Exige S1 over-winter Refresh
Discussion
Right... well I'll be getting my engine gears in a week... due to it arriving a week sooner than I expected I don't have the wedge handy to pay the full shipping bill! Bloody expensive this freight business (especially when it includes tax on almost 5,000 pounds worth of engine work!).
Given that I'm going to be skint for a good few weeks while I let the bank account recover, I've decided to focus on a few little jobs that shouldn't cost much to complete, other than my time. I've ordered the brake refurb kits and my PRRT (Pressure Release Remote Thermostat) kit, which will be arriving from Eliseparts in a week. Brakes will then have their refurb completed and be bolted on the car
I've got my new brake lines, all shiny, new NZ-compliant HEL braided lines. Shown here with the Goodridge lines that came off... note the rust on the end-fittings, honestly I don't know how you Brits drive in the stuff over there it rots your cars so bad!
Another job that's been on long term hold is the manufacture of te gauge-pod for the dashboard. Given I'm going to be skint for a while and can't do much spendy stuff on the car, finishing the dash stuff, which shouldn't cost much at all is a good idea
First step in this is making the plug to take the moulds from. This will be a block of wood that's formed into the shape I want the final part to be. This will then be dressed, bogged and sanded and finally painted. This then gets fibreglass laid over it, which will set and form the mould that I can then lay up the final part inside.
So the plug... I started with what I had, a couple of sheets of MDF-sandwiched industrial chipboard. I used PVA adhesive to bond them together (I needed the thickness of two sheets) and leave to set. Then cut the very basic shape out of them using a radial arm saw I happened to have handy. The results you can see below alongside the radio blanking plate:
So follows a couple of hours with the wood-rasp to begin hand-shaping this to approximately the right shape. Details aren't too important as the whole thing will end up getting bogged and finish-sanded (much like the panelwork on a car) to form the final shape. You really just want a rough shape to form an armature on which to lay the final surface. The end result will look something similar to this:
You can see the shape starting to look more like the profile of the blanking plate.
That was enough for one night so I left it there... will probably attack it more in the weekend and start drawing on some details so that I can figure where more shaping needs to occur. Bear in mind I've never done anything like this before so I'm really just feeling my way in the dark! Self-taught experimentation FTW!
Given that I'm going to be skint for a good few weeks while I let the bank account recover, I've decided to focus on a few little jobs that shouldn't cost much to complete, other than my time. I've ordered the brake refurb kits and my PRRT (Pressure Release Remote Thermostat) kit, which will be arriving from Eliseparts in a week. Brakes will then have their refurb completed and be bolted on the car
I've got my new brake lines, all shiny, new NZ-compliant HEL braided lines. Shown here with the Goodridge lines that came off... note the rust on the end-fittings, honestly I don't know how you Brits drive in the stuff over there it rots your cars so bad!
Another job that's been on long term hold is the manufacture of te gauge-pod for the dashboard. Given I'm going to be skint for a while and can't do much spendy stuff on the car, finishing the dash stuff, which shouldn't cost much at all is a good idea
First step in this is making the plug to take the moulds from. This will be a block of wood that's formed into the shape I want the final part to be. This will then be dressed, bogged and sanded and finally painted. This then gets fibreglass laid over it, which will set and form the mould that I can then lay up the final part inside.
So the plug... I started with what I had, a couple of sheets of MDF-sandwiched industrial chipboard. I used PVA adhesive to bond them together (I needed the thickness of two sheets) and leave to set. Then cut the very basic shape out of them using a radial arm saw I happened to have handy. The results you can see below alongside the radio blanking plate:
So follows a couple of hours with the wood-rasp to begin hand-shaping this to approximately the right shape. Details aren't too important as the whole thing will end up getting bogged and finish-sanded (much like the panelwork on a car) to form the final shape. You really just want a rough shape to form an armature on which to lay the final surface. The end result will look something similar to this:
You can see the shape starting to look more like the profile of the blanking plate.
That was enough for one night so I left it there... will probably attack it more in the weekend and start drawing on some details so that I can figure where more shaping needs to occur. Bear in mind I've never done anything like this before so I'm really just feeling my way in the dark!
Self-taught experimentation FTW!Ok, so here it is... the big one! Yesterday my crate of goodies from DVA/VibrationFree touched down, bringing with it the lion's share of things I need for the engine rebuild.
This is really the unintended part of the rebuild since I'd not planned on touching the engine, but when it was clear that all was not well with my VHPD, I decided to rebuild it and rebuild it well. This is BY FAR the most expensive part of the project and what you're looking at in these photos represents many many thousands of dollars... but fingers crossed, the engine will come together, make good power and be pretty reliable with it Hats off to DVA and Steve Smith at VF as initial inspection shows that their work appears to be utterly, utterly first class. I would certainly not hesitate to use either of them again based on what I've seen thus far!
On with the porn... err I mean pics.
Full set new gaskets including MLS head gasket:
Mocal Oil thermostat. This will be plumbed in and prevent overcooling of the oil, which can happen on the Exige:
New Land Rover oil rail. This was replaced as a precaution as the current design is acknowledged to be superior to the early design already in my engine:
1 x set of new head bolts.... every time I see these I can't get over how long the f**kers are!:
Flywheel, clutch cover, front pulley and cam drive pulley, all balanced to the new bottom end as an assembly:
CRANKSHAFT! Brand new stock Rover item, tungsten-inserted to bring counterweights up to the correct weight for the pistons and conrods and then balanced with the bottom end as assembly:
Conrods, forged H-beam Arrow Precision rods.... it'll be a shame to put these things in my engine, they're such beautiful items they really should be framed and on the wall!
New cylinder liner, ready to go:
New Omega Pistons, with larger valve-pockets to clear the larger valves now in my head:
New Piper vernier cam pulleys.... finally, I won't have to put up with rubbish stock cam timing! These have also been balanced with the camshafts.
Shiny new Emerald K3 Programmable ECU:
And finally, the cylinder head. Fulley ported by Dave Andrews at DVAPower, Fire-rings tamped and skimmed, new colisbro valve guides, new, larger valves (over and above the large VHPD valve sizes). Cylinder head built with Piper ARK1444 Race cams (276 duration, 12.2mm lift!), new cam seals, stem seals, new dual valve springs with the stock solid lifters retained (about the only moving component in the engine that's NOT being replaced!).
Feast thine eyes!
Can ye say LIFT?!?!
Inlet and Exhaust ports... soooo gorgeous:
Also not shown are all new seals, bearings etc.
Things come to a grinding halt now as I'm skint (gee, I wonder why!). I'll be doing a few more things on the dash shortly, but that's about it. I will be getting my engine builder to dig out my block and get that cleaned up and ready to begin reassembly shortly. I'm off to the states again soon for work, so hopefully when I return I'll be able to push the "go" button on engine assembly. Thanks to the fact that I'll be paying someone to do much of the engine rebuild, hopefully it'll progress faster than the rest of this project... which has been glacial to date.
This is really the unintended part of the rebuild since I'd not planned on touching the engine, but when it was clear that all was not well with my VHPD, I decided to rebuild it and rebuild it well. This is BY FAR the most expensive part of the project and what you're looking at in these photos represents many many thousands of dollars... but fingers crossed, the engine will come together, make good power and be pretty reliable with it
Hats off to DVA and Steve Smith at VF as initial inspection shows that their work appears to be utterly, utterly first class. I would certainly not hesitate to use either of them again based on what I've seen thus far!On with the porn... err I mean pics.
Full set new gaskets including MLS head gasket:
Mocal Oil thermostat. This will be plumbed in and prevent overcooling of the oil, which can happen on the Exige:
New Land Rover oil rail. This was replaced as a precaution as the current design is acknowledged to be superior to the early design already in my engine:
1 x set of new head bolts.... every time I see these I can't get over how long the f**kers are!:
Flywheel, clutch cover, front pulley and cam drive pulley, all balanced to the new bottom end as an assembly:
CRANKSHAFT! Brand new stock Rover item, tungsten-inserted to bring counterweights up to the correct weight for the pistons and conrods and then balanced with the bottom end as assembly:
Conrods, forged H-beam Arrow Precision rods.... it'll be a shame to put these things in my engine, they're such beautiful items they really should be framed and on the wall!
New cylinder liner, ready to go:
New Omega Pistons, with larger valve-pockets to clear the larger valves now in my head:
New Piper vernier cam pulleys.... finally, I won't have to put up with rubbish stock cam timing!
These have also been balanced with the camshafts.Shiny new Emerald K3 Programmable ECU:
And finally, the cylinder head. Fulley ported by Dave Andrews at DVAPower, Fire-rings tamped and skimmed, new colisbro valve guides, new, larger valves (over and above the large VHPD valve sizes). Cylinder head built with Piper ARK1444 Race cams (276 duration, 12.2mm lift!), new cam seals, stem seals, new dual valve springs with the stock solid lifters retained (about the only moving component in the engine that's NOT being replaced!).
Feast thine eyes!
Can ye say LIFT?!?!
Inlet and Exhaust ports... soooo gorgeous:
Also not shown are all new seals, bearings etc.
Things come to a grinding halt now as I'm skint (gee, I wonder why!). I'll be doing a few more things on the dash shortly, but that's about it. I will be getting my engine builder to dig out my block and get that cleaned up and ready to begin reassembly shortly. I'm off to the states again soon for work, so hopefully when I return I'll be able to push the "go" button on engine assembly. Thanks to the fact that I'll be paying someone to do much of the engine rebuild, hopefully it'll progress faster than the rest of this project... which has been glacial to date.
stinkysteve said:
Wow, certainly porn for any engineer! Sexy head, sexy pistons and yes, those rods should be in a frame!
May i proceed to ask some stupid questions, i'm just learning how to rebuild engines properly, and there's so much advice (nearly all conflicting!) (currently doing a ford CVH but the K in my elise will get the treatment next!)
I don't know what's right/wrong but interested in your opinion...
1. Most cam companies (piper/kent) along with many engine builders would suggest changing the lifters every time you change the cam. (In many cases people are swapping from hydraulic to solid so fair enough, but the advice always seems to be change the lifters too. Any thoughts?
2. What's the valve/piston clearance like on that thing! Obviously it's been calculated but i just wonder what the actual clearance is and hence tolerances?
3. How do you ensure the balancing isn't compromised when rebuilding the components after the disassembly they've been through since balancing? (that may be a really stupid one?)
As always, good work. Great to see someone doing things properly!
Hi Steve.May i proceed to ask some stupid questions, i'm just learning how to rebuild engines properly, and there's so much advice (nearly all conflicting!) (currently doing a ford CVH but the K in my elise will get the treatment next!)
I don't know what's right/wrong but interested in your opinion...
1. Most cam companies (piper/kent) along with many engine builders would suggest changing the lifters every time you change the cam. (In many cases people are swapping from hydraulic to solid so fair enough, but the advice always seems to be change the lifters too. Any thoughts?
2. What's the valve/piston clearance like on that thing! Obviously it's been calculated but i just wonder what the actual clearance is and hence tolerances?
3. How do you ensure the balancing isn't compromised when rebuilding the components after the disassembly they've been through since balancing? (that may be a really stupid one?)
As always, good work. Great to see someone doing things properly!
1. DVA recommended using my old followers. Trust me, I told him that "if in doubt, replace". He's planished them, which refreshes the running surface to allow them to bed into the new cam.
2. I'm not sure actually. The pistons are pocketed a bit more than standard to make way for the larger diameter. I don't know what the clearances are with this cam. I will be checking with DVA once I bolt it all together whether this needs to be checked or not. I'm using the thicker MLS gasket with my engine, but my head is planed down, so should be at the same height as stock on the stock gasket, or very similar to.
3. Well no balancing is perfect. The crank components are indexed together so will all go back the way they came off. The rods and pistons will be matched prior to going back on, but any weight differences are very minor. It'll not be perfectly balanced, few things are... but should be more than good enough to get me to 8000+ safely
stinkysteve said:
Cheers George,
1. Fair enough, sounds fine to me. They'll be shimmed back to appropriate clearances i suppose.
2. Interesting. As i'm new to re-building engines, this is the bit that frightens me and although there's only so many toleranced items to add and subtract to get the clearances, the tolerances are fine. With the lift you've got, (12mm+!) I'd be twitchy, but it's all easy enough to calculate. Subtract the head skim, add the additional gasket clearance, subtract the increase in valve lift and add the piston cut outs. I'll be interested to know what the clearance turns out as compared to standard. i imagine a standard k has a fair bit of spare clearance.
3. Only 8000?!?!?!
thanks again. Good luck with the next stages. Steve
Yeah, in the end, I'll confirm with DVA before I screw it together... he's built several engines of this spec and will know if they clear or not. I could go through a dummy assembly etc but not really any point if it's a known quantity.1. Fair enough, sounds fine to me. They'll be shimmed back to appropriate clearances i suppose.
2. Interesting. As i'm new to re-building engines, this is the bit that frightens me and although there's only so many toleranced items to add and subtract to get the clearances, the tolerances are fine. With the lift you've got, (12mm+!) I'd be twitchy, but it's all easy enough to calculate. Subtract the head skim, add the additional gasket clearance, subtract the increase in valve lift and add the piston cut outs. I'll be interested to know what the clearance turns out as compared to standard. i imagine a standard k has a fair bit of spare clearance.
3. Only 8000?!?!?!
thanks again. Good luck with the next stages. Steve
As for the revs, I'll probably be limiting it at about 8200-8300 for longevity's sake... theoretically it should be good til past 9k, but then life gets shorter there. We'll see how the dynoing goes first before we try to push the envelope too far
Tony -- good to see you still keeping an eye on us... and don't be jealous... still a looong way to go yet!
Ben --- nowt wrong with blu-tak... I use it as an engineering material amost daily!
Well this weekend I've been working away on the rear brakes. As always, turned out to be a MUCH longer job than I anticipated, as the brakes were much more corroded than I originally thought. I was hoping they'd largely clean up with some brake cleaner then just buff up... how wrong I was!!!
How they came off the car:
A good few hours elbow grease with the scotch brite and wire wheel followed by a nice vinegar bath for a few hours to strip back the worst of the corrosion:
After that, the castings came up largely clean. I was going to leave them bare, but realised they'd end up back at square 1 in about ten minutes so I gave them each a light coating of clear POR15. It's not a proper quality coating, but it'll do to keep the castings looking reasonably good. Certainly the bits you'll actually see when they're bolted on the car came up looking like brand new so I'm pretty happy and they're about as good as I could get them without doing what everyone else does and spraypainting them a colour. Trust me to do things the hard way!!
(flash makes them seem crappier than they really are)
How they came off the car:
A good few hours elbow grease with the scotch brite and wire wheel followed by a nice vinegar bath for a few hours to strip back the worst of the corrosion:
After that, the castings came up largely clean. I was going to leave them bare, but realised they'd end up back at square 1 in about ten minutes so I gave them each a light coating of clear POR15. It's not a proper quality coating, but it'll do to keep the castings looking reasonably good. Certainly the bits you'll actually see when they're bolted on the car came up looking like brand new so I'm pretty happy and they're about as good as I could get them without doing what everyone else does and spraypainting them a colour. Trust me to do things the hard way!!
(flash makes them seem crappier than they really are)
Right, well there's not been a lot of progress this last few weeks as I've spent most of them in Texas for work. Today was the first time I've spent on the car in what seems like forever!
Today I've rebuilt the brake callipers front and rear and they're now ready to bolt back on the car. No pics of this as there's not much to see. I've replaced the sliders and boots on the rear calliper (didn't fully strip it as it was in good nick and it's NOT a simple job) and the front callipers have been fully rebuilt with new pistons and seals.
I've also begun scrubbing up my front brake shields. Not sure yet whether I'm actually going to use them. They were pretty corroded, and I'm thinking of scrubbing them up a bit further and then re-anodising them... we'll see. Any SELOCers have any idea whether they're actually worth using or should I just leave them off?
The other thing that's arrived lately is my new Wideband O2 sensor/gauge/logger for the dash. This will enable me to keep an eye on the Air/Fuel as well as run closed-loop with the Emerald. I went for a Stack gauge as I've heard good things about them, it's just a shame they don't make this one in white-face to match the Oil gauge and the Stack dash.. oh well, I'm colourblind anyway
Of course, this has necessitated rethinking the dashboard gaugepod idea a bit, so thankfully I hadn't rushed ahead and made this up yet I'll kick things around in SolidWorks for a bit (see below, work in progress) and figure out how I want things to go and then will start shaping something up from there.
REALLY have to get into Forman Insulation place and sort out some insulation material for the firewall this week... going to have to sort that pronto, and I'll chase up KW and check that there's a rapidly-approaching spot for them to begin work on my engine!
Project SEXIGE... moving along with all the speed of a glacier!
Today I've rebuilt the brake callipers front and rear and they're now ready to bolt back on the car. No pics of this as there's not much to see. I've replaced the sliders and boots on the rear calliper (didn't fully strip it as it was in good nick and it's NOT a simple job) and the front callipers have been fully rebuilt with new pistons and seals.
I've also begun scrubbing up my front brake shields. Not sure yet whether I'm actually going to use them. They were pretty corroded, and I'm thinking of scrubbing them up a bit further and then re-anodising them... we'll see. Any SELOCers have any idea whether they're actually worth using or should I just leave them off?
The other thing that's arrived lately is my new Wideband O2 sensor/gauge/logger for the dash. This will enable me to keep an eye on the Air/Fuel as well as run closed-loop with the Emerald. I went for a Stack gauge as I've heard good things about them, it's just a shame they don't make this one in white-face to match the Oil gauge and the Stack dash.. oh well, I'm colourblind anyway
Of course, this has necessitated rethinking the dashboard gaugepod idea a bit, so thankfully I hadn't rushed ahead and made this up yet
I'll kick things around in SolidWorks for a bit (see below, work in progress) and figure out how I want things to go and then will start shaping something up from there.REALLY have to get into Forman Insulation place and sort out some insulation material for the firewall this week... going to have to sort that pronto, and I'll chase up KW and check that there's a rapidly-approaching spot for them to begin work on my engine!
Project SEXIGE... moving along with all the speed of a glacier!
Another day working on the brakes today and will have more progress by this evening/tomorrow.
In the meantime, I found this video of Mike Reed's Exige in the US lapping Summit Point Raceway. Mike's engine build was somewhat similar to mine, although he upped the compression ratio a little but went for slightly less extensive porting work and didn't go quite so OTT on the balancing. I'd hope to make pretty similar horsepower to his, and he just nudged 230bhp (199bhp ATW). Mike's car also runs the UCR (Ultra Close Ratio) box where as mine just runs the stock CR box. I have thought about swapping to a UCR gearset, but since I'll actually drive mine on the road (S1s are track-only in the states) his one can get away with the UCR box. Of course I might upgrade to a quaife 6-speed at some point, but that won't be part of this build.
Anyway, sit back and enjoy something pretty close to what I hope my car ends up going (and sounding) like!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIQEX_DTrfo&fmt...
In the meantime, I found this video of Mike Reed's Exige in the US lapping Summit Point Raceway. Mike's engine build was somewhat similar to mine, although he upped the compression ratio a little but went for slightly less extensive porting work and didn't go quite so OTT on the balancing. I'd hope to make pretty similar horsepower to his, and he just nudged 230bhp (199bhp ATW). Mike's car also runs the UCR (Ultra Close Ratio) box where as mine just runs the stock CR box. I have thought about swapping to a UCR gearset, but since I'll actually drive mine on the road (S1s are track-only in the states) his one can get away with the UCR box. Of course I might upgrade to a quaife 6-speed at some point, but that won't be part of this build.
Anyway, sit back and enjoy something pretty close to what I hope my car ends up going (and sounding) like!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIQEX_DTrfo&fmt...
Another Saturday and more progress! Although to be fair, I've had an absolute C**T of a day and yet another setback 
(see below)
On the bright side, the day went rather well as I managed to get all the brakes hung back on the car, all ready to go and the new braided brake lines (HEL lines with stainless ends to replace my rapidly dissolving Goodridge ones) and everything was looking tickety boo! (see pics).
The brakes look prety much like brand new on the car, which is what I was aiming for. Factory fresh!
I then started to bleed the brakes, starting by replacing all of the bleed nipples with new ones (The nipples were the last bit of the service kit I had to add). All went well until I got to the left front calliper where the nipple had seized solid into the calliper. I managed to get it out in the end but it damaged the calliper thread getting it out. I thought there was enough thread left to work, but during the bleeding of the brakes, the rest of the thread let go, f
king the calliper altogether.
Initially I thought it had been cross-threaded by the last monkey who changed the pads, but looking though the SELOC archives, I can see that it's a relatively common occurrence thanks to your f**king salted roads that just bloody ruin your cars.... to be honest, I can't believe how much damage it really does to a car. The differences between my old '98 NZ-new Elise and this '01 Exige (of similar mileages) are poles apart... I can't believe how badly the UK climate is on a car! But... I guess that's why I'm doing this project... when it's done it'll be better than a new one and all traces there were that it had ever been on a god-forsaken British road will have been erased!
I'll be taking the calliper into work to strip it down tomorrow, then around some machine shops early in the week. Fingers crossed I can find someone who can helicoil the thread for me and not completely write off the calliper.
(see below)On the bright side, the day went rather well as I managed to get all the brakes hung back on the car, all ready to go and the new braided brake lines (HEL lines with stainless ends to replace my rapidly dissolving Goodridge ones) and everything was looking tickety boo!
(see pics).The brakes look prety much like brand new on the car, which is what I was aiming for. Factory fresh!
I then started to bleed the brakes, starting by replacing all of the bleed nipples with new ones (The nipples were the last bit of the service kit I had to add). All went well until I got to the left front calliper where the nipple had seized solid into the calliper. I managed to get it out in the end but it damaged the calliper thread getting it out. I thought there was enough thread left to work, but during the bleeding of the brakes, the rest of the thread let go, f
king the calliper altogether.Initially I thought it had been cross-threaded by the last monkey who changed the pads, but looking though the SELOC archives, I can see that it's a relatively common occurrence thanks to your f**king salted roads that just bloody ruin your cars.... to be honest, I can't believe how much damage it really does to a car. The differences between my old '98 NZ-new Elise and this '01 Exige (of similar mileages) are poles apart... I can't believe how badly the UK climate is on a car! But... I guess that's why I'm doing this project... when it's done it'll be better than a new one and all traces there were that it had ever been on a god-forsaken British road will have been erased!
I'll be taking the calliper into work to strip it down tomorrow, then around some machine shops early in the week. Fingers crossed I can find someone who can helicoil the thread for me and not completely write off the calliper.
- sigh*
Edited by Esprit on Saturday 15th August 08:48
Scuffers said:
Esprit said:
the new braided brake lines (HEL lines with stainless ends to replace my rapidly dissolving Goodridge ones) and everything was looking tickety boo! (see pics).
not sure threading stainless fittings into an ali calliper is such a great idea.... it will corrode like hell (electrolysis), it's bad enough with plated steel ones. (see pics).
shirt said:
its coming on very well.
anyone fancy running a book on whether he's to put the bodywork back on and not be tempted to respray?
Hahah tempting as that is, that'll DEFINITELY mean another summer off the road, which will NOT be happening. Probably do it over winter next year though, as was always the plan... will look as good on top as it does underneath then anyone fancy running a book on whether he's to put the bodywork back on and not be tempted to respray?
Right, well not a lot in the way of progress this weekend. Just got the oil cooler bolted back onto the crash structure. This involved a bit more work than expected as the front crossmember needed re-tapping as the threads were still pretty corroded even though I had the part blasted and re-plated.
I also turned up some custom stainless screws to bolt the oil cooler to the crossmember, just replicating the OEM Lotus screws in stainless. They have lower profile heads than stock bolts.... having a lathe just down the road at work comes in handy sometimes!
But, and this is BIG NEWS for me, THE CAR IS NOW ROLLING!!!!!! At about half past noon today, I dropped her off the axle stands and rolled her out of the garage for the first time since APRIL 2008!!!!! She then spent the afternoon basking in late-winter sunshine while I gave the garage a square-up that was MONTHS overdue... I can see the workbench again!
Obviously I've still a long way to go, but at times in the past year or more, I wondered if I'd ever even get this far since it seemed to get further and further away with every new bit of the car I began working on! At least now I can shuffle the car in and out if I need to work on it, which will make life a bit easier.
I'll shut up now and you can see my car, back on its wheels for the first time in so very very long..... I'd REALLY forgotten how low these things are!!!!!
And one final shot.... a clean garage is a functional garage! It's not looked like this in a LONG time.
I also turned up some custom stainless screws to bolt the oil cooler to the crossmember, just replicating the OEM Lotus screws in stainless. They have lower profile heads than stock bolts.... having a lathe just down the road at work comes in handy sometimes!
But, and this is BIG NEWS for me, THE CAR IS NOW ROLLING!!!!!! At about half past noon today, I dropped her off the axle stands and rolled her out of the garage for the first time since APRIL 2008!!!!! She then spent the afternoon basking in late-winter sunshine while I gave the garage a square-up that was MONTHS overdue... I can see the workbench again!
Obviously I've still a long way to go, but at times in the past year or more, I wondered if I'd ever even get this far since it seemed to get further and further away with every new bit of the car I began working on! At least now I can shuffle the car in and out if I need to work on it, which will make life a bit easier.
I'll shut up now and you can see my car, back on its wheels for the first time in so very very long..... I'd REALLY forgotten how low these things are!!!!!
And one final shot.... a clean garage is a functional garage! It's not looked like this in a LONG time.
Well been off work sick today, so in between bouts of coughing my lungs up, I thought I'd start to tackle the making up of the firewall heatshield. The original item or material is not available from Lotus, so the guys here at Forman Insulation have sorted me out what appears to be about the closest thing that's possible. It seems to be a very similar type of material and will hopefully do the job.
Using the destroyed one I removed as a template, I carefully cut out a new one (although I won't mention that I initially cut one that was perfect, but a mirror-image of what I wanted!!!.... working on your car with a virus-affected brain is dangerous!
I've also kinda jostled it into place to see where it needs trimming and fettling.
It's going to need a bit more work and it's going to be a real pain in the ass to get in and get right. I think I'm going to remove the roof as I need to remove the rear window and surround to give better access at squeezing the heatshield in. This is the order it'll have been fitted in in the factory so I probably should take the extra couple hours to remove the roof to make a tidier job of things. I'm trying to make it look as good as I can, even though you won't be able to see much of it once the engine's back in and the rear clam is on.
Using the destroyed one I removed as a template, I carefully cut out a new one (although I won't mention that I initially cut one that was perfect, but a mirror-image of what I wanted!!!.... working on your car with a virus-affected brain is dangerous!
I've also kinda jostled it into place to see where it needs trimming and fettling.
It's going to need a bit more work and it's going to be a real pain in the ass to get in and get right. I think I'm going to remove the roof as I need to remove the rear window and surround to give better access at squeezing the heatshield in. This is the order it'll have been fitted in in the factory so I probably should take the extra couple hours to remove the roof to make a tidier job of things. I'm trying to make it look as good as I can, even though you won't be able to see much of it once the engine's back in and the rear clam is on.
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