First Lotus for me

[Vixensteveplus2]

Hi,
I am completely new to Lotus ownership and so new to this forum so a bit of backstory ... Early this year I was looking for another project and ended up buying a '71 Plus 2 S130 in April. At the time looking at various 60's classics it seemed to me that the Plus 2 was actually very underrated.
Slightly mad to buy it on Gumtree without looking at it in person, but it was a runner with recent mot and bodywork looked ok. It has lost its twincam at some stage but had a very good crossflow and bullit box in it.

So most of the rebuild since June has been taking the body off, reforming the accident damaged grp engine bay, rewiring the car, and thinking what engine/gearbox to put in it.
For better or worse I have gone the Syder Zetec route. I suppose this is where most forum members stop reading this!
I attach a few pics of how the car is now (November), obviously things have taken longer than expected ...odd that!

New Spyder chassis, rebushed suspension, cv driveshafts, Cos 4x4 diff, MT75 Scorpio box from Denmark, thicker anti rollbar and £150 ST170 engine. Also new dash, window motors and vacuum pods.

Still to get ... exhaust manifold, ITB's, Omex 600 and radiator.

It would be great to get involved with the forum as up to now I have had to work out things on my own (reinventing the wheel).

Steve (Berkshire)

[rgh0]

Hi Steve
Welcome to the forum. There are many Zetec conversion fans here and its certainly a cheaper route if you don't have a twincam. Lots of knowledge on what works with what you are doing.

cheers
Rohan

[pharriso]

Welcome to the world of Lotus & the forum.

Your car looks great, love the colo(u)r!

[john.p.clegg]

That dash looks a bit different?

John;-)

[Vixensteveplus2]

Yes using a 'slave' dash (bit of ply) and now have a new burr walnut one waiting to go in with a few small alterations, ignition switch instead of choke, fuse panel deleted, usb 12v port instead of cigar lighter. Made by Classic Dash in High Wycombe who did a good job.
As purchased the original dash had been wrecked by damp and half of the rocker switches had stopped working,
PO's had wired up Halfords switches dangling out of each hole, whole thing a real mess.
Anyway I am bit worried about not being able to get at the rockers when the dash is in, and to take it out to replace a switch looks like a real pain. Even rear seats out I think! My TVR Vixen Duratec was similarly difficult though my Scimitar coupe is really easy, top of dash lifts off and plenty of room to peer down and reach behind it and sort out problems.
I resisted the temptation of putting the fuse boxes and relays in the glove box, so they are in the original position, just edged a bit more away from a hot exhaust!

A quick question ... I'm still trying to use the headlamp pod microswitch that switches on the sidelights (when the pods go up), this connects the circuit when its pushed in - are the original switches or similar available?

Here is a pic of my Dad helping to lift the Plus2 body off and the new and old sills(!).

[The Veg]

Welcome Steve!

You've chosen good components. Pretty colour too!

[alanr]

The method you used to lift the body off is interesting and different to the way I think others have done it.
Can you explain a little more please?
Do I assume correctly that you lifted the body using the engine crane pivoted on to the centre seat belt mountings and then when high enough you balanced the body somehow and pulled the whole lot sideways over the chassis/wheels using the engine crane?

Alan.

[Vixensteveplus2]

Re the body lift (it was going to be a '1st lockdown one man job'), I read on the forum that the centre of gravity of a Plus 2 body (minus doors, seats, boot lid/bonnet) was further back than one would think, so looked like near to (yes you are right) outer seat belt mounts.
So I waited till I'd replaced the sill members then re-used the least rusty one as a tranverse beam, cut and bent the bends down & attached them to short link pieces, down to the seat belt mount threaded holes. No welding required!
Drilled and bolted a central loop to locate the engine crane hook. The short drop links are because the tranverse beam has to clear the driveline tunnel.
There is enough room for the engine crane arm to lift without hitting the roof (so to speak)
Anyway it did lift up the body but I think it was nose heavy so put about 20kg in the boot to level it out.
Decided to keep the engine in and rolled the chassis backwards.
Tried to pull the body/engine crane sideways, but the small crane wheels and rough concrete floor made this a bit dodgy so plan B was to roll chassis back - flaw in this cunning plan was when the road wheels hit the engine crane legs.
The not very elegant solution was to lift the body up a bit more and crowbar the r/h front tyre over the crane leg.
So my top tip is that a crane can be used but don't try to move it and a body too far ...move the chassis!

Here also is a couple of pics of the new rolling chassis waiting to go back on, engine and box nearly ready

[alanr]

Thanks for the information on the method used. Sounds to me like removing the body was fun with a capital 'F' !

i do hope putting the body back on goes a bit easier for you ........Or perhaps you are going with a different method to put it back on ?

Alan.

[Vixensteveplus2]

It was easier to roll the chassis back over the crane leg than it sounds - another factor that I had discovered there was accident damage (probably '70's) to the grp front wheel arches and engine bay that made lifting the body by the arches a bit doubtful.
I think I will put the body back on using the same method, not sure whether to put the engine/box in before or after ... any thoughts on this?
Here are a couple of pics of engine bay, no images of a 'before' I'm afraid, not a pretty sight.