Exige Sport 350 Orange - "Carl"

[RoflOnMyWaffle]

Not the most thrilling photos, but I had some work done by Ken at KSD. Can't fault the guy. 

Front panel is now body coloured - got sick of the satin finish. It stains and marks easily, and don't like the look anymore. The rear was resprayed in F1 black so it has a nice metallic shine in bright light. I was torn between a fresh coat of proper satin paint, gloss black and metallic. Ken helped push me towards metallic, and we opted to paint the Lotus logo in body colour too. 

Very happy with the work and already planning on changing all the other satin to metallic, with body coloured wing.

[GFWilliams]

Looks much better, good to see Ken doing great work for more Exige owners, he's a top bloke!

[fjc27]

Really nice ! I did not know the "F1 black" color. Is it something really special, or just a metallic black ?

Does the rear panel have to be unmounted to be painted ?

Edited July 20, 2020 by fjc27

[RoflOnMyWaffle]

Thank you - From what I can tell its a VERY slight rainbow metallic, I need to wash it to get some pics. ( 3rd wash in 2 weeks, and over 500 miles )
No need to remove the claim,  just mask it up well and use the curve of the clam to blend it in easily.

[RoflOnMyWaffle]

Completely forgot to update the thread, but I fancied being ASBO loud, so I had a local exhaust shop make up a backbox delete, with 4 inch tips. Yes it's stupid, but it's not permanent and can easily be switched back.

On the flip side, it can actually be modulated by throttle input, and I'd say at 10% throttle/cruising it's barely different to the open valve of my stock box - just don't expect to hold conversation without raising your voices.

 

 

[RoflOnMyWaffle]

I'm so happy to be typing these words out. After about 2 years of back and forth I finally decided to treat myself and the Exige to some Tilletts. This is all @GFWilliams's fault. I met up with him and he showed me around his car, the Komotec 460 package and ultimately let me sit in it before he took me out for a quick spin. Quick being the operative word, but not relevant for this post. I fell in love with the Tilletts, even though I had too much personal padding to fully fit comfortably, I still squeezed in his seats and I was sold. If you can sell someone on a pair of seats in about 15 minutes they must be good! 

I then spoke with Steve Tillett himself and he invited me to the factory to discuss options such as colour of the backs, which can be painted anything you fancy, stitching patterns etc. He put me in the more appropirately sizes B6 XL43 Screamer and it was like a glove. They are mounted to weighted bases so you can actually sit and move around a little bit, so I just sat there and chatted with Steve while we worked out options I wanted on my seats and what brackets to use. Now I must note he doesn't want everyone and their nan to pop round, it's for actually interested customers, and given the current climate I very much doubt this will be an option going forwards.

Now fast forward to August this year, being my birthday for "birthday" with the car, I decided it was in the works long enough and just pulled the trigger. Again Steve from Tillett sorted me out. Despite there being a 30 week backlog for a factory order at the time we got some to me within 2 weeks via their dealer network. While the seats arrived, the cushions/pads did not, as they needed to be custom stitched. No big deal, so I waited, and waited, and waited. They arrived, YAY, until I opened the box. The dealer had forgotten to order the Lotus logo stitched to the headrest! So as of writing this, that will be approximately a 4 week wait, but obviously I'll add the photos when they come.

All in the mean time I was waiting for the harness bar which was from @Seriouslylotus. It took longer than expected, due to Corona and things out of Daves hands but when that arrived it was like a kid on Christmas. I could finally install the seats!
Everything was of such high quality, the seats I already knew would be, but the bar has lovely welds to it, and a flawless satin black powdercoat finish. Removing the old seats didn't take long, and was fairly easy once I contorted my hands to reach a few bolts. 

Now I should point out that this isn't the final resting place for the bar, It was purely for the photo and to get it out the way of my lounge, as it started to rain again!
It actually sits very nicely up above where those dehumidifier bags are but I forget to take another photo, sorry!

Fitting the Tilletts however took just shy of around 12 hours work, purely because nothing is ever simple. They must have gone in and out at least 10 times. All well and good, until life kicks in. Roof needs to be off, which means when it rains you have to stop. Dog needs a walk, food needs to be cooked... pain in the rear! 

All in all I couldn't be happier. So I want to take the time to again thank @GFWilliams for his help and advice, while putting up with my stupidity, and the same to Dave at @Seriouslylotus for nagging him constantly. So after some terrible photos, heres one I can't not post because it's half the reason I took so long!

 

[RoflOnMyWaffle]

As promised, more terrible photos.

Seats are finished off nicely and the hardtop has gone back on for the next 6 months or so. Forgot how much more comfortable it makes the car feel!

The car definitely needs a wash, hasn't had one in well over a month. 

[RoflOnMyWaffle]

Can't believe my last post was November, but here we are!

About a month ago I had some Focals fitted to the front, and a sub for the passenger footwell. I wasn't comfortable doing the wiring of the sub so just gave the job to Toby from Shocksaway as per many peoples suggestions on TLF/Facebook. Dropped off in the morning, came back mid afternoon and job done. Totally transformed my sound - which had a dodgy speaker since about since months in to my now 3 year journey. 

 

The passenger carpet covers half the sub so should keep it relatively clean, and Toby has assured me that the grill will protect the inners anyway. I'm hoping that the industrial grade velcro will be enough to hold it in place, but time will tell.

 

The JBL sub is so potent it is on around 2/10 for power. Anything higher and it's actually chest thumping, which is awesome for such a small unit, but also not pleasant for me, passengers or general public when I drive around. Definitely money well spent!

[RoflOnMyWaffle]

After doing the fronts, I decided it was a good improvement, but I still lacked the full sound as it only came from the front - obviously.
So being easy to install, I went ahead and installed the rear Focal 130s. First thing was to remove the Tilletts - and by god do I hate that front left bolt on the passenger seat. I managed to undo all the other bolts quicker than the last than I can the last bolt. but hey.

With that out the way, it was time to remove the harness bar, harnesses, and rear panel. Very easy job, undo the two bolts for the bar, and remove the seatbelts from it. Then its time to remove the cigarette lighter part, with (what I think is) the sunglasses holder? No idea what its used for but its useless. One crappy screw holds it on but it also stops the bulkhead panel from coming out. 

Quick check to see if I had the wiring loom, which I did. So off came the panel, and out came the speaker blanks. Easy as hell to take out, the two screws either side of the maplight are plastic and only finger tight. So once those are out you just carefully pry the panel out and away it goes. Time for a good wipedown and speaker test fit.

Now that the new speakers were in and working, it was time to wait. And wait. And wait. I dropped the harness bar off to be powder coated and brought a paint sample so they could match it, last week Thursday. Understanding it wouldn't be done that week he agreed it'll be either Monday or early Tuesday. No problem I said, so I called mid afternoon Monday, to be told he wasn't in that day, and to call tomorrow. Called Tuesday, to be told check back Wednesday, so I did. Called back late Wednesday, to be told it wasn't done, should be done Friday, today. Needless to say it was done, but I was sceptical.
Colour isn't 100% match, being its metal and powdercoat vs wet coat with metallic etc. It is what it is, Im happy, you can barely tell.

 

[Jcx]

I am enjoying this. 👍

[RoflOnMyWaffle]

Haven't posted in SOOO long - but the car is going for sale this summer - have added a link below

 

https://www.pistonheads.com/buy/listing/15005756

[RoflOnMyWaffle]

Deposit taken, so it's provisionally sold