XIL - A Rolling Project

[cliff]

Today was a going backwards day. I had installed the shocks with the adjusters facing outwards, making changing the settings very difficult. Brakes off, upper wishbones etc, shocks repositioned and all back together.

LH brakes fitted, system bled, still a bit spongy but have ran out of fluid so that's on the list for tomorrow. Bled the power steering, it feels much better than it used to, no leaks & new fluid works wonders.

XIL started first time and I took her to the end of the road and back (one of the good things about living in the middle of nowhere). Brakes ok but spongy, a water leak and a clunk when braking. Everything needs re torquing and the Samco hoses were fitted but the car has not been used, so hopefully a quick fix.

This it what makes it all worthwhile.

Before

After.

BFG's liner kit is great, really looks the part.

[steve matthews]

Cliff, what exactly is BFG's liner kit all about.

Steve -w- holes in liners

[cliff]

BFG in the BRG put together a kit with all of the nuts & bolts needed for the wheel arch liner, well worth having. I just realised you can't see the fasteners in the pics.

viewtopic.php?f=85&t=21072

[steve matthews]

Yes I have the kit but would like to have new liners.
Any leads on these
Steve

[cliff]

No, mine are just cleaned and sprayed with this:

http://www.carplan-international.com/wo ... tra-schutz

[Tannerman]

I love following this thread and it is good to see the jobs being done are being done well.

[cliff]

Fitted these.

New bracket.

Calipers.

Slight re-routing of the handbrake cable.

All done.

Brakes bled with no problem, even the Wilwoods were ok despite what I have read on here. The pedal travel seems about the same as before, I do have the 6811 calipers though. I have only done a few miles so far but I am pretty happy.

Last little job before going back to work.

I will never be the world's best with glass fibre but it has to be better than a hole.

That will dry while I am away and a bit of Tetra-Schutz should hide a few sins.

That, I hope is it for a while. Tracking & MoT booked for the end of February then should be all good for the summer and at least 1 trackday.

[cliff]

Just over 900 miles this week, Frankfurt, Cologne, Calais, Scunthorpe, Cardiff.

Stopped for fuel in a very snowy Aachen

MoT (yearly inspection)failed, a couple of small things, windscreen washers due to a split pipe near the left side bonnet (hood) hinge and a brake pipe seep. Both quickly cured and a pass cert.

After the modifications, all new brakes, Everest & O2 sensor modification, Piper downpipe & exhaust, a couple of things are noticeable.

Emissions

CO Max 3.5% 2011 3.37% 2013 0.54%

HC Max 1200ppm 2011 128 2013 68

That is some difference!

Brakes

2011 (in kgf)

Front L 229 R 241

Rear L 88 R 76

2013 (in kgf)

Front L 263 R 261

Rear L 91 R 88

Basically I am getting 74/26, not too far away from the original 70/30.

I think the figures don't really show how the car is now, these brakes work! Being used to more modern cars such as the GT for my daily driver and the company Fords, there is now little difference between the Elan and the others. The days of lets spend some time getting used to these carp brakes are over.

Nitroman's opinion of these calipers are, to my mind, spot on! Thanks Matt!

So, the rear tracking is done, the front castor & camber still need final adjustments, ride height & corner weights are next but overall I am so happy with XIL. 920 faultless miles straight out of a major rebuild is pretty good.

She has gone for respray, the guys can take their time as they are really busy but I want her back for early May.

[ashm]

I vote we move this from Minor projects to the Major projects forum!
Nice one Cliff, an inspiration to see all that hard work paying off.
Adam

[cliff]

Thanks Adam and everyone else on LEC who has given me inspiration.

It started out as a minor project and escalated a little!

If the mods want to move it, then fine by me.

[cliff]

A quick update.

The front bumper was in poor condition, I don't know what had happened to the mounting points but it had been bonded onto the clam! Thanks for the new one Andy.

Rear looking nice & shiny, the old lights let it down a bit though. I have some pods I bought from Chris last year, they have been sprayed to match the car. Elise lights coming soon.

Light pods to fit, grills to be fitted, indicators put the right way round, bumper on and we are almost there.

[surfboardfiller]

Indicators in /sidelights to the side

Great work Cliff!

[cliff]

Thanks Phil, looking at a project to improve these.

Quick update, car has been collected by Andy at QMech from what ultimately became respray and storage. Thanks to Chris at Auto Body Spray in Cardiff for letting me leave it there for those extra months.

Qmech are doing full suspension geometry, service & MoT. A few little things to do, not surprising as the car has been sat for a while, worst of all is a seeping oil cooler. Quick call to Coolex, luckily they had one in stock and it will be delivered tomorrow, thanks to Steve and everyone else at Coolex.

I am all for upgrading where it is beneficial, after all, we are not using 1991 phones or computers, why should we be using 1991 brakes, suspension & cooling?

[cliff]

It was a clear bright day when I left to pick up XIL, but as I crossed the Welsh border, the heavens opened. My thoughts of having a play with my newly set up car evaporated, unlike the rain!

QMech have done a full suspension geometry, corner weights, service and also did the MoT for me as well as replacing the oil cooler. They also replaced the drive shaft and jack shaft after finding it sheared behind the circlip retaining groove. Even in the wet the car feels fantastic, looking forward to some dry weather so I can really play. Brilliant guys, many thanks for your great work and your obvious enthusiasm for the Lotus marque.

Full of great ideas about some inspiring pictures with the beautiful Welsh scenery in the background, the rain put a stop to that, so here are a few in the covered storage where she will be living for a few weeks.

Pics taken on my phone, so not the best and the car is wet, some panel gaps need to be tweaked as well. I really like the clean look of the clear indicator lenses, suits the silver perfectly.

The pods to fit Elise lights are sprayed up ready to fit, I have a set of the S1 lights but have already decided I am going to fit the S2 LED ones. Because I like the clear fronts, I am seriously thinking about some clear LEDs for the rear, not sure if it will be too much. Comments gratefully received.

The front badge was not worth refitting so another one will be ordered and fitted. The rear badges haven't been fitted yet and I am leaning towards leaving them off.

It's taken a while but getting there slowly.

To do list:

Fit all the group buy stuff - thanks to all involved - Done
Panel gaps
Wheel refurb - Done
Pods & Elise lights - Done
New Alarm - Done
Progress the cruise control mod
New door speakers and sat nav
Boot opening solenoid

[Jeemy]

A lovely job. I always feel good when people say they've referred to my rebuild thread for info on a job. Well, this is the main thread I am referring to!

[cliff]

Toad alarm fitted by Secure a Car in Stafford. Button 3 on this system can be used for remote boot unlocking so I asked them to leave that wire available for when I fit the boot release solenoid & relay.

Great weather so time for a good clean and some silicon grease on the seals.

Looking better, my other project in the background.

After stripping out the hood stowage area to repair the release cable it could be a good time to change the fuel filter.

I am itching to fit these, thought I would see how they look.

Aftermath of hitting a pothole yesterday - not impressed.

Luckily the wheels have not been refurbished yet and this should be repairable.

[daveiow]

Ouch! That must have been nasty
Like the collection of Alfa's - brings back fond memories of my Alfa Sud 1.5 Ti probably a contender for best front wheel drive handling car with our Elan's

daveiow

[cliff]

I agree, the Sud was a great car - a very rare sight these days.

A quick 300 mile round trip on Saturday, North Wales and back to pick up my brother in law's new van. Car ran beautifully, nice to get some miles done this year.

Time for a few jobs and to reduce the pile of group buy stuff.

Boot rattle, spray shop forgot about the boot lid stop. These are available from SJ's.

Dave M's strut brace fitted, now have a great place to stow the warning triangle & FAK.

Wayne's B post caps & sill plates fitted.

On my other car the sill plates get scratched by footwear so have set them back a little to try and avoid this, they really look good. Once again, many thanks to all involved in organizing the group buys.

[cliff]

1 wheel repaired and 2 refurbished by the Wheel Specialist in Scunthorpe, the other 2 go in this week. I have had 5 sets of wheels refurbed here, they do a really good job.

My colour matching skills did not work out so well, they are now a lighter more metallic silver but I really like them.

After reading this thread:

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=22923

I ordered some Gel Logos, rubbed down the surface of the old ones, stuck on the new ones and ended up with this.

Fitted.

Very happy with these, many thanks to KevB

Some time ago LGM recommended fitted 5" speakers in the doors. A really easy mod and it does improve the sound a lot, thanks Marie.

A bit of trimming and 4 holes.

Fitted some Infinity Kappa's, all done

As I had it lying around, I also put some Dynamat behind the speakers. Not sure if it will make much difference but for the sake of a few minutes, worth a try.

A good time to fit Wayne's escutcheons, sets the door off nicely.

The to do list is reducing slowly.

[cliff]

Elise wiring loom, C117M0004F, about €54 but worth it as it comes with the plugs and fits the Elan. I only had to replace the main & number plate light connectors.

Lights removed.

I wanted to make this reversible, so split the wiring loom near the washer bottle. The Elan loom uses more earth wires than the Elise one, so I chose one and left the others in place.

Added plugs to the old & new looms, a bit of fabric looming tape tidies everything up.

Trial fit.

All done.

Still have to adjust the boot & spoiler gaps

Pods were made by Chris P, brilliant job, many thanks.

I think this makes the rear end look much cleaner, I have been looking for some LED's but at the moment I am very happy with these lights. I also had a new number plate made with a black border which really suits the black housing.