The Lotus Grand Tourers

Neil, I wish you the best for restoring, if I was younger I would be convincing you to sell me the lot as is.
For me the Elite is unique and I believe if correctly restored can reach over 20.000 pounds.
I would restore just for the pleasure of working on such a marvelous car.
Please no Excel chassis. Your spare engine might be a 2.2 lt but please saddle cam covers only, no horrible red things.

Invest in a Dremel with a 90º coupler and a batch of disc cutters.

I do believe you will be able to repair the chassis with welding flat plate in over rusted areas. No need for a jig.
There is a Youtube video on restoring an Esprit chassis with very important advice on shot blasting techniques, now probably not just shot as an alternative to avoid over penetration. I cannot remember the Youtube title.

Please send some pics.

Have you consudered letting one of the now several Video restorers do your car where you will get a cut of the subscriptions they receive, or even start on this forum a fund for the video to be made. If widely marketed it would enhance the value of all our Lotus Grand Tourers.

Dave the cog

Is this the video you mean, David? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOc7qmL-iME It's one of several in the series covering the chassis repair and may be worth a look for hints.

It´s the same guy but a different video!
Dave the cog.

Hi Dave,

A really good idea, well loads of good ideas. The YouTuber I know well, he is in Ireland and has really gone to town with NO budget, but beg and borrow he manages to survive.

I had this idea too, to get a FAB welder to plate the chassis, but Miles felt a JIG was an absolute requirement, I thought the towers could have a horizontal brace whilst still with body to maintain the SQUARENESS.

I know an excellent welder not far from me, he did my TIG welding courses as a lecturer, he has a perfect weld and can cut steel easily up to the thickness required.

I will post more once I have removed the bolts holding body to chassis ready for the lift.

cheers
Neil

neilbennet wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 18, 2022 19:39

The YouTuber I know well, he is in Ireland and has really gone to town with NO budget, but beg and borrow he manages to survive.

Glad that George's videos are getting a following here, he's a really decent guy and I love his attitude, a great combination of doing stuff on the minimal budget yet still striving to do the best job he can. Well, at least on the Esprit, his other cars he doesn't seem quite so determined to achieve perfection!

Well worth becoming a Patron, as he puts a lot more stuff out for them, his free-to-view YouTube videos are becoming a bit too sporadic (which worries me, as I think without more frequent regular YouTube content his following may dwindle).

Neil. Next time your with your car, would appreciate if you could post what colour your sills are.
For a good while, many of us have believed them to be satin black, as the bumpers, but now wondering if they could be body coloured. There's an early white car on TLF that most definitely has white sills.
Tony

Hello Tony,

When you talk sills , is this the door opening, the sills below the doors or another area please.

I thought everything was blue, but will double check

Please - may I ask for the 11 nuts/bolts/ body mounting to chassis - Are these spanner, socket set, other tools needed please as I plan to spray, clean and loosen them all and I hope you can just give me an idea. Also, as a note are these all accessible from both ends bolt and nut or are some using embedded nuts/bolts that with too much force will break free and then I am stuck not able to undo the nut/bolt. I hope that I will be lucky and can get to them all and free them all off next week.

cheers
Neil

There are 7 mounting points in pairs, so 14 bolts.
They are from front to back -

front arb mounting points, access from the engine bay
front suspension towers - these are awkward as the front suspension has to be removed to get to them. Access from front wheel arch
transmission tunnel forward of the gear leaver under carpet
transmission tunnel rear near seatbelt mounts under carpet
Seatbelt mounting bolts through transmission tunnel
Rear suspension top mounts
rear mounts (underneath the fuel tank)

Hi TAR,

Thank you, if you can advise me, are these all spanner, spanner both ends, spanner and socket or am I looking at mole grips. etc...

The reason I ask is to be prepared with the right tools

I have never removed a fibre glass body from a steel chassis in my life so I have no idea and probably almost for sure I will find many surprises.

Normally I end up grinding off nuts as they are seizes or worse nut cracking or drilling out.....

cheers
Neil

The "front suspension tower" bolts go into tapped plates welded to the chassis - (not loose tapping plates like the Excel) - they are removed from the engine bay but do occasionally need cutting, in which case you definitely need to remove the suspension as TAR says.

Pete

All reasonably accessible using spanners and sockets

Some comments, might be useful.
First, I would not worry about a jig or whatever for repairing the cross member, as it has no effect on the suspension geometry/alignment. The suspension mounting points are in effect:
direct to the diff via the driveshafts
transverse lower link to the chassis but low down, near the centre of the car
angled lower link to the transmission tunnel

A good welder should do the job carefully, tacking all the new pieces in place first before seam welding, to minimise distortion; you might mention this, carefully, to the welder.

Remember that welding affect the existing metal and, I believe, makes it more likely to rust so I'd say it is essential to rustproof the cross member thoroughly, inside and out; I did that to mine and suggest it to all Elite owners.
My method is this.
Drill a drain hole each side in the underside of the cross member, about 10mm or so dia, well away from the wheel arch.
Plug it with a piece of rag firmly rammed in.
In one end of the cross member, drill a 10mm hole.
Mix waxoyl or similar with a small amount of thinners or oil if necessary so it becomes workable, like very thick cream. You will need a bucketful.
Tilt the chassis away from the end hole, or if the chassis is in the car, jack up this side.
Use an empty gear oil bottle with tubular spout to fill the cross member completely. Leave it overnight, look for leaks, top up as necessary.
Next day ensure it is full right up, plug the filling hole with a piece of rag, and tilt the chassis (or car) the other way. Leave overnight, level it, unplug the drain holes.
What comes out will be enough to treat the outside of the cross member and other bits of the chassis as necessary.

When I got my Elite (in 1994) I examined the cross member and it looked OK, no filler, sounde OK when I tapped it. The car had been laid up for 10 years.
When I wire brushed and scraped the underneath of the cross member ready to rustproof it, I got a few small pinholes! But the sides were OK, so I welded pieces on all the underneath (diff out of course), then rustproofed it as above. It remains very much OK.

Good luck!

If you call Lotusbits I'm sure he will try and sell you one of these.