petrolhead: 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 existing 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 knew 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 way back I had a call from the Insurer to say they had made a mistake and would not be writing it off!!!!

Here is the new clam prepped and undercoated ready to be fitted to the car.

The good news is that the Insurer will pay for all my costs...

The Elan went to a local bodyshop - Woodlands, in Newbury. They seem good people and have done work for other people I know - a very good job on an early Porsche 356a.

As the Elan was dismantled more damage came to light - the front top subframe was damaged beyond repair and the fiberglass crash box was slightly damaged. A new top subframe was ordered from SJSportscars, but would take 4/5 weeks to get manufactured.

It is very interesting to see the Clam construction being dismantled. This was the forerunner to the clam technology that is in the Elise. You can see the dismantled headlights on the ground. These are the early "Opera" headlights and some of the parts are no longer available. I had been given a couple of the parts as spares when I bought the car and in the Lotus sale a couple of the other parts were up for sale. So the headlight mechanisms were rebuilt.

I had purchased Roll Hoops and these were going to be fitted to the car while it was up on the ramps in bits....

Another job I thought I might as well do while it was up on the ramp for a number of weeks was to clean and rub down the underside. I also scraped and rubbed down the suspension components . Then I painted them with rust inhibitor and black hammerite. A long and boring process but worth it in the end with the knowledge that they were all secure and now free from surface rust.