At Last - A Working Lotus

[Matt Elan]

Well its been a busy week, car wise. I've sold KSX - little interest from on here, no bids on ebay, had a couple of people wanting it just for the engine to stick in a Cortina and an Escort respectively and offering silly money, but it eventually went to a chap who will be restoring it. So good news there, it won't be scrapped or Zetec'ed but will keep its original engine with the original car, and ALD gets a bit more room in the tent!
And I bought 'frogeye simon's 1969 Plus 2, which had also been advertised on here. I picked it up this morning - he lives in Fleet some 30 mins walk from me and drove it the couple of miles home, then nipped out again to get some petrol. I'll post up some pictures later after the weekend but in the meantime here it is as photographed by Simon:

So not driven it far, and the only adjustments I have managed to do is to unjam and move the drivers seat backwards so that I'm comfy in it. It's got a massive history file, recently had the water pump done and looks great - mind you I'll have to get used to the metallic white roof - and I'm really happy with it! Now I'll have to get the Lotus Heritage Certificate for it and enjoy some late summer drives! May go to the White Lion (Hartley Wintney) Sunday meet this Sunday and Castle Combe next weekend if SWMBO is up for it!

[frogeyesimon]

I'm in mourning still

[Matt Elan]

Thanks for the cheery wave on Sunday morning Simon I was late getting to the White Lion as the car had fouled its plugs and I had to clean them - shock horror! Otherwise has run fine and happy with her.

[Rich135]

That looks really nice Matt, it must be lovely to be back on the road again!

Enjoy,

Rich

[Matt Elan]

So - my working Plus 2 has not been used much over the bad weather, with book and article writing and a new puppy taking a lot of my time, it has been languishing in my tent. So with the sun making an appearance yesterday I stuck the battery on charge and tried to start he - with no success until putting in a new set of plugs. I've still got eh smell of petrol in the boot so I've pulled out he rear paneling and inspected what I can of the tank with no obvious issues. So more investigation needed. More importantly the gauges are all reading very low of not at all, the indicators were not indicating, the interior lights flicker when I move the steering column and the tacho works sometimes.....
So it's hunt the earthing issues over the next few days; I've checked the and cleaned the (non standard) fuse box which got the wipers working, so now its a glass of wine and a perusal of the wiring diagram to sort out the reat. I was planning to drop the dash to replace the somewhat luridly coloured voltmeter which looks to have been converted from an ammeter at some stage (don't ask) so hopefully I wont find too much mayhem behind it!
More to come, once I've fixed a friend's Alvis TE21 voltage control box.....
Oh, and I can fit the new wood rim steering wheel I got for Christmas. Photos to follow when I make some progress.