Carefully examining how the door opens closes on a Lotus Elite reveals the previous owner has carried out substandard repairs.
Tell-tale witness marks of vice jaws leaving a characteristic herring-bone pattern on the hinges sounds a warning of built in problems.
Not only is there radial movement on the hinge pins but the door has dropped in the vertical axis.
This looks like a simple job to replace the hinge bearing sleeves but the entire door needs to be dismantled so the pivot pin can be withdrawn.
The door design is simple enough where the intrusion beam incorporates the lock at one end and the hinge at the other.
Accessing the hinge pin demands the intrusion beam be slid out of the door skin to expose the lock nuts at either end of the pivot pin.
After trial fitting the door, a new thrust washer had to be machined to adjust the installed height.
The door has to be removed by accessing the hinge fixing bolts inside the foot-well (need to remove interior kick panels)
Once the bolts are removed, the entire door and hinge can be removed so it can be worked on remotely.
The lock control linkage mechanism needs to be disconnected before the lock can be unfastened at the end of the intrusion beam.
The window lift motor and mounting brackets need to be removed to allow the intrusion beam to be withdrawn.
Copyright © 2013 Lotus Marques
Tell-tale witness marks of vice jaws leaving a characteristic herring-bone pattern on the hinges sounds a warning of built in problems.
Not only is there radial movement on the hinge pins but the door has dropped in the vertical axis.
This looks like a simple job to replace the hinge bearing sleeves but the entire door needs to be dismantled so the pivot pin can be withdrawn.
The door design is simple enough where the intrusion beam incorporates the lock at one end and the hinge at the other.
Accessing the hinge pin demands the intrusion beam be slid out of the door skin to expose the lock nuts at either end of the pivot pin.
After trial fitting the door, a new thrust washer had to be machined to adjust the installed height.
The door has to be removed by accessing the hinge fixing bolts inside the foot-well (need to remove interior kick panels)
Once the bolts are removed, the entire door and hinge can be removed so it can be worked on remotely.
The lock control linkage mechanism needs to be disconnected before the lock can be unfastened at the end of the intrusion beam.
The window lift motor and mounting brackets need to be removed to allow the intrusion beam to be withdrawn.
Copyright © 2013 Lotus Marques
