Lotus Excel Restoration: A few odd jobs... scuttle, rubber gear gaiter, induction hose, vac heater feed

This is a generic spot for me to describe the myriad of little jobs that make up the joy of owning a Lotus. I will report on small tasks here that do not really warrant a posting of their own!

Heater scuttle improvement

Heater scuttle was forgotten in my respraying attempts and now looks poor against the new paint. I cleaned and resprayed the edge inside the scuttle as well as inserting some tie-handles to help remove the scuttle grill. I cleaned up the PVC seal and edging.

Scuttle edge cleaned up and resprayed

Grill repainted and rubber restored. Wiper arm repainted.

Looking better under the bonnet

Replace Rubber Gear Gaiter

I had discovered the rubber gear gaiter was split whilst trying to replace the radio/centre dash panel. This will allow noise and fumes into the car and so needs to be fixed. Fairly straight forward task...

Remove the gear lever and then the trim tray and leather over-gaiter by lifting it up at the rear and sliding backwards to clear the radio.

The old rubber gaiter is quite stretched upwards and has split around the base

The rubber gaiter is secured by 4 self-tapping screws which hold a retaining ring above the rubber- there is a lot of muck here and the screws were obscured and rusty. Note that the gaiter is pulled up to the chamfered area of the gear lever and this means it is drawn up tight from the base.

Cleaning up shows the screw heads- remarkably tricky to turn considering there is no metal involved- they are screwed through the rubber and only into the GRP body.

Screws out eventually freeing the gaiter

Note how high the gear lever has been stretched.

... and the retaining ring was released- very rusty! I cleaned it, treated it with rust converter and zinc primer before respraying it black

The base of the gear lever was very dirty and also suffering from spot rust. It seems to me that the rubber gaiter will need to slip up and down on this shaft so I cleaned it, applied deruster and then removed any rough rust spots

Dirty and rusty gear lever.

The old gaiter has split around the base for about half of its circumference. I suspect this is because its been pulled too high up the gear lever stretching it too far.

old gaiter split over half of its circumference.

The new gaiter is much too small at the top. In view of my suspicion that the gaiter must slip up and down-and not become trapped too high upon the gear lever, this opening needs to be widened.

New gaiter comes with a very narrow opening.

I cut the opening to provide a wider mouth-

Enlarge dopening in the new gaiter, anti-corrosiongrease on lever and inside gaiter.

... and the gaiter now slips down rather lower than the old. In this position changing gear shouldn't over-stretch the rubber and I'm hoping it will last a while.The securing ring was treated with rust converter and resprayed before refitting with new screws.

Rubber gaiter refitted with repainted securing ring.

I know the jobs done- but shame there is nothing to show from above once the over gaiter and trim-tray is replaced.

Job done

Reinstating vacuum heater control

Nothing much to say here- the hoses for the vac motors operating the heater flaps in my car had been disconnected and blocked- I therefore assumed that there was a leakage problem. However when I tried the system with a hand vac pump everything seemed fine so I reconnected the hoses to the inlet manifold. There were no obvious hisses, the motor seems to run exactly the same as before and the heater flaps now operate. I can't tell why it was disconnected but maybe it was something that had to be eliminated when seeking a solution for another problem? In any event it seems all is well although I have yet to conduct a road test as the car currently lacks headlights and a front bumper.

Heater vacuum hose reconnected.

Refitting the induction hose

I had to dispose of the old intake hosing- it seemed too far gone and I'm not convinced it wasn't simply a re-purposed flue liner! Anyway I bought a new one (cheaper non-Lotus) and fitted the Venturi end before refitting it to the air intake. It was very satisfying to finally use the hose sup[porting hooks on the fan stay that I had re-welded into place

Induction hose secured to air cleaner intake

Note cable tie to fan cowling

... and use of cable ties to secure venturi end (should be a large O ring).

Routing the hose isn't that obvious as it mustn't foul the front of the motor. The solution is to use a cable tie to attach it to the fan housing and to secure the Venturi end to the steady hooks (above). However, slightly galling is that I know I have bought a large "O" ring to use as a rubber band to hold the end of the intake hose, however I couldn't find it so I'm using cable ties temporarily.

Seat Cushions

I did repair the two front seats and although they are now sound they don't look that lovely. Luckily I was able to find these half seat cushion-covers which are ideal. The Lotus seats are an odd shape with integral headrests and most off the peg seat covers will not fit. These Aldi half covers seemed the ideal solution, neatly covering my attempts at sewing and fitting even these seats well.