loads and loads of questions

PostPost by: bryn » Sun Jun 20, 2010 1:16 pm

Hi folks

I do have a few questions about my new plus 2 130s project purchase,so rather than multiple posts, I'll try to keep them in here :)

1) When parked In my garage over a period of hrs, the smell of fuel seems to bee coming from the car and becomes detectable in the house (adjoined to the garage). There a no signs of leaks from anywhere so I wonder if it is just fuel vapour escaping from a fuel tank vent or something similar? Any ideas or suggestions?


2) I need a few bits (rear bumper, front indicator and rear lamp surrounds etc) re-chroming, is this cost effective (where at?) or are new parts the way forward?

3) There is a moto lita steering wheel fitted at the moment, though I still have the original, it doesn't have the horn push, I'd like to track one down if possible (or are these like hens teeth?) and fit this wheel.

4) It seems a little marginal on cooling to me. Is this the character of the car? Or does it need attention? I may just be being paranoid but it seems to get to temperature very quickly. It has an electric fan fitted but I'll probably get the rad fitted with 3 core element.

5) The wiring appears to be all original, but for piece of mind I'd like rewire the whole car or get it done proffesionally. Has anybody done this themselves? Is it a big job? Diy'able using an off the shelf loom etc?

6) The original steel wheels are past their best, are the steels re-furbish'ablee or can you get new? How much are new wheels (if available) and where from?

7) I need a few detail bits for the interior, ie door pulls, ash-trays for the door cards (there is just a rectangular hole there at the mo) interior door handles

8) The front seats fitted, are leather trimmed from a mk2 rs2000. Although really comfortable and good looking, I'll proably ebay these and try to track down some original seats and get them trimmed in leather to match the rest of the interior. Which seats do I need for my model (1972 130s)?


I think this is it for a while now.

Cheers,
Bryn
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PostPost by: gerrym » Sun Jun 20, 2010 1:37 pm

Bryn, all good questions and a lot of them are applicable to most of the Plus 2s.

I'm just going to answer one of the queries, but search the forum archives and you will find answers to most.

6/ Steel wheels. The Plus 2 has 5&1/2" J steel rims, rivetted construction with central holes for the centrelocks and drive holes for the "pin drives". These wheels are totally unique to the Plus 2, no longer available new and in anycase were made of very thin steel and always a little marginal. Due to the age of the car, they are likely to have been curbed, bent or may lose air through the rivets when fitted with tubeless tyres. So look after your wheels! Historically, these wheels are a development of the D type Jaguar/Dunlop wheels.

The good news is that there a few original alloys in circulation from cars that have been dismantled (GKN were the manufacturer) or there are some aftermarket reproductions sometimes available from a certain Birmingham based Lotus specialist).

Hi, I've added a link to a website that talks about MGA wheels as there a certain things in common.http://mgaguru.com/mgtech/wheels/wl201.htm Also there are Minilite replicas to be had, speak to Spyder Engineering as to fitment issues.


Regards

Gerry
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PostPost by: elanfan1 » Sun Jun 20, 2010 2:21 pm

Bryn - Ebay is your friend with regard to missing parts - there's usually a healthy collection of parts on there at any one time. There are currently 2 sets of Plus 2 steel wheels on there that I'm aware of. Black horn pushes are on there most of the time and seem to vary between ?50/60 used up to ?140 new.

With regard to the rechroming lights - they are made of Mazac (a crappy ali compound) that does not take too well to rechroming. New lamps are available but if you were looking to to do front and back it'd probably cost circa ?1000 to do all 4.

Before going down the recore radiator route are you sure your fan is coming on early enough - could be worth playing with or putting some 'Water Wetter' in the rad to disipate heat better.

Autosparks will provide you with a brand new loom if thats the way you want to go

I have a few ashtrays if you are interested PM me

Cheers

Steve
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PostPost by: gerrym » Sun Jun 20, 2010 5:23 pm

Bryn, obviously caveat emptor applies to buying any component subject to wear & tear off Ebay.

For wheels, ask the buyer:-

1/ What is the radial run-out
2/ What is the side-to-side run-out
3/ Are tyres mounted, do they hold pressure over ? days
4/ Are the drive holes elongated
5/ Are there any cracks
6/ Have they been welded
7/ Are there any dents.

Overall, probably better to inspect in person before parting with any cash.

Regards
Last edited by gerrym on Sun Jun 20, 2010 8:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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PostPost by: stugilmour » Sun Jun 20, 2010 7:41 pm

Bryn, welcome (back) to Lotus ownership & the forum. Looking forward to pic's. Here's a few ideas, opinions, etc. Assuming you are in GB?

1) When parked In my garage over a period of hrs, the smell of fuel seems to bee coming from the car and becomes detectable in the house (adjoined to the garage). There a no signs of leaks from anywhere so I wonder if it is just fuel vapor escaping from a fuel tank vent or something similar? Any ideas or suggestions?


Yes, common problem. The clear plastic vent lines go from side to side overhead behind the headliner. As they are fairly large, vented fumes are common. There is a fix I am just in the process of installing, so can't provide results yet. I will try to find the link later, or try an archive search on plus 2 vent lines. In summary, the fix is to install a smaller diameter vent line within the old line, and install a full size line back to a modified filler.

2) I need a few bits (rear bumper, front indicator and rear lamp surrounds etc) re-chroming, is this cost effective (where at?) or are new parts the way forward?


As indicated above, tail light assemblies are very expensive. I got a pair from Sue Miller as mine were done. I believe the front ones are not presently available new, although apparently Paul Matty had them at one point? Try Matty or Sue. Re chroming of the bumpers should be very doable, and a recent thread had a recommended chroming firm I believe. I installed the aftermarket SS bumpers; others have found the fit of these to not be great, and the rear does not have a stock profile on the bottom of the bumper, so if this is a concern re-chroming is the route.

3) There is a moto lita steering wheel fitted at the moment, though I still have the original, it doesn't have the horn push, I'd like to track one down if possible (or are these like hens teeth?) and fit this wheel.


There was a thread recently recommending a wheel refurbishing guy that does really nice work. Just mention this if you need work done. Have seen the push separately from time to time on eBay, but generally used condition with a bit of crazing, scratched, etc.; not sure about new replacements. The signed wheel in complete condition is pretty valuable.

4) It seems a little marginal on cooling to me. Is this the character of the car? Or does it need attention? I may just be being paranoid but it seems to get to temperature very quickly. It has an electric fan fitted but I'll probably get the rad fitted with 3 core element.


This is probably the easiest route. Also consider a modern fan if you just have the stock uncowled affair. Lots of threads on this topic that might be helpful as well. I went with the stock rad with modern fan and Cliveyboy filler with Cliveboy suppled temp controller.

5) The wiring appears to be all original, but for piece of mind I'd like rewire the whole car or get it done professionally. Has anybody done this themselves? Is it a big job? Diy'able using an off the shelf loom etc?


This is doable but a big job; think over the winter perhaps. I got a generic loom and modified as required. Others have got the model specific ones, which is probably easier if you can get the exact correct model and you are staying with the stock configuration. Many make mods during re-wiring such as alternator, additional fuses, relays for various functions, etc. This can result in having to change your expensive stock loom a bit. Would recommend getting things working and then thinking a bit on what you want.

6) The original steel wheels are past their best, are the steels re-furbish'ablee or can you get new? How much are new wheels (if available) and where from?


I went with Minilites. The available Panasports are I believe 5" wide rather than stock 5 1/2". Also check out Spyder's site, as they offer 14" dia one's that may be easier to get tires for. If you want stock steel or alloy, eBay gets offering pretty frequently, but agree completely with caveat's from others.

7) I need a few detail bits for the interior, ie door pulls, ash-trays for the door cards (there is just a rectangular hole there at the mo) interior door handles


Interior door pulls should be the commonly available BMC/MG/Triumph flush ones? eBay for all of this sort of stuff generally.

The front seats fitted, are leather trimmed from a mk2 rs2000. Although really comfortable and good looking, I'll probably eBay these and try to track down some original seats and get them trimmed in leather to match the rest of the interior. Which seats do I need for my model (1972 130s)?


Others can confirm for you, but I believe you are after the second generation wider seats. Not to helpful on this one as we don't have a ton of S models in the Great White North. Consider listing the seats here if they are pretty much a bolt-in to the Plus 2.
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PostPost by: bryn » Tue Jun 22, 2010 8:17 pm

thanks for all the replies guys, i have sorted, albe it temporarily the fuel smell issue, just shoved a cork in the tank vent pipes. i have spoken to spyder about a number of queries and ths was one of them, their modified fuel filler inc fitting is circa ?100, whichi'll do soon hopefully.

i also spoke to them about fitting a loom from autosparks. they mentioned a loom they fit to their zetec cars (which can be fitted to the lotus engined cars, basically a brand new, but modern spec loom, fusebox and relay board etc. rather than fitting a new 'old original spec loom' would it be worth going down the spyder route i wonder?

with regard to the wheels, i really do like the look of the steel wheels i have so i'll do a little more invstigating with regard to getting these refurbed rather than risking buying unknown wheels.

are these seats the same as what would have been fitted to my car?
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... K:MEWAX:IT



i'll have to keep an eye on ebay for a horn push for my wheel, i really would like to fit this instead of the smaller diameter, thicker rimmed moto lita.


thanks again folks,
bryn
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PostPost by: stugilmour » Wed Jun 23, 2010 1:54 am

Bryn:

I don't think those would be the stock seats for an S model. I believe you would be looking for the wider comfort seats. Question; is the console area a thin black plastic molded piece from front to back or a sort of upholstered affair? The pic's of the S models I have seen have the upholstered center tunnel and the wider seats. My car, which is called "Federal", has seats similar to the one's in your pic but they have larger integrated head rests in them. My car uses the plastic console cover.

For the Spyder wiring loom, that is the one I used on my rebuild. Here is a link to the manufacturer's web site of the one I got from Spyder. Not sure of the exact model; it may be a loom that Spyder has specified. I believe it was pretty close in cost from Spyder anyway, so they would be my recommended supplier. Note mine had no provision for any relays, although I added a bunch. Spyder may have changed the loom somewhat from when i got mine about two years ago?

http://www.premierwiring.co.uk/our-prod ... ring-looms

I found it a good piece, but I ended up modifying it pretty extensively. Modification was relatively easy, as the main part of the loom in the dash area is held together with twist ties, so adding and moving wires is relatively easy. The colour code used in the loom follows the Lucas standard very well, so allows one to learn the colour codes. Was way easier than trying to build my own loom from scratch, but is not a plug and play solution for sure. The loom is clearly made for a fibreglass car as there are plenty of grounds provided. Wire is all modern standard thin wall cable, so very robust.

Overall I am very pleased with the results, and found this an easier solution than attempting to source a correct LHD Federal loom from across the pond. If you have better access to other Lotus specific suppliers that have the exact loom for your exact model you may find this a more suitable route. However, I think the Lotus stock wiring is not that great, and lots of folks have ended up modifying it somewhat anyway, or run into some issues due to model changes over the Plus 2 production run.

Here are a bunch of further details.

It does not come with a schematic diagram; rather it has several pages of connection instructions and wire colour information. This worked OK with the loom laid out, as it is reasonably easy to trace and understand the logic of the whole thing.

The loom is all one piece when it comes. I found this OK for my application. I cut the loom sections after installing it and installed modern multi plugs to make dash removal in the future very easy. This worked well as you can tailor it for a good fit; space is limited in the drivers side dash area and this allowed custom placement of the connector blocks.

I found the rear loom section a bit short. This was easily rectified by adding wires to extend the loom over to the left tail light area (ran the rear loom down the right side of the car with fuse box located in the glove box). The other wires were long enough (fuel tank, fuel pump, right tail light)

Note with this loom you may have to add or modify wires for the following:

Electric window lifts
Alternator connection from ignition switch
Charging and regulator wiring if you are on a generator
Tailoring of the emergency flasher circuit to work correctly with the simple Lotus on-off switch or install an aftermarket hazard switch (a bit tricky to explain, can provide more details if you go this way)
Re-wiring of the single turn signal indicator on the dash; this loom uses a single flasher rather than two flasher relays.
Wires to correctly run the side light switch if you have the flat momentary switch type (again, a bit tricky, but easy if you know how)
Electric fan depending on location of controller
Electric light pod motors if you want to replace the vacuum system
High and Low beam wiring if you use relays in the circuit (highly recommended)
Anything you decide to add relays to (a reasonably common upgrade due to the age of the stock switches)
Low fuel warning light
Additional power wire to electronic ignition if your car is so equipped
Radio power wire from accy terminal of key
Changes for ammeter connection if you want to retain it; I installed a voltmeter instead
interior courtesy lights, bonnet & boot lights, puddle lights if so equipped
two speed heater fan if I recall correctly
license plate lights
brake system warning if so equipped
Rear screen defroster if so equipped

For any additional wiring, connectors, tools etc. I got supplies from these guys. All were very good. They sell wire by the meter in correct colours, so although the list of changes may look a bit daunting, they are not that bad to do.

http://www.autoelectricsupplies.co.uk/
http://www.vehicle-wiring-products.eu/V ... mepage.php
http://www.britishwiring.com

Last thought. No matter who supplies your new loom, you will end up knowing what each wire does and where it goes by the time you finish the project. :) This in my view is preferable to contracting an expert to re-wire the car and then trying to figure out what was done. Here is a link to a description of scratch-building the loom; I think the Uni-Loom gives a far better start to things than this approach.

http://www.gglotus.org/ggtech/elan+2-wi ... wiring.htm

HTH
Stu
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PostPost by: Bruce Crowthorne » Wed Jun 23, 2010 1:23 pm

3) There is a moto lita steering wheel fitted at the moment, though I still have the original, it doesn't have the horn push, I'd like to track one down if possible (or are these like hens teeth?) and fit this wheel.

Moto Lita are still in business.
They are near Andover. I got some new bolts and a livoely alloy horn push from them about 2 years ago.
Try here .... http://www.moto-lita.co.uk/

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PostPost by: bryn » Wed Jun 23, 2010 2:10 pm

thanks bruce,

i have a moto lita fitted at the moment but i was after a horn push for the original wheel. is this made by moto lita? there are no manufacturers logo's on it anywhere?

cheers,
bryn
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PostPost by: Bruce Crowthorne » Wed Jun 23, 2010 4:30 pm

Sorry, I kept my Moto Lita on the car (it's a nicer wheel!) and with the alloy centre boss / horn push it is MUCH nicer (..... ducks and runs ;-)
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PostPost by: trw99 » Wed Jun 23, 2010 5:10 pm

Bruce Crowthorne wrote:Sorry, I kept my Moto Lita on the car (it's a nicer wheel!) and with the alloy centre boss / horn push it is MUCH nicer (..... ducks and runs ;-)


Not worth as much as the genuine article, though Bruce!

Tim
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PostPost by: Bruce Crowthorne » Wed Jun 23, 2010 5:41 pm

If (and it's BIG if) I ever sell it I may switch it back.
But then do I remove the electronic ignition hidden inside the distributor, or the extra fuses hidden in the boot and all the other hidden mods.....
I would reckon that a prospective new owner may just think that they are of value.

I guess it all goes back the discussion about "how original should a car be"?
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