Plus 2 Eyeball Air Vents

[jeff jackson]

Hi all,
As promised the Lotus Bulletin.
May help someone with working out what parts came from what car manufacturer, even if you won't be able to get them anymore!

Jeff 72+2

[Lotusdavid]

The +2 dash vents are most certainly Ford....I beadblasted mine clean 2 days ago, and FoMoCo is clearly stamped on the inlet trunk of each. I have a spare pair from a Europa. They are plastic units, and I think will fit. I also have a full compliment of Europa gauges, and switches (tach, and speedo included) I am interested in selling in order to secure funding for more +2 bits!!! Trades considered (I need a set of +2 gauges!)

[Orsom Weels]

Lotusdavid, I just checked the earlier versions I have spare, & yes with a little clean, fomoco is stamped into the metal stub of both. I did wonder if they might have been manufactured by Smiths as part of their heating & ventilation range, & supplied to both Ford & Roots group, the Hunter units do look very similar, if not the same from the front.

Jeff, Thanks for posting the bulletin, however, I'm not sure how accurate it is. I've just quickly skimmed over it & notice it claims the top hose is from the 105E Anglia, don't think so, the Anglia hose is a 'U' shape, not virtually straight, & the heater is supposed to be from the MG Midget, again, the heater on a Midget lives under the bonnet & is completely different to anything I've ever seen in a +2. It claims the gearbox is 2000E Corsair, not strictly true, it's only the gear set that was used from the Corsair, the tail-shaft & bell-housing are very different, & some of the info is relevant only to the very first +2's despite it claiming to cover all the +2 variants.

Regards, Tim

[jeff jackson]

Hi Tim,
As I said in my earlier post this was produced by Club Lotus Yonks ago and I am not claiming for one minute it is the bible. I like you, when I had another look over it after all these years locked away in the cupboard, was surprised to see that the heater claimed to be off a Midget. I had all of my dash and heater aout a few years ago and I must admit that it didn't look like a BL heater to me. Also the door handles from my 72 +2 are Jag. XJ6 I think, (must check through my records) because I bought some new gaskets from David Manners. Maybe they are the same Dolomite ones, I stand to be corrected. But the Jag door handle gaskets fit perfectly.
Kind regards
Jeff (straying off eyeball vent topic) !!

[mikealdren]

I'm pretty sure the heater is a Cortina part, I bought a Cortina heater as a spare years ago and it was similar but not quite identical.
The other part that fooled me was the 5 speed gearlever, with Maxi internals, I thought it must be BL but it's also a Cortina part.
Many of the handles etc were used across the BL range and continued to be used, the interior door hadles are also on the Marina - not much use nowadays as very few survived!
As people have commented, many parts from suppliers were standard across different manufacturers in those days.
The shims were the same as almost every car that used shims and that includes the Hilman Imp.

Mike

[lotusnut]

Just seen this topic, according to Club Lotus they are from a Hillman Hunter - around 1965, which can't be right as they were not introduced until 1966, although they are probably all the same.