Esprit Turbo project car - part3 - the further continuation

[Lotusfab]

Thanks Tim, lot of effort to get this far!

[Andyww]

Seems such a shame to cover up that beauty with a bodyshell...

[silverfrost]

Fantastic work Fabian,  The chassis looks great as does the suspension 

[Rolls]

Looks great.

I still don't understand why the chassis is insulated.... I would have thought its better to insulate the body tunnel instead?

Turbo values - we just need a couple of hipsters with long beards (think Magnus Walker) to dig the grove then it's buckle up time!

[silverfrost]

I would of thought the insulation would of worked better by having it on the chassis imo Roland,   As the heat from the steel chassis will be slighty blocked by the insulation doing its job, then the small gap distance between the body and chassis will disipate the heat a little maybe ?   

I also really like the look of that stuff especially when folks do the firewall and floors,  shame its hidden as when fitted well it looks very smart and also serves purpose to boot which is nice    

[Lotusfab]

I put it on the chassis as the original foam was glued in the tunnel area and the chassis seems a good compromise, which most people on here seem to do. Inside the cabin would make quite a thickness with the carpets in. 

[Fridge]

The only good thing about putting that covering on the chassis rather than on the body shell is to increase the mass of the chassis walls, thus reducing resonation.

Otherwise it's a rust trap.

Regardless of whatever rust proofing you use.

The original was on the body shell tunnel for a reason. I'm using closed cell foam on the S1 instead of the original 1970's version. It's denser and more water resistant. Body shell goes on the chassis on Friday finally.

[TAR]

It doesn't appear to be insulation from heat but more to do with sound as David mentions above. I'm sure its to help stop resonance.

 

[Andyww]

The bodyshell would be the part subject to "drumming" so likely the foam would be better there from the sound aspect.

On the Europa there was felt glued to the chassis and across the top of the crossmember, and as Fridge mentioned it would get soaked and rust the chassis but a closed-cell would not do that hopefully.

What about putting enough foam there to completely fill the gap between the chassis and body? That would be the best sound insulation.

[Fridge]

32 minutes ago, Andyww said:

The bodyshell would be the part subject to "drumming" so likely the foam would be better there from the sound aspect.

On the Europa there was felt glued to the chassis and across the top of the crossmember, and as Fridge mentioned it would get soaked and rust the chassis but a closed-cell would not do that hopefully.

What about putting enough foam there to completely fill the gap between the chassis and body? That would be the best sound insulation.

What @andreww says is the best IMO.

It's the closest to what Lotus originally fitted, and for good reason. Using a technically more superior modern closed cell foam aids both the sound deadening and also prevents too much water ingress or retention.

Unfortunately my TLF account prevents me from posting a photo of what mine looks and fits like with the update.

[Lotusfab]

POR 15 shouldn't rust in theory. yep,it's for noise, the same reason there's foam above and below the fuel tanks to stop drumming noise. The chassis is a sound tube just the same. The stuff I used is a high mass sound deadening material. I think it's water repellant as bitumen based, but with the POR15 and galvanised underneath the chassis is bomb proof. I left the galvanised coating on because it was 90 percent intact.

[Lotusfab]

Paint Colour,

yes back to the old chestnut, tin hat on and standing by for incoming!  Why didn't I think of this before, ask the person who owned the original colour swatch car for the bond movie. Grim reaper on the forum! I have had a chat with him and hope he will make a comment here. He had a sample of the original leather from the car which he kindly sent me and I have matched exactly via Connelly Leather. 

What he said about the colour is very interesting the most important bit to take away A19 (as available now or the 2000 sample) is not the original,colour of the Bond Turbo Esprit ! Hopefully he will be along to explain why. It's cleared up  for me why the A19 from 2000 doesn't look much like Matts fuel cap or the Bond car pictures  and neither does the other formulation!

[Lotusfab]

Heres what Grimreaper said on the Bond thread.

[Lotusfab]

Grim Reaper said MPW71V got a scratch on the bonnet when he owned it, I think he said around 1994?  He took it to a paint shop who attempted to repair the damage. They used A19 paint and guess what it didn't match! Apparently the Bond car needed to be quite dull for filming purposes. When the car got to the showrooms a lot of people didn't like the colour which looked very brown and dull without light. So the paint  was changed to the A19 we have now. He has confirmed Matts fuel cap is the colour to go with as it is the best match to the movie car! 

 

[Lotusfab]

Here's an example of how unreliable pictures are!

[Andyww]

There are 4 "Copper" colours in the Lotus paint code list. Maybe it was one of the other 3?

 

[Lotusfab]

Its pretty irrelevant as PPG told me none of these formulations are available or correct. They suggested copying a part, which I have done. What we do know is the A19 that is aviailable(I don't know what formulation it is as PPG say they don't have it) is different to the 2000 A19, which is not the colour of the Bond car anyway.  Matts car was sprayed at a similar time and is totally original paint. It's looks the same as the Deezer car in the pictures and matches the owners discription of the paint. I am confident it will be as close to the car in the Deezer museum as you can get without scanning the paint of the original car. I will however go there and check a test card after I have sprayed mine!???

[silverfrost]

Fabian crazy as always     

But the stuff above does make me think what is classed as an actual bond car replica ?  Is it the actual bond car as used in the movie or the actual colour what we as the public saw on screen.  I would say what we saw on screen imo.  i,e the lighter copper coloured car.  Going of what lotus said about the actual bond car colour not been liked in the showroom sounds a bit worrying to me lol.  

Its a bit like making a full size replica gollum off lord of the rings, the actual movie used some dude in a blue suit, but the screen portrayed the evil little goblin fellow.  What would you prefer to build a replica of, the blue suited man that was actually in the film or the creature actually seen on screen 

[G_Reaper]

Hi Fabian,

It was good to talk to you the other day.

If you read my other posts with regards to Copper Fire you can see my love hate relationship with MPW71V's colour. I bought the car from Lotus back in the late 80s and the paint work was factory fresh. Looking at your photos I can clearly see the A19 colour you have a sample of is much too bright very much the same as MPW71V is today (way too bright). The Copper Fire Bond colour appears mostly brown until light by bright sunlight. In fact MPW71V's V5 states the colour as brown. It is easy to understand why the colour was carefully selected for the movie as the effect of having the car treble illuminated by the sky, snow and set lighting could have caused many issues if using a more reflective metallic colour. The original Copper Fire on MPW71V came alive brilliantly in bright sunlight and was fantastic, then other days with not so much light or if covered in a slight film of dirt I would be left feeling rather disappointed at how brown it looked. 

I would not be surprised if the variations of Copper Fire used on some production cars were to try and mitigate how brown the true Bond Copper Fire colour tended to look in general lighting. Adding a more orange tint and extra metallic particles appears to be the resultant later A19.

When I saw MPW71V after it had been painted I immediately could see it was the wrong colour however Jim the owner at the time stated it was painted Copper Fire (just the wrong Copper Fire in my opinion).

Go with the fuel cap colour Fab it looks spot on to me.  At least if you match that colour and you don't use an off the shelf formulation of Copper Fire it will be the nearest you can get with modern paints. 

Cheers Mike

[Lotusfab]

Thanks Mike for the contribution. I don't believe there is anyone more qualified to make this choice that the actual owner of one of the cars! I will be going with the fuel cap match. ????

[stephenwhyte]

Case closed as I see it - Mike has confirmed your thinking Fabian, and as you say is probably the best placed person to judge.

[Lotusfab]

Thanks Stephen, I agree and am glad to have a conclusive result. Now I can move on with confidence to the next problem! Fortunately the car is in excellent hands with Neil and I can't wait to see it painted!

The hardened steel washers have finally arrived from S and J so better get ready with my spring compressors and fit them. I'm going a bit off piste with a hub replacement on my wife's Disco3 which has to be done first,  better fix it or no more Lotus Esprit Turbo!

[Lotusfab]

You may remember Mike sent me a sample of the original leather from MPW71V ( Bond colour test car)which I matched to an original Lotus sample from Connelly Leather. Steve Fulcher will be retrimming this car to Bond spec. We will have to match the leather colour, as purchasing new hide from Connelly is not cost effective, as I would have to buy five hides! So,if anyone wants the original Bond interior colour Steve will be able to help you!

[Paul Coleman]

I'm sure a course of therapy for your Bond obsession would be cheaper?

[Lotusfab]

Your right!