Audi Repair and next disaster

The Audi repair estimate came out at £3,600 and as the car is only worth about £4,000 I was sure they would write it off and at one point this is what they said they would do. However, they decided to repair it - the headlight units alone cost almost £700 without bulbs!!!!

The trailer needed one new light unit and some Aluminium welding - of course it could not be that simple :-( The unit was out of production and the one supplied as the replacement was completely different to the exisitng one and dramatically at a different height. This meant replacing both therefore increasing the cost of the repair. Which is when I found out that my trailer insurance did not cover accidental damage.....................

Still not to worry the ULR Insurance I have will recover that from the Belgian's Insurance. 8 months later I am still waiting for the repayment of my excess and the trailer repairs.

The next disaster I am referring to in the title is that on a gloriously sunny day in January 2009 I took the Lotus Elan out for a spin with the top down. I had a wonderful drive and drove down the Sandleford Link dual carriage way to the roundabout at the bottom, two lanes of traffic, quite busy, queued to get on the roundabout - stop start.

Then my turn in tandem with a red car we took off, not quickly, into 2nd gear, turn around the roundabout. Front wheels skid out, correct skid lift off throttle slightly, back end slams around, front wheels get grip car launches itself into roundabout - there was nothing I could do!


Here are some of the pictures of the damage - does not look too much......bumper cracked in two places bonnet and lights slightly damaged.

I managed to open the bonnet and take some more photos to send to a number of body shops. Everyone agreed it did not look too bad. I could see that the front had been pushed in by about three quarters of an inch.

The various bodyshop estimates ranged in cost from £3,500 to £5,600! Their engineer came to assess the damage and in his view it was an uneconomic repair and he recommended writing it off.

My Insurer called me to say they were writing it off and did I want to buy the salvage? I said I did even at £2,200 plus my excess of £175 and as it was on an agreed value I would get almost £6,000 payment. Excellent news I thought as I new a chap with a good front clam.

I called him up and we agreed a price. A few days later I hired a van and drove up to near Peterborough to pick it up. However, on the back I had a call from the Insurer to say they had made a mistake and would not be writing it off!!!!

Sh*t Happens or "If it wasnt for bad luck I would have no luck at all...."

Sorry I have not updated the Blog in a long while but a catalogue of motoring "issues" have not made my car experience one of joy................

In Sept 08 on the way back from an excellent Ring trip I was involved in an accident on the link motorway to the Brussels Ringroad. I was in the Audi A8 towing the car trailer with the BMW E30 M3 on it.

It was wet, grey and greasy and I was not going very fast (about 45mph) in the inside lane. I caught an odd movement to my left and looked up to see a young lad in a large E class Merc sliding sideways beside me. It was immediately obvious he was a passenger and had lost control :-(

He hit me on the nearside corner smashing the indicator and bounced away. I hit the brakes hard and the trailer fishtailed smacking the armco which is very close to the road at this point.

He came back and hit me in the middle of the bumper and bounced away - I was still braking hard, very hard. I almost managed to keep the whole rig in my lane, but bringing over 3300 kilos to a halt quickly is a challenge!!!!

He then hit the armco and came to a complete halt - there was nothing I could do but plough into him T-boning his car's doors.



We got out to inspect the damage and it was not a pretty site, I cleared the debris from the road and we called the police. In Belgium they have to attend every accident and take statements. I put up the warning triangle and the traffic flowed around us.


I was not a happy "ted" as I could forsee months of aggravation sorting this one out :-(

He spoke very little English and my Flemish and Arabic is none existant.............



The headlights of the Audi had been pushed into the cavities behind and the bumper was severely broken in places. Here is my masterful repairs with gaffer tape............they still worked but just didnt quite point in the right directions.
The indicators also still worked but were now silver instead of orange.

Miraculously the mechanicals had not been damaged - so there were no oil or water leaks and the air con still worked.



His car had a fair bit of damage to the doors, bonnet front off side wheel and front lights as can be seen in the photos below.
He called his "Uncle" a friend of the family who asked me if I had seen the car the car which Clipped him?

I said I had been too busy trying to avoid the Mercedes and to control my car and trailer.






There was no damage to the rear end of the Merc and if you look at the wheel in this picture it has a different alloy and different profile tyre to the other three - 35 profile as opposed to 55 profile! I believe this was the cause of his skid!!!!




The police arrived and took statements and said that the liability rested with him and his insurers. He could not give any details of the "phantom" car.

The trailer had lost one whole light cluster at the back as it had been mashed against the armco and the number plate was broken.

Rear Lettering on the Excel SA

Just got around to posting this - I got the letters from Halfords as I am a cheapskate and would not pay the £20 to Lotus to get the right font :-)

I think it looks good and sets the rear of the car off nicely - previously there was nothing on the rear to say it was a Lotus

A couple of different shots

spammers who post comments on blogs

why cant these prats go and loose themselves in the woods somewhere lonely where they cannot bother anyone - rather than waste everyone's time with their shite sites :-(

Lotus Excel SA part 3

In January I went up to Lotus bits to pick up the car and to give it a shakedown now that everything was back in place. It also gave me a chance to look at it up on the ramp and see all the new components.







This is the new rear shock absorbers, brake disks and calipers. Unfortunately you cannot see the new polybushes from this angle.






















This is a view of one of the refurbished wheels



with the new center caps - looking good :-)

view of the new paintwork - it really is a lovely colour............

Closeup of the new bumper with all new fixings

view of the rear prior to the badges being stuck on in place - I will post another picture showing

what I did with the badges. I was fortunate enough to get an original Excel badge off of eBay.

Interior looking resplendent in it's new livery

Lotus Excel SA Part 2

Lotusbits stripped the car ready for the paint shop in Birmingham to paint it. This involved taking off both bumpers, headlights, spats, door mirrors and also provide a "roof" from a scrapped Excel to repair the sunroof hole. Both the sunroof hole and the new panel were stepped so that there was some integral strength build into the repair.


These pictures were taken in the body shop after the respray.







It is weird to see the car without all the components fitted - headlamp pods, mirrors and bumpers. The front bumper is a mix of plastic and fibreglass - the original bumper had a damaged plastic part which is virtually impossible to repair. It was therefore decided to buy a new bumper from SJSportscars using the original as a mold.


























The wheels were also restored by being sandblasted and repainted with a final coat of lacquer.





All the bits and pieces and the car were then taken back to Lotusbits for refitting. There were some faults in the paint from the respray, but it was decided to rectify these after the car was all back together.


The interior started to come togther - here is the new underlay and carpets being fitted. Interesting to see the roll over bar "naked".






You have to be carfeful with the spray on glue as it will give you a nasty headache.

The missing dash with all the electrics exposed makes it look a daunting task to put it all back together. I think the manual would be an absolute must when you take a car apart to this level or really know your Excels from the experience of having done this before.


As you can see the windscreen was removed for the repaint - a brand new one was fitted shortly after this photo was taken.








New carpets fitted and looking good - SJSportscars have found a new supplier.







I have also purchased a set of overmats to protect the new carpets - I will fit these when I pick the car up.






The headlining begining to come together - it is best to recover all the roof components on a bench off the car and refit them once the adhesive has gone off.

New carpet fitted to the parcel shelf as well.






The wiring hanging down is for the rear seats interior light which someone told me was off a VW Scirroco, but not sure if that is true.


Here is a picture of the newly reconnolised interior prior to fitting.













One of the other jobs was to fit new rear seat belt mounts as the old ones had dissappeared. MOT failure if you dont.

Side panels with rear speakers refitted with center console.







The dash and center console refitted.












"New" rear seats fitted - the perforated leather ones - which I think look a lot better than the originals.





Front seats fitted and all center console components.









The car was taken back to the paint shop in Birmingham for all the blemishes to be sorted out. A week later I meet Mike and Dave in Birmingham to check the car over to make sure the blemishes had all been rectified. We checked them all and Dave put the car on the trailer to go back to Lotusbits - however

and we know one brake light not working :-) minor fault

I happened to run my hand down one of the door shuts - the edge of the drivers door - and there was a nasty rough bit of paint. There was also a "new" blemish on the nose cone. The paintshop manager came out and confirmed that the door blemish/rough paint could not be "mopped" out (whatever that is?) and the car would have to be taken back into the paintshop...... Dave was very patient I would have been screaming blue murder if I had just put the car on the trailer. Another week was need but at least the paint shop would deliver it back to Lotusbits.

Lotus Excel SA Part 1

Latest Project in the Houston Petrolhead world is the creation of a new daily driver - one with character but practability and reliability - a Lotus.........no honestly :-)

I sold the Uber Merc 320SL and went on the hunt for a Lotus Excel SA - Lotus made 36 of these - they came with a 4 speed auto box as fitted to Jag XJ6's and BMW's. However, Lotus added a cruise control unit to it.

I looked at a few cars and then found one on eBay in a fetching Petrol Blue colour with white leather interior. I won the bid but the chap had lost the V5 document and had to apply for a fresh one from the DVLA. Here is what it looked like when I picked it up

Looks OK on first inspection but looks can be deceiving - it had one of those tilt glass sunroofs cut into the roof. This had been fitted badly and had leaked for years it looked like all the headlining was damp and rotten - yeuch :-(

In addition when driving the car water would leak through and run down your head - lovely....................... the car had been parked under a tree and the heater vent had filled up with leaves and tree debris so the passenger footwell was full of water and the carpets were ruined. Not a good start but I was undaunted - fool and his money.

I eventually (weeks later - thanks DVLA) picked it up and took the car up to Lotusbits in Marton near Rugby - this is Mike Taylor and his guys - and what they dont know about Excel's is probably not worth knowing.

The plan was to "gently" restore it - here are a couple of shots of it outside Lotusbits

Still looks OK but as I said before looks can be deceiving........... we got it on the ramp to create the job sheet for the work to be done. This took a few hours.......Agggghhhh I should have known better.

It is quite sad to see all the "dead" Excels at Lotusbits, but it does mean they have a vast stock of every part for any model of Excel. I counted about 20 on the tops of the containers with another 6/8 whole cars parked alongside :-(

I want the car to be my daily driver so I want a number of things to be top notch and "reliable". Here is the job sheet list from the session on the ramps - hydralic engine mount, new brake disks, pads and calipers with braided hoses. Replace rear silencers and one pipe to the Y piece, new ignition leads, take out sunroof and reglass roof and paint. Replace door beam on drivers side, fix electric windows and mirrors, sort cruise control, refit airbox and get rid of K&N's. Sort engine oil leaks, replace all shocks with adjustables poly bush the rear end. Fit new carpets, regas aircon, renew headlining, new front bumper, refurb all alloy wheels, fix horn/wiper stalk replace wiper/wiper motor/washers etc and some more jobs I've forgotten. I will update the list over time as things come to light!

It then went into a container for a few weeks as Mike and the guys had to finish some exisiting Customer's cars - which was fine by me. Timescale was it would be ready in about three months - GLOL.

I then went to look for a "cheap" daily driver until the Excel SA was ready - that is another story I will post at a future date.

Once the Excel came out of its container and work started more surprises emerged - it was agreed there were too many oil leaks on the engine and problems with the starter so it was agreed it had to come out. This meant it the engine and engine bay could be steam cleaned and all the relevant oil seals could be replace much easier.

A number of other jobs then emerged...... like replacing the belts and fitting a new timing belt.

Here is a picture of it all clean and shiny - doesn't it look better. At some point in the future I will have the cam covers repainted in crinkle red, but that can wait.

First Job was to remove the drivers door and replace the door beam with a shiny new one - this means dismantling the door completely. Here is the new door beam, hinge etc fitted to the car - there are quite a number of adjustments on these doors. Mike explained to me the processes required to achieve the perfect close, but after about 15 minutes I lost the will to live :-( sorry Mike. He is the expert and if you really want to know ask him - I would suggest that it is a banging head against wall job for someone of my diy capabilities.

Fitting the carpets involved taking out the interior - OMG!!! what has happened to the car. The dash came out because I got a call from Mike with a suggestion - LOL - kerrching

A 1992 Excel with the new style perforated leather had just arrived with a badly "broken" body, but the interior was in good condition. Mike's suggestion was to buy this and fit it into my car. He sent me some pictures to think about the suggestion.

Here are the original pictures - a bit grubby but in good condition....

A deal was struck and it was also decided to clean and reconnilise (spelling?) the interior with the results shown below:-

Part 2 to follow shortly...................