1984 Turbo Esprit Restoration

[Gis]

17 hours ago, eeyoreish said:

This is what I have my eye on from PNM

I have the same PNM setup on mine and I’m happy with them. They provide a good performance upgrade compared to the standard brakes. The only thing that I would change on them is the L shaped connectors to the calipers. It’s a game of luck where the orientation ends up when they are tightened and there’s a good chance they face the wrong way. A proper banjo connection is much better in my view.

[eeyoreish]

Do you know if the disc and pads are from another modern vehicle or bespoke for the kit? Just thinking about getting replacement parts when they wear...

[eeyoreish]

Here's a few pics of the poorly repaired crash damage around the lower A post.

In the first pic you see the LH door which is fine, then in the second is the RH door where a small section has been cut away at the front to prevent the door corner catching the A post when it opens. I think there's far more been cut away than is actually necessary but it's an indicator that all is not as it should be.

Factor in the buckled hinge post, twisted lower arm and poor glassing of the inner sill and clearly there are some things to sort out here. I suspect when I remove the outer sill I'll see some kind of horrors there too.

Floor looks fine, as does the nose and upper A post so I suspect a low level impact on the rear edge of the wheel/front of the sill is what happened. Something to address before the body comes off to make sure I have full rigidity in the shell before moving it. 

I'll be needing a replacement door hinge post if anyone knows where I can get one and a lower arm. Used is fine as long as they're straight. Lotusbits? Or has anyone got spares lying around..?

 

 

[TAR]

The door hinge post is NLA but SJ do appear to have an updated one (stated as for Canada ony). It's cheap - https://www.sjsportscars.com/parts-and-accessories/B082U7250F.htm

On the drivers side, there should be an inner sill riveted on to the body. Looks as if its been glassed over. Here is a picture from my LH side. Its not a brilliant picture but you can make out what it looks like. The square spacer is for the door mounting and just happened to be sitting on the inner sill.

You can just ses the bottom of the LH door hinge post top left.

 

[Gis]

12 hours ago, eeyoreish said:

Do you know if the disc and pads are from another modern vehicle or bespoke for the kit? Just thinking about getting replacement parts when they wear...

The pads are wilwood standard. They can be ordered from PNM and/or wilwood. It’s a standard wilwood caliper. I have the vented/grooved disks as shown in your photo. I guess they are PNM specific together with custom made brackets to fit the pre 85 G cars. 

[910Esprit]

The AC pipes run inside that very thin plastic  'inner sill' - Not sure if it has any other real purpose.   Should also be a vertical moulding at the front end, you can see yours is cleaner at the front

[eeyoreish]

19 hours ago, TAR said:

The door hinge post is NLA but SJ do appear to have an updated one (stated as for Canada ony). It's cheap - https://www.sjsportscars.com/parts-and-accessories/B082U7250F.htm

I'm trying to deduce from the Deroure site (pic below) what the difference might be in the USA/Canada door post vs the U.K. one

From the parts listing it looks like there is an additional sill strengthener bracket that bolts to the bottom of the post but that presumably means there are just some fixing points that I won't need. Interestingly the US has a different door shell and door beam. Not sure if that would have any effect on the post but the hinge pin and brackets are the same for all countries, suggesting that the hinges and spacing must be the same... 

Its a long shot but does anyone actually know whether the US part will interchange with a UK car or have any ideas why it wouldn't? Otherwise it looks like I'll have to risk £10 ( plus vat, p&p of course ☹️) to find out

[eeyoreish]

20 hours ago, TAR said:

The door hinge post is NLA but SJ do appear to have an updated one (stated as for Canada ony). It's cheap - https://www.sjsportscars.com/parts-and-accessories/B082U7250F.htm

On the drivers side, there should be an inner sill riveted on to the body. Looks as if its been glassed over. Here is a picture from my LH side. Its not a brilliant picture but you can make out what it looks like. The square spacer is for the door mounting and just happened to be sitting on the inner sill.

You can just ses the bottom of the LH door hinge post top left.

 

Yes, I do have the inner sill, it's removed in my photo and it's what was hiding the poor repair. My Stevens has a similar arrangement that fits around the handbrake and contains the mechanism and cables. Not sure about the front upstand part though, will need to check and rummage...

 

[Steve V8]

12 hours ago, 910Esprit said:

The AC pipes run inside that very thin plastic  'inner sill' - Not sure if it has any other real purpose.   Should also be a vertical moulding at the front end, you can see yours is cleaner at the front

Only cars with A/C have the vertical moulding on the passenger side (to hide the A/C pipes).

The plastic panel can be seen in the parts diagram under the carpet sets section, and was supplied with the carpet attached, the leather handbelt and seatbelt gaiters are secured to the underside of it.

Correct underside sill cover fixing shown on an S2 handbrake slot

[eeyoreish]

Thanks Steve. Something (else) to think about when I get elbow deep in speccing out some aftermarket aircon!

Now you've mentioned it I remember that Coverdale originally sent me a LH sill carpet for the Stevens with the a/c cut out at the front. This was pre Steve V8 carpets of course and for the TE I'll be coming to you. Eventually. And if we're both not drawing our pensions by the time I get to trim...😳

[TAR]

Deroure.com list the Canadian part as superseding the original UK one so I guess it may well fit fine? Worth a punt for the cost?

 

[drdoom]

Likely the door hinge post will fit the UK cars just fine. Judging from what the drawing shows, I'd expect that piece to work in my S2. Consider the attached pic, which represents the original bits on S2 7807/0100S. FWIW. 

[eeyoreish]

Thanks @drdoom. Looks like being a Canadian car you have the additional sill bracket too. 

I assume the pink pipes are aircon? Handy to see how they're routed

Reckon I'll strip out all the surrounding dash, bits and bobs then see what lies beneath. Then I'll order up the post from SJ and any other bits I need while I'm in there. The first of many parts orders...

[drdoom]

Yes, Neil, the pink hoses are the OEM air con lines, running RHS which is passenger side in N.A. As I plan to convert to dry sump thus possibly requiring the air con compressor be placed exhaust side I wonder whether I should be routing the new hoses along the LHS?

The sill bracket ties the post into something of a nut-plate within the sill area, I believe.

[eeyoreish]

So today's activity - removing the RH sill to investigate the extent of the damage at the front end of the sill. What a PITA of a job... The sill is riveted to the body at each end and along the top and bottom edges. No problems there. The issue is that the duct at the rear is fibreglassed into the body at the point it enters the engine bay.

Access with chassis in the way is awkward to say the least so cue a couple of hours with a sharp wood chisel trying to cut away the glassing. Then after another hour of wiggling the loose sill and rechecking my chiselling I discovered it's also glassed in below the fuel tank 😡 At least the tanks are out so once I realised it was sorted in 5 mins.

The good news is that the outer sill has clearly never been off the car and isn't damaged and neither is there any more damage beneath it so the car hasn't been hit from the side. All of the damage seems to be restricted to the wheelarch so my new theory is that the trunnion failed and allowed the RH front wheel to hit the back of the wheel arch. That would also account for my twisted bottom arm.

I also removed the amateur glassing from the inner sill, which revealed masking tape with fibreglass over a rectangular hole. The hole is neatly cut so my question is should it be there? It would give access to the handbrake fixings so I'm thinking maybe it's original? Can anyone confirm?

[TAR]

That hole isn't original and I'll wager the handbrake mounting plate is also a replacement. The hole will have been cut to save removing the outer sill which, as you noticed is a pain to remove.

 

[eeyoreish]

The stripdown continues and now I have this. Looks a bit scary but I've been here before with the Stevens and everything is labelled up. No multiplugs this time though...

One thing has me stumped so far. How the heck do I release the choke cable from the lever?? Even if I pull the cable right through from the engine bay it'll still be attached to the lever. The only way I can see is to cut the end off the cable but that's a bit 'permanent' 😳

 

 

[TAR]

I think thats a soldered nipple on the end. The other side of the mounting is a Lucas bullet connector crimped to the cable (factory fit)

If you have enough slack cable you could remove both and use a new bullet connector and solder nipple from a bike shop.

 

[silverfrost]

Neil take the oppertunity to attach multi connectors for the dash cluster,  will save you so much time and hassle in the future 

[eeyoreish]

10 hours ago, TAR said:

I think thats a soldered nipple on the end. The other side of the mounting is a Lucas bullet connector crimped to the cable (factory fit)

Ah! Maybe I'll try unsoldering the end first then. Otherwise I'll have to cut it off and hope for slack as there's no engine at the other end at the moment!

3 hours ago, silverfrost said:

Neil take the oppertunity to attach multi connectors for the dash cluster,  will save you so much time and hassle in the future 

I was thinking about that as I opened my second roll of masking tape to label the 100th wire! Definitely going on my 'to do before reassembly' list...

[Chillidoggy]

How far are you going with this, Neil? Total nut/bolt job? Or fixing what's wrong, and making it look really nice?

 

Agree about the multi-plugs for the dash, if you can do it.

[eeyoreish]

The works. This is my dream car so I want it to be as good as it can be. I'm not fanatical about it being factory original down to the last bolt but it will look original with any subtle upgrades that make sense along the way. 

The plan is full stripdown, body off then repair/refurbish/replace everything as required. And it has to look really nice...

[silverfrost]

Body off ! ,   That means serious buisness Neil ,  I look forward to the upcoming pics in your thread  

[eeyoreish]

I know. Whilst it's slightly scary, in the long run it will make all the chassis and suspension work much easier and there won't be an inch of the car that I haven't checked over.

This will be one of the best when it's (eventually) done.

[peteyg]

My choke cable had been modified previously with a movable clamp and a slit cut in the lever so the cable could be slid out. 

IMAG0540 by Peter Gentilli, on Flickr

IMAG0529 by Peter Gentilli, on Flickr