The Lotus Grand Tourers

Yes - Kylie got stuck on the September photo! Can't remember what year! Retirement is fab! The rain here today was as bad as I can ever remember it being here . No wonder you had to stop working on the M100. Nearly finished?

Pete

Maybe you have found the pattern for it?

Hi Don - my car actually had a tow-bar fitted when I bought it. It was bolted to the fibreglass!!

Pete

Hi Pete looks like your doing a great job I'm seriously impressed with lifting frame could have done with it when I did my S1 tvr yes they are luggage straps .Ray

Good job Ray! You look like you have the same problem as me - very little height to work with. I've also got a 350i wedge to restore at some point as well - hoping the lift will come in for that as well.

Diff going in today!

Pete

Bit more progress today (despite the snow!). Got the diff in and handbrake cable:



Brake shoes on - what a pain - good reason to change to discs on the back!



Offside drive shaft on temporarily - I'm going to replace my shiny new bolts with socket cap heads - I'd forgotten how difficult it is to get any kind of ratcheting drive on them!



Pete

Pete Boole wrote:Yes - Kylie got stuck on the September photo! Can't remember what year! Retirement is fab! The rain here today was as bad as I can ever remember it being here . No wonder you had to stop working on the M100. Nearly finished?

Pete

Nowhere near finished yet. Will do an update soon on the off topic thread.

Pete Boole wrote:Hi Don - my car actually had a tow-bar fitted when I bought it. It was bolted to the fibreglass!!

Pete

I went to show my Excel to a friend and a guy who worked for him said that, when he was a kid, someone who lived near him had one and fitted a tow bar to it. Don't know whether it was screwed to the fibreglass, though.

I had my front and rear dampers put on a damper dynamometer a couple of days ago. They were on the car when I bought it. The fronts are original Armstrong units and the rears some cheap Spax adjustables. The fronts may be the originals fitted to the car or they may be replacements from when it had a re-furb in the 80's. They are at least 30 years old and are cosmetically challenged! They haven't seen any movement for over 20 years.



They measured perfectly! The damping was perfect for the factory spring rate at the front (also had the spring rates measured). The Spax units were also OK but the adjusters are terrible - however, in the middle of the range of adjustment available they were a reasonable match for the factory springs. As a consequence I'm going to use them all until they leak - that may not be long given that they've been upright "in storage" for over 20 years (should be laid down to keep the seals wet apparently).

I also have a set of Leda dampers that I bought second-hand. I had them measured as well. They were fitted with 2.25" springs of a similar rate to the factory ones, but the dampers are valved for springs 3 times stronger! They are probably from a car that has been on the track? Anyhow they are unuseable without being rebuilt/re-valved because the rods are corroded (despite me asking specifically if they were OK ). I may get the Leda's rebuilt for when the factory units go bad (£600 for rebuild/re-valve).

Bit of damper painting this afternoon now the sun's out

Pete

Interesting - never heard of a damper dynamometer before! Does it measure bump and rebound separately? I believe the Elite and Eclat followed the Lotus philosophy of significantly stiffer bump than rebound with relatively soft springs; the bump setting helped minimise deflection while the rebound setting was to ensure that as far as possible the wheel did not lose contact with the road.

Cheers, Richard

GAZ delivers dyno sheets for their shocks within the buy

My Excel's front dampers are originals and work perfectly too!
Mind you, Pete's near 50 year old Elite originals are a LOT prettier than mine. I'd be very happy with the cosmetic state of Pete's, as is!

The rears on the other hand have been replaced 3 times (similar to others on here IIRC).

My semi-educated guess as for why the rears fail more often is:

• 1) load variation is greater at the rear than at the front - i.e. there's a significant weight delta between; empty and full petrol tank; empty and full boot; two fat rear passengers and empty seats - which will increase seal wear when the loads move the region of operation between relatively worn rod positions (unloaded car) and virgin (also probably dusty) rod positions (under payloads).
  And 2), the underbody aero throws a lot of road filth over the rear dampers compared to the front - made worse if damper hoods are not fitted - all of which exacerbates negative effects in 1) above.

On the occasion of the latest rear damper replacement last year I bought new fronts (Protechs) feeling guilty that I've never replaced them . But in the end I just couldn't bring myself to fit them given that the originals are properly valved Lotus items (unlike adjustable protechs) and are working perfectly - and that the front Protechs are notoriously problematic to fit!

richardw wrote:I believe the Elite and Eclat followed the Lotus philosophy of significantly stiffer bump than rebound.

Cheers, Richard

Other way round!

Yes the dynamometer measures the force needed to move the damper rod in and out at different rod speeds, so measures bump and rebound. The bump/rebound characteristics change fairly dramatically with differing rod speeds. The bump changes very slightly as rod speed increases, but rebound increases significantly as rod speed increases

Pete

Steering rack now rebuilt using the excellent refurb/upgrade kit from Lotus Marques in Australia. The kit includes everything you need including tapered roller bearings - much better than the original bearings.



I've bought some "heavy duty" mounting bushes from SJ - they are so hard the brackets don't even fasten properly without bending!! Going to order some original Lotus or Ford items (Capri rack).

Pete

Sure you got shiney ones but saw these covers

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Lotus-Twin-C ... SwzWFeUCMi