Best options for fixing a rotten window frame?

[richgilb]

I have had my window frames taken out for rechroming as part of a cosmetic refurb. One of them has rotted under the quarterlight. The rot, as seen in th epicture attached, is only in the middle and does not extend to the welded brackets, which support the rotted bar and glass etc. I am in a dilemma here. Ifr there is a piece you can get off the shelf that will weld in then fine I will do it. Otherwise I was thinking of just cutting the rot out and refitting it with the quarterlight seal touching the fibreglass door support, i.e. having no little crossbar there at all.

What is the best thing to do here?

'Keep it simple, then add lightness.' These bloody frames weigh 7 kilos between them. Triumph produced the shitfire with no frames at all. Did Chapman miss a trick here?

Cheers,
Richard

[gerrym]

Richard, these little frames are often rotten. There was a series of posts about 18 months ago with a forum member instigating remanufacture, in stainless I recall and made in Vietnam.

You might want to search the archives and get in touch (Irish Member, might have sold his Elan Plus 2)

Regards

[richardcox_lotus]

Look under pete mallinson ?

[richgilb]

Crikey

What a useful forum this is. Peter has already emailed me back from Brazil to say he has four left of the manunfactured parts but he cannot remember which side he has. Upon his return to England I guess I will know.....fifty fifty now, or has anyone got a complete driver's side window frame for sale?

[stugilmour]

Interesting photo Richard. I did not pull my frames out during my on-going body off resto job as thought it might open a world of hurt, but looking at your photo has me wondering a bit about this decision. Are the frames a bear to take out and put back? Heading up to check progress on the body tomorrow, and will see if I can inspect the corroded area you highlighted carefully.

As a side note, I had posted a few months back on a US based supplier of replacement gaskets for the quarter light. The original material is unobtanium at the usual suppliers, and another list member mentioned Sports Car World made up their own mold for the gaskets, which I followed up as a lead. I swapped emails with the supplier over a few months, but have since lost contact with them, did not get the order completed, and cannot reach them by email or phone. Their web site mentions a tragedy late last year and a change in ownership; hope they get back into the Lotus fold soon. Anyway, preserve your quarter light gaskets as best you can, as they are difficult to replace.

Here is the web site if you want to try for the gaskets now or at a later date...

http://www.sportscarworld-lotus.com/

Second your opinion on the value of the list, particularly for sourcing some of the Lotus specific parts.

Cheers & best of luck with the refurb.

[richgilb]

Hi Stu

I am afraid I cannot answer how difficult they are to take out and put back. The garage that is doing the respray did this....I was also ready to leave them in because the chrome was not as bad as other parts, like the bumpers. I am glad they are out now, though. Unfortunately, the rubber around the quarterlight has also perished where the rust is, something not visible when the frame was in place - is this the gasket you refer to? Spyder have told me that it is easy to find, so I will let you know where it comes from next week when I try and place an order.

Richard

[tcsoar]

Hi Richard,

The seal that stu refers to is probably the seals that the glass sits in along the sides of the glass not at the bottom. I had my frames rechromed last year and used Peters brackets to replace my rotten pieces, they did need a little bit of tweeking but nothing major. Unfortunaltely my frames are not in the car yet as I am still preparing the body for spraying .

Chris.

[stugilmour]

Richard & Chris:

Yes, I meant the gaskets that hold the actual fixed glass in place. The parts manual calls up three of them per side, which I assume are the same profile material cut to different lengths. Lengths of the pieces are specified in the parts manual. Mine presently have some gummy stuff applied to the window glass area at the base of the glass, probably to cover up the corrosion you note

Richard, if you are checking with Spyder on all the various seals in this area, please do let me know how you make out. I am sure I will need some additional stuff from Spyder shortly and can add to the order. A phone call to Spyder from Canada is a bit dear and difficult due to time zones!

I did get several other seals from Susan Miller and Andy already, but figured if Susan can't get the window seals they must be pretty rare.

[tcsoar]

Hi,

The two vertical seals are different to the bottom seal, which if I remember right was u shaped and simply sat in the bottom channel with the glass sitting inside it. My seals were not to bad, a few nicks in them but the rubber was still soft, so I reused them as new ones seem not to be available.
From previous threads it appears that the black goo is standard and was there to help prevent the rust at the bottom.

Chris.

[stugilmour]

Excellent Chris. Here I am wondering about this `fix`by the previous owner, and it turns out to be a ``feature``! The lump of black stuff has finger print marks; perhaps I could confirm provenance from them

[JJDraper]

Peter's stainless option is probably your best bet - if he has any left! They do need tweaking to fit right and you cannot use the original type rubber 'U' section in it to locate the glass. If you dismantle the quarterlight, be VERY careful with the rubber gaskets - they appear to be unobtainable from any source. See an earlier post of mine (day whatever) - all three seals are a different section. The black goo is probably 'Dum Dum' putty, commonly used by Lotus to seal awkward gaps in the bodywork. Useable, original lower quarterlight rails are hard to come by in th UK as they rot as shown, so the SS option is attractive. You will have to use a shed load of sealant to fill the lower rail to bed the glass in - unless anyone who has used Peter's SS rails has sourced a thin walled rubber channel?

The main window channel felt seals are well catered for, but treasure a set of Quarterlight seals in good condition!

I was toying with the idea of getting a batch of the seals made up by a firm that does double glazing seals (very complex cross sections in a huge variety), but gave up as my seals are re-useable. A batch sufficient for all +2 owners in the world probably wouldn't be more than a few hundred metres worth..

Jeremy

[richgilb]

Dilemma over. I got a complete window frame form Ford Classic Spares in Blackburn, with good chrome and seals for sixty quid. He has just broken two +2s, one of which was rough, the other looked ok. The frames from the rough one were rusty as hell, but the other two were good.

Peter Mallinson has still got 4 mild steel quarterlight brackets, all the same side, but he cannot remember which side are remaining and he is in Brazil until June.....not worth the wait for me for a fifty fifty outcome, particularly with the car being sprayed now. He is still available at the email address, featured on another thread, if anyone is interested in the brackets, and he wants 20 quid for them.

Job done.

Richard