Esprit Turbo project car - part3 - the further continuation

[Lotusfab]

Well need to get the niff naff stuff done so of to Bell and Coville to pick up my newly made bumper brackets tomorrow, remember they were rotten. The plan is simple

make a template to locate the brackets exactly. Cut out the rotten wood. Bond a new piece of marine ply in. Cover in fibreglass and refix the new brackets. No point in putting rotten bits on the car! Will probably have the front to do too!

Then have the fun bit of repairing the outer bumper, respraying and yes painting the White LOTUS bit! 

[silverfrost]

Yes not a nice job Fabian and they end up in a right old state,  Looking at your plywood from the picture it looks actually in pretty good shape to what most look like, just a pity the bracket bolts turn like something of the titanic. 

[Lotusfab]

Yep, pretty far gone! Looks like rivnuts again, so rusted it's hard to tell. Can anyone confirm this?

[Andyww]

I think they used wood inserts of the type which have spikes which are pulled into the wood when tightened.

Actually I really like the use of marine ply on these cars. On the bulkhead and bumpers, top of the tanks etc. Its a radical but neat engineering solution. Obviously the bumper wood deteriorates but then so would have steel.

[Lotusfab]

Thanks Andy.

Well thanks for the tip on Brick cleaner, whoever that was it worked! I decided to try this rather than discard my fuel tanks and have managed to return one fuel tank to bare metal. It's been an Epic job but the tank is now very very clean and good enough to etch and then put an epoxy tank sealer in. I would not recommend anyone to try and recover tanks that have been sitting this long, as the effort required is extreme! If you cut corners the sealer will fail. It's taken hours and hours to get it to this point and I still have the other one to do. 

Skis

I have managed to get the original bindings in red. Bond fans will know the originals were orange. I intend to respray and restore the bindings and have contacted Tyrolia to confirm the original orange paint code used. Will then have to replace the decals!

The plan at the moment is to get the car running, drive it and about two years from now take the body off and a nut and bolt exact Bond copy! 

 

 

 

[DaveyT]

Hi Fabian, 

did you use the brick acid neat, or dilute it at all. What sort of timescale for leaving it in?

i did mine last visit, but used a 3:1 dilution for about 15 mins, then repeated.

 It got rid of most, but left some spots of rust on the inside base.

cheers.

[Lotusfab]

Hi Dave,

I used the frost cleaner and repeated twice which left patches. Then 1 to 1 brick cleaner for about two hours, watching it very closely you could almost see the patches dissolving. It really is as good as a blasted finish now. But a great deal of effort! I wouldn't advise anyone to go down this route and obviously extreme caution is needed when using any chemicals. 

Disclaimer - anyone who uses any info on this blog or repeats what I have done does so entirely at their own risk. Whilst I endeavour to get everything correct there will be errors, but hopefully some of the info will help.

[Lotusfab]

Compomotive conversion

Im still going to convert the car. The biggest problem is parts. I have got the front Lips which can be used as a pattern for a rolled edge finish. There doesn't seem to be anyone who does this now, but it's a good idea as it increases the strength of the lip buy about 20 percent, changing the crystal structure in the metal. 

If anyone would like to swap I have the 15 X 1.5 Compomotive Lips. I would like the 15 x 1 Lips. They were changed I believe due to air leaks. The 1.5 are better, but sadly not on the bond car so I'm willing to swap them, any takers? 

If anyone is looking at any Compomotive barrels or lips right now I'm your man! Here's my shopping list. I will convert this car, so if you have some and are thinking of a conversion that probably won't happen please help out?

front

lips 15 x 1

barrel 15x5

rear

lips 15 x 4

barrel 15 x 3

for info I believe the tyres will function correctly on a band of rim widths. How the handling or bearings are effected I can't say but my guess is unless you are exploring the G envelope it won't be an issue.

there are substantial costs beyond the actual wheels the entire rear suspension needs changing to include radius arms, upper and lower links. Then all the hubs if you want four stud. ☹️️☹️️☹️️☹️️?

Have to go, I have several days worth of tank cleaning and turning on my second tank!???????

[Lotusfab]

Well after two days of hard work tank two is nearly up to standard. What have I learned?

Brick cleaner works really well, but needs to be neutralised after use.

the POR 15 is also pretty good, but more time in the tank is better. Really need to flush to tanks well Repeating the POR15 cleansing if any patches are left.

When blocking off the holes I made  a bung where you can by wrapping tape over a set screw. Forcing  it in the hole and tape over it. Using this method I got no leaks. 

Make sure you have a heat gun and drying it out well if you need more than one day, otherwise the tank will rust.

i found practically no corrosion in the tank, it was just hardened fuel and sediment and can all be cleaned out but it took  a lot of effort. All the corrosion was external. 

Tommorrow I have to complete the cleansing. Metal prep both tanks, dry out and apply the sealer.

[Lotusfab]

Veni Vedi Veci,

As some one once said, this is a battle, well Sort of, at least tank 1 is perfectly clean and etched ready for sealer!?????Tank two is fighting back hard! Whole day of brick cleaner. Flushout, degreaser cleaner. Metal prep and still sediment is coming loose! The art of this is to keep repeating the cycles until the tank is perfectly clean. The sediment is dissolving but it takes time and patience! The bridges are burned only one way to go. I am confident these will be really good tanks when done and will outlast me. Tank 1 has really come out well, hard to believe really. I plan to POR15 the exterior. So with epoxy internal and external coats these should be pretty good! As I said before this is not for the faint of heart, it's a massive amount of effort. The rest of the resto has stopped for about two weeks because of these tanks. Oh must go the alarm is signalling a tank turn!

[Lotusfab]

Alert - Ski update

Well you recall they made it from the mountains of central Oregon to Portland thanks to the gerosity of a complete stranger who very kindly offered me the skis and then brought them to Portland! The biggest problem was getting them from the US to the UK.  A massive thanks to Roo on the forums who has solved the biggest problem and picked them up.????????????????????

Another bug thanks to the Lotus Forums without which all this would be very very difficult if not impossible! ????????????

Now time for me to hone my eBay skills, as I still may need a jet to recover the second pair that's waiting out there?

[Lotusfab]

Thanks to Steves tip, brick cleaner, the second tank is almost there. If  I ever do this again it's definitely the way to go. It has converted the tank back to what looks like a galvanised finish. It has taken at least 1.5 hrs for each tank side, but I suppose it depends on the concentration and the temperature. If s very effective, but as I said before a great deal of effort! Still have to seal both tanks!

[Lotusfab]

Found this number scratched in the car, is it if any significance?

208GT or 1208GT?

You can just see it scratched in the centre of the tailgate?

[Andyww]

 

Chassis number. They put it on various places.

 

[910Esprit]

Engravings are now popping up everywhere.  Mine also has a GT suffix, so I assume that means something.   

[RichardJGC]

16 minutes ago, Lotusfab said:

Found this number scratched in the car, is it if any significance?

208GT or 1208GT?

You can just see it scratched in the centre of the tailgate?

Last few digits of chassis number. You may find it inside on the bulkhead panel behind the seats like I did.....oh also on the heater box too. You find it in numerous places ?

 

 

 

[Andyww]

Always seems to have the "GT" for some reason.

My F328 has these numbers in various places but the suffix is GD which means "Guida a Destra". Some Ferrari restorers restore the numbers where they visible eg on wishbones.

 

[stephenwhyte]

GT : Giugiaro Turbo - c'mon boys I thought you all knew that......?

[Rolls]

8 hours ago, Lotusfab said:

brick cleaner, the second tank is almost there. If  I ever do this again

Isn't brick Cleaner hydrochloric acid diluted with water? Good to know as that will be cheaper.

 

[silverfrost]

You  can get it from any decent sized homebuild centre Roland,  and yes its very cheap just a few bucks,  Designed to get rid of excess mortor splash after bricklaying ,  I have since learnt that its easier to spend 10 or 20 minutes wiping down the brick faces with a wet sponge though after doing diy brick laying at home rather than use this stuff again  

As said though great use of fro it as a tank cleaner.

 

[Lotusfab]

Yep and very cheap.

[Lotusfab]

Fuels Tanks

Yes I'm still doing them! If about three weeks of endless cleaning cycles makes you an expert then I'm a fuel tank cleaning expert! My tanks were pretty good outside, very grotty inside. I'm proud to say they are now extremely clean. I have done two cleaner degreaser cycles and a metal prep cycle on each tank. I decided they were not good enough and so then used 10 litres if brick cleaner. I repeated the metal prep cycle on one tank. It has stood for about a week and oxidised slightly, whilst I have been doing the other tank, even though I dried it out very well!

I have got to a point now where they are spotless but require another final metal prep cycle. I have concluded POR15 metal prep must have an anti oxidising element too it because of the rate of corrosion of a tank cleaned with brick cleaner. The brick cleaner is very very effective at removing the dirt in the tank. It's an acid but can easily be neutralised with an Alkaline solution turning back to a harmless liquid after use. 

The tanks have very little if any internal corrosion. After coating with epoxy they should be really good and outlast me! 

Wheels

I am making slow progress on acquiring bits. Most importantly I have original Compomotive Lips for the front wheels from which to take a pattern if it's necessary to remanufacture rolled edge rear lips. I also have cx500 centres although I am desperately seeking one more. I have about two years to acquire the other bits, but if absolutely necessary I will have them made(hope not)☹️️☹️️☹️️☹️️☹️️ 

Well seem to have wasted a lot if time on the tanks but no point in putting them back unless they are perfect. 

[Mesprit87]

My guess is that the brick cleaner is chloridric acid which I think is harder to neutralize while the POR product must be phosphoric acid.

phosphoric acid leaves a protective coating and acts better when warm. I use it on lightly corroded parts that I don't want to blast. When you coat the part and let it sit it will turn greyish and creates a protective coat. I usually leave my bolts treated this way bare and had a good result. BUT, in your case I wouln't leave the POR product for too long on the last soak because that "coating" if not sanded (it creates a white powder) will prevent good adhesion.

Good luck with the tanks, the worse is behind you (in that department!)

 

[Lotusfab]

Thanks Luc, interesting. My extra large 3 litres of metal prep gas just arrive so will soon finish this I hope!

[Lotusfab]

Have finally sealed the fuel tanks. My conclusion is after three weeks of hard work if your tanks have been sitting around for a very long time, just buy new ones! Still have to prep the outside and paint with POR15. I'm having a stainless steel crossflow pipe made by PMN Engineering. With this bit, my new Aluminium fuel pipe and the new rubber pipes the entire system should be bullet proof! ?????

Have got a secondary restoration of ski bindings going on. Tyrolia 380s to be exact. You may recognise this foot?the bond ones look orange, so a spray job and new decals! Any ski experts out there, how do I take them to bits?