My restoration (to date !)


Ooh, don't you just love wiring looms ?


Inside the driver's sideI 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. Dashboard mess !Temporary electrics 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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