Elite restoration begins!

[Pete Boole]

Hoping to get the engine hoist out on Thursday to see what touches what. The prop will defo need modifying to suit the Salisbury diff - I've already had a look at it. Got to order more white/red wire now for the start relay cut-out!

Pete

[Excel SA]

Had a quick look yesterday - I only have an extra plastic cover for the gear shifter mechanism - the bit with the gear numbers/letter on it - happy to send that to you if required.

Not sure I can help much with the wiring either - there's nothing plugged into the 9-pin connector - even the wiring to what I think is the light for the gear numbers is a hack job like everything else on this car....

Neil.

[Pete Boole]

Hi Neil - thanks for the offer of the plastic cover - it's that bit which is broken on mine. I'll let you know tomorrow if I need it after I've checked to see if the box will fit in the chassis

Pete

[Excel SA]

No problem - have good access to my chassis right now, so if you need details/measurements on the chassis or the mounting plates or the mount let me know.

[Pete Boole]

Got the ZF 'box under the car today. It will fit! Notice I didn't say it fits - . The Excel chassis is subtly different to the Elite - the parallel central "spine" of the Excel chassis is about 40mm shorter to allow the fitment of the later (longer) gearboxes. So I need to do one of two things to get it in - machine the top of the tail-housing to give clearance in the chassis end plate or replace the whole tail-housing with a shorter one from a different car. It turns out (Google to the rescue!) that Jags of the same period had shorter tail-housings as they did not use a mechanical speedo drive like the Excel (the Excel box was fitted to Sherpa vans). More research/phone calls to make next week, but basically - it's going in!

Pete

[Pete Boole]

Don't seem to have made much progress recently but got the modified '89 MY Excel brackets done today. The Elite seems to have a tendency to form long cracks in the fibreglass of the inner front wheel arches - I've seen it on several bodyshells, so I decided to add the '89 MY Excel's extra body-to-chassis brackets to add more support in this area. They won't fit without modification because the Elite and Excel are subtly different in this area. They fit between the body and chassis at the very bottom of the body at the rear of the wheel arch:



This is in the footwell: (note automatic brake pedal! )



The fibreglass at the attachment point is about 1/4" thick - very strong.

Pete

[MetBlue]

Nice work as usual.
In digging around in the foot well on my Excel recently to solve water leaks I'd seen those bolt holes and wondered what they were for. As you say, the old Elite doesn't have them
Tony

[Pete Boole]

Got the rotors/bells bolted to the hubs today. Also been messing with the wheel bearing spacer kit form "Triumphstuff" on fleabay. Absolutely brilliant! You can get whatever end float you want by adjusting the shim pack and then tighten to 45ftlb - those inner races are going nowhere now! No more wearing the stub-axle and upright because the inner race is rotating. I can thoroughly recommend this kit to all Elite/Eclat owners.



Pete

[Pete Boole]

Bit more done over the weekend. Brake servo, master cylinder (both Land Rover items - 25% of the cost of Lotus branded products) and remaining brake pipes made and fitted:



The servo is the larger diameter size as fitted to series 2 cars - I took the opportunity to slightly modify the inner wing and throttle cable bobbin/insert to allow for this before the paintwork was done.

Feel like I'm making a bit of progress again

Pete

[shaunw]

Lovely neat job on those brake pipes Pete . Do you have a target for completion or are you just taking it a day at a time?
Shaun

[MetBlue]

day at a time

.

That's optimistic. I'm taking restoration on a "year at a time" type basis.
Tony

[Pete Boole]

Thanks Shaun! Last summer I thought I might have it moving under it's own steam by this summer - ain't going to happen!! Because I'm pig-headed and want to do everything myself I've had to re-wire the shed before I could re-build the lathe with a variable frequency drive speed control - that's because I need higher speeds to make a spindle extension for the high-speed grinder so that I can grind the bore on the crankshaft pulley I'm making!! . That's taken longer than I expected, but I'm on the case again now. I'm pretty sure though it will be spring 2022 before it's on the road

Pete

[Tanz]

Very tidy brake pipes. Hope your going to keep them polished

[Pete Boole]

Of course!! Nothing else to do

Pete

[shaunw]

Thanks Shaun! Last summer I thought I might have it moving under it's own steam by this summer - ain't going to happen!! Because I'm pig-headed and want to do everything myself I've had to re-wire the shed before I could re-build the lathe with a variable frequency drive speed control - that's because I need higher speeds to make a spindle extension for the high-speed grinder so that I can grind the bore on the crankshaft pulley I'm making!! . That's taken longer than I expected, but I'm on the case again now. I'm pretty sure though it will be spring 2022 before it's on the road

Pete

Well, they say the best things are worth waiting for Pete . Really looking forward to examining to the finished product so just make sure its finished by LITP 2022