77 Federal Esprit project *pics

[woozie]

Hi all..

Its Been a while since I've spoken, a few of you gave me some fantastic advice on certain stuff concerning the cars build. I have some photos to share with you. I have many many more photos but this is the progress so far. Its hard working on my own but I'm happy with the progress so far.

A little bit of history : she was shipped over from Cali having been there for best part of 30 years. The owner unfortunately passed, and his son took it on. He didn't do any work on it for 5 years and finally decided to part with it. That's where i snapped her up. Annoyingly i never saw the car (only photos) from a family friend who advised i take it on at the price he wanted for it.... so 6 weeks down the line it arrived and i soon discovered the poor state the car was actually in. The chap who owned the car thought he was a bit of a geeky engineer and changed the lights, rewired both fuse boxes incorrectly, cut the steering wheel, made his out flick switches and i found old school telephone cable as speaker wire.(the list of silly mods continues)  yes the car had been bodged unnecessarily. So i'm sure you can imagine the mindset i had. I almost sold it on as it was as it really put me off. But here i am 3 years down the line and things are picking up. Ill try and keep this up to date but as ever i'm awfully busy fulfilling life. Let me know what you think !

J

[Guy W Johnson]

nice job

Guy

[jcslocum]

Please tell me you ripped all that Air Injection crap off!!! Just remove and screw plugs into the head. 

 

Great work you are doing there and love the color.

[Paul Coleman]

Nice to see one that isn't white

[silverfrost]

Great Work on the car,  the car looks fantastic in orange and the aftermarket wheels wheels look decent also,  but not sure if you are putting wolfrace alloys back on for originality. 

Looking forward to future updates on the car, I bet you are well pleased now that you did not pass the car on when you found the bodged  past work. 

These cars will always take plenty of time to restore when doing it yourself from home, no matter how big your project budget is, or even if you have lots of time to throw at the project waiting for or chasing down rare spares will always knock your project time goal out of shape.

Great looking car orange has grown on me so much over the past couple of years on the old G esprits and suits the car really well,  

As other members have said it is nice to see S1 cars in other colours than white for a change 

[woozie]

thanks for the feedback all. I have a set of refinished oem spec wolfraces which were not cheap. these are certainly going to go on the car when i come to sell her. Im sorry only half the pictures have uploaded. Im not sure why. Ill try to keep you all updated! 

On 2017-5-23 at 13:01, jcslocum said:

Please tell me you ripped all that Air Injection crap off!!! Just remove and screw plugs into the head. 

 

Great work you are doing there and love the color.

Not sure whether to take it all out or not?? maybe some more advice from other members as id like to keep it as original as poss!

[frix]

Love the colour and Great work so far.

Although it wouldn't be original and by the sound of it you want to keep it original,  have you thought of converting it to right hand drive? I would of thought it would be relatively easy with the body off?  

paul

[giorgetto]

Lovely job James!

Orange is just so 70's and really suits the S1.

Has anyone converted a car to RHD before?  I wonder how difficult this would be?  I know SJs sell an entire RHD glove box so that would be a start.

Does anyone know the correct PCD for an original set of Wolfrace wheels?

Gav

[woozie]

13 hours ago, frix said:

Love the colour and Great work so far.

Although it wouldn't be original and by the sound of it you want to keep it original,  have you thought of converting it to right hand drive? I would of thought it would be relatively easy with the body off?  

paul

Thank you paul. Yes well this is my thinking. I would rather leave it as original as poss in its federal state. It's got matching numbers and Provenance from lotus. It may not fetch as much as a true uk car but converting it to rhd is not cheap and I already have 90% of its oem federal equipment. 

5 hours ago, giorgetto said:

Lovely job James!

Orange is just so 70's and really suits the S1.

Has anyone converted a car to RHD before?  I wonder how difficult this would be?  I know SJs sell an entire RHD glove box so that would be a start.

Does anyone know the correct PCD for an original set of Wolfrace wheels?

Gav

Gav, thanks ! as I said it's the price that is concerning me to convert. I'd much rather keep the car as close to original how she left the factory. She's One of only seven federal cars built in colorado orange! I'd like to keep it that way!

 

I shall measure my wheels tonight and get you pcd off my wolfraces?

[giorgetto]

Well , this is true James.  40 years old this year so it's a little piece of Lotus history you have there.

I actually did a bit of investigation and it appears the PCD for S1 Wolfrace Slot Mags is 100mm.

I look forward to the updates and best of luck with her.

 

[woozie]

Gav

This is my theory it may not be the most sought after however a lovely piece of genuine lotus history indeed, so thank you. As for the wheels indeed they are 100x100. 

Today the tanks are out and off to get sandblasted. I'm in two minds whether to touch the basin that they sit in. I was thinking just a coat of Paint. Given the tanks will be back in and fresh carpet is going down, could anyone advise whether or not I'd be wasting my time. Thanks 

[silverfrost]

I Know you do not see the area when the tanks are in, but it may be nice to black that areach out, 

You could paint in with a fiberglass flow coat, I used some and it was easy to apply and lookedo very tidy afterwards. 

Apparently it was a fire retardant flow coat also according to the chap I got it off ?  But had never heard of grp fire retardant flow coat before so he may of been talking rubbish. 

Otherwise juse normal paint,  I hate the look of bare fibregress,  plus the paint is another protection barrier for the body's grp, so imo a good idea 

 

[woozie]

5 hours ago, silverfrost said:

 

Otherwise juse normal paint,  I hate the look of bare fibregress,  plus the paint is another protection barrier for the body's grp, so imo a good idea 

 

Likewise this is my thinking. I'll more than likely just dust some primer on and a thin layer of paint. It'll be nice seeing detail like that for anyone I'm sure. Thanks for the input 

[giorgetto]

James,

Thanks for the visual confirmation on the Wolfies!

As for the tank wells?  No one will ever see them but you will know they are there looking all bare.

Personally, I'd paint them.

Just throwing this out there and excuse my ignorance, but often wondered if a yacht painter could respray an Esprit?

 

[frix]

I just used black stone chip

[woozie]

So guys tanks have been shot blasted and tank gullies painted. 

[woozie]

So at the moment I'm trying to sort out the engine compartment while the body is off. I've been doing lots of little things over last few months but now focussing on this so I can get the body back on. Got the window frame painted today along with the rear shelving panels. I cleaned, cut back, buffed up the engine compartment To original paint, and plan to lacquer it just before the body goes back on. 

[woozie]

 

 

[Paul Coleman]

That loop of rubber pipe needs to come out. Those 2 holes are not for that purpose and the inlet to the fuel pump should be parallel with the pump, not at 90 degrees. The right hand hole allows you to tighten up the banjo fitting on the pump inlet and the left hand hole is for the wiring loom I believe.

[woozie]

Paul thanks, I wasn't sure about the pumps position this is just where it was when I got the car. Thanks for the info. I see I must have a different pump as your are right in saying the pump inlet runs parallel. 

[woozie]

I have ordered the correct banjo from sjs along with cambelt, and aux belts. piece by piece. 

[Paul Coleman]

2 hours ago, woozie said:

Paul thanks, I wasn't sure about the pumps position this is just where it was when I got the car. Thanks for the info. I see I must have a different pump as your are right in saying the pump inlet runs parallel. 

 

The position of the pump is correct. The left hand hole is where the wiring loom goes from the engine bay back into the body of the car and then down to the rear lights under the boot boards.

[woozie]

@winners see info here about fuel pump it might help you with your decision. hope this helps

[woozie]

Last major piece of the puzzle before the body goes back on. There was a catalyst but it had be fitted extremely poorly and certainly wasn't oem. Brand new oem U.K. Back box and my own link pipe. The exhaust is finally complete 

[silverfrost]

Glad to see this project still pushing on James   I love looking back at the freshly painted orange rolling shell in this thread