What did you do to your Lotus today...

[tedtaylor]

Went for a fun Christmas Day drive around rural Delaware in the Sprint with top down. Hey, it was 65 degrees and sunny!!!

older picture, but you get the idea...

[Foxie]

Yes, I know although only if you register it as MOT exempt. However, I think it’s sensible to have the car inspected annually by a tester/trained mechanic as although I do much of the basic work myself I don’t consider myself anything more than a reasonably competent amateur mechanic. It’s a peace of mind thing and has in the past spotted little things as advisories that I was previously unaware of and subsequently able to fix. My choice and booking a test also motivates me to get the roundtuit jobs done .

I take my 1970 Plus 2 to our NCT (MOT Equivalent ) test as often as I like, even though it is not legally required.

It gives me readouts for individual wheel shock and brake performance, and actual tracking variations, which I can't measure, and also a useful second opinion on general vehicle condition.

[SENC]

Had a wonderful drive and this beautiful last day of 2021 - Happy New Year, all!

[Mazzini]

HNY Henry and to all the forum members.

[SENC]

A simple project I just hadn't gotten around to - a coat hanger mod to lock down the cold start device and hopefully prevent any further fuel seepage.

[elancoupe]

Ready to go back in.

[The Veg]

Lookin' good Mike, certainly better than mine looks following a good cleaning and replacement of the oil-seals.

And that's been a long project for me, due to a diversion into chassis-repair.

I was in the process of removing the diff and learned the hard way to be careful with the torque-rods. Trying to remove the nyloc nut at the back end of one, I applied some healthy torque to the nut at the back end of the rod- and the whole rod rotated, tearing the chassis!

I dithered about it for a while, tried to find a person skilled in welding who would be willing to come to my house and crawl under the car, then eventually decided that I would just have to do it myself. I'd welded before but just barely.

So first I needed to acquire the welding equipment. I picked up a cheep flux-core machine, helmet and gloves. Then I got my hands on a bunch of scrap off-cuts of 16 & 18 gauge mild steel sheet to practise with, then found that my helmet was crap and I couldn't see what I was doing. Took a few weeks to get a better helmet, then more time figuring refining the use of the speed and voltage knobs, then once I felt OK about that, moved the practise-pieces to vertical since how the repair will be oriented.

Finally today I got the job done. Had to grind-out the head of the bolt that had been welded to the chassis at the factory (not really sure why they did it that way, especially after one of them broke sometime before I owned the car), then got the patch-piece welded on. I would describe my welding as 'ugly but strong,' and given a choice I'll take ugly over pretty. Ground-down some ugly beads and filled back in a few times and ground some more, but I think it's good and sturdy. Cleaned it up, shot some primer over the repair, should be good to go now. Will prob'ly re-fit the diff and start putting it everything back together next weekend.

[512BB]

What is going on with those output shafts Mike? Any more pics.

Leslie

[elancoupe]

What is going on with those output shafts Mike? Any more pics.

Leslie

The billet output shafts are supplied with the CV driveshaft kits as sold by JAE, Bean, etc. I have had them on my car for about 30 years now without issue.

[Mazzini]

Lookin' good Mike, certainly better than mine looks following a good cleaning and replacement of the oil-seals.

And that's been a long project for me, due to a diversion into chassis-repair.

I was in the process of removing the diff and learned the hard way to be careful with the torque-rods. Trying to remove the nyloc nut at the back end of one, I applied some healthy torque to the nut at the back end of the rod- and the whole rod rotated, tearing the chassis!

I dithered about it for a while, tried to find a person skilled in welding who would be willing to come to my house and crawl under the car, then eventually decided that I would just have to do it myself. I'd welded before but just barely.

So first I needed to acquire the welding equipment. I picked up a cheep flux-core machine, helmet and gloves. Then I got my hands on a bunch of scrap off-cuts of 16 & 18 gauge mild steel sheet to practise with, then found that my helmet was crap and I couldn't see what I was doing. Took a few weeks to get a better helmet, then more time figuring refining the use of the speed and voltage knobs, then once I felt OK about that, moved the practise-pieces to vertical since how the repair will be oriented.

Finally today I got the job done. Had to grind-out the head of the bolt that had been welded to the chassis at the factory (not really sure why they did it that way, especially after one of them broke sometime before I owned the car), then got the patch-piece welded on. I would describe my welding as 'ugly but strong,' and given a choice I'll take ugly over pretty. Ground-down some ugly beads and filled back in a few times and ground some more, but I think it's good and sturdy. Cleaned it up, shot some primer over the repair, should be good to go now. Will prob'ly re-fit the diff and start putting it everything back together next weekend.

Well done! I can't weld at all.

[The Veg]

Well done! I can't weld at all.

Thanks! I doubt that my welds will ever be pretty for a variety of reasons, but I find that wire-feed welding isn't really all that difficult to get the general hang of. The first time I ever did wire-feed was circa 2010 when my then-employer needed a winch mounted to a trailer. He asked me if I knew how to weld. I told him the truth, that around age 12 my dad had handed me the oxy-acetylene torch a handful of times to play around with. Dad himself barely knew what he was doing, a psychologist by trade who liked tools and had bought the torch for occasional repairs. So my employer nodded, pointed me to the wire-feed welder and some scrap steel, and said I could probably figure it out after he showed me the basics of how the machine worked, and he was right. And my welds weren't pretty but the winch-mount that I made on the trailer held fast for heavy jobs for as long as I worked there.

I find too that the oft-demonised YouTube tutorials can be quite useful. The guide that came with my welding machine had pictures of different welds with hints like 'increase feed speed' or 'decrease voltage' or such, but some of the YouTube tutorials were really good for suggestions on more detailed things like hand-support, direction to work in, things to avoid, etc. Once armed with knowledge, putting in the time to practise and try different variations is the most valuable thing you can do, as with all skills.

The next thing I want to do with welding is fab-up some supports that can be placed on the Quick Jack and will fit into the jacking-points on the car's sills. I've already got the design about 90% worked-out in my head; just need to go get the steel bits and get to work on them.

[Mileso]

I gave mine a polish to celebrate its midi-resto completion finale of new tyre fitting!

[mbell]

Finished removing engine and gearbox to investigate a gearbox leak. Found the issue with the engine half way out, leaking down the output shaft into the output flange and working out between the flanges when driving at high speed with warm gearbox.

[pharriso]

I gave mine a polish to celebrate its midi-resto completion finale of new tyre fitting!

Looks like a lovely car... gave mine a good clean & then put her away into storage until the Spring arrives:

[rgh0]

Nothing is ever simple and I wish I had a 10m by 10m shed with at least 2 hoists to work in..........


As if I dont have enough to do with preparation of my Elan for the next race with a front end suspension rebuild almost completed , the need to service my Esprit and help my son service his Golf R32 and my spare race engine still only half built and my spare race gearbox waiting for a rebuild...... I decided it was time to start on the reassembly of my Plus 2 which has been sitting and waiting for access to my MaxJax hoist for a body off the chassis lift for much to long as the the chassis needs some paint repairs before I bolt everything back on the car that was removed for the body painting about 6 years ago .

With everything else needing my the MaxJax I decide to setup to lift the Plus 2 body from the garage rafters so I could do the needed chassis tidy up at my leisure with the MaxJax still available for all the other things.

To do that I first need to build some more shelving to get stuff out of the way around where the Plus 2 will be lifted So spent time buying what I need to build the shelving and also buying four cheap A$79 1 tonne chain blocks. I will jack the body up until I can slide a couple of beams under the body and above the chassis back bone and then lift the body up using the 4 chain blocks from the garage rafters. With the body hanging there I can then work on the chassis and store it under the body until its ready to have the body dropped on again.

Longer term I want to lift the body off my S1 Esprit also as its chassis needs repainting, never touched since new in 1978 and only had a very thin coat of black paint from the factory which is starting to flake off, so once the Plus 2 is done and running I can use the same body lift setup for the Esprit

cheers
Rohan