Alrighty then, it's been a little while since the last update
I took the sump plug out and managed to get myself coated in the oil/fuel mix that came out. I can confirm there's fuel in the sump, as I smelt of fuel for about 3 days afterwards.
That's likely it for engine progress for a little while.
I then turned my attention to stripping the elite chassis of saleable parts before collecting the Excel chassis. Between the breaker bar, angle grinder and sheer brute force and ignorance managed to get the elite chassis fully stripped in 5 days.
The main area that gave me trouble was the bottom mounting point for the diff, but the angle grinder quickly sorted that out, leaving me with a large pile of parts ready to sort through, clean up, and sell the parts I have no use for.
With that sorted, I got some help to move the elite chassis onto a trailer, and towed it up to the wonderful folks at Lotus bits (who frankly this project couldn't happen without), where they took the remains of the elite chassis, an envelope of unmarked cash, and I was soon on my home with a nice shiny(er) Excel Rolling chassis along with a box load of parts to rebuild it!
The boxes of lovely new / refurbished parts have been squirrelled away with the rest of the parts that came with the car, ready for when the chassis starts going back together.
The following week I was unable to touch the lotus during the weekdays, as I had other commitments filling my time, I was however able to pick up a small air compressor from Facebook marketplace and some cheap Silverline air tools, including an impact gun, which drains the compressors tank in about 20 seconds, but that's enough to get a seized nut undone, especially useful as it would take far longer with the breaker bar and elbow grease.
At the weekend however a friend was free, and wanted to come get stuck in, so, between the two of us we managed to give the Excel chassis a wash down with degreaser and get it 95% stripped in two days, not bad going me thinks.
The only things left on the chassis are the brake and fuel lines, but I now have two large piles of parts, one from the elite chassis, and one from the Excel chassis that I need to sort out before I start getting yelled at
I've picked up a cheap sandblasting kit that should work with the air compressor, (both run at 4.5CFM, so we'll see what happens) so my next step is to break down all the sub-assemblies such as the hubs. Then, some parts will be sent off to be cleaned and reconditioned by the folks at Lotus Bits, whilst others (chassis included) I'll be sandblasting (only the bits of the chassis that need it) before liberally coating everything in Galvafroid to keep the rust at bay.
And with that, you're all caught up, there's a lotta pictures in this post, so I hope that doesn't cause any issues.