The Lotus Grand Tourers

Thanks for that, I agree it looks excellent for that price, I wish I'd bought it! Of course it was the same Excel car on both programs; I got confused, sorry. Anyway it's good that a classic car hire firm thought it was worth getting, evidently not put off by the old L O T U S acronym; and it seems ...

Yesterday I looked at Antiques Road Trip on BBC1; I like the prog and I'm 3/4 of the way to being an antique myself. I saw they were in an Eclat. Looked good, quite a late one I think. Izzy (mmm) seemed to like it but mentioned she didn't like the offset pedals. This series continues (same people, s...

The clutch cable is known to fail, the inner cable fails by fatigue at the pulley as it is an unsuitable type of cable (1 x 19). There is an excellent thread on thelotusforums about this, but the solution requires the pedal box removal, not easy. Pete Beale did a great job by replacing the inner cab...

Yesterday I tested a taper joint on the wire. I cut an 8mm length from an 8mm bolt, drilled a 3.2mm hole and made a taper inside about 5mm long. Inserted the wire with about 6mm protruding, spread the strands, put epoxy on and worked it in, then pulled the wire a bit into the joint. When set I cut t...

Thanks Pete, noted and appreciated. For info and in case it helps others, more info on the ball fitting. It clamps on with a grub screw; I'm not 100% happy with this so I'll do the following. At the end of the fitting where the wire exits, I will cut a short narrow taper inside the hole. I will then...

Thanks; different situation now. I walk past and think 'wow', instead of 'what a lot of work to do'. Clutch cable: What great info on The Lotus Forums about Elite clutch cable failures. I was considering the rework described there but evidently the pedal box needs to come out and that looks a right ...

Good progress with the paintwork, good results. The new paint, on roof, bonnet and on various defects, matches very well with the existing paintwork after removing the surface with 2500 grade wet paper and using 2 grades of compound then polish. Overall, I'm very pleased; not show standard but not f...

Good progress. I've tried to get some critical work done in the good weather, so the roof is painted, looks good though not perfect; I might improve it later but I'm happy with it. Bonnet and nose are well prepared, will get a full coat today, most likely will need another coat when the weather allo...

Hi folks, I'm back. My health news is pretty good. Scans showed half the heart not working, and it was said to be permanent and long standing, it explained why I'd been short of breath for 2 years (!) thinking it was lungs or slight long covid, whatever. I was being helped to manage it as it would n...

Sincere thanks!!!!
Best regards, Mike

This project will be on hold for a while and its future is in doubt, even though progress on the paintwork has been fairly good. I've just had a minor heart attack; home now, stable, doctors are pleased but I have to take it easy. It wasn't a major attack and at first they found nothing wrong, but f...

Good thought; the pin needs to move a bit so I guess a dab of silicone sealer on the head might just hold it enough to stop it rotating, as well as the retaining plate. I'll try this and report back in due course.

Thanks for the encouragement about painting, helps me keep going. I note the warning about brake pipe flaring tools, but as it's just the one job it is not worth getting the expensive tool so I'll try the cheap one; there is some slack in the pipe so I can try it more than once if necessary. The dif...

Time for an update, helps me keep going. Progess is slow; hit a problem; lots of things half done, nothing finished. But it's OK! Progress is good and I've had a major success. The problem is that I do need to drop the diff (as advised), but it's going OK. The handbrake cables are disconnected (easy...

Thanks Pete, great pictures. I've already made some progress, cut the RHS hole. I may do the middle one to make checking and adjusting the handbrake much easier, but I'll have a good look first. After looking at data on brake fittings, most likely the existing master cylinder fitting I'm not sure ab...