The story of Little Red Riding Hood

[Jacques]

Me & Little Red Riding Hood

 

cheers,

jacques

[Jacques]

Next step in making Little Red Riding Hood breathe a Little better, is changing the restrictive tube a nd original cat, to something less lethargic, like this. Being a bit crude made to say the least, I started on the finish, but will probably have a friend remake the terrible welding that is made by the uk seller. First Picture is standard, NeXT two ones is after a sanding Down and polishing a bit. Easier to keep clean. Now off to have it rewelded. In fact it's so bad made, that I cannot seal the oxygen sensor, because of it not being flat... But not to worry, it'll be better looking and better functioning before I install it. I am not sure, but maybe it will be cut open and remade to flow better. I have a friend who do these things, and he want to take a look at it.

More later,

 

Cheers,

jacques

[Jacques]

After a long wait, I finally got some more bushes, some new upper rear arms, a carbon roof, stickers for my wheelproject, oxygen sensor and some other stuff. That and the pile I've collected over this Summer, will make up the tasks for Little Red Riding Hood this Winter. That should satisfy her for a while, I hope.

 

To get the sportscat installed, I needed a new oxygen sensor, and I asked for an original, as some of you have written on here, that the aftermaket ones are unstable.

So, my question is: is this one original? See pics below. I might add, that it says "DELPHI" on the other side of the label.

 

Little Red Riding Hood is stil on a diet, so I got another carbon roof. I'll attatvh new tounges and bracketry and some titanium screws, if I can get them.

Then some Calypso Red to be similar to the original roof.

I've got some extra leather in Magnolia from doing the seats, and this will be cut and sewn to be exactly as the original fiberroof.

That looks like this and is fairly light at 4,180 Kg.

 

The metal bracket that supports the lower rear tray underneath the car, is bad looking, so I wanted a new. But what I recieved was a much shorter one in another shpe. Maybe someone knows if it's been changed from factory?

I would like one like mine in the full length, and if someone know where to get it in either aliminium or stainless, please do tell me.

 

I've spoken toa friend in the Danish Lotus Club, and he had some interesting calculation on weightsaving versus acceleration. More on that later.

 

Cheers,

Jacques

[Simon350S]

Nice, that roof looks fab!

[Jacques]

Time to prepare some new bits and bobs for Little Red Riding Hood during the dark Winter hours, as she feels quite alone in the wintertime. So, to get her ready to go visit her grandmother in the Deep forest, I bought some Landrover clutch slave cylinders and instead of finding a suitable connector to suit the clutch hose, which jave bigger thread than the aliminium slave cylinder, I borrowed a threading tool from a friend here in the Danish Lotus Club, and drilled it to 8,8mm, then 9,5mm then 10mm, then A pre-cutter and then a finalizer. Voila, a nice tight propper fitting thread, and no need for aintermediary fitting, which can leak.

 

Being aluminium, I also get rid of the nasty cast iron standard item. Another rust soruce deleted Little Red Riding Hodd is propper joyfull about that. So am I

 

There is a catch, as the rod pressing on the slave cylinder piston, have to be shortened. That I will cut to suit, the day I install it, and report back on length.

 

Btw, I just changed the engine oil and filter, and this time I filled it with Castrol Edge FST Ti, which is the new version of the old Sport, and contains tiny titanium particles, to redure Wear and other effects. See the thread on that, where I got some replies from Castrol UK to ease my worries on this new oil. 

I find it satisfactory and will run this oil for the future, untill they send out yet another version. I'll report back later on how it is to run, but a smoot running engine and silent too plus a good oil pressure is initial. I am looking into measuring the temp on this new oil in my engine, with my Fluke.

 

Cheers,

Jacques.

[Vanya]

That slave is light as a feather compared to the girling original! Hope it works well for you!

[Jacques]

Ha ha, thanks Vanya. And Happy New Year to you and yours!

I'll measure the weight asap. new one in aluminium weighs a measely 260 gram complete. The old one I don't know yet. But as you know, I feel the Esprit could Loose some weight, and every single bit counts

In fact I spoke to a teacher in physics, who happen to drive Lotus, and he calculated for me how much faster the acceleration is from loosing a certain amount of weight. Under ideal circumstances, naturally. But still very interesting.

 

Cheers,

Jacques.

[Jacques]

All right, went to change the gearbox oil today, after work. Completely clean to look at, but out it went, and 3 liters of fresh Castrol Syntrans Transaxle 75W90 just as last time, went in  

 

Cheers,

Jacques.

[cbclotus]

Hi Jacques.Fine looking car .Mike se turbo.

[Jacques]

Thanks Mike

I am trying to learn from this great forum, and I've noticed, that all you great Guys are rather serious with your Lotus. Never had a lotus before, but I absolutely adore it. And I try to keep up with all of you on mods, stability and general condition of the car.

I've only run very few trips yet, but have tried a number of various other sportscars over the years (ot mine), also some rather well performing ones, up to around 710 Hp, and I must honestly say that the design, shape, interrior and speediness of the Esprit is by far the best I've tried yet.

For now, i try to stabilize the car and it's many systems and prevent future cathastrophies

 

Kind regards,

Jacques.

[Vanya]

Correction...the design, shape, interrior and speediness of the Esprit Turbo SE is by far the best I've tried yet.

Simply the best. I couldn't imagine my life without it.

 

[Jacques]

Well Vanya, I completely agree. I find the SE design the best by far

Sleek lines not disturbed by all kinds of curves that goes in all directions. I find the original Stevens design, based on Guigaro's design the  most sporty and harmonius.

And the wing of course

Well, just my two-pence.

 

I am sure many others find the revised Thompson better, but I really think he deluted the design.

 

But, Vanya, I dare you: if you were to chose from the two cars you now have:

 

1/ which one for driving abilities ?

 

2/ which one for design (inside/outside)?

 

Kind regards,

Jacques.

[Vanya]

1) Depends on how I feel that day. If I'm tired, V8 all the way. If I feel adventurous, maybe Turbo SE, although my car needs a lot of work to handle how it did from the factory - new bushings, new front left wishbone (current is bent a bit), new suspension etc...

 

2) Turbo SE, hands down. Better proportions and lines, leather to the roof. The V8 is cool but they made the wheels too big, and the lines too soft - like the front diffusor lines just look silly compared to the earlier S4s/S4/SE diffusor, and a lot of the revised details after the 1993 refresh make the car look too "soft". I also really like the glassback of the SE. It's overall a perfect design that is "of its time".

[Jacques]

Hm. I think any Wheel over 18" are just too big, and begin to look out of proportions. Some new cars today, or people working on their old cars, add a set of 19-22" and it looks very strange. Slow steering could be one side effect.

I agree that on a v8 and some late 4-pots the front end became too curvy and it kind of made the car too narrow, looking at the front.

One thing I like though, is the late rear hatch, with it's grilles. Very sporty. But in all honesty I think you're right, the glassback of the se looks more elegant and I think, also more advanced with it's intricate system to get the hot air out. I'm sure it's also better in keeping the rain away from the upper engine compartment.

 

I kind of like the round funny buttons of the late instrumentation in the v8, but absolutely don't like it for it's minimal instrumentation.

On the SE there is this nice sense of a aeroplane

The opened up rear end below the rear bumper is also much nicer and possibly more efficient on the SE.

 

Anyway, it's about driving for me, and even though I've only been out very few kilometers, it's much better on the road, than when I bought it, as it needed new tires, and a geo set up. When I drove it home from Sweden, it tramlined to the extreme at motorway speed. Now all gone and sticking to the road

Sport300 all the way 

 

Hmm. I think I am getting out the door now, leave my hat before someone gets annoyed with all this SE talk, and go do something on the Lotus Esprit Turbo SE now.

 

Cheers,

Jacques.

[Jacques]

What does one do, when it's bad weather outside? Well, I thought I'd make a drawing of a better and lighter gearstick. So I did, and went to a friend who made it for me. It weighs 58 gram exact, and is 134 gram lighter than the standard item it replaces, but otherwise same dimensions.

At first, I tried just the 7 grams carbon tube, but it wasn't strong enough even with it's 4k twill carbon. So I had to have some aluminium ends that protrudes into the carbon tube made. Then that wasn't strong enough either, so I had to make up an aluminium stick inside, glued to the carbon like the end pieces. That is then drilled for lightness, which of course cannot be see on the pic, but it's enough that I know, that I did what I could. I dropped the titanium material, and went for lighter tool aluminium. So should be lighter and strong enough.

I call it "the magic wand"  

Combined with my new gearknob which is 16mm shorter, and weighs 134 gram, which is 62 grams lighter than the longer one it replaces, it should make up for a better shifting and 196 gram lighter combination. Little Red Riding Hood is well delighted looking at the new parts  I'll defy the bad weather, and go install them later today

 

Cheers,

Jacques.

[Jacques]

While working on Little Red Riding Hood's cooling system, which seems to be a really hard task, because everything is rusted pretty hard, I thought I could at least take a break and install some nice new Lotac bushes in the new lower rear arms. So I did. Real easy for a change

 

I smeared the bush and the inside of the track arm end with copper grease as for example Powerflex does to avoid them making noises later on, and pressed it almost in in a big vice.

Then inserted a large socket and voila, inserted.

I can almost hear Little Red Riding Hood calling for the new parts to be installed, but that will be after the cooling system's been cleaned.

 

Kind regards,

Jacques.

[Jacques]

Argh, rusty crap! Everything breaks or is nearly impossible to loosen and take off. I wonder if the guys who designed the way the coolers on my SE are installed, got a complete stroke, or they went on vacation and left the task to a apprentice from the Worlds worst car Company - ford? Nah, delete that. It's worse, just completely and utterly crappy made. Surely anyone with half a witt could have designed that system 300% better. Even a dog. Even the pm.

Anyway, just airing So after three weeks of constant messing about underneath Little Red Riding Hood, I have managed to do the following:

 

- change coolant.

- flush cooling system 3 times.

- change coolant again.

- empty cooling system.

- empty chargecooler system.

- undo the fan wireing.

- undo coolant hoses to cooler.

- undo horns.

- undo all 4 air ducts to oil coolers.

- break half of the bolts.

- undo the two "y" shaped supports.

undo the double aluminium coolant tube in the front, leading to the chargecooler. Looks perfectly okay on the outside, but have one spot with corrosion on the inside.

- undo front anti roll bar.

- undo most of the bolts that hold the big cowl and the coolers.

- undo all fasteners for the fan support arms.

 

Now I need to undo the worst of it all: the oil cooler hoses. What a nasty job. I think I need to empty the front screen washer system adn take it away. Then undo the head light motors (both sides).

And then I have to buy some big wrenches and file them Down to be thin enough to catch the slim nut on the buttom of the oil coolers, while having a special wrench made to hold the steel fitting on the oil coolers hoses.

I've called some friends to come and wipe away my tears if it turns out as it usually does according to the descriptions here: the oil coolers breaks to pieces and leaks.

Below are the offending parts.

Oh well, someone have to do it, so I'd better do it sooner than later

 

All stainless fasteners are here and ready to be used with copperslip.

 

Kind regards,

Jacques

[Jacques]

While trying to make some "prepared" tools for undoing the oil cooler hoses, I thought I'd better use the time as well to prepare the front anti roll bar. So I went to a company, who blasted the two arb clamps and resurfaced them to spec gain, as atest to see how they came out. Surely will do this to many other part on Little Red Riding Hood, so she can stay in tune for many a year to come   With new stainless A4 bolts and bits and some harder poly bushes, it looks like this:

 

Kind regards,

Jacques

[Jacques]

All right, time for an update, after I inhaled some Sodium Hydroxide. Very very dangerous. Not to be taken lightly at any times. Spent some hours on hospital, being tested and under observation. I can after all say, that I think I got away with it, and no or very Little harm is done. So, I made some much more vague solutions in two glasses, and lowered each of the two oil cooler hoses underneath the Little Red Riding Hood into them, Added a bit more Sodium Hydoxide next day, and then again the following day, and voila, corroded aluminium in the steel fittings all dissolved. Clean.

So, on with the long job of taking the oil coolers off and then on to the preparation of the cowl with the three Water and air con coolers.

I cut a few pieces of lumber and laid them underneath to have a quick support, as can be seen. The wires for the fog lights were luckily not fastened to the upper edge of the front of the big cowl, but above that. So no need to do anything there.

I then went on to try and loosen the big nuts on each of the oil coolers from above. And they are really stuck. The metal tube and rubber hoses between the two oil coolers wre easy to loosen and move aside, but the lower nuts were stuck. So I got a heat blower on gas and tried that. No result. Lots of spray and cooling spray, no result. I then went to a toolshop to buy some big wrenches, whicjh I slowly grinded to be thin enough to fit the nuts. No result. I then biked home to get my mini cutter, a dremel copy, and with it's flex-hose, I thought that I could cut through the nuts. No way, this aldi machine is utterly crap, so i gave it away. Then I went on to a propper Tool shop and spoke to the very nice gentleman there. He said that Dremel sometimes changes axle size and that old dremels not on sale any more, are better than today and that I needed a 230Volt machine, not a battery driven one. So, I bought a Proxxon, with a better gear, and lots of Little stuff too. Then, on my way back to the garage, I saw a nice model hobby shop, and bought a Lotus for my Scalextric

Thus empowered, I hasted to Little Red Riding Hood, and attacked the rusty nuts. I had to remove the two light pod motors to gain more access. Absolutely quick and worth doing. There's one more bolt that holds each oilcooler right under the motors. And they broke as well

I slowly cut through each nut a few times, and a pair of pliers removed the bits. Finally! Oil coolers gone. Dead and done, but gone!!!

NOw, everything was ready to get the big cowl and the three colers Down, so I called a friend a bought some Danish in the meantime, while he drove to me. Thus bribed with Danish and coffee, I held the big cowl, and he took off the two remaining nuts from above, one on each side, and then I slowly lowered the cowl, not scraping too much. Hmm, another aircon hose. I warmed it with the gasflame-thing, and with a big wrench and a big special pilers, we could loosen the last hose, take it off and turn the cowl around, and lift if away.

Now, that is to be celebrated.

While I regard Little Red Riding Hood as being weel taken care off, I am aware, that many people don't of only seldom take the coolers off, to propperly clean them, As can be seen, they were rather dirty. I have never had cooling problems, and still it looked like this

Veeery gently I brushed and vacuum cleaned the coolers, after havning takem them out of the cowl.

Then I Blowed them clean, the I added plenty of some pink bike cleaner, that I normally use for all Things mechanically, and hosed them with warm Water, then blowed them dry. Super clean now!

Unfortunately, I may have a timy leak, though I neved measured one drop of coolant anywhere. So I will have to have it pressure tested asap.

While at it, I also washed the cowl and the 4 air ducts, as can be seen.

 

More later.

Cheers,

Jacques.

 

 

 

 

[Jacques]

Now, it was time to get on with the fans and the fan cover, which is broken in some Places, as can be seen.

I sprayed all nuts holding the fans, heated them a bit, and took them off , as can be seen. Fans could now be lifted out and put aside for inspection later. So far so good.

With the fans out of the way, I decided I could look at the small rusty philips screws and some pop rivets, and drill it out. Then finally, I could lift off the fan cover and it's attatched fan support brackets, which are rather rusty, but at least the maintain shape, as can be seen.

Then, with a propper sized drill to fit the pop rivet heads, I slowly drilled the heads off, and a pair of pliers took the rest off of the fan cover.

 

More later.

Cheers,

Jacques.

[Jacques]

with a sore throat as an added bonus of todays kork, I decided to drive my wife and I to a very nice art exhibition, displaying P.S. Krøyer and Michael Ancher.

Back home, after this break, I looked at the fan supports, and decided that I will renovate them as best as I can.

Then I went underneath Little Red Riding Hood, and inspected for damages, cracks, repair etc. Luckily no probs at all.

I wil try and find some stailess pop rivets and some very small washers for the pop rivet support, for the fan cover. I also need to repair the fan cover, being made of abs, I'll try to see, if I can find some propper abs repair material.

 

To celebrate the success of todays Work, I decided that I would get myself a Gopro camera and a lot of small stuff, to be ready for my mountain trip, and in time, for a spirited drive up and down Transfagarashan, Transalpina and Stelvio  Now one step closer.

 

More later,

Cheers,

Jacques, my patient wife and Little Red Riding Hood.

[fjmuurling]

Powdercoating

[Jacques]

Looking very good fjmuurling!

I am trying to exterminate some of the Black parts/looks, and they are already processed in a bath with new surface as per original. But I may considder powdercoating them Again afterwards.

I just had my front arb and two y stays blasted and powdercoated, and surely they look good. Now if only a certain parts dealer sent me the right arb bushings, instead of the wrong ones, so I could actually reinstall them. 

 

Was your fan cover broken any Places? and what did you do to repair it?

 

Cheers,

Jacques.

[ramjet]

Going to be beautiful when it's finished Jacques. Very nice.

[fjmuurling]

hi Jacques,

 

repairs made with glassfibre cloth and epoxy on the shroud, won't stick to the shroud. So after drying removed them, trimmed them and glued them in place again with special glue.

 

Also did a mod on the undertray so next time it won't be neccessary to remove the oil coolers.

 

Used 4 threaded rods with nuts and washers for mounting the tray on the car again.

 

see the pics.

 

Freek