Lotus Esprit S1 Part 2 - It has to look worse before it gets better

Part 2 of this series, and we are making the car look worse...

but it has to, for it to get better.

At the start of any big project, we always strip down the vehicle and safely store all parts away. So we carefully removed the seats, dashboard, headlining, door cards, rear bulkhead, and all carpets. The Lotus Esprit is a unique car because the body is all fibreglass, making it very easy to strip down, clean, and prepare for new carpets. With the majority of restorations, this is the golden opportunity to install sound deadening; however, these vehicles did not come from factory with this, so the customer opted to keep the originality of the car.

Once all the carpet had been taken out, and any old glue was removed, and we noticed a repair was required on the bulkhead. As these cars are all about lightweight, and carbon fibre was not an option back in the 60's, wood was used which in hindsight is not the best of options. However, this has been replaced and progression carried on.

Next up was stripping the seats down to their foams, and removing any other old trim from the dashboards and doorcards. As previously mentioned, the vehicle is not in too bad shape, especially the seats. However, our customer wants to ensure a consistent finish so everything must be replaced to look brand new. some steam was applied to the seat foam, this helps the foam almost 'inflate' back to its original shape. If foams are ripped or split, we can attempt a repair, but if not new foams can be ordered or made from scratch.

A difficult material to locate was the red and green tartan cloth. From our knowledge, the only vehicle to run this exact material was the Lotus Esprit. After following rumours and whispers about a potential supplier in the UK, a single roll of material was purchased. Matching Green cloth and orange carpet were also sourced and purchased.

At the time of writing this, lots of progression is taking place, and we look forward to showing you even more content!