Good Morning and a plea for advice from a Newbie!
Posted: Tue Jun 06, 2017 5:47 am
Morning all, I'm new on here so just thought I'd post to say Hi.
I'm currently in the process of buying my first classic Lotus, I currently have an Exige RGB. The car I'm looking at is a restoration project - I'm no stranger to these as I have restored and still own an MG Midget, an MGB V8 roadster and have just finished an 8 year restoration of my 1956 MGA 1500. I have also built two 'hot' Mini's for my sons.
I have tracked down a literal 'barn find' Plus 2, currently in storage in a barn on a farm on the Devon/Cornwall border. I've been looking for such a project for about two years now. It's a dry barn and the car's been there for about 15 years. It has a Spyder chassis and two tone bodywork - the current owner can't even remember the colour of it let alone age or specification!
The car is complete, well almost. It has no engine and gearbox. The current owner is on holiday at the moment and will send me pictures and details when he returns next week, in the mean time I've been trying to track down an engine and gearbox without much success.
Does anyone on here have any views as to how much such a project car should cost me? I fully understand that it's a bit of a loaded question as it would depend on condition but a ball park figure would be useful. Also, I'd be interested if anyone could point me towards an engine and gearbox - I don't suppose that this is the sort of thing you'd have lying around as a spare? I'd rather have an engine that is complete but that needs rebuilding - I find engine building very theraputic.
Are there any recommended manuals or books available in paper or PDF format?
I'm off to read some other posts, what I've read so far is very informative.
Regards to all
Andy
I'm currently in the process of buying my first classic Lotus, I currently have an Exige RGB. The car I'm looking at is a restoration project - I'm no stranger to these as I have restored and still own an MG Midget, an MGB V8 roadster and have just finished an 8 year restoration of my 1956 MGA 1500. I have also built two 'hot' Mini's for my sons.
I have tracked down a literal 'barn find' Plus 2, currently in storage in a barn on a farm on the Devon/Cornwall border. I've been looking for such a project for about two years now. It's a dry barn and the car's been there for about 15 years. It has a Spyder chassis and two tone bodywork - the current owner can't even remember the colour of it let alone age or specification!
The car is complete, well almost. It has no engine and gearbox. The current owner is on holiday at the moment and will send me pictures and details when he returns next week, in the mean time I've been trying to track down an engine and gearbox without much success.
Does anyone on here have any views as to how much such a project car should cost me? I fully understand that it's a bit of a loaded question as it would depend on condition but a ball park figure would be useful. Also, I'd be interested if anyone could point me towards an engine and gearbox - I don't suppose that this is the sort of thing you'd have lying around as a spare? I'd rather have an engine that is complete but that needs rebuilding - I find engine building very theraputic.
Are there any recommended manuals or books available in paper or PDF format?
I'm off to read some other posts, what I've read so far is very informative.
Regards to all
Andy