07+ owners with hardtop (Elise/Exige)... I need your help please!

[Bane]

Can someone go out to their garage and take some dimensions of the middle bracket for me?

I'm in the middle of creating a bracket for 05-06 owners and need to know how much the OEM bracket pulls down on the top.

I'm attaching a picture of the bracket. If you can please take the following measurements and post them up here I'd greatly appreciate it (along with a bunch of other Lotus owners!!)

1. Hole spacing (how far apart the two holes are)
2. Height measurement (how "tall" the bracket is... or the distance from the bottom of the bracket to where it touches the actual roof)
3. Width measurement (how wide it is)

If someone has a drawing of the actual bracket with dimensions on it that would be ideal



Lotus charges almost $300 for this part... I'm trying to make a much lower cost "retrofit kit" for 05-06 owners that don't have this bracket. I need the measurements so I don't risk cracking the top when it's torqued down.

Thanks!

[RoadDad]

I'll work on it for you hopefully tomorrow.

Plan is to take off the bracket, photo it from several angles and pshop the dimensions on the pics for you.

If tomorrow isn't soon enough someone else needs to step up.

[Appleseed]

After that, can you fabricate a cheaper hard top?

[Noizemaker]

What does that bracket do anyhow?

[Bane]

Originally Posted by RoadDad

I'll work on it for you hopefully tomorrow.

Plan is to take off the bracket, photo it from several angles and pshop the dimensions on the pics for you.

If tomorrow isn't soon enough someone else needs to step up.

Thanks so much

*edit* Noizemaker: Quite a few of the 05-06 cars had the factory hardtop warp... causing a bulge in the top. You'll get some wind noise from the top not sealing (even if the top doesn't look that warped). Some owners report that it's so bad that they were pulling down on the top with their hands to try to quiet it down. Lotus fixed the problem in later cars (07+) with the bracket in my picture above. They (Lotus) claims it's not an issue in the earlier cars but it obviously was since a lot of people report problems here. It was also a big enough problem to cause the engineers to add the bracket as OEM equipment for the later cars.

You can buy the OEM bracket from Lotus for ~$300 without any hardware. I'm creating an aftermarket solution for much less and it'll include the hardware needed to install it.

[Noizemaker]

:thumbup:

My '05 doesn't leak air, but it squeaks to beat the band after about 2 weeks of mounting it. Shin-etsu grease helped but not completely. Sounds like this might help that as a side effect.

[RoadDad]

Alright. Here goes.

1st: I'm not volunteering for anything like this again until I know exactly how much of a PITA it is to accomplish.

2nd: This is a much more complex little piece of felt, metal and core material than I had realized before. There is really only one flat working surface (the surfaces that actually matter in holding down the top) - the vertical section. The rest are at least slightly bowed/curved. They look flat but aren't.

3rd: Nigel or Pierce seems to have fettled with mine.

4th: Measurements are with the felt in place but calipers pressing into it tightly.

5th: If I missed some measurement that you need let me know.

6th: Santa better be really good to me for doing this .

EDIT: 7th: The piece that wraps around the roll hoop is not flat but hook shaped with a small lip at the rear most end.

YMMV

[RoadDad]

[RoadDad]

[RoadDad]

[Scrumpot]

Bane - I actually have an "extra" one of these, that when I pulled my seats to put the Scroth harnesses in, appears to have been "dropped" probably at some point in final assembly, behind the passenger seat. Seems that even Lotus Mfr/techs apparently dread the - "EEK... it's going under the seat!" as much as we do! I can see it now, someone sinching down the roof slides in to put this bracket on and drops it....

"Shoot, Nigel - that one's GONE... can you hand me another one off the shelf there possibly please?"

Where mine's easy enough to deal with, without any effort, if you need anything else that perhaps roaddad hasn't provided, just let me know.

Cheers,
-Grant

[RoadDad]

[RoadDad]

[RoadDad]

Originally Posted by Scrumpot

Bane - I actually have an "extra" one of these, that when I pulled my seats to put the Scroth harnesses in, appears to have been "dropped" probably at some point in final assembly, behind the passenger seat. Seems that even Lotus Mfr/techs apparently dread the - "EEK... it's going under the seat!" as much as we do! I can see it now, someone sinching down the roof slides in to put this bracket on and drops it....

"Shoot, Nigel - that one's GONE... can you hand me another one off the shelf there possibly please?"

Where mine's easy enough to deal with, without any effort, if you need anything else that perhaps roaddad hasn't provided, just let me know.

Cheers,
-Grant

Where were you last night?!?!?!?!?! Maybe you could have sent yours to Bane. In retrospect I would have paid for the shipping .

Getting it off was easy. It was feeling like I had accurate enough measurements without ripping off all the felt that was difficult. Who places bolt holes 3 and 15/16" apart? I measured with 3 different calipers 4 times each to be sure that I was getting that right. What about 4"? Makes more sense to me . No flat surfaces and tight clearances made angle measurements a little more tricky as well.


Oh, my "fettled" area extends for the most part about 3/4" from the front edge towards the bolts.

[Bane]

Thank you so much for the detailed pictures!

RoadDad you have PM.

Scrumpot you also have PM.

[shay2nak]

about that bracket...when you reattach do the screws tighten at some point? Mine just kept going.

[Dragon]

Originally Posted by RoadDad

Where were you last night?!?!?!?!?! Maybe you could have sent yours to Bane. In retrospect I would have paid for the shipping .

Getting it off was easy. It was feeling like I had accurate enough measurements without ripping off all the felt that was difficult. Who places bolt holes 3 and 15/16" apart? I measured with 3 different calipers 4 times each to be sure that I was getting that right. What about 4"? Makes more sense to me . No flat surfaces and tight clearances made angle measurements a little more tricky as well.


Oh, my "fettled" area extends for the most part about 3/4" from the front edge towards the bolts.

You forget the rest of the world uses the metric system. 1" is 2.5399cm's so it comes out to be almost exactly 10cm's

[RoadDad]

Originally Posted by shay2nak

about that bracket...when you reattach do the screws tighten at some point? Mine just kept going.

Mine tightens down completely.

Originally Posted by Dragon

You forget the rest of the world uses the metric system. 1" is 2.5399cm's so it comes out to be almost exactly 10cm's

[Scrumpot]

Originally Posted by shay2nak

about that bracket...when you reattach do the screws tighten at some point? Mine just kept going.

It should tighten down completely, to a full "stop". You must be either missing the thread recepticle, or it is stripped. There are also wafer-like retainers that stay on the thread of the bolts, and if those have "ridden up" in my experience too far towards the end of the bolt, it will not allow you enough penetration, when putting this back on, for the bolt threads to full "catch". Work the retainers back down close to flush with the bracket 1st, before replacing / tightening down and try again.

And... Sorry Road Dad. I saw actually, that it looked like you & I were "cross-posting" last night, which meant you had already removed yours to do those measurements / pix. If you'd like to send me a check for $9.50 (the cost it just cost me to ship this to Bane today), I'll be happy to accept it!

I agree completely - this way, he will have an ACTUAL OEM bracket IN-HAND by which to (hopefully) successfully replicate it! $300 +/- for this little "bit" (piece) sure seems

I'm happy to do my part, to again - hopefully, help out!

[Scrumpot]

Simply because this can not be done in PM, I am attaching here - a scan of my receipt for shipping this item on 12/22, via Priority (USPS) Mail, to Bane.

I am REALLY FRUSTRATED right now, that Bane reports to me, it apparently has not yet there on his end, been received.

Does anyone have any either ideas or suggestions as to what I/we might be able to (EFFECTIVELY) do about this?

I am totally now BUMMED and truly FRUSTRATED about this now, and really wish I did not otherwise just "trust" the Post Office at this point at all. - ARRRGGGGHHHH. "We Deliver". - Yeah, right!