Well all- lets begin at the beginning...
I bought this 1984 Lotus Excel from Ebay and virtually nothing I was told about it appears to be true. I bought it because I have always wanted to get to grips with the Lotus motor, but my previous car (Elite) was too expensive to risk on my ham-fisted efforts. With this one I cannot make it worse! Also it desperately needed rescuing from its lying b****** previous owner (LBPO)

Day 1- I was told the car has been dry stored... this doesn't explain why every available nook and cranny is stuffed with pine needles or why the footwells are saturated with water! The interior is in a dire state- seats are loose and covers torn, headlining largely absent but its not a priority. However,  I can't leave this saturated carpet to fester whilst I do other things so better do some essential interior stuff first. Vacuum thoroughly- remove mouse nests and as many pine needles as possible.

Loose seats torn covers

Rear seats in better condition

Distinct lack of headlining

 Check stock and start listing problems and missing/broken parts. No coil or window washer. Fuel cap cannot be removed, no camcover bolts or washers 

Engine- much missing! The blocked off vacuum pipe at the front of the inlet manifold I now know was to serve the vacuum actuated heater air flaps

Look Ma- no coil

Looks like something missing here- washer bottle?

Line of clips along LHS of bonnet- should guide washer tubing

Strange vacuum hose coming from inlet manifold and
blocked. This must be a take off for something but
whatever it is isn't here- or is disconnected (see above- its for the heater!)

Day 2. Car has no passenger door handle and neither door is lockable.  If I am going to fit any expensive bits I need to make it lockable - so fixing the door lock is number 1. Then move on to engine and finally transmission and interior.. well that's the plan... Unfortunately the cam covers have been removed and left off- also no spark plugs in the motor. The camshafts have developed surface rust and I worry about the bores so better stabilize these and hope they have not gone too far before I can fix the doors. Clean exposed camshafts with WD40- apply engine assembly lube and replace covers for some protection.

camshaft protected...

and covered.

Well its not achieved much but it looks better! Note plugs missing. Check bores with endoscope- not entirely successful as this is a cheapo Ebay USB version- very good but not directional- Pictures currently on other computer- will post when I get them together! Anyway- bores look OK- some "muck" on pistons so suspect head gasket leak? Spray pots with WD40 and insert plugs to protect bores.

Header/expansion tank

radiator- looks a bit rusty down there!

Although motor has oil- it has no coolant! Signs of radiator leakage so earmark that for removal and renovation. Possible this was also caused by head gasket leak and cooling system pressurization- hmm. Hope heater matrix is OK but cant see that yet.


Motor turns with a 19mm socket on the crank end (plugs out) - so good news at least!

Day 3. Strip door trim- surprisingly easy- 2 screws underneath door, one screw in inner handle. There would also  have been one behind the removable the ashtray- but this was already off! Disconnect speaker cables (black strip to upper terminal). Found one door mounting bracket inside the door, one still missing. Also ashtray mounting clip missing.  Can get Door brackets from SJSportscars, but trouble finding ashtray bracket so may have to make one up. Door handle that came with the car has lost its captive mounting threads- I will see if this can be repaired or if I need to buy a replacement handle. Operation of the door latch is very stiff so remove latch plate (oops loose spacers on bottom screws and packing plate on rear!). Undo operating rods- twist and push the plastic clips- mark the one that goes to red plastic terminal. One of the rods had detached from the rocking plate- grooves oops- wrong. I made up a wide washer so it can't slip out again and refitted it. A good clean and the interior handle locking system then recovered function on bench! If I can refit the handle then hopefully it will function again at least from the inside! However I have only one bracket and that's loose!

Captive nut in handle just pulled out so its recess was tapped for a larger bolt- this is screwing into plastic though. If doing this again I would experiment with a rivnut- the plastic might have been strong enough although as it snapped later maybe it wouldn't have worked? This is a poor design for a stressed component.

The captive knurled ring/nut (lower left in pic) has pulled out of the handle's moulded socket- and on the other side it's missing completely. Its either a new handle or try to repair- so I tapped the plastic sockets with an M10 tap and then could mount the handle using M10 bolts secured with Loctite and a shake-proof washer- hope it will hold (seems OK at present)*. Have to trim bolt lengths as it can foul the handle operation. Loosely fit the shaped (handed) bracket first on the left and fiddle into place with the handle from outside door. Its much easier to fit the universal bracket from inside the car as access to this shaped one becomes very fiddly.
* Sadly this didn't hold. The inner mounting seemed fine but the outer one (rearwards) was too damaged and cracked away in use. Eventually I gave up on that and just drilled it through in order to refit with a nut and bolt from outside- looks bad and obviously not burglar proof, but then this car isn't going anywhere! At least it holds the door!

I eventually got the handle on and linkages connected- very tricky adjustment and no real idea what I'm trying to achieve but a few hours of random adjustments resulted in a position where everything works Including interior and exterior locks-result! One strange occurrence is that the white nylon door plate containing the catch  has to be a little loose- if I screw it up tightly to the door edge the outside handle no longer works- more adjustment obviously needed although the forum suggests a loose setscrew on the underside of the door plate*. I will investigate later.
* I think this is a misunderstanding as there is no setscrew here and I think they are referring to the central locking actuator which my cat doesn't have!

Now to test the window motors- I need to be able to open them to try out the interior. Apply 12v +ve feed from battery to black or yellow wires at base of motor- trace these and disconnect at the junctions app. 20 cms downstream rather than at the motor- its easier.  Earth motor body to battery negative. One connection should wind window up and one down- amazingly mine checked out- even the window channels looked good!

The passenger's door ashtray mounting bracket was missing and ashtray was  loose in boot! These brackets are no longer available so I removed the tray from the other door so I could copy the bracket- not a pretty job but functional none-the-less. It wont need to take any load as no-one I know smokes! Can now refit the door trim unless I feel the urge to readjust the door handle linkages...

Guess which is mine? Need to corrugate the centre piece for strength- rounded cold chisel does the job!

Finally strip out saturated soundproofing underlay leave this to drain and dry under cover- thank goodness for a mini heatwave! Mop out interior. Will need new fixing for carpets- these were largely rusted through- trip to Woolies website I think. Soundproofing on drivers side was perforated from drivers heels and tore on removal, it may be salvageable when dry- we will see... note from later- it wasnt!.