1979 Yellow Lotus Eclat: My project thread

[oilmagnet477]

Dave,

Are you staying near Hethel? I'm only 1/2 an hour away if you need a bed or get stuck.

Cheers

Ant

[soldave]

7 hours ago, CharlieCroker said:

Great to see you getting out and about, sure does look awesome in the photos, if I knew I might have made the trip out and joined you! 

Thanks man - the praise means a lot

Am heading to the Total Retro Show this Sunday at Westmorland County Showground. Don't know how far that is for you, but should be a good day and weather forecast is nice.

3 hours ago, oilmagnet477 said:

Dave,

Are you staying near Hethel? I'm only 1/2 an hour away if you need a bed or get stuck.

Cheers

Ant

Appreciate the offer - I'm intending to go there and back in a day as I have work the next day but will keep it in mind.

___

In other news, I met up with Trunnion 74 today who came over to have a look at the Eclat and take some measurements of the centre console light (which incidentally differs from the Eclat to the Elite. Had some good chats, exchanged some parts, and may have now found a solution to the super dim (& rare) bulb for that console light. I've now got an LED fitted in there, which just fits the housing and seems to offer just the right amount of light at night (see below).

[Trunnion 74]

You didn't hang about fitting that   Glad I was able to bring something to the party!

Certainly gives more light than the woefully inadequate MES Lensed bulb, looks good.  This must have been how Mr Chapman saw it in his mind

 

[soldave]

3 hours ago, Trunnion 74 said:

You didn't hang about fitting that   Glad I was able to bring something to the party!

Certainly gives more light than the woefully inadequate MES Lensed bulb, looks good.  This must have been how Mr Chapman saw it in his mind

 

We'll see how long it lasts given my lack of electrical skills when it comes to connecting terminals, but I might get to test it a little on the drive home from East Anglia tomorrow

[soldave]

A little trip down to Hethel yesterday for a Classic Team lotus factory tour. Highly recommended to anyone who hasn't done it before. Some really important racing history there, and great to see what they're doing to cars these days and how they're supporting Lotus historical racing worldwide. Spoke to Clive Chapman about my Eclat, and got my owner's handbook signed by him, using his father's technical drawing pencil.

My Eclat clocked up around 370 miles yesterday on the round trip, and didn't miss a beat - I was highly impressed. Only couple of things I noticed were:

• At night, when my car goes over a bump, the right indicator light inside the car, and the BEAM indicator light flicked on for a microsecond. Am sure it's just a connection somewhere behind the gauges, so am not going to worry about it for now.
• Every now and then, the water temperature and fuel gauges drop down quite a bit, then after a few seconds build back up to normal levels and stay steady. Again, I'm going to say the wonders of late 1970s British car electrics.

Finally, I managed to find some good opportunities for photos my Eclat too. Excuse the excessive filtering - I get a little carried away with effects sometimes!

 

 

Edited May 4, 2017 by soldave

[Clive59]

Water temp and fuel are driven by 10V voltage regulator which is a very crude bimetal strip and can vary a bit, but typical of 60's tech.

Nice pics!

 

 

[Trunnion 74]

Great pics Dave!     Sounds like you had a really good day, both at Hethal and driving.   How well did the new panel light perform in proper night time conditions?

[oilmagnet477]

great photos Dave, I'm at it again mate, but have you seen this?

3 digits out from yours......tempting........

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1980-LOTUS-ELITE-SILVER-/262965351432?hash=item3d39f4d408:g:rbQAAOSwT-FZCkJh

[Trunnion 74]

That's in Balby , Doncaster, not far from me   Not sure I would want it without the oily bits though.

[soldave]

20 minutes ago, oilmagnet477 said:

great photos Dave, I'm at it again mate, but have you seen this?

3 digits out from yours......tempting........

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1980-LOTUS-ELITE-SILVER-/262965351432?hash=item3d39f4d408:g:rbQAAOSwT-FZCkJh

That's crazy that it's only 3 numbers from me and about 20 minutes' drive. Shame the guy is thinking of parting it out

34 minutes ago, Trunnion 74 said:

Great pics Dave!     Sounds like you had a really good day, both at Hethal and driving.   How well did the new panel light perform in proper night time conditions?

It did well thanks. It needs moving a little as it was pointing towards the gauges, but i could live with it like that to be fair. So much nicer than just being pitch black inside the car though.

[CharlieCroker]

Loving the lens flare, I could do magical things in photoshop with that, keep up the good work! 

[soldave]

On 05/05/2017 at 06:56, CharlieCroker said:

Loving the lens flare, I could do magical things in photoshop with that, keep up the good work! 

Thanks man. The lens flare is actually an overlay; it was raining at the time I took that shot!

[Sternwhale]

Great to see the spotlight actually lighting up the dash. What was the bulb that you used?

[soldave]

3 hours ago, Sternwhale said:

Great to see the spotlight actually lighting up the dash. What was the bulb that you used?

@Trunnion 74 is much better placed to answer that, as he very kindly gave me the bulb and holder. Once he's given you the bulb size, my advice would be to get the shortest holder that you can. Otherwise it will hit the rollover hoop and you won't be able to angle it exactly how you want.

[soldave]

Just looking through old pictures and documents on my Eclat, and noticed this photo of the car in its olden, golden days.

The thing that struck me was at the front: colour-coded bumpers. Am wondering if they were original on the gold Eclats, or whether it was something done between manufacture and when it was resprayed yellow.

[oilmagnet477]

hemmed in by a Metro and, is that a Midget?

BL simply outclassed lol

Tom is now seriously keen on Gold for his Éclat, having paid an excellent visit to @Farmer Bob recently to have a good look at his progress.

You know, every time I look at my cars, I am stunned by simply how far ahead of their time they were.

Imagine if the 70s' hadn't happened and these came out today....I'd be at the front of the queue

[soldave]

One more picture for tonight and it's one I'm quite pleased with. Obtained during last week's trip to Team Lotus, I now have a signature and comment from Clive Chapman in my Eclat Owners Handbook, written with Colin's technical drawing pencil.

[Trunnion 74]

15 hours ago, oilmagnet477 said:

hemmed in by a Metro and, is that a Midget?

Not just any Metro, looks like a MG Turbo Metro!

[Berend72]

Nice!!!! Been away busy moving and seems missing a lot over here  Great job having your owners handbook signed! I have been looking for a owners handbook, but sadly hard to find..... Great pics, Nice topic anyway  

[oilmagnet477]

2 hours ago, Trunnion 74 said:

Not just any Metro, looks like a MG Turbo Metro!

Ok Roland, I'll grant you that it might be quick - still shit though  If it was a Renault 5 GT Turbo then I might be interested!!

[Trunnion 74]

28 minutes ago, oilmagnet477 said:

I'll grant you that it might be quick - still shit though  

Never a truer word said

[soldave]

Knew it was all going so well and couldn't last!

Clicking coming from the rear end on rotation (I suspect one of the UJs, which were only replaced 2,000 miles ago). Made a technical thread about it so won't go into details too much, but quite annoying given show season has started, and I'm away next week on business so can't do much any work on it.

[silverfrost]

Bummer Dave,  Murphys law that it starts playing up now with the show season underway,  maybe she is shy lol.

Good luck and hope you get it sorted soon.

[soldave]

5 minutes ago, silverfrost said:

Bummer Dave,  Murphys law that it starts playing up now with the show season underway,  maybe she is shy lol.

Good luck and hope you get it sorted soon.

Shy?!?! She's bright bloody yellow, she better not be shy!

[silverfrost]

Means nothing Dave , so are those poisonous bright tree frogs that like to be left alone lol