Mystery items!

[esprit888]

Ok, the mystery pics/questions of the day are below. The first is what is it a picture of ? and what i need to know is what is the brown stuff Lotus used to hold it all together? (as i need to re-attach some items) The second is a toughie, so lets see who knows their cars the best, What item does not belong in the second pic?

brown stuff.jpg

odd item out.jpg

[max and andy]

The connector with the five vacuum pipes for the heater control is not the same as ours. And its not in the right place. A&M

[Nige]

The brown stuff will be Thorntons Toffee a peculiarlarly English brand of confectionery renowned for its light weight, structural strength and all round gooiness and used by Lotus to hold cars together since 1948 .

Always wondered what the back of the centre console/dash panel/fascia mask looked like. Seriously I expect any form of glue will do to hold the bits together I would go for a 2 part epoxy.

Odd one out, do you have a small rodent infestation or is that the ECU in the background in a very odd place (compared with a UK car)? The vacuum pipe block may be different (I wouldn't know) but I would have thought it was in the right place.

[GeoffSmith]

Treacle from the Tadley Treacle mine.

Shed load of cable connectors and where does that spade connector on the brown wire go?

[HJ2]

I remember the brown stuff from "Charlie and the chocolate factory" (but it coul also have been in "Henkie in the Loctite factory").
What is the loose metal bit @ the lower left corner doing there?


Oh well. i know it now shows that i haven't removed my fascia yet

[Monty]

The brown stuff will be Thorntons Toffee a peculiarlarly English brand of confectionery renowned for its light weight, structural strength and all round gooiness and used by Lotus to hold cars together since 1948 .

Think the Brown stuff is just a type off Hot Glue

Looks like you`ve got more Brown stuff in the 2nd pic, is that Turd

No wonder you guys have problems getting to the ECU

[martin_bailey_1]

The brown stuff will be Thorntons Toffee a peculiarlarly English brand of confectionery renowned for its light weight, structural strength and all round gooiness and used by Lotus to hold cars together since 1948 .

Just a swift word of warning here....... I have to point out that Nige is referring to Lotus' use of 'plain' Thorntons Toffee.
This choice is crucial, as substituting the 'Fruit and Nut' variety would obviously introduce unacceptable weak spots into the bond
...... and the use of the 'Chocolate Covered' variety would just be silly

Cheers,

Martin.

[dapinky]

Ahh, that's why my wheel fell off!

Perhaps I should go for the 'Factory Approved Upgrade' and use Treacle Toffee.

(On a serious note, I'd be tempted to use a standard 'hot glue' gun to stick it all together)


And, has someone nicked the radio off the end of the aerial cable

[esprit888]

Incorrect (would you like to call a friend or go for the 50/50 )

The connector with the five vacuum pipes for the heater control is not the same as ours. And its not in the right place. A&M

[esprit888]

Nige wins the first round!
This all started with a simple upgrade from the GM SIR to a U.K Elise wheel (more on that later but i can confirm the steering shafts are identical between UK non airbag and Fed Airbag cars) Once installed and looking spiffy the stereo would not work (?????) So i decided to fix the cd player as the DPO had wired it to a constant 12v source not an acc/ign source. Pulling the stereo and noted the lower right hand of the fascia was loose because the brown toffee (which MUST be of sufficient strength as Lotus uses this to hold the support brackets, which are then screwed to the metal panel, in place) Well one thing led to another and i ended up here:

FASCIA.jpg

I will be posting some intersting pics for those who wondered how it all looks behind there and if i have time a step by step on what NOT to do when removing it (note the steering wheel & shroud do not need to be removed contrary to the service manual) Nige also wins the bonus prize for spotting the acorns, i found over a dozen !

The brown stuff will be Thorntons Toffee a peculiarlarly English brand of confectionery renowned for its light weight, structural strength and all round gooiness and used by Lotus to hold cars together since 1948 .

Always wondered what the back of the centre console/dash panel/fascia mask looked like. Seriously I expect any form of glue will do to hold the bits together I would go for a 2 part epoxy.

Odd one out, do you have a small rodent infestation or is that the ECU in the background in a very odd place (compared with a UK car)? The vacuum pipe block may be different (I wouldn't know) but I would have thought it was in the right place.

[esprit888]

Nice try Geoff but that is factory , its the A/C wire from the relay to the switch, slides into the blue splice connector upper left. Also interesting is that there is in fact only one spare switch, not two as it appears from the front.

AC connection.jpg

Treacle from the Tadley Treacle mine.

Shed load of cable connectors and where does that spade connector on the brown wire go?

[tweetdriver63]

Nice try Geoff but that is factory , its the A/C wire from the relay to the switch, slides into the blue splice connector upper left. Also interesting is that there is in fact only one spare switch, not two as it appears from the front.

There are three blank switches on Fed cars, but one of them has a wiring harness attached (this is what I found in my car when I re-arranged the switches). As I recall from another thread a long time ago, that is the wiring that would go to the rear fog light in a UK car. The rest of the wiring to the rear fog light isn't in the Fed car's main harness, IIRC, but they used the same harness behind the dash, thus the connection to the blank switch. Since I removed all three inactive switches in my car, I have the un-used connector hanging free behind my fascia.

[esprit888]

Correct Chris, what i was trying to say was there is one empty spot, where i was considering installing an engine start button.

Nice try Geoff but that is factory , its the A/C wire from the relay to the switch, slides into the blue splice connector upper left. Also interesting is that there is in fact only one spare switch, not two as it appears from the front.

There are three blank switches on Fed cars, but one of them has a wiring harness attached (this is what I found in my car when I re-arranged the switches). As I recall from another thread a long time ago, that is the wiring that would go to the rear fog light in a UK car. The rest of the wiring to the rear fog light isn't in the Fed car's main harness, IIRC, but they used the same harness behind the dash, thus the connection to the blank switch. Since I removed all three inactive switches in my car, I have the un-used connector hanging free behind my fascia.

[esprit888]

OK, first round was an easy one, for round two what two items are missing from the rear instrument panel below that is A.) very important B.) a pain in the a** ?

I am contunuing this thread with some humour, but i also hope its useful to see some of these items in a picture that you would never normally come across.

Inst rear.jpg

[esprit888]

Monty,
Discovered that the 'brown stuff' is: Permabond double bubble (i kid you not !)

Double bubble.pdf

The brown stuff will be Thorntons Toffee a peculiarlarly English brand of confectionery renowned for its light weight, structural strength and all round gooiness and used by Lotus to hold cars together since 1948 .

Think the Brown stuff is just a type off Hot Glue

Looks like you`ve got more Brown stuff in the 2nd pic, is that Turd

No wonder you guys have problems getting to the ECU

[GeoffSmith]

Monty,
Discovered that the 'brown stuff' is: Permabond double bubble (i kid you not !)

Would that be general purpose, non sag or machineable?

[lotusgirlmarie]

The FED cars do have alot of the rear foglight wiring. It terminates next to the battery. I figured that out when I did my front foglight install

The second unused harness on FED cars goes to the side mirror defrost.

[HJ2]

Uhmmm.. another guess: Speedocable is missing (hope it's in the car! ) and the speedpulse...

[esprit888]

Uhmmm.. another guess: Speedocable is missing (hope it's in the car! ) and the speedpulse...

The cable stays in the car and its a simple clip to disconnect so you can remove the cluster. This one is a little harder so here is the first hint and a zoomed picture. Hint: This should be on the CHECK list whenever you are looking at an Elan for sale !

[HJ2]

Now it's to easy...
I'll let someone else play