27 Nov 09 ...... First view of the car

the first of the significant days in the project has arrived ....... the base car is being delivered by Phil today.

Jobs for today are to get the garage that will be home for the build for next 6 months cleared and ready for the car to go in. Usual thing - throw out the crap that you have convinced yourelf is worth keeping, sweep out the leaves, put away the tools that are still lying around from the last few months worth of diy and stand back and enjoy the space.... be the last time i can walk around easily in it for a while.

Phil had managed to load everything onto his trailer in the morning and driven over from Norwich. First challenge was to try and reverse his trailer up the (quite) steep gravel drive. This was a real challenge for his auto Audi trying to reverse up the driveway, not helped by the trailer brakes cutting in as soon as he hit the incline. After he had a good run at it he managed to get almost to the top, so it was just a short push into the garage which now suddenly looked pretty full once the other goodies I had also bought from him had been offloaded.

I should just mention that this was Phil's ET project car so he had started to pull it apart. He couldn't find the front o/s wishbones and upright so there were only 3 wheels on the wagon which we thought might be a problem. Turned out fine in the end as the car sat nicely on it's three wheels and we were able to push it easily the rest of the way up the drive and alongside the house into the garage.

I am lucky enough to have a garage that is pretty long and wide enough to work easily all around the car. There is a full width workbench at the back and enough room between the car and bench to work comfortably on an engine on a stand for example. I invested in a decent compressor and a range of airtools which are a godsend and the pillar drill gets a fair amount of use too.

Phil hadn't managed to bring everything over so he will need to make a second trip at some stage but there is no rush for things like the new screen, roof and other bits and bobs. You can see some of the bits he did manage to bring over in the photo below. The VVC engine looks pretty tidy and the PG-1 c/r box looks like it has come straight out of the Rover dealers parts department (it is brand new after all!). You can also just see the nitrons and tucked down by the engine is the new lightened flywheel, vernier pulleys, emerald ECU and Janspeed s/s exhaust. As you can also see I have already managed to get the front clam off.

With Phil on his way back to Norwich it was time to get to work and quite quickly the rear clam was off and dispatched to it's temporary home in the garden. Everything will need to be painted so there is no problem leaving the clams out in the elemts and covered over with a tarpaulin until it is their turn for attention. I am going to focus on all of the mechanicals and get the rolling chassis, engine and gearbox sorted before I think about bodywork and aesthetics. It was really helpful that Phil had made a start on stripping the car down for himself as all the hard work getting the seized clam fasteners had been done and they came off like a dream.

There were all sorts of bits and pieces laid inside the car that needed sorting out so that was the next job which didn't take too long and it gave me a good opportunity to have a good look around the car and make a mental list of what needed doing. The electrics are going to need some work as well as adapting the loom for the VVC.

With that job done I set about stripping down the front n/s suspension. The caliper bolts came out easily abd I just cut the original brake hose as I am replacing with goodridge s/s braided teflon brake hoses all round. The plinth bolts were a bit tight and as usual the plinth had welded itself to the upright. A sharp tap with a mallet sorted that. The top ball joint came apart swiftly again with a sharp tap on the bj splitter.

The original Koni shock top and bottom mount bolts came out easily enough although I wont be refitting it as the nitrons are going on. Similalrly the top and bottom wishbone bolts came out easily, noting the position of the spacer washers as the wishbone was withdrawn from the mounts. I split the lower ball joint to plinth in the vice when the wishbone was off as it was easier. Finally the top and bottom ball joints were pushed out using gearys superb bj tool/ The wishbones are now ready for cleaning and re-finishing although I haven't decided how I want them finished just yet. I will see what they are like when the paint (that looks like porridge) and rust are removed.

And that was it for the first day. It is great to be working on a Lotus again and I really enjoyed the day. Tomorrow (day 5) I plan to strip the rear suspension and depending on how I get on (i.e. how easily it all comes apart), I may move on to the removing the old exhaust and disconnecting the ancillaries in preparation for taking out the original engine.