I recently discovered that at some point earlier in its life my car have had a fair left front shunt.
Both the upper and lower front wishbone mounts must have been ripped out. No fun at all…
I don’t mind a repaired chassis, but the repair work in this case is just awful. Especially the upper mount needs to be redone properly.
Looks a bit worse in the pictures than in real life. It was not that easily spotted when covered in lots of sikaflex and with the inner wheelarch in place.
It has been in for the oil cooler hose recall but the dealer didn’t mention anything.
I would be very grateful for any contacts you might have to anyone who have experience in such re-repairs.
It can be done but at what cost I’m unsure of. Think Essex Auto do it, or get someone in to re-weled new box sections in once it’s all stripped down and the full extent revealed (if it can be successfully repiared at all).
Me persoanlly, I’d be looking for an accident damaged car that had no chassis damage for as cheap as you can and use yours as a donor. Whatever is left over sell.
I just wouldn’t want that old chassis, repaired or not…
Talk/contact Junks on SELOC I believe he might know a man that might help.
I have read about similar repairs ,possibly on SELOC . Might be worth a search…good luck.
I think a French chap was selling a tub either on here or SELOC.
For me there is no energy to be found digging into the past.
Knowing what I know now I would of course have done things differently, but there’s no reason to cry over spilt milk. (does that expression even exist in English?)
To re-chassis the car is an option being considered. It would 100% correct the issue, but what the cost would be is difficult to judge at this time.
The process for that is to order a new chassis from Lotus, cut out the VIN section from current chassis and send to Lotus, who then stamp the new chassis with the old VIN and send you the new chassis.
I have contacted Junks and will get in touch with Essex Auto, and Lotus about a new chassis.
Meanwhile I’ll continue the strip down. What’s the best way to remove the crash box? Manual says pneumatic knife - sounds dangerous.
Looking at the picture the crashbox has already been removed and replaced once before as it hasn’t been bonded back on correctly! It should sit over the chassis front rail, not have a gap full of bond as it does.
Pretty sure a replacement chassis from Lotus comes with a crash box attached…
I’d leave the one you have alone for the minute it’s a pain in the arse of a job,wait and see which direction you’re going with the repair. You may find you don’t have to remove it all…
It does look very good. Is anything special required to cure the glue? It’s odd that Lotus have never cone up with a repair scheme, maybe not, they cannot supply headlamps so why be able to repaur a chassis.
