Esprit Turbo project car - part3 - the further continuation

[Andyww]

12 minutes ago, Fridge said:

For the same reason eBay sellers of Lotus Esprit door handles and rear lights ask ridiculous money, whereas Fiat X1/9 and Morris Marina/Allegro/TR7 parts are a fraction.

You obviously don't work in marketing Fabian! ?

Not sure i agree, in fact I have always found pretty much the opposite, sellers of the parts for the Leyland cars are dearer than SJ sells them for. And sometimes even Lotus dealers. This usually applies also to Lucas bits such as lights etc. I recently bought some front light lenses and the cheapest I could find them online for was double SJs price.

Are you going to find a TR7 door handle for £8 ?

http://www.kelsport.net/parts/product_details.asp?PartID=4891&categoryID=34&PartsectionID=62

 

[Fridge]

That's no good for an S1 @Andyww

I speak from experience of eBay. Folk over value stuff. There's a pair of exterior door handles for sale for £200, and have been for about 8 months. Another is front indicators. Yet you can pick them up quite cheaply for other marques and simply swap.

Edited July 9, 2017 by Fridge

[Bibs]

58 minutes ago, Lotusfab said:

Run out of memory, so can't post pictures! 

I've just doubled the upload allowance for full members. While that'll cost a pretty penny I think it's worth it

[Lotusfab]

Thanks Bibs, much appreciated! 

[Andyww]

8 hours ago, Fridge said:

That's no good for an S1 @Andyww

I speak from experience of eBay. Folk over value stuff. There's a pair of exterior door handles for sale for £200, and have been for about 8 months. Another is front indicators. Yet you can pick them up quite cheaply for other marques and simply swap.

Ah OK, yes S1 might be a different kettle of fish not having raided the Leyland parts books yet but using more Italian gear.

[910Esprit]

 

9 hours ago, Andyww said:

As far as I know there were 2 types used on the Esprit, the parts books list an 079 and 082 prefix part number and the Land Rover is only the same as one of these types.The pipe fitting is a different thread on the other.

S3 turbo is same as LR series 2 but you need a 3/8 UNF 24 tpi Male to 7/16 UNF 20 tpi Female adaptor.  i.e. Landy cylinder is 3/8 and lotus cylinder is 7/16.   I assume the 'other' cylinder is a non-turbo model that has a completely different bell housing 

[Steve4012]

Did you find the adaptor sealed into the Land Rover slave without a problem? I found mine had a weep so had to use plumbers ptfe tape to cure.

[910Esprit]

No problem - 'My' adaptor doesn't seat at the bottom of the thread in the same way the hose does, so I just used a copper washer between the adaptor and the cylinder, both of which have a machined face.   However, I suppose there will be different adaptors out there so, you may need to use a different solution to deal with what you have got   

[Lotusfab]

Clutch slave.

Seems a bit cheap?

[910Esprit]

That must be a record!   I paid a couple of quid more for a boxed/branded 'Bearmach' one - which seems to be a respectable manufacturer of Landy parts.   No complaints about quality so far.

[Lotusfab]

Where did you buy it from?

[Lotusfab]

Copper Bronze for Bond cabbages!

Well we all know the problems trying to get the Copper Bronze colour correct. Paint formulation changes over the years and the original colour code, when purchased, is not an exact replication of the original. The other problem is the extremely rare Copper Fire cars that we have left now,that have not been resprayed, are a faded version of the original colour.

You may remember Matts fuel cap he kindly lent. The original Copper Fire consisted of a base coat and laquer. The problem being the outer layer of laquer had gone milky with age giving the colour a faded, lighter look. On the sides of the cap the darker original colour, that had not suffered with light corrosion, could still be seen. Neil CEO at Thompson Body repair Plymouth has skilfully removed the outer laquer layer from a very small section of the fuel cap. It now appears unfaded as per the sides of the cap. He is busy matching the original colour exactly. Once the final paint formula has been derived the weights of each component will be recorded. He will then be able to supply the paint on demand!

So for Bond fans accross the planet your problems are solved. If you like my car when it's finished you will be able to get the closest paint match to the FYEO Esprit in over 30 years! Christmas has come early-thanks Neil!???????

[Bibs]

[TAR]

I love your determination.  

[Lotusfab]

Thanks Tim, you've just got to keep going with these projects and eventually all the problems get sorted, especially with the help on here, thanks all!

[Lotusfab]

G_reaper on here kindly sent me a sample of Leather from MPW71V which he used to own. He did me a massive favour as this was the  First Copperfire car, the first to have LOTUS in the bumper and was trimmed for the movie The sample matches exactly the Connelly colour swatch and a sample Richard sent me from an early dry sump. So we can conclude the Bond interior colour was a standard Lotus leather colour as supplied by Connelly leather. They can supply new hides in the colour, but only six at a go and they are very expensive!

[silverfrost]

Glad G reaper has helped you out on your ocd Fabian 

Top man g reaper ,  

Looking forward to more updates on this project. 

[Andyww]

On 09/07/2017 at 09:21, Lotusfab said:

This is the nightmare or going Compomotive. My advice, buy a dry sump if you can or polish the BBS wheels. 

The Comps were not originally polished though were they? For the closest they would need to replicate the comps anodized finish. Maybe that could be achieved by lacquering them after polishing. That would also eliminate the need for constant polishing.

 

[Lotusfab]

Yep very true. The problem is so many people have polished their wheels to use restore them that has become the accepted norm.

G reaper has also helped with the carpets. We know they were edged in the same colour and were non standard trim. So the only way to match them will be from photographs, which are unreliable. 

Heres a close up of Matts fuel cap. Polished in a tiny area. Difficult to see on the picture. The original laquer is still on, just a very small area has been thinned to remove the Milky effect. You can see on the lower edge the original umolested Copper Fire!

[Lotusfab]

Seems far less Metallic looking than other colours and the stock Lotus paint code I have seen. Neil has done test cards in all of them and is busy matching this exactly so we can compare with the "off the shelf" colour code". 

This is taking a lot of work but as I said before once we have done this anyone can contact Neil and get the correct Copper Fire. Shame someone else handnt done it already!

[Lotusfab]

Didn't know he had a car resprayed?

[Lotusfab]

Ahhh thanks.

Well thanks to Loose Cannon my Burglar stickers are all ready to go on!

[Lotusfab]

I have built the cradle so the body can be moved. Much simpler than my over engineered previous attempts that could have move the body and engine! This time two bits of 4x2 bolted with 10 mm coach bolts through the seat rail holes. Then a wheel on each end of each 4x2. Simple and practcle. The body doesn't weigh much. Think I will remove the wheels for transport, so it doesn't roll around! They are quick to put on with coach screws.

[Lotusfab]

Now how to lower the body down onto the trailer?

[Fridge]

Yes, those castors will help.

I did the same on my body shell. Although I used much larger ones to decrease the rolling resistance.