needed paint under the seal.  The trim is held in place with 3 nuts, very small and a weird size (1/4) if you have a socket set with a small socket that you have never used with ¼ wrote on it now you know what it fits! Ah but you can not get it on because of the angle of the stems and the glass being in the way! Lucky for me I had a small ring spanner also in my arsenal. The threaded stems are rusty and just from the look of them they look like they will snap at the first tweak of trying to undo them! I squirted a good dose of WD40 and commenced the attack. I know why Lotus chose ¼ because that’s all the room you have to undo these sods ¼ turn, spanner off ¼ turn, spanner off ¼ turn, etc you get the idea! They are also fine tread and long fooken stems! You also have to remove the outer handle to get a very ridiculous chance of even reaching that end one. No doubt there is a easy way of doing this and me being a complete tool did it the hardest way possible. If you had small child’s hands and thin arms like sponge bob then it’s probably very easy. Ok after hours I relived them on their resting ground for most likely the last 30 years, drilled out the pop rivets removed the rubber seal and sanded them down and also the rear retaining plate. Painted them in black etch primmer and left them over night. Painted them satin black the next day, why is it when you spray with an aerosol can it will always splatter at some point and ruin the job? So had to wait again for them to dry, sanded back the ruined areas and painted again, Job done! then left them for another day for the paint to set nice and hard. When I started to fit the rubbers I found they had shrunk? They were now a good inch shorter than when I took them off? So you have to start at one end with a pop rivet, stretch the rubber to align the next hole and the again and again for each hole until complete. Then stand back and admire all your hard work with a rubber seal fitted all rippled and lumpy and looking like the tread of an old tyre rather than a smooth crisp black rubber trim I had envisioned. First tip of the day I forgot to mention you don’t have to remove the nuts completely just undo until close to the end, as you can remove the trim due to the door tops just having slots and not holes as the mounting points. You only find out when removed! So refitting is again a painfully slow process, and now they just don’t fit as good as they did, so a crappy couple of days wasted. Second tip of the day don’t remove them just paint in situ!

 

 

The rear quarter trims got painted in situ!

[V8-ESPRITS3]

Here are a couple of pics of the standard turbo rad. I fitted 3 x 11" electric cooling fans from Tripac

 

https://www.merlinmotorsport.co.uk/p/electric-radiator-cooling-fan-11-inch-diameter-rad-fan-11

 

 

 

Buddsy

Buddsy,

does the turbo rad go full width of the car?

[V8-ESPRITS3]

I have modified the lower air shroud/duct to fit the new rad, just used sheet alloy and pop rivets. Fits snug around the rad, and also found some front turbo brake ducts and fitted them as well, can now route some tube to the front brakes or into the car for free air con!

Not pretty but will help duct the air to the rad, once painted black should look ok ish. Well no will still look crap! But it can not be seen unless you’re under the car so if I run you over keep your eyes shut as the duct is going over you! and be a good chap let me know if you scratched the paint off……..

[V8-ESPRITS3]

Rad duct fitted with grill, just need to fit the front spoiler to complete the front under tray.

[Barrykearley]

I sure do hope that prayer mat is facing the right way

[V8-ESPRITS3]

it must be every things been going good today made some more progress

[V8-ESPRITS3]

Front spoiler back on!

Back on the ground! has been on axle stands for months.

[910Esprit]

I like the black filler caps - those rims look a nightmare proposal for parallel parking!

[V8-ESPRITS3]

indeed, but then isn't it anyway in an Esprit?

[steve930]

Looking really good Rob, how long til you're back on the road ? 

[V8-ESPRITS3]

well its all legal, I have insurance, its still in mot and I taxed it a couple of months ago just so it would give me a bit of a push to get on and finish it. I was optimistic in thinking  I may drive it to work tomorrow afternoon if I can get some more jobs finished in the morning.

I don't think it will ever be finished as in all done as I always have to tinker and change things. Next month I have a couple of local car shows that its booked in for display so I will have to crack on and tidy it up and sort out the engine bay as its a right mess. I have two weeks holiday soon so can have a good blitz and sort it out.

[V8-ESPRITS3]

Took the door panels off to fix the central locking and found the material coming unstuck.

The foam degrades to dust and it all starts to fall apart.

I found an air line is good for blowing away all the dust and Evo-Stik timebond good at gluing it back down. It’s a little tacky and awkward to apply but works quickly and I also used it on the carpets. It allows you to move it around to get it into position unlike the contact version which was very awkward to place items together perfect first attempt.

 

[steve930]

Yeah I can appreciate she's always gonna be " work/mods in progress" ,  So what part of Dorset are you in ? 

[V8-ESPRITS3]

not too far away from you, Ferndown.

sorry the car is dirty inside not had chance to clean it yet, so excuse the dusty pics.

I am using the Dakota digital quad air pressure and tank gauge kit, this I brought from the USA, nice bit of kit it moniters the pressure of each air spring and compressor tank. I might move it up in the roof panel in place of the digital clock. This was bloody expensive with import duty and the rip off parcel force handling fee! The doomsday switch next to it is the compressor override off switch, or it might be the ejector seat trigger! So don’t mess around with my switches and buttons!

Here is my e-level control pad, again nice bit of kit also from the USA! You can buy them in the UK and is probably the most used system for air ride installs when you start going into high tech and want full control and ease of operation. I can set 3 ride heights into memory, and also control it from a remote key fob. The ECU monitors each ride height sensor and can adjust it automatically to keep your ride height consistent. Not cheap but I couldn’t live with the manual switches I had before. I could not get consistent ride height by just checking air pressure.

The rats nest has changed! Now running twin alloy tanks and of course the e-level system, lots of air lines and wires! Work still to do tidying this area and still have to finish the rad/fans, I plan to box it in and have a vent outlet via the bonnet. The arrow is to show the location of the other air tank this fitted a treat between the light pods and saved a lot of space.

Wow mammoth amount of updates these last few days! Nearly made up for the long time away. Hope to keep going and thanks guys for all the positive support.

Edited June 20, 2015 by ramjet

[Barrykearley]

Looking stonkin - when you've done can you come and fix my bloody light pod??

[V8-ESPRITS3]

mine also need fixing! thinking of doing away with the motors and just leaving them in the upright position. one less job to fix again and again....................

[Barrykearley]

Take the motor linkage off - and run some loops of string over to the drivers window.

When you want them up - just pull the string.......

Simple - cheap - easy and effective........

The Americans spent millions and millions to develop a pen to write in space...

The Russians - they took a pencil......

[Bibs]

^ That's not true btw, the Americans had pencils in space too.

 

How much does that little lot weigh up the front, any ideas?

[V8-ESPRITS3]

the alloy tanks are extremely light, paper thin and the pair don't even weigh 1kg but the compressor is a heavy brute and is probably 20+kg! also the VU4 valve block is also a big slab of alloy around 2kg.

the steel pancake tank which I originally fitted is also heavy 15+kg so going to the alloy tanks saved a fair bit of weight, also gained some more space and another litre of air.

 

dont forget I don`t lug the spare wheel around so that saves 15+kg

Edited June 20, 2015 by ramjet

[V8-ESPRITS3]

Take the motor linkage off - and run some loops of string over to the drivers window.

When you want them up - just pull the string.......

Simple - cheap - easy and effective........

The Americans spent millions and millions to develop a pen to write in space...

The Russians - they took a pencil......

I have a much more sophisticated solution.

 

Jakub a illegal emigrant who washes cars in my local supermarket said he's available to hire.

You have to remove the spare wheel so he can get in under the bonnet (he likes confined spaces and is used to it due to the packing create he hid in on the way over here)

just honk the horn when you want the pods up and he will raise them, just pay him a packet of cigarettes or some mobile phone credit.

 

and as a bonus if you let him sleep there over night he will wash your car in the morning for free!

Edited June 19, 2015 by V8-ESPRITS3