77 Federal Esprit project *pics

[woozie]

@silverfrost Thanks! Its a shame I had it painted so early in the scheme of things, but it was the best chance while it was in bits. 

[woozie]

Hey all,

Thought I'd update on a few points I've been working on over this long weekend (4 days off wooo)

Lots of niggly bits ticked off. Cross brace bar was replaced. I wanted to salvage the original but for the price It was worth investing. Looks fantastic. Going to buy the radiator duct support panel to match. The car never came with one, along with many other things....

Finally got ALL new exhaust gaskets on, cylinder head and downpipe, along with all new manifold studding and copper stud nuts and washers. 

Foam strips on the radiator and chassis face replaced as you can see from the pictures they are well pass their sell by date. 

Lastly, I made a fan cowling from scratch. I tried to source one but unfortunately no luck. Although was fun mocking it up, took me back to the days of steel fabrication. somethings always stay, naturally. came out pretty good to be fair. Cut from 1mm sheet with a grinder, hey you've gotta work with what you got right. if only i could use the guillotine at work eh. all fans finally spin with no catching on the shrouds! 

Todays final job involved fitting a new temp sensor, easy right. Yeah all was going well until the sensor decided to snap 90% in its thread.... ripped the manifold off drilled it out so waiting on  new tap/die set to arrive. 

All i need now is a water pump belt, then the body can go back on and the real fun starts..... 

 

 

 

 

 

[cbclotus]

Hi James ...Keep up your great work .Fine car ....Mike

[woozie]

Gear linkage / exhaust shield back from being shot blasted, what a difference. ALL bushes were wrecked. They've come up fab.

[woozie]

So, all the gear linkage is back on the car, along with fan shrouds, exhaust etc etc. I'm at the point where I can run the car for a long period of time. I've had the car running for around 4 hours over the last couple of days (only used 5 liters of fuel!!) As i rebuilt the cards, I had to set them up. All is done and she is running superb. originally i had an issue with the distributor. The negative and positive feeds from the coil was, underneath all that electrical tape, split and corroded. I ripped it all out and put in some new wiring. The condenser earth wire inside the distributor was also split and tatty so that was replaced also. A new coil and set of HT leads and its running ace now. Process of elimination i guess. The aro valve earth was connected to the temperature sensor in the inlet manifold and the temperature sensor wiring connected to an aftermarket oil pressure sender..... why the car was like this is as good a guess as yours. This is not the only wiring issue i have come across, just one of many and i can strongly say that someone 'went to town' in creating something rendered useless. 

 

Despite this, its looking in good order now and i have a boost of confidence after setting up the carbs and timing, the engine sounds better than ever and now I can focus on getting the body back on. The chassis is treated and painted, ive had each corner off the car (calipers, springs dampers etc) its all been stripped, treated, painted and new washers / rubber boots etc. For the body I have  under sealed, cut back the engine bay paint, fitted new sound deadening under the main gully of the body, shot and painted the tanks, bonded the rear boot handle. the list goes on. I have made a conscious effort to complete all the tasks necessary that cant be done with the body on. I plan to get the body back on late july / august. That will be a massive milestone and put me on the 'back straight' of the project!

[ChrisJ]

Sent you a PM.

 

[Paul Coleman]

On 10/02/2018 at 18:01, woozie said:

Hey all,

Thought I'd update on a few points I've been working on over this long weekend (4 days off wooo)

Lots of niggly bits ticked off. Cross brace bar was replaced. I wanted to salvage the original but for the price It was worth investing. Looks fantastic. Going to buy the radiator duct support panel to match. The car never came with one, along with many other things....

Finally got ALL new exhaust gaskets on, cylinder head and downpipe, along with all new manifold studding and copper stud nuts and washers. 

Foam strips on the radiator and chassis face replaced as you can see from the pictures they are well pass their sell by date. 

Lastly, I made a fan cowling from scratch. I tried to source one but unfortunately no luck. Although was fun mocking it up, took me back to the days of steel fabrication. somethings always stay, naturally. came out pretty good to be fair. Cut from 1mm sheet with a grinder, hey you've gotta work with what you got right. if only i could use the guillotine at work eh. all fans finally spin with no catching on the shrouds! 

Todays final job involved fitting a new temp sensor, easy right. Yeah all was going well until the sensor decided to snap 90% in its thread.... ripped the manifold off drilled it out so waiting on  new tap/die set to arrive. 

All i need now is a water pump belt, then the body can go back on and the real fun starts..... 

 

 

 

 

 

Put a heat shield over the exhaust side engine mounting or you'll be changing it every 2 weeks!!

[woozie]

Paul, thanks, the car never came with one.

 

I shall invest!

[Paul Coleman]

No it didn't come with one you're right but it needed one!

[Paul Coleman]

On 08/03/2018 at 09:40, woozie said:

Gear linkage / exhaust shield back from being shot blasted, what a difference. ALL bushes were wrecked. They've come up fab.

 

 

Those two bits in the plastic bag are from the original cross gate cable. Do yourself a favour and throw that cable away and fit an uprated cable from SJ. Otherwise you'll find that when you go to change gear the cable will just bend at the back and be bloody awful.

[woozie]

So found a lot of play In the rack. The plastic bushing on the end of the rack had become non existent. I had a good friend of mine machine me a nylon replacement. Little bit of fettling and it fits nice and snug. Rack going back on tomorrow! 

[Fridge]

On 05/07/2017 at 08:30, woozie said:

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

Mark, I think you've got a late S1? If so the fuel pump is located behind the passenger (LHS) seat base, in the engine compartment.

I've just realised that these posts go back as long as my restoration! 2 years in a few weeks. And counting....

Edited August 4, 2018 by Fridge

[williamtherebel]

Hi James, Have you, or are you going to fit a UK front bumper with the side lights/indicators? Im in the process of doing that with my own Federal S1 but am unsure where to wire the side lights to! (seeing as the federal bumper didn't have any). Any ideas?

[woozie]

Will,

I have the original front Federal bumper and lights all ready to go. so answer to your question is no. If you compare the federal and non federal looms, both looms have sidelights. The "side markers" on the sides of the federal car, front and rear,  are just bridged across the normal sidelight connections. So splice your sidelights and side markers together front and rear. TO be more specific splice your front side markers from the red wire to your front sidelights, and the correct red wire on the rear, and make sure you have a common earth earth for both sides and ends of the car. Wiring diagrams are available on this forum and google!

[williamtherebel]

Many thanks for the info. I have an original workshop manual but some of the wiring diagrams look as if they have been attacked my mice! Large holes in various places. The rest of the manual is near perfect. Ill get splicing! Thanks again.

[woozie]

It's been another large span of time from the last update on things. 

I have finally graduated from University, and can now properly focus on finishing the car (before getting another one..🤭) I can't express how hard it has been trying to finish my degree and work on the car and live and sleep. Absolute nightmare. But I am really focused now and on a mission to get this car done.

Not sure if i mentioned before but the under-body is now finished, body back on and the engine finished, serviced and running mint. 

Onto more recent works, I have installed S2 headlamp motors and have had to rebuild the pods to suit new fixtures/ fittings. I must stress this was a very time consuming and detailed task, but after a couple of weeks I have got the pods and motors in, and pods opening closing (manually) very nicely. The bottom of each pod had previously been cut out.... don't ask....The only issue I have now is to wire in the motors. I am unsure from looking at both loom diagrams exactly how they're going to interconnect, so If anyone has done this swap before or has a link to a "how to" document that would be fantastic. either way any advice is welcomed!

Plan of action now is to finalise the pods, then make a start on the interior and wiring harness. It's  not totally botched but I did find many wires incorrectly installed in the fuse boxes, so no doubt there will be some cutting/splicing somewhere along the lines. As soon as the loom is finalised and functioning I can get the interior in. It's 95% complete which is nice so hopefully won't be too timely. Along with the headlight work, I've built up the outer body trim on the nearside front wing. The lip here was not big enough to allow the trim to fit snug, so building it up has really helped. I have begun the other side as it also needs attention. 

There's some pictures here that may help others doing the same work. I hope it can help someone. Any questions, just ask, i'll be happy to help where I can.

 

 

 

 

[Fridge]

Good work on the pods, but are you now going to unrivet the pivot bushes before painting?

[williamtherebel]

Hi James, Keep up the good work. Although I have been driving my federal S1 around this summer and its got an MOT, its back in the garage at the moment and its now classed  as a 'rolling resto'! Just found out recently that there are no demisters, and no trunking either. I've managed to source a passenger side demister, but cannot find a drivers side (that fits in the binnacle) anywhere. Tried all the usual suspects - Lotusbits, Esprit Engineering, S.W. Lotus but no luck. So that bit of the resto  has stalled at the moment. Still, looking on the bright side - there's always still plenty to do!. I'm obviously a bit ahead of you so if you need any advice regarding the federal conversion, let me know.

[Fridge]

On 19/10/2019 at 00:43, williamtherebel said:

Hi James, Keep up the good work. Although I have been driving my federal S1 around this summer and its got an MOT, its back in the garage at the moment and its now classed  as a 'rolling resto'! Just found out recently that there are no demisters, and no trunking either. I've managed to source a passenger side demister, but cannot find a drivers side (that fits in the binnacle) anywhere. Tried all the usual suspects - Lotusbits, Esprit Engineering, S.W. Lotus but no luck. So that bit of the resto  has stalled at the moment. Still, looking on the bright side - there's always still plenty to do!. I'm obviously a bit ahead of you so if you need any advice regarding the federal conversion, let me know.

@williamtherebel I've just sent you an email with photos of my binnacle demister moulding. As I cannot post photos on here.