The Mustard Yellow Elise S1 Refresh Thread

[Elisemadray]

Great Stuff Dave 

[Daveb99]

Here’s a quick photo, I’ll put a few more up when it’s completely finished.  I’ve adjusted the headlights, simple enough with the required 1.5% beam “drop” measured over a specific distance from my garage units, I drove onto a couple of bits of old laminate flooring at the front to make sure it was totally flat first as my garage floor isn’t 100% level.

I bled the brakes again last night, and now have a very good pedal - there was still a tiny bit of air in there but I can really feel the difference now.   It was very quick this time using the pressure bleeder - amazing what a difference it makes when you’ve done it before.

Now to refit the wheel arch liners and new sill pads, and that’s about it - and wait for the lacquer on the front clam to harden.  It’s really still quite soft although it’s only 10 days since it was painted, suspect it will take a few weeks..

[DeanB]

So it wasn't fully hardened in the oven as they said?  

Looking great though Dave

[Daveb99]

7 minutes ago, DeanB said:

So it wasn't fully hardened in the oven as they said?  

Looking great though Dave

Seems not, I think it’ll be a few weeks before it’s fully hard I suspect.  I’ll be taking it easy I think....

[DeanB]

Yeah, don't do what I did!

[Daveb99]

I’ve done about 200 miles now since it has been back together and I finished it off yesterday with new leather sill pads.  As well as doing the headlight adjustment, I wrapped the yellow bits in the front arches with black wrap, tweaked the Nitrons a bit (a little firmer), refitted the wheel arch liners and attached the fuse boxes.   I also fitted the new Door waist seals (bottom of the window) I bought a while ago.  I’ll add some pics of this stuff when I get a chance...

It felt like a really big achievement yesterday, a big milestone, especially as most of the stuff I’ve done was for the first time.   I’ve been sticking to driving it on quieter roads and at quiet times due to the new paint on the front clam- had a cracking 50 mile drive on roads near Ashby and Donington on Friday night with my mate Euan, who also has an S1 and lives in our village.  The car feels fantastic on the road now, I’m not sure how it could really be improved for fast road use, maybe some different pads at some point but that really isn’t necessary for my current usage.

Took a few pics today after a couple of runs with my daughters, can’t believe how much this colour lights up in the sun.   The photos don’t really show it but the pearl in the paint is amazing.   Very pleased with it - which is a good job as I don’t fancy doing all that again anytime soon!

[DeanB]

Where have you got your Nitrons at Dave?  I'm still experimenting with mine

[The Cakes]

Not going to be seen on a track near you any time soon 😂

[Daveb99]

28 minutes ago, The Cakes said:

Not going to be seen on a track near you any time soon 😂

The man's a genius!

To be fair it is still something I plan to do, but not this year now.  We are facing some mighty expense on the house so it has to come first.   

[Daveb99]

3 hours ago, DeanB said:

Where have you got your Nitrons at Dave?  I'm still experimenting with mine

It has the Street Series v2 Dean, so they are quite different to yours I think - there are a lot more clicks from hard to soft (38 IIRC).   So far, for fast road use, I’ve settled on 25 front, 23 rear (from full hard).   It’ll probably change after my first Peaks run......

[Neilshannon27]

Amazing work fella and seeing it in the flesh on Sunday was a treat, something you should be very proud about, you have rebuilt a blinder of a car. 

1 trillion man points! 

[Daveb99]

On 28/07/2020 at 07:18, Neilshannon27 said:

Amazing work fella and seeing it in the flesh on Sunday was a treat, something you should be very proud about, you have rebuilt a blinder of a car. 

1 trillion man points! 

Cheers Neil - was great to meet you and looking forward to more of the same 👍

[Daveb99]

Not much by way of updates from the last few weeks, as the car is pretty much finished, but I have done some serious miles in it - more on that below.   It's a really lovely thing to drive now, no squeaks or rattles, nicely set up, it feels just right for fast road use.

As promised here are a few pics together with a bit more info on the things I did soon after the clam refit..

Door waist seals

I've had these for ages, they were bought from Elise-shop in the winter.   Not cheap but I think they are probably the best replacements available, on balance, and they finished it off nicely.

The old ones were pretty horribly corroded in places.  When fitting the new ones I added a good dose of Corrosion block grease to the edges and ends where the steel inserts are visible, so that they at least resist corrosion for a bit - though given how old the others were, I'm not losing any sleep over it!

I used a magnet to fish out the fixing clips from inside the doors after removing them, and made a tool to refit them, out of an old wardrobe ranging rail bracket 😂

 

Front wheel arches - black vinyl

I made a quick paper template and then used it to cut some black vinyl bits to cover the body coloured bits in the wheel arches that are visible with the mud flaps on etc.   I wouldn't normally bother but being a high miler there was a fair bit of gravel rash in there, which let it down a bit given the freshly painted front clam.  With the wheel back on it all just looks nice and dark in there now.   I know, I know, OCD.....

 

Steering Wheel change (again)

After a great run to the Peaks I realised I preferred the bigger original S1 Nardi wheel (320mm) to the Momo 300mm wheel I had fitted during the refresh work - so I refurbished the wheel centre using silver spray paint and a nice clear matte lacquer finish, then refitted it.    Normal S1 'feel' resumed 😄

 

Engine Bay - quick clean

It's amazing how well this cleans up with 5 mins effort !

 

Nitrons

After a few good drives and runs I've tweaked the Nitrons again.   This time I've gone 5 clicks softer front and rear, and to me it feels a lot better.   I had heard that the Street Series 2 work better towards the soft end and I think that's bang on.

 

New front brake pads

I decided to fit better front pads for more bite, so after a bit of advice, and bearing in mind that it won't be a track day warrior, I went for a set of Mintex M1144 pads.   They have now bedded in and they are a lot better than the old ones - obviously it's early days but at £47 it seems to be a very good inexpensive option to me.   I picked up some Ceratec paste/lube for the back of the pads too, where the pistons contact them.   I was grinning at my new found skills when fitting them - I couldn't even change pads when I started all this and now it takes me 5 minutes per side!

 

Driving it.....a lot !

So I've been driving it rather a lot.  Over 1,000 miles in the last 3-4 weeks including a few long local runs, a trip to Oxfordshire, and a long trip to Scarborough to visit my Mum for her 80th, during which I had an 'A' service en route thanks to a Lotus in the Peak raffle prize that I hadn't used yet! 

The highlight though was definitely the MLOC run to the Peak District, about 190 miles in all, the car felt great all the way through and I still can't believe how much the geo has transformed the way it drives.   If you're in any doubt about whether you need a geo, I'd strongly recommend you to get it done.    Fair to say it was the centre of attention at times during our breakfast stop in Hassop, I was a bit embarrassed to be be honest as it's just a lowly Elise S1, given the frankly stunning Evoras / Exiges there including Phil's lovely SR and a couple of 410's, not to mention all the other fine examples of this magnificent marque.

Great drone photo from Paul..

I also took some photos of it at an old farm I had spotted on a previous visit, round the corner from my Mum's house.   Hard to believe but it absolutely poured down during the 1 minute drive back - roof off.....🤪

 

135 camshafts

Oh - and how could I forget these - I've had a pair of 135 camshafts fitted, exactly as per the Sport 135.    What a huge difference that has made, it just carries on pulling and pulling all the way to 7,000 rpm.  Absolutely love it.   The trade off is just a tiny bit less torque low down, but it's hardly noticeable. It has to be the very best "no brainer, bang for your buck" upgrade for a standard S1 or S2 K series, at approx £100, with no ECU remap needed - so you can keep the standard ECU.  

Much as I like to keep things quite standard cosmetically, I'd quite like to fit some subtle (small) 135 decals in the same style as the original Sport 135 ones (Dan at DH can make them for me).  I'm thinking of fitting them under the indicator side repeaters, but I’m open to ideas.......

[DeanB]

Good write up Dave.  Are you sure the Sport 135 s1s had the 135 cams?  I know the s2 Sport 135s didn't, they had standard cams, ported heads (standard valves), vvc ally plenum and a remap to suit.  The 135 cams are a great upgrade though, you are absolutely right about that!

[Daveb99]

19 minutes ago, DeanB said:

Good write up Dave.  Are you sure the Sport 135 s1s had the 135 cams?  I know the s2 Sport 135s didn't, they had standard cams, ported heads (standard valves), vvc ally plenum and a remap to suit.  The 135 cams are a great upgrade though, you are absolutely right about that!

You may be right there Dean, I may have got that wrong - the S1 service manual describes the S1 135 as having a '135 bhp cylinder head' so that could well be the case.   Either way it's a great (and simple) upgrade as you've said 👍