Restoration of 26/0086 unit 3067

[Sea Ranch]

Awesome casting, Rod, as Richard said.

Please share your system, materials, tips, etc.!!

Thanks,

Randy

[UNCbigM]

Wow! Great work you're doing! The new bonnet lock knob looks great!

I'm considering starting a full restoration on an S1 and wish I had someone with your skill and knowledge to direct me! Can't wait to see more, it'll serve as inspiration (or depression if I'm not doing well).

[rodlittle]

Thanks for the kind comments guys
I used silicone rubber to make the mould and black gel coat resin for the castings
just stuff I had around really its not rocket science
rod

[SADLOTUS]

Just love these threads.
Well done, so satisfying.

[rodlittle]

At last Ive managed to get the dash in and all the electrickery works

Looks even better with a steering wheel, almost driveable

And now it has a glovebox as well

Doors and windows next I think

[Mr.Gale]

Hi Rod,
I've been following this thread with great interest as I have started much needed work on my S1. I'm going to remove the body using an engine hoist like your, my question is I can see in your photos where you attached the ropes behind the seats but where did you attach the two ropes in the engine bay?
Thanks for your input.
Mr.Gale

[rodlittle]

Hi Mr Gale
I used the fixing holes that are used to bolt the body to the suspension towers. If you put a bolt in these with about 1/2 inch sticking out they should be strong enough for you to loop your hoist ropes around them.
I would recommend lifting the front of the body first though to free it, I only put the weight of the body on mine Im not sure what would happen if the body was stuck to the chassis.
Also when replacing the body make sure theres no bolt sticking out the tower side of the body or that will stop the body going down. Obvious I know.
good luck
rod

[Mr.Gale]

Thanks for your help Rod, I'll let you know how it goes.

Mr.Gale

[rodlittle]

Easy job next, fitting the boot lid. I had the hinges rechromed and made new pins out of brass

The boot stay bracket was missing but Ive folded one up out of stainless, it may not be the right shape but it works OK

Now to put the doors on, fairly easy to do, they dont fit very well but I guess thats normal for a Bourne bodyshell.

I had no Door handles and didnt even know what they should look like until some of you helpful guys sent me some pictures. Obviously they should hav been chromed steel, but I cant fold steel that thick so I made a pair out of 1/8" ally

and polished them looks ok to me almost like chrome.

Next job is the door surround trim, I did have a very decrepit sample to look at, when I stripped off the outer covering the original trim material was still there, a very strange thin plastic covering, like leathercloth but with no cloth and almost no graining. Brittle by now as well.
I decided to try making the surround trim out of the plastic corrugated board that signs are made from, its fairly rigid and of course waterproof.

[rodlittle]

Cuts quite easily with a Stanley blade

Im not sure how its supposed to be fixed though, The outside edge is obvious, there are metal tabs welded to the door surround reinforcing frame and it must be screwed to them with cup washers and self tappers, but the inner edge is more of a mystery, there are the same tabs for the inner edge but it would make more sense to me it it were held on all round the edge with a piece of edge trim that went over both the fibreglass edge and the surround trim. Dunno about that at the moment.
Door trim next, bit of a problem here as I didnt have anything to go by, a previous owner had completely changed the door lock operating handle and the entire door trim. The bottom part looks fairly simple it obviously fits with trim clips to the holes in the door, so I made these panels out of 5mm exterior ply.

BUt the upper part is more of a mystery, I cant see how its supposed to fix to the door. Going by the fact that the window guide channels were originally chromed (I made new stainless ones) they must have been intended to have been visible, cant see Lotus paying for chrome that no one could see. So that means the trim panels must have fitted somehow so that the guides were visible. Theres no way my panels will fit between the guides and the window felts so I've made up some ally tabs and screwed them to the panel, with the panel cut to fit between the edges of the window guides these tabs fit easily between the guides and the felts. Maybe someone will be able to tell me how it ought to be done before its too late to change.

Now the panels just need covering in leathercloth. I used a thin layer of foam first then the leathercloth stapled on from behind.

Two nice new handles from Austin Healey spares and they're finished

Looks OK

[rodlittle]

Cant add more than 10 pictures to one post so heres the next lot.
All the door trim fitted now , even though I cant duplicate the weld lines on the original it looks ok to me.

Now for the funny bit that carries on the lines of the crashpad down to the door arm rest.
I made it the same way I made the crash pad, from insulating foam covered in glass cloth Using a piece of ply where it is fitted to the door with trim clips.

Then covered with leathercloth,

its just amazing what shapes you can get leathercloth to conform to with the aid of a heat gun and some serious pulling. This is how it turned out,

of course the back isnt so pretty but thats hidden.

And here it is fitted

[rodlittle]

I managed to find a filler cap that looked right at Beaulieu it said 100E on it so that seems the right period

and I got an Anglia filler pipe off ebay which unfortunately had a sharp bend just after the filler neck but with a little cutting and welding I now have a fuel filler

[rodlittle]

Next Saga is the seats, This is what I started with.

and underneath

there were several rusted out tubes. When I began to strip the old covering off the frame

I found that at some time in the past it had been recovered directly on top of the original covering, so heres what it originally looked like

When I stripped that lot off I had a bare frame with the back tubes generally ok but all the others rusted through

I dont have a pipe bender so the only way I could see to remake the frame bends was with a torch and muscle power.

What I didnt take into account however was that in both of the bottom frame bends there is a second tube inside the outer to give extra strength to the back. So the only way I could see out of that problem was to make tha bends then cut the bent tubes in half and weld them up again around the inner tube. So after much cutting and welding

I got both seats to the stage where they were complete frames

Then I needed to remake the clips for the new springs.

[rodlittle]

I bent up all the clips needed for the new seat springs as the old ones were dust

and welded them on the back crossmember

Now the frames are all ready for the springs

And heres the finished seats with the new springs and a quick blow over with hammerite to try and keep the rust at bay.

Just a case of waiting for the new seat covers to come now, Ive been told by SWMBO that I should buy the covers as I would spoil the job if I made my own. Shes quite right in one respect I couldnt reproduce the weld lines across the seats Id have to make them with stitches which wouldnt look original. Fingers crossed that they come in time for me to fit them and go to Goodwood in September

[nebogipfel]

Rod,

Just wanted to say this is an inspirational thread with impressive work and attention to detail

The seat frames alone demonstrate what can be done and that frankly derelict parts can be saved if you are sufficiently determined.
So much more impressive than a cheque book restoration

Looking forward to seeing the finished job. Well done old chap