Type 26 rear window channel frames

[Tahoe]

My originals were in very bad shape and mostly rust. They clearly never had the mechanism for locking the window. A few years ago I purchased a set from a car being parted out. They were off a car approx 10 unit numbers after mine was built, and it had the window lockers, although one side is missing the push rod. I'm finally getting around to putting these in my car and I'm not sure if I should fix the one that has the missing rod or not. I'm guessing my car was one of the last not to get these so maybe I should just not have them, however for those that do have the window lock mechanism, do they work well or not? My windows seemed to stay in place while driving so I'm not sure if having them is worth it. Certainly not a show stopper either way, but curious if the roadster owners like the window lock feature or not.

[jonsered 11]

Hi Tahoe,
The window locks were only fitted to cars with hardtops, presumably as a security feature ???
There is a reference to them in section B of the S1 lotus workshop manual, if your car has the slots in the lock plates....ie for the operating lever to go through...you could fit them, not all of them had the slots!

Jonsered

[Mazzini]

My July '65 S2 (two owners from new) has window locks, it was ordered without a hardtop. I suppose it's just another of those Lotus quirks.

[Tahoe]

That's very interesting. I never heard that before, I just thought they transitioned in at some point. Since the ones I'm fitting have the mechanism and since I have a hardtop I guess I'll keep them as is. One is missing the rod and plastic knob so I'll try and replicate that. Since we're talking about that feature only being available with a hard top, I also noticed some time ago here in a post by Gary Anderson that possibly when ordering a hard top from the factory that the soft top was deleted. See attached '64 Elan price list.