Esprit Turbo project car - part3 - the further continuation

[Lotusfab]

Assuming the correct size is available.

[silverfrost]

If  i recall correctly Mattwatts on here had some made up for folks on here, proberbly best to drop him a pm regarding the difference between the models as he will have the measurments that he used to make them.  Buying ones and turning them down i.e the oil filled ones is a great idea, but only really if you have access to a lathe or get a mate to do it,  otherwise it does not work out cost effective and easier in the long to get from sj,  Have always been tempted by one of those small  lathes, but they are still large and for how often i would use it, may not be that good of an investment and even the little ones take up loads of space 

[Lotusfab]

Yep would be nice to have a lathe. Will only buy them if I can get them to work off the shelf. The problem I see is there will be no give in a bronze bearing so it may be difficult to fit into the beam and get it all working.

[Lotusfab]

Managed to remove the water bottle holder. Three of the four bolts had seized! Still have to drill the rivnuts out and repair.!

[Lotusfab]

Engine bay Epoxy coat complete.

[Steve4012]

Looks really good. What was the epoxy paint you used in the end Fabian?

[Lotusfab]

Hempel fiberglass paint.

Have nearly finished removing all bits for powder coating. Just the silver side braces to come off then the doors are. Coming to pieces for adjusting, new seals etc.

[silverfrost]

Looks great Fabian,  Makes such a difference to the engine bay 

[Lotusfab]

Thanks, won't see much of it but it's all about getting it clean and under control. I have cleaned the harness once, just another go over required. The engine bay took a lot of cleaning to get it good enough to paint. Still cleaning the chassis have done it several times but the dirt is really caked on. Have my 10kg of Amazon cotton cloths and 5 litres of POR 15 degreaser. Just a lot more effort and will get there. Need to raise the rear and take all of the rear suspension apart to get access.Will need all of the suspension bushes and shocks replacing eventually. Engine mount on the exhaust side is poor as the heat sheild has gone walkies. Will have to make one. Was examining the leather trim yesterday. The door cards are excellent as are most of the other leather bits. The cloth areas are poor. However Steve Fulcher has saved some original leather for me to convert the seats to full leather. Then a recolour including the steering wheel. Will be a lot of work to take this all apart again for a respray, but easier when all the rivnuts have been replaced.

Had to tow the car out of my shed to get access to the interior and jet wash the underneath. Problem is can't push it back in as it's sunk into the grass. So have bolted a four bolt steel anchor point into the shed floor, which is a steel reinforced raft I made some years back. Now I have a winch, so hopefully problem sorted. Doors coming a part today!

[silverfrost]

Good call on the winch system Fabian   Even pushing the esprit up a very slight incline on decent ground to get into a garage is a nightmare on your own !   Good luck on the rear suspension and hope it all comes apart easially including that bloody rear bottom arm stud !  

[Lotusfab]

passenger door jamed shut after opening yesterday. Will have to mess around will the locks and try and open it. Have polished some of the paint, come up better than expected. The drivers door card is off. The esprit has come a long way since the S1. A much more substantial loom, better method of securing the overhead trim. The door internals look pretty clean.  

[Lotusfab]

[Lotusfab]

Managed to open door by moving the catch by tapping it with a hammer from inside the boot! The passenger door is in amazing condition as the plastic behind the door card is intact! Somebody has replaced all the fuses with new 20 amp ones, don't think this is correct???

[WolfgangK]

My doors jammed shut because the adjustment of the lock in the door got loose.

The lock is operated by some rods and the adjustment is made by bent metal strips that clamp the rod. In my case the metal strips did not have enough tension and therefore moved on the rod.

Maybe it's worth checking those metal clamps.

[Lotusfab]

Hi Wolfgang, thanks. I had removed the internal handle and pulled and pushed the linkage rods. The mechanism was jamming on the door catch, even though the lock was open. Bashing the catch to move its position from in the boot did the trick and the door opened.

[Andyww]

The catch on the body probably needs an extra shim inserted. Every Lotus I have owned has had this problem. On my Excel it used to jam only after a drive so the wife was always trapped and had to climb over the tunnel which she was less than enthusiastic about after a while!

[Lotusfab]

Thanks Andy, would be a shame to divorce over a shim! Think buying the shim would be a lot cheaper!

[Lotusfab]

I have the old style S1 type fuse boxes in the Turbo. The guy before me has replaced all the fuses with 20 amp. Can someone confirm should they be as in the following list thanks.

[Tocus]

update: i still got the compomotive wheels, and i still also have the BBS wheels for sale, (the guy who had bought the compomotive wheels dont answer back anymore, so i still have them)

but i maby keep them they good very good under the car! (if i dont sell the car i maby respray the car in coper fire red)

 

 

[Andyww]

1 hour ago, Lotusfab said:

Thanks Andy, would be a shame to divorce over a shim! Think buying the shim would be a lot cheaper!

Actually I ended up buying a 3D printer to print my own integral shims/surround on my current Esprit. Still cheaper!

OK I didnt only buy it for that.

 

[Andyww]

That fuse list looks like from a Federal car. The UK cars had fuses as an afterthought, as in all prior Lotuses. Or possibly because they add weight At least they doubled the number from the Elan which had 4 to 8 on the Esprit! There are lots of other inline fuses hidden away under the dash where they cant be accessed without risk of bodily injury.

I think the 8 are supposed to be 35 amp. But my heater blower fuse kept blowing so I replaced it with a 20A slow blow and that doesnt blow.

Some of the circuits they forgot to fuse at all such as the headlamp motor control circuit so if the wires chafe through on the motor the wiring harness acts as the fuse and smoke comes out, as I have discovered in the past.

The early Turbos left the S2 fused fan relay in place but the extra load of the 3 fans causes the fuseholder to melt. Strangely the fuseholder seems to be weaker than the fuse! I have modified mine extensively in that area, one big relay for one fan and another big relay for the other two which come on when the A/C is on or the temp switch closes. 

[Lotusfab]

Thats interesting! I like the plastic door shims. May try different capacity fuses based on the federal car and the loads. Like most of the S1 chaps I added lots of extra relays and upgraded the wiring with thinwall high capacity circuits added as required. My new loom for the S1 was  missing quite a few of the circuits so had to add them. The company that made ithe main part made an error and piput an extra wire in which kept shorting the Veglia display. Only took me a few weeks to detectbthe problem. Cut the wire off and it worked perfectly! 

Bauke, I like your cars! Is that your silver one too? Those comps look good on the black car! Soon there will be a lot of copper fire Turbos out there! We could hold a Copper fire Turbo day?

[jonroberts]

So even the later Turbo cars don't have relays on the high current circuits ? Amazing..

[Lotusfab]

Hi Jon, my post was a bit confusing I was referring to my S1 circuits. Looking a the diagrams most things on the Turbo have relays, cooling fans etc. However it appears the window motors have no relays! 

When I started this I was wondering what the sensors inside were for I think I have the answer. They are Ultrasonic detectors from a factory fitted alarm. It was called Pulsafe. Here's the circuits. Now I know what all the extra bits were for. Shame I threw them I could have gotbthe alarm working again! 

[Lotusfab]