The most recent was fitting a new bonnet liner to the car. The original was already gone so had no worries there. I had included myself in the group buy as it would have been nice to have a tailored one with the Lotus logo but that group buy never seemed to happen.
I found a company on the great auction site in the sky that sold all sorts of sound proofing, insulation, heat protection, all for the motor trade. I purchased a roll of heat resistant and sound deadening material that came with the adhesive on one side and silver reflective stuff on the other. Having owned said material for some months i fitted it yesterday.
Found it easier obviously to make a template first and then cut it to shape as its a bit unwealdy to try and hold it up by yourself. Even the template was a little tricky as a large piece of cardboard was difficult to hold up and mark, then I tried pieces of paper but the slightest breeze meant it flapped about too much. Back to the cardboard idea and as the shape is symmetrical I made a template of half the shape and then just flipped it over. Somebody could probably make it a perfect professional fit with a bit more time and patience but its good enough for me !!
I also fitted some LED side lights yesterday too, definitely worth doing as 10 times better. I guess slightly pointless in my case as my car has some LED daylight running lights fitted (I think thats what the Americans call them ?!), but still worth it as the sidelights just looked slightly old and yellow when standard.
Of course the headlight motors have been repaired, both were continuing to carry on when the pod units were up. I decided to remove the demerara sugar type stuff from within with a kit from SJ's.
My number plate was a full size one and I wasn't happy with it as there seemed to be a lot of flex in it. I believe it had the standard fitting of the screws in the top left and right corner, this just seemed to let it swing in and out from the bottom. Out with the saw and trimmed it down, heavy duty velcro and much more solid.
Before I purchased it it already had some LED lights fitted, these come on with the ignition and go off when the headlights come on. There is also a delay when the ignition is turned off of a few seconds. Being a dark car I'm sure it has helped me be spotted far more easily. A lot of the roads I drive on are A roads/country roads with a lot of trees over hanging and quite often in the shade. I'm sure without these lights being there people wouldn't see me and pull out in front of me. Most moderrn cars seem to have them. Also had the rubber lip spoiler replaced which smartened it up a bit.
With the most recent MOT approaching I did a quick check of all the lights and remembering that when I was out at night recently one headlamp seemed to be bouncing up and down a bit. Upon inspection I found that one lamp could be pushed in a bit, reason being that one complete screw and spring were missing, also another spring was a complete mis-match and an ill fitting wood screw made an appearance somewhere. I bought one of Geoffs very comeprenhensive refurbishment kits and replaced every screw and spring, I still seem to have a lot left over !!
Having found the drivers window very rattly I had a look around inside the door (with the help of one of Tobys excellent online videos) and found a couple of loose bobbins. Window out, bobbins glued back, new rollers bought and greased. A big improvement, didn't feel like the car was going to fall to pieces when I slammed the door. When I tried to put it back the first time I damaged the old existing outside window trim, it was dried out and starting to crack so a new one was purchased. A bit of a fiddle to work out how it fitted but got there in the end, all back in and looking smart again.
Wanting to improve the brakes in the future I started with the braided brake hoses, gave it to my garage to replace as tired of scrabbling about on a concrete floor !! All went well until one of the rear brake lines would not come away so a new brake pipe on the rear as well. Might be my imagination but I'm sure it does feel slightly better on the initial press of the pedal, probably helped by new brake fluid as well I guess.
I'm sure all long standing members have done all of the above, maybe twice over on different cars, but its nice to get these little improvements out of the way to make it more enjoyable to drive.
Whats next ?
Got some of Jamies door seals to fit, also got to try and make a new header seal for the roof coupled with some of Jamies improved A pillar seals.
Got an Elan chip to fit but have shown great restraint in not fitting it until a brake upgrade has been completed, so maybe the all round PNM solution is on the horizon !
Time to get out and about now the suns out !!
