New addition to the MLOC family

[richbk]

The little quiet lad that used to sit in his booster seat in my car on welsh runs, who became a teenager on the Peaks blasts and LITP,  is now a 19 yr old working lad  !!

He also seems to have developed a love for cars from somewhere, and after passing his test at 17 has swopped from a polo to an alfa guietta to a mini cooper D and a weekend MX5.

Apart from the insurance killing him, he has worked and paid for it all himself.

His goal from all this car swopping, which he manages to make some money on each time by, repairing improving, cleaning updating and then good marketing etc.     was an S1 Elise.

I am hoping any current, and previous ,S1 owners might be able to help and point us in a reasonable informed direction. are tight and we are not afraid of having a go at most jobs, bar engine and electrical (TBH Ethan is more capable, confident and brave than me in all areas of this !!)

 

And last week we found 1 and have taken the plunge. Due to rising prices it isn't a showroom example, particularly having lived outside for 9 years of past owners life, next to the family wheelie bin store.... Its mechanically sound, with full history for its 54k miles and drives really really  well considering its still on original shocks !! HG done 2015 and clean through MOTs for past 5 years bar screen chip and tyre. 

The body work is micro bubbling and bit of lacquer peel here and there, and will require a full re spray to make us happy , but funds wont run to that for a couple of years. 

What i think it needs is.....

Full suspension refresh, bushes, links etc - I see kits on elise parts etc, but cant believe they are nearly £500 for what doesn't look like a lot of "things" .

Is it a case of "suck it up and pay" or are you aware of a keener way to replace essential bits ?

Happy to have a go ourselves at this but think i need some specialist tools to remove bushes etc. ?? 

New shocks - Mid price for road use and maybe a track day down the line, Any suggestions of your experiences ?

Uprated Cams - Which are the correct ones to go for and does anyone know of a reputable source?

Some kind of Induction system - Hurricane seemed to be the go to brand back in the day - is this still the case and again any knowledge of suppliers ?

 

What we plan to do ourselves

Whole interior is out already and floor corrosion checked for and thankfully only minor repairs needed. might paint floor to give better finish ??

Do you know if you can swop the seats side over side? as passenger seat seems hardly used whereas drivers minimal cushioning is not at all comfortable?

Front clam off for inspection - I really cant find a video or walk through of location of bolts, screws etc to remove, i know i need to find some behind the wheel arch liners..

Replace rad and hoses as preventative measure whilst clam off. Check and restore heater matrix / surround . General spruce up of wiring / connections 

Check all mounting points for lights. Restore grills, tow post etc.

Boot has a leak  - find and fix - any suggestions of where to start appreciated ?

Restore and renovo roof

 

Any other help , suggestions and info would be greatly appreciated

 

I am sure he will be along soon to introduce him self and will set up a thread on the project

 

Thanks in advance

 

Richard

 

 

[Elisemadray]

A Big welcome to your son to the Lotus clan  

sorry to say I am not very technical my idea of mechanicals is to hand Gav a spanner at Unit 4 😁

there are Lots on here that can help but I would reach out to Daveb99 he is brilliant knows the S1 inside out  

[DeanB]

Wow Rich, what a great project!

I would say re suspension, be careful what bushes you buy - if they aren't the right spec and quality they will ruin the car.  I got the Eliseparts ones that are to OE spec but a lot cheaper than OE and they are great. You probably will have to suck up that cost. Don't get nasty powerlex - way too harsh for an elise.

You can probably take the suspension off yourself but might need someone to remove and refit the ball joints for you. Gav did mine, but I had the wishbones blasted and I painted them with POR15. 

Dampers - on a budget I would go for s2 Bilsteins. The spring rates are stiffer than s1 spec, the damping is much better and they drop the ride height an inch. I didn't like my Street Series Nitrons but the NTRs I have on now are good but very expensive. Gav says the Quantum Zeros Eliseparts sell are excellent, but I won't have purple on my car so that ruled them out for me!

For cams I would recommend MG 135 cams - they will give it an instant 15 more bhp (16%!) and they stop the engine getting out of breath at 5000 revs. About £150 a pair second hand and brilliant. Make a huge difference. Anything else gets really expensive and loses a lot of torque.

Induction - mine has a simple K&N cone filter, not in any special housing so no cold air feed but it's ok. Simple and cheap and sounds rorty.  You might find a Hurricaine second hand on seloc or facebook though - as with all these parts. I saw some nearly new s2 Bilsteins advertised a couple of weeks ago but I can't remember where. Maybe put some wanted ads out there - that's how I found my current engine, that was low miles, ported head and Piper 633 cams on verniers for £850! 

Good luck with it.

Oh, and post up some bloody pictures, you know the rules! 😁😊

 

[DeanB]

And for goodness sake teach him about lift-off oversteer quick!!

[CDM2018]

My 10 yr old daughter and myself went on parts of NC500 last year, she enjoyed the week but I think enjoyed the hotel swimming pool even more.

She has already stated in no uncertain terms to her big brothers who both drive that Evora is her car when she gets older ! They wouldn’t argue with her ! Lol 

it remains to see if in future there will be driving school still teaching manual car driving ? 

[PJT]

Living the fatherly dream.  All I can do is hope for the same from my son!  Just got to get him away from the Hot Wheels Diablo (his current favourite).

[CDM2018]

1 hour ago, PJT said:

Living the fatherly dream.  All I can do is hope for the same from my son!  Just got to get him away from the Hot Wheels Diablo (his current favourite).

Give it time took my daughter a couple of years to fully understand how unique the lotus is ! 

[richbk]

So Ethan has signed up and will be along shortly with some photos and progress I am sure . 
we spent today getting the car safely up on axle stands and removing all the under trays , wheels , releasing arch liners and starting to find all the clam fixings . Seems some are spinning in situ , so might prove difficult … anyone know if you can access the sill under the door hinge area , as I fear a nut might drop off Into here if I continue loosening the bolt ??

skinned 2 knuckles and got hailed on in the process but actually really pleased with the condition of the suspension parts , brakes , disks , arb etc . Signs of corrosion as expected, but less than I feared  and bushes definitely need replacing but now not sure if I need to go to expense of sand blast and coating or whether to slightly rub down and POR -15 ..

advice welcome as always ….

 

 

[Phil S1]

The two clam fixings below the hinges into the sills tend to be the most troublesome Rich. The nuts are bonded inside the sills, the seized bolts break that bonded joint so the whole nut and bolt assembly just spins round. You will need to carefully Dremel/angle grind the bolt heads away until the remainder drops inside the sills. To retrieve the nuts I have known some people cut a hole into the sill inside the wheelarch and then cover the hole with a blanking plate but I chose to do it a less invasive way via the coin trays. The problem with that though was those flimsy abs coin trays were bonded in place with enough Sikaflex to hold a rampaging baby elephant. I managed to get them off eventually using a sharpened wallpaper scraper to cut through the Sikaflex. Once off they reveal a hole into the sill through which you can use a telescopic magnet to retrieve the errant nuts. You will then need to install rivnuts into the sills in place of the previously bonded nuts along with new bolts of course.

If the corrosion on the wishbones doesn't look bad then a rub down and coat with Por-15 should do the trick without the additional expense of stripping and re-passivating.

[Broadside]

If you want the wishbones cleaning up in the vapour blast cabinet drop me a pm, I'm sure I can help a young enthusiast out.

Graham

[DeanB]

This is the before, during and after sequence for my wishbones.  As you can see, even finished you can still see some pitting but my main purpose was to arrest the corrosion and protect the metal. 

I didn't re-passivate the wishbones, just painted them. I suppose re-passivating and painting is better because it's belt and braces, but we'll see how mine get on.

If you are taking them off and re-bushing I would definitely have them blasted before paint, especially if Graham will let your lad have a go with his cabinet. 

[richbk]

Many thanks all for the info and offers of help .

phil , you are spot on , 7 bolts out no problem , the 8th , passenger side bottom of hinge is a nightmare , spinning . Have had to grind off the head carefully and hopefully we can retrieve from inside following your tips . 
Graham I have dropped you a message , very kind offer, my son is very excited to maybe learn a new skill . 
dean . Thanks for the images , I would say the wishbones are similar if maybe a little better than yours looked , but definitely in need of TLC   And preventative measures for long term . Who did the bushes in /out for you ? 
 

tganks again folks , as I mentioned in another thread MLOC really is a great place 

richard and Ethan 

[DeanB]

Gav at Unit 4 took the bushes and ball joints out and then rebuilt the lot when I had painted them.

[Jonathan E]

Time flies Rich!🙄😆

I'm a big fan of Quantum zero's, they're made in Hampshire and were developed very closely with Eliseparts, I've had them on 3 different cars now and never had a problem, speak to Geary about spring rates., I don't dislike purple so not a problem for me. Having said that If I was in Ethans shoes I'd be looking to get it back as close as possible to factory, red Konis really weren't ever up to the job😆, so Bilsteins would be the goto, reason for keeping it oem is that anything the car might need will probably be sitting around in someones garage and can be bought relatively cheaply. He can always fit filters and upgrades at a later date and I'm not sure adding trick bits will help with his insurance premium, plus if he's going to do it up and move it on, originality is everything with S1's, I expect it will require a few quid spending on it, suspension and paint are costly I'd put my budget to use there before spending on cams, filters etc.. My only exceptions would be toe links(deffo change if its been sitting around a long time) Spitfires are brilliant but if he's just having it as a road car then oem are fine, and a ss exhaust purely to save changing it later when the original rots, insurance won't add for ss non performance enhancing. Seats can be swapped via the chassis. Change all fixings to ss while the clam is off, check the heater matrix for leaks, change the rad if its original and funds allow, and check the state of the headlights and brackets for rust, the boot leak is probably the hose on the underside of the rear clam, feel up on the inside of the clam or better still, assume the Lotus position with your head in the boot looking up and backwards, it will either be blocked, weeping or has probably come off completely. I really enjoyed doing up my sheddy S1, you'll both learn a huge amount about the car, lose a huge amount of skin from various parts of your body, ache where you didn't think it possible, more so for you Rich due to your age😉 and you will overspend, I'd allow 40%. but it will be worth every penny and every drop of blood, sweat, and tears!

Good luck👍

[richbk]

Cheers John. 
I was hoping you might see the thread and add a few pearls of wisdom . I don’t suppose you have a set of quantum’s and those gorgeous compomotive wheels sitting about in your garage do you ??

we are busy cleaning , dismantling, checking , more dismantling, learning  on the front end at the moment . Clam off planned for Wednesday, just need it to stop raining and warm up a little . As you said paint and suspension will be the big costs but the car was the right price for us to factor this in . So hopefully it will be worth a little more when restored than we spend , but i don’t think he has any intention of moving it on any time soon . 
we will keep as original as possible as that’s the charm of the car , with a couple of subtle upgrades , for now , although I have already seen “Honda” in a text message to a mate !!!!

plan is to get it mechanically sound and enjoy it this summer and the look at paint etc next winter . 
speak soon 

rich