My restoration (to date !)
Ooh, don't you just love wiring looms ?
I don't trust wiring that
is 20 years old, and as the Lotus is only really held together with pop rivets
and string, I decided to take the insides out and put a new loom in. This
proved trickier than one would expect, as no one seemed to want to sell me wire
in lengths of less than 100 miles or more. When I explained that I only needed
about 12 feet of each colour, they weren't interested. Even local commercial
car 'main suppliers' only had three or four colours in stock and wouldn't order
any more. In the end, I asked a friend who runs a car shop to help and he
sorted me out with most of the things I wanted. Nice chap. Another friend with
more electrical know-how than me said he'd help with the actual wiring and
allowed a few extra bits for various other electrical gadgetry that I want to
put in later. He also told me the best ways of immobilising, alarming and
modifying the car.  Unfortunately this was also going to take a lot of time and I
wanted to get this beastie on the road, so we resurrected the old loom and
refitted it, making a few alterations. I'll put the new loom in later piece by
piece - but at least I'll have a working car most of the time. Taking out the
dash board was a bit of a game - anyone with a degree in electronics would be
O.K., anyone else would be hard pressed to understand what on Earth is going
on. Taking the dash out was relatively simple, but getting it back together was
more fun. A contact advised me to make sure that, as I had the dash out, the
windscreen motor and gear box was working correctly. Apparently this is a pig
of a job at the best of times, so when the dash board is out, it's advisable to
check it while you can.
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