A first trip to Lotus Bits

So yesterday, the whole family (minus the dog!) went for a trip to Lotus Bits in Warwickshire. I'd spoken to the owner, Mike, on the phone earlier in the week and he suggested I come up at the weekend to have a look through their collection of S2 bonnets and anything else that might be of interest. So, having managed to remove the headlamp pods, we wrapped these up and took them with a view to discussing whether they could be repaired. We met Dave (seemingly, Mike's right hand man) and he looked after us very well, taking me through what to look out for on the car as well as taking the time to go through the myriad of parts they had to find a suitable replacement bonnet and 2 usable replacement headlamp pods. The bonnet we found was in very good condition but needs a bracket fitting, so I left that with them to do and then we will dry fit it along with the headlamp pods to make sure everything fits before respraying. The previous owner left me some of the original paint he used when the complete car was resprayed in Essex Blue, but this probably isn't usable and we'll have to try to source a colour match - may need a thorough Google search for PPG paint codes!

We were also able to sort out a couple of cosmetic issues. A shiny new badge (right) will make a nice finishing touch, and a zero cost grommet form a bucket of bits has perfectly fitted the electric aerial hole that was left when the previous owner decided to move it to the roof!

The other really useful part of the visit was being able to have a good look under an S3 that was on a ramp. Dave took me through the process of getting the steering rack out before making me familiar with some suspension bits. It was also useful to get some ideas on the best jacking and support points when I get round to lifting the car in the garage. He also showed me an engine on a stand and recommended that I take a close look at the cam belt by turning the engine over by hand and looking for any slip on the auto-tensioner pulley. The water pump pulley also needs close inspection along with the general condition of the belt.

It's great to have such a good resource nearby and I'm sure it won't be long before we make our next visit!

How to remove headlamp pods

I haven't been able to find much help for this and the workshop manual is a bit vague, so this is a useful record for me of what I did and maybe it will prove helpful for someone else in the future.

When the bonnet came off the car, it caused a little bit of damage to the pods and so I wanted to take them out to investigate how they could be repaired. The brackets for the bonnet were also damaged and so I need to look at replacing these. As you can see, one of the brackets is badly distorted and a bit of the carbon fibre from the underside of the bonnet is still attached. There is also quite a bit of rust and only 1 split pin was intact - the others were either already broken off or cam off when I attempted to remove the brackets. When you get the split pins off, you can wriggle the brackets towards the outside of the car and they will eventually work their way out of the bushes. The next step is to get the retaining screws out from the wings on each side. Unfortunately, this isn't simple as you need to get hold of the nut on the back of the screw inside the wing. The trick is in trying to retain the nut in the spanner once you've loosened and removed the screw. This requires a bit of contortion of the wrists while holding a 10mm spanner in one hand and a socket wrench with an extension bar in the other! On the driver's side (the hole is shown in the picture after the pod has been removed) you can reach around without too much difficulty, but on the opposite side, you need to unhook the washer bottle first. 

With the screws out, the next step is to undo the pushrod from the motor. This is pretty straightforward and you can make access a little easier by using the hand wheel at the back of the motor to manually move the pivot point.

The picture on the left shows the motor after the pushrod for the pod has been removed - the connecting screw has been left in. On the right is the removed pod with the pushrod still connected.

The final step is to detach the wires for the lamps. This would be very simple if there was a connecting plug outside of the lamp pod, but not surprisingly, that isn't the case! There is a grommet on one side of the pod at the back which can be prised off and you can reach in with your hand and get to the plug on one of the lamps, but the other one has to be removed from the front before you can pull it through the grommet hole. Undio the screws that retain the chrome surround and then the lamp will be easy to remove. Unplug the cable and then feed it back through the grommet hole and at last you can remove the lamp pod.

No doubt the first of many 'simple' jobs for me that turn out to be a bit fiddly!

What next?

So over the weekend, we wheeled it out to the drive and gave it a bit of a clean. As it had been sat around in a workshop for a while, it was pretty grimy, but the paintwork came up really nicely. Not surprisingly, this event (in which all the family got involved!) attracted a bit of attention from the neighbours and a few delays to 'show her off'! But it started to rain, so it was a quick, but careful, push back into the garage before too long!

Next job was to look at insurance and I was very impressed with the guys at Hagerty International. Very knowledgeable about the car and understood exactly what I needed. 'Laid up' insurance proved to be less expensive than expected and a limited mileage on-the-road policy seems pretty good value too. Can't wait to take advantage of that!

Then on to some tools. Having worked in the auto sector, most of the technicians I know would only ever use Snap-on, but they're a bit pricy for a home workshop so I settled for Halfords Professional. They get good reviews and have a lifetime guarantee, so can't really go wrong. Plus the 120-piece socket set was less than half price. They had some good deals on lifting accessories too. Biggest hit with the kids though is the car creeper I picked up from Screwfix - they've spent the evening with it under the kitchen table pretending to be mechanics! What's more, they both had junior overalls that their mum ordered (along with his and hers adult ones)! This project is going to be a family affair!

For valuable advice, I've joined thelotusforums.com where there's a great group of S2 owners and I've already picked up some good tips. We're now planning a family trip to LotusBits at the weekend to look at bonnets and get some general idea of the cost and availability of the various parts we need. The fun continues....

Delivery complete!

So yesterday, the car was delivered safely. I used an excellent website called www.shiply.com to find Dave (you can find his profile on Shiply here). Check out the website to see how it works - could be very useful for all kinds of delivery scenarios!
Not quite so sunny at the end of the journey so the paint work doesn't look quite so shiny!

 And finally, a snug fit in the garage! Now the real work begins....

The journey begins

Thankfully, a nice sunny day for the car's trip south....

First steps

I am very grateful to the previous owner for the huge amount of information he has already given me (not to mention the love and attention he has devoted to the car over the many years it was in his possession). As you can see from this picture, there is one obvious piece missing that will require my attention:

Wot no bonnet?

Finding a bonnet looks fairly straightforward thanks to the excellent range of Lotus bits available at http://www.lotusbits.com/ (more about them later).Thankfully, the car has previously been resprayed in the Essex blue colour and there is some paint left over!

While that isn't urgent it would be good to get the exterior of the car looking as it should and then the camera can get busy again.

Mechanically, I have an initial list of tasks for my project from the previous owner:

• Steering rack replacement
• Clutch master cylinder
• Brake master cylinder
• Check the cooling system

Hopefully this will be enough to get it ready for the road, although a new battery may be required since it hasn't been started for a few years. It's also been suggested I should check out the carburettor seals and I guess I will be checking over pretty much the whole car before turning the key....