88 replies to this topic

[Gedi]

 

What is the cost of such powder coated beauty?

 

 

I'm not sure as I get all my powder coating done for free. I think others have paid around £150 for front and rear. Someone like JG will be able to confirm..

 

Edited by Gedi, 08 November 2013 - 12:05 PM.

[JamesC]

I had 8 wishbones, the cast uprights, steering arms and ARB all done for £150.  That included all blasted and masking as well.

[Foxy]

Thanking you 

['Buchos']

I've a huge poster of this car on my garage wall, stunning and great for me following this work being done to it Ged. I'd swap my current machine in a heartbeat for VXT with this spec.

[Gedi]

Hi Nelson, good to see you back in the forum. Hopefully gonna have this car back to showroom condition for the summer

 

I've been following your Exige build, it's really impressive. It must run circles around the VX

['Buchos']

Glad you've seen it, the garage has changed quite a bit since you were here. The lotus is not running anywhere at the minute! Last month the rolling road guy opened the engine cover to let some air in and the fans caught it and smashed the cover over the boot spoiler, so I need to get it fixed and repainted. The wee Audi Exige is stupidly quick, but I've been tentatively looking at VXs for sale as well, hence the return to the forum. Erm...I miss the comfort! I was surprised to see the bend in the front wishbone on your VX, I can't lay claim to that. Worst I ever did was spin it off at Kirkiston Race track and break a ball joint at the rear and damage the sill! but that was all sorted long before you got it. You must have kerbed it on the way home lol.

[Gedi]

Small update, not had much time to tinker recently but got the front end built back up.

Now includes new wishbone bushes, balljoints and track rod ends. Rebuilt suspension. New shims, New Wheel bearings. Stripped all muck off the chassis

 

I stripped the rose joints in the ends of the shocks, cleaned them up, replaced and re-greased, then sealed with new o-rings

 

I wanted to protect to the chassis from the suspension mounts, so I sandwiched them between AFC. It runs a bit then sets like glue, needs cleaning up later...

 

A few more pics. The chassis _was_ as clean as a whistle, but my mucky hands smeared grease everywhere. It'll be reet after a good wipe.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Gedi, 03 May 2014 - 11:32 PM.

[Gedi]

 

Now I've got the car back onto 4 wheels it's time to get it moved so I can get my workshop built. Then the real strip down can start...

My mate came round to pick it up and it's going into storage for a while until its new home is ready

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Gedi, 03 May 2014 - 11:34 PM.

[Gedi]

'bout time I updated this thread.

 

While the car was in storage, the ctek charger set on fire. As the charger was sat on the windscreen when it decided to spontaneously combust, it did some damage to some of the plastics and electrics at front end. Rather than just replace the parts that took a hit (parts of the wiring loom, windscreen frame,  ABS unit, amongst other things), I decided to not take any chances and  to strip and replace the entire front end. Thankfully, I'm one of those people who enjoys taking the VX apart as much as I love actually driving it.

 

So here is a fully stripped front end. I didn't bother removing all the suspension parts as they were well away from the fire and are totally unaffected.

 

Here's my replacement wiring loom. It's a bit daunting at first, but once you label everything up, it becomes a lot clearer

 

 

Removing the old wiring loom is a bit of a pain as the section which hooks up to the lights and around the steering cowel sits under the steering column and the plugs are too large to pass under it. So you have to remove the fixing for the whole steering column so it can be lifted out of the way. Here's a pic of it stripped and the loom finally removed

 

[Mangham54]

Man that is clean

['Buchos']

You have very dainty feet Ged

[Gedi]

I was surprised to see corrosion between the parts where the pedal box and the tub are joined, and even more surprised to see corrosion where the plastic ducting for the footwell is fastened too.

 

 

 

 

The corrosion was also on the underside of the pedal box, but I seem to have forgotten to get a picture of this.... I decided to get the pedal box re-anodized and make sure I apply plenty of duralac between the two when I put it back together

[Gedi]

I got the re-anodized pedal box back from the finishing company. It came out pretty well and I'll probably be having more stuff anodized in the future ,

You can clearly see the pitting around the bolts that hold the pedals. I'm glad I had it re-anodized now, along with the duralac, it should hopefully protect it better in the future. Definitely something for us all to watch out for.

 

 

 

Here's a close up of the pitting at the point where it's connected to the chassis

[smiley]

Your partner must very light, not damaging the undertray like that.

 

[Gedi]

I stripped the pedals and checked the bushes weren't worn. They're cheap to replace, but they were fine so I didn't bother

 

 

 

I'm not risking anything, plenty of duralac on the supporting plate for the brake servo and clutch master cylinder

 

 

Likewise for the pedal assembly

 

 

Reassembled everything, ready to be put back onto the car

 

 

[Exmantaa]

Better use the PU glue stuff (with primer!) for mounting the pedal box back, as it has to withstand quite some force with braking. Duralac and some rivets will not be enough...

Edited by Exmantaa, 24 October 2014 - 11:46 AM.

[Gedi]

I managed to find myself a replacement windscreen frame which had the factory fitted sun visors. However when it arrived it had a little chip in the paint on the passenger a frame. You can see it in this pic

 

 

The only options are to fill it in with some paint, or get the whole thing resprayed. I opted for the respray....

It actually turned out to be a good exercise, as it meant I had to go over every inch of the frame any make sure all the adhesive used to hold it to the chassis, as well as the adhesive used to bond the windscreen was completely removed.

 

Here is it, sanded back and ready for the paint shop. I think I'm going to have it all done in satin black instead of the grey which Lotus do them all in.

 

 

 

 

[Gedi]

You have very dainty feet Ged

 

You should see my hands, they're enormous!

 

 

Your partner must very light, not damaging the undertray like that.

 

 

They're solid, you'd have to jump up and down like an idiot to try and damage them.

 

 

Better use the PU glue stuff (with primer!) for mounting the pedal box back, as it has to withstand quite some force with braking. Duralac and some rivets will not be enough...

 

The same stuff used to fix the windscreen frame? I have quite a few tubes of that now ready for the reassembly. Lotus seem to put everything together with that stuff....

I don't recall there being any glue under there when I removed it though.

[vocky]

the pedal box should be glued with the PU stuff and then riveted in place  

 

you can see this in your chassis pics

Edited by vocky, 24 October 2014 - 12:03 PM.

[Exmantaa]

 

 

 

Better use the PU glue stuff (with primer!) for mounting the pedal box back, as it has to withstand quite some force with braking. Duralac and some rivets will not be enough...

 

The same stuff used to fix the windscreen frame? I have quite a few tubes of that now ready for the reassembly. Lotus seem to put everything together with that stuff....

I don't recall there being any glue under there when I removed it though.

 

 

I converted my VX to an LHD Speedster, so had to move the pedal box over and it was quite a challenge to remove it. ( And was quite surprised too see on the pic that you removed it for the repair...  )

Use proper PU stuff with primer...