Exterior Makeover

[Monty]

I prefer the original (less the reflector).

The center Exhaust will be a different matter, the bottom of the boot will need to be modified as there is just no room to run the exhaust

But as always another interesting project

[Elanlover]

The center Exhaust will be a different matter, the bottom of the boot will need to be modified as there is just no room to run the exhaust

Ahh, but part of the reason for extending the bumper skin will be to create room for a pipe run. Picture the "indent" in the bottom of the bumper where the black grill sits. Now, take a piece of 2 1/4 inch pipe and place it up against that grill. With the bumper being extended to fill out that area there "should" (inserts fingers crossed smilie) be enough room to run the pipe behind the bumper and exit to a central exhaust tip. Will probably also need to have some heat protection there too.

I had a quick look there this summer and there seemed to be enough room to run a pipe if the bumper was extneded out. I'm hoping to essentially follow the slant line of the rear light clusters (as seen from the side) down to create the extension line for the bumper. Kinda like this if you know what I mean.

Full Bumper Side 01 (stock).jpg (57.91 KiB) Viewed 23472 times

A VERY crappy pic from the back as to what it might look like (if it doesn't look better than my poor MS paint skills can show all bets are off! )

[lotusgirlmarie]

Having thought a great deal about a centre out exhaust many moons ago I came to the conclusion that if I really wanted to do it right the best option was to cut the centre of the trunk floor for room to fit the silencer. That way it's also pretty much a straight shot out the rear of the car. There would just need to be a slight verticle S bend to ensure the silencer doesn't hit the ground. You could also then do a proper diffuser on either side of the exhaust to better evacuate the underside air. Sheilding the area would be easy enough with thermotec mat and with your glassing skills, lifting the centre floor would be easy enough. This would als make modding the rear bumper easier.

[Elanlover]

I prefer the original (less the reflector), of the options the first one looks best to me.

As an aside, I'd love to remove the reflector/corner markers but they are required by law in North America. Front and back When I put in the Kia lights I will loose the reverse lights and a rear reflector so I'm looking into a combination "stip" that would run from the side of the bumper around to the back and provide for a side reflectorr, a side marker light, reverse lights, reer reflecvtors and rear foglights. Believe it or not, the Audi Q7/5 "auxillary" lights (mounted at the bottom on the bumper) or possibly VW Tiguan lights might do the trick.

[Blue_Bullet]

Did you ever do this to your car and have you got any photos?

[Elanlover]

Okie Dokie then. As I finally get closer to finishing up all the large and small projects I have open, and getting the car back on the road of course, I thought I'd knock this one off the list. I even cleaned up the engine bay since the last time I posted a pic Doug chastised me for the grease smudge he noticed.

[Doug]

Lovely Blair, but one small suggestion: to clean up that obvious visual spoiler vacuum line to your BOV why not run it to the bonus port at the rear of the intake plenum. That way you remove it from the splice it's at now and it cleans that up and then you can make it disappear under where your spark plug wires are, only to connect behind the plenum, outta sight

[Elanlover]

Lovely Blair, but one small suggestion: to clean up that obvious visual spoiler vacuum line to your BOV why not run it to the bonus port at the rear of the intake plenum. That way you remove it from the splice it's at now and it cleans that up and then you can make it disappear under where your spark plug wires are, only to connect behind the plenum, outta sight

Doug, you haven't lost your touch! I didn't realize there was such a port. I'll have a look for it later. I take it you are giving me all these suggestions so I can do all the work for you before you try to coerce me to sell it to you and return it to its place of origin

[racerstev]

Those wheels look fantastic. Can you pass on who makes them and the spec details.

Steve

[Elanlover]

Those wheels look fantastic. Can you pass on who makes them and the spec details.

Steve

viewtopic.php?f=45&t=12386

[Doug]

yes, Blair, of course!

[Elanlover]

Small little "upgrade" to list since I haven't tackled any major exterior designs in a while. I had hoped the Hi Spec calipers would come sans logo but these decals I had special ordered do the trick to cover things up. They are very high temp vinyl especially for calipers. We'll see how long they last! (did get 3 sets though just in case since they were pretty reasonable).

[Elanlover]

One more little upgrade I didn't document. Remote battery posts. Overall, it looks very stock and this location was absolutely perfect. I just have to get the +ve post connected to the starter motor stud and was asking for some help in this thread here. Infinitely easier to access than opening up the tonneau, these posts were very easy to install. I simply removed the wheel arch liner, cut holes in the body work (which the stud covered up nicely and could be covered with rubber plugs if the studs were ever removed), mounted the studs and connected the ground to the very nearby negative chassis connection. At the same time, I installed a dedicated connection for my battery tender (yellow connector in second pic).

I am also adding a remote battery kill switch (which I will also document) and plan on inserting an ANL fuse block right after it. This is just to soothe my over-engineering/safety tendencies so that, if there's ever a break in the cable from the +ve stud to the starter motor it will trip the fuse instead of blowing the battery I suppose other fuses might blow first though. Now, just need to connect the +ve to the starter motor stud and we're good to go!

[Elanlover]

From another thread I had discussion about the alternator, its removal for an uprated one, the cabling, etc. I've ordered and received an uprated alternator that exceeds the previously uprated alt (75 amp) I installed a few years ago. Its in what's effectively (or pretty close to) the same body size and I've also decided to upgrade the cabling back to the battery to support the increased amps safely. Pics of the new alt and the stock, uprated and new custom alt specs are below.

_RPM___Stock (60amps)___Uprated (75amps)___Custom Rebuilt (108amps)

idle.............15.......................36.........................39
2,000...........29.......................43.........................52
3,000...........45.......................59.........................78
4,000...........53.......................65.........................94
5,000...........56.......................68........................102
6,000...........59.......................71........................108

IMG_3904.JPG (30.56 KiB) Viewed 22749 times

Being the over-engineering type I decided to go with this cable for the engine bay stuff. This would include the alternator to starter motor cable, the starter to binding post cable (through the firewall) and the newly added remote +ve post to starter motor cable. The cable I ordered is very high temp (almost 400F) and has an abrasion resistant jacket so I'm thinking we are in pretty good shape with this stuff. The rest of the cable inside the car is welding cable with a high strand count and tinned filaments for good flexibility - its all 2 AWG which should be enough to carry the load safely according to every calculator I've come across on the web. The one change I will likely need to make is this. The starter/alternator cable is wrapped up with the starter/binding post cable in a plastic jacket for protection. I will wrap the new cables in a jacket as well but separate them with two independent jackets and just tie wrap them together as the thicker cables won't both fit in one plastic jacket. Shouldn't be a problem I would think but we'll find out when I swap out the alternator and connect it all up.

Lastly, since I was rewiring the main cables I thought it would be a good idea to add a remote battery switch to make disconnecting the battery easier than having to reach into the tonneau to do it. The switch is far from pretty - simple utilitarian toggle switch - but I need to mount it somewhere in the car. I've two ideas - mount it somewhat hidden behind the seat or put it in the engine bay near the remote charging terminals. Putting it behind the seat has the advantage of it being harder to find but also means chopping up something to install it. In the engine bay has the advantage of it being right there when you want to do some work but may be less secure. Not sure if security is important for that switch. If they are in the engine bay already does it matter?

Would appreciate some thoughts on it though.

[Elanlover]

This is a project that has been years in the making. A new LED indicator/DRL module for a FED car. Why years? Let the tale begin………

I’ve been experimenting with LED lighting in the car for a good 7 years. I’ve used 1st, 2nd, and 3rd generation LED bulbs and now COB LED’s throughout the car. All exterior and interior lights are LED’s (every single bulb in the car except the headlights) and I’ve tried many, many variants. However, the one area of the car that didn’t react as well to the LED lights were the front indicator/DRL’s. In Canada, DRL’s were mandatory back in ’91 and Lotus got around it by simply turning on the parking lights (1st position on the lighting switch). While it worked it meant that the taillights and side markers came on in the day which was not ideal. I fixed that by rewiring the system so that the DRL’s (the front “parking” lights) ran on an isolated, ignition switched circuit. But, I never felt they were all that safe in terms of making the car more visible. That’s because the lights are so small and the modules themselves are set way back in the cavity due to the FED bumper being longer. In my mind, the only way to make the car more visible was to create a new module that pushed the lens to the front of the bumper and also filled the entire space with light for DRL operation (white) AND switched to amber when the turn signal was on.

So, thanks to better COB based LED lighting, “switchback” led lights and 3D scanning/printing that’s what I’ve done.

I started with a plaster mold of the cavity which I had 3D scanned. I then had it printed in black “strong and flexible” nylon plastic after some time with a CAD operator to get it tweaked. The module has mounting holes for 7 switchback LED’s and two M5 hexhead screws to be inserted along with a lip to place a lens cover and finally a channel to wrap an Oring around the outside for better sealing against the elements (see below).

The material should be good enough for this application and I decided to paint it gloss black. You could paint it any colour I suppose including one that matches the car. It’s a very porous material so several coats of paint were required (as in about 10). The holes for the M5 screws are a tight fit and they needed to be tapped down into their holes. I applied a bit of Sikaflex adhesive to the underside of the screws first then on top. I probably should have smoothed out the adhesive on top of the screw heads before painting as you can see its not perfect but with the lens on it won’t be that noticeable.

I’m now waiting for all that paint to really dry up before mounting the LED’s to the module. At the same time I’m struggling with how to build the lens. I can either have some polycarbonate cut (with or without a diffuser pattern) or have it 3D printed. The polycarbonate option will give me a durable, clear cover but it won’t be a perfect fit as I’ll have to shape it by hand to fit. The 3d printing option ensures a perfect fit but I’m not sure about the material choices (transparent ABSi via FDM process is being recommended to me) and durability. More to come………..

[epipete]

Blair,

Will there be a group buy?!?!

[Elanlover]

As in a group build by me????

Actually, if anyone's interested there will be no need. I can make the CAD file for the module shells and the lens available so anyone can get them printed. The LED's are off eBay and I'll post more details later. The mounting screws are stainless M5 x16mm. I used Krylon plastic paint to paint them. Pretty much everything you'll see here will be available easily. There may be a slight price break on the 3D printing costs if enough people want to order them at the same time but I doubt the savings would offset the costs associated with someone taking receipt of all of them then shipping them out again. The shells cost $86 each to print.

[Elanlover]

Here's the module with the LED's installed and Oring gasket.

I used these LED switchback lights which are perfect for this application. In my research into OEM LED DRL systems I discovered that manufacturers use LEDs that are between 0.5 and 1 watt each. Most of the aftermarket stuff available over the last few years has been woefully short of that benchmark and look terribly dull and decidedly aftermarket. These look like the real deal when they are on both in white and amber colours. Of course, being made in China, they didn't work "properly" out of the box. Seems the Chinese think that the DRL's should blink and the ambers lights should stay on A bit of cutting and reconnecting wires solved that. Also, I calculated that 7 of these LED's would be required to fill out the module and these come with only 5. I bought an extra set (pretty cheap and always good to have spares anyway) and spliced in 2 more LED's on the end of the cable run.

The only thing they don't do (which OEM systems do) is turn down the brightness by about half when the full lighting system comes on. In other words, when the headlights are on you don't need or want the DRL's on full intensity. Its a small issue that will mostly go unnoticed but I could accomplish this with a relay and large resistor that cuts the power down when the headlights are on or possibly by a pre-built nodule off eBay (I've seen a few I think). Still time to figure that out though. I also bought some stainless fasteners for them which included a flat washer, lock washer and nut. They are M10 1.0 pitch which was a bit harder to source and I used this washer combo because a nylock nut would have made it harder to keep the LED's aligned while tightening them up.

The Oring around the outside was a bit of a design after thought. I figured it couldn't hurt to build in a channel for one to try and prevent any water and dirt getting in behind the module. If it does it won't matter really as this will be a completely sealed unit when complete. Still, it can't hurt and the module shell can ne used with or without one. The problem though is that its pretty hard to find a 650mm Oring. Then I discovered you can build your own quite cheaply with Oring cord. So I bought some cord and the required adhesive, cut to size, glued the ends together and then dropped some of the adhesive into the channel before rolling the Oring into place.

Now I need to figure out the lens..................

[tigerdog]

Hi Blair,

I'm sure you already know about the Protocast lenses: http://www.protocast.co.uk/lotus.html. Any reason they wouldn't work? Maybe too much vertical dispersion, blinding oncoming traffic at night?

Doug

[Elanlover]

Hi Doug, I have those now on the stock modules. The new modules are not the same size at all. They are bigger and aren't so deep in the cavity. They are almost flush with the bodywork instead of being recessed. So, they won't work at all. Here's a picture of them dropped into the cavity.