Door Window Frames

[RED BARON]

Hi.
I am looking for the "H" shape metal material that the Door Window Frames are made from so I can get a pair
made. I have tried to find the correct size & the supplier or anything close. I have looked all over the web but
can't find anything close.
Can someone help.
Ian.

[Alan_M]

It was unique to Lotus and complete frames are available made on the original Lotus jigs. They are available through one person.

[RED BARON]

Yes I know who that is.
But I need the material size & supplier as I want to get a pair to fit on another car I have that isn't a Lotus.
Ian.

[bash]

Have you got a TVR Tasmin coupe then Ian. Ive had two of those, great cars.
Bash

[Marten]

Hi.
I am looking for the "H" shape metal material that the Door Window Frames are made from so I can get a pair
made. I have tried to find the correct size & the supplier or anything close. I have looked all over the web but
can't find anything close.
Can someone help.
Ian.

Good luck with that. The original profile is made from folded and rolled steel (which is why they rust), which suggest a fairly complicated operation to get the shape. Probably no-one uses that profile anymore, so it's a fair guess the tooling is no longer there. For a small run now you'd look at an aluminium extrusion, but even a small run is way to much/expensive for a single car. If it's been done before, find out who did it and if there is some left or if the extrusion die is still there
Ortherwise fabricate the profile from scratch, of rethink the possibilty of repairing what you've got

[AndyC]

Th firm that made thee originals for the Excel may still have stock/ will likely have manufacturing facilities for that H-section frame (I'm assuming that's not unique to Lotus), after all they did the run of frames that Angus arranged. I do recall seeing a news/ magazine article posted about them struggling with lack of orders, so I hope they are still afloat. If I recall correctly they are in the midlands (I'd always assumed they were Norfolk based).
Failing that, try any local boat-building areas, as that type of material is probably used in low-volume boat construction, even if it's not steel. The Esprits used ali and that was a lot better.

[bash]

This depends on how serious you want to get, and it needs some fabrication skills, but, I seriously looked at fabricating my own frames just prior to Angus getting some made from the original section. I was going to use two 16mm square box sections, rolled to shape and tig welded together. This gives the correct width and the top and bottom is then cut off to give the correct depth. Rolling the sections can be done at home and you would need to build a jig.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/144053972517 ... Sw4ktgr3eg
On here I did a 'how to' to correctly repair the original frames, which is way easier. Perhaps some ratty Excel frames could be utilised for yours.
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=7222

Bash

[KevW]

If I remember correctly when Angus found the remaining old new stock steel sections to have the new door frames made up that was it - there were to be no more due to the prohibitive cost of tooling up. I think it was also determined that the frames had to be steel as aluminium wasn't strong enough but I may be wrong on that one