1991 'Galileo' (Lotus Carlton) - 2006 to 2019

Just caught up on this.

I had one of these as a company car in the early 90's. Long story very short, our company car policy was for Vauxhall Carlton's, with the senior sales chapies (of which I was one) getting the 24V versions. Our fleet manager was beside himself with glee as he told us all he had done a cracking deal on 6 new Carltons, problem was that they were all one colour... some sort of dark green...

Needless to say they stayed on the fleet for a very short amount of time as one by one they all got written off or nicked. Managed to keep mine the longest, until the owner of the company needed a 4 door car to use for a client visit, came back and told me it was too dangerous and promptly sold it!

Would seriously like to have one of my own, will be watching your thread with interest.

P.

These always stop me. Very high on my "when I win the lottery" list. Very nice work being carried out there on a very nice car. Did I mention I like these?

Freaking car - sometimes it just fights me every inch of the way

I have the scars to prove it from todays fun.....

These are the dangers of working on you back with tools in your hands just above your head

Lessons learnt

brake fluid makes shiney tools freaking slippery

said shiney and slippery tools don’t need to fall far from above when they escape you grasp to cause damage

skin is very thin on your forehead

said forehead area bleeds like a bastid for a bloody long time (Think I have a shortage of factor 8 if that's the stuff you rely on to help clotting)

Nice to see progress being made. I normally figure that bits left over were meant for the more well equipped/sportier variant. Err, that logic might not work here.

No idea right now - trying to get it to France in early July is challenge right now - if I fail I'll probably sack it off and sulk for a month or too!!!!

You'd bring the LC to the RR meet at Le Mans??? That's exciting!!

You know what I hadn't even noticed that

Tonight with assistance from Gewy (much gratitude there for the offer of help and the get stuck in attitude)

Propshaft - mated up and joined to the diff

Rear Donut top hat cushions swapped for thicker ones - Much better

New hard brake lines from T-piece clipped into their respective clips (impossible without dropping the subframe down to do the top hat swap :wink: )

However the major job was the down/up down up foot work required while I worked the spanner on the calipers to get the air out.......

Drivers side rear was the starting point and we had a big problem - fluid curse word out past the inner piston - not a great start.

Now all the calipers I rebuilt months ago with stainless steel pistons and all new seals so if I'd done one wrong then to me I was going to have done them all wrong......

Removed caliper stripped out pads - made suitable packing piece to stop the pistons popping out and rigged up air line to pressure test under water - 120 psi resulted in initial bubbles but then with some piston movement the bubbles stopped..

Tried again plumbed up and bled before a full pedal pressure check - fail brake fluid coming out of the same place

So mig'd up a joining union and blocked of the fluid line so we could get on with the others and leave the investigation till later.

All the other brake calipers bled fine and no leaks - tested all hard joints on full pedal pressure and had no issues.

So car is now back on four proper wheels with 3 working brakes........ Oh we forgot to adjust the handbrakes so that's a job for another night.

Stripped out the leaky side of the rear brake caliper and there looks like a tiny molding defect on the seal I can't call it a cut mark because it's a Y shape and has no sharp edge it's like a poor fill on the mold but I'm 100% sure that's the issue so need to try and get a new rear seal kit for one rear caliper before I can prove that's my issue.

Oh and bloody hell you really do use a lot of fluid bleeding LC brakes before you've got the majority of the air out - positive side is the pedal feels really good now best I can ever remember it there used to be a lot of free play now there doesn't seem to be much at all.

I think an Autobahstormer member has pointed me in the right direction and it's front end not rear so that's a relief



My biggest worry was always the clutch parts you can get friction discs relined but the pressure plate and release bearing are pressed together and there was no supply of either - luckily and recently Joe Ellis of BTB Exhausts has got Helix to replicate the parts so there really aren't that many parts that are impossible to source.......

I took it off the road when I was still accumulating parts and then kept it off the road till I had every thing I needed to do it properly and once only.... I just fall in and out of love with the car and I need either a deadline or to be in the mood to work on it (preferably both)

It was suggested I look at the other end of the car - EWP and 3 way valve (which are both currently removed so he could be right

That or and I quote "Have you tried lying on your back, holding them vertically at arms length, and then letting go. Perhaps when they hit your forehead they'll bring back memories of where they came from"

He's a funny guy