[BJKramer]

Hi, I've been looking to join the lotus community for a while now, and I got this S1 offered which I think can be a nice rebuild project. The car seems to have flipped over, there is lot's of body panel damage (windows, front & rear clambshell, engine cover, driver door, driver sill, diffuser all to be definitely replaced) , chassis looks completely straigth and undamaged apart from a minor a scratch behind the left front wheel, all suspension arms & pickup points look solid and almost like new. Engine's running but not done much as the coolant circuit is empty.

Just some general notes of the car:
- Lotus elise s1, 25-02-1999 P.D.I
- 60k miles
- B21 Lotus racing green (?) with a green interior
- VIN: SCCGA111XXHC35172

Here some pictures of what I got myself into

Couple of initial questions:
- I've not seen a similar interior with the large lotus sign on the seats and floor of the car. Anybody know if this is aftermarket or where this comes from?
- I've got extremely limited information of what happened with the car. I know it was imported from the UK to Germany after 2008, and it changed owners in 2015 to the 3rd and latest owner. Last MOT (german variant) was in halfway 2019 due to this year, so it crashed somewhere in between. What's the best way to try to get any information / history? I've got owner names / license plates, but so far no information found
- Any tips on rebuild are always appreciated, but I will definitely have some good looks around this forum aswell as I am probably not the first that rebuilds one of these

Kind regards, Bart

 

[Papillon]

Oh hell yes! Subscribed...

 

[Papillon]

Also, some good information on replacing Elise sills (amongst other repair topics) here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAYbsBEwLLIeivzDsd4tdUQ

 

[cain-it]

Hello Bart
Here's some answers :
1) Seat shells look original S1's, but have been re-trimmed at some stage, so the black insert / white contrast stitch & pattern aren't. This is the least of your worries lol
2) Regards history, in the UK you can trace MOT (annually safety inspection) on the govt web site, I guess similar can be done in Germany with TUV. Beyond that, if you can find its UK / German number plate info, going to the main Lotus forums could get you more (UK is SELOC, not sure about Germany)
3) As it appears to need most outer panels, replace rather than repair would seem the best bet, unless you are a master GRP man. If the S1 windscreen surround is broken (not the same as the S2/S3), thats a lot more tricky, as I don't think these are available, but you could look for a used one. Try these 3 places, but be aware, they are all after market, so quality would need to be double checked :
https://thelotusfactory.co.uk

http://www.lotushardtops.com/clamshells

Body

Elise Spares supplier of Genuine and Quality Replacement Lotus Elise, Exige, 340R, 2-Eleven & Evora Body Parts for Road, Track Day or Race use

www.elise-spares.com

However, before you go further, I'd definitely want to view the rolling chassis with the damaged bodywork off the car. In short, the chassis is vital for these cars. Double check it all & the all the fixing points, rear subframe, front crash structure are 100%. These cars are fragile, even a smallish knock can damage them.... a lot! So a roll-over might have deeper damage than you 1st observe.

Unless you are doing everything yourself, panels, parts, paint, freight will add-up fast... I'd check if this build is viable, as decent RHD S1's can still be bought from £15k easily, less if you are canny.

HTHs

 

[h20ham]

You will find S1 aperture with glass on eBay.co.uk at some point. Or put an ad up on Seloc.
Thats about what I started with, cosmetic damage, and aperture and glass. Took a year to get all the parts and have it on the road.

 

[XM595]

If you PM me your e.mail I have the OEM Service Manual for S1
Happy to share, it has good information on body panel removal and replacement.
Good luck with restoration.

 

[BJKramer]

Hello Bart
Here's some answers :
1) Seat shells look original S1's, but have been re-trimmed at some stage, so the black insert / white contrast stitch & pattern aren't. This is the least of your worries lol
2) Regards history, in the UK you can trace MOT (annually safety inspection) on the govt web site, I guess similar can be done in Germany with TUV. Beyond that, if you can find its UK / German number plate info, going to the main Lotus forums could get you more (UK is SELOC, not sure about Germany)
3) As it appears to need most outer panels, replace rather than repair would seem the best bet, unless you are a master GRP man. If the S1 windscreen surround is broken (not the same as the S2/S3), thats a lot more tricky, as I don't think these are available, but you could look for a used one. Try these 3 places, but be aware, they are all after market, so quality would need to be double checked :
https://thelotusfactory.co.uk

http://www.lotushardtops.com/clamshells

Body

Elise Spares supplier of Genuine and Quality Replacement Lotus Elise, Exige, 340R, 2-Eleven & Evora Body Parts for Road, Track Day or Race use

www.elise-spares.com

However, before you go further, I'd definitely want to view the rolling chassis with the damaged bodywork off the car. In short, the chassis is vital for these cars. Double check it all & the all the fixing points, rear subframe, front crash structure are 100%. These cars are fragile, even a smallish knock can damage them.... a lot! So a roll-over might have deeper damage than you 1st observe.

Unless you are doing everything yourself, panels, parts, paint, freight will add-up fast... I'd check if this build is viable, as decent RHD S1's can still be bought from £15k easily, less if you are canny.

HTHs

Many thanks for the detailed info already, I forgot to mention I've already got my hands on all the replacement parts, it sure still needs some glass fiber works but was definitely not going to try to repair this indeed. Parts I've got already:

• front clam shell
• rear clam shell
• Alu engine cover
• driver door
• driver sill
• Windshield
• Windshield frame + front structure and dashboard thing
• Complete roof + mechanisms

First steps will be removing both clam shells indeed which seems fairly easy from the manual, that's also the point where I probably reconsider my life chooses or not indeed, we'll see! 😁

 

[steelypip]

I'm very curious to see photos of the undressed car. If none of the suspension pickup points got hit hard it is likely fine - seems the bodywork took all the damage.

 

[Benji]

Hi, I've been looking to join the lotus community for a while now, and I got this S1 offered which I think can be a nice rebuild project. The car seems to have flipped over, there is lot's of body panel damage (windows, front & rear clambshell, engine cover, driver door, driver sill, diffuser all to be definitely replaced) , chassis looks completely straigth and undamaged apart from a minor a scratch behind the left front wheel, all suspension arms & pickup points look solid and almost like new. Engine's running but not done much as the coolant circuit is empty.

Just some general notes of the car:

• Lotus elise s1, 25-02-1999 P.D.I
• 60k miles
• B21 Lotus racing green (?) with a green interior
• VIN: SCCGA111XXHC35172

Here some pictures of what I got myself into
View attachment 1303213

View attachment 1303214

View attachment 1303215

View attachment 1303216

Couple of initial questions:

• I've not seen a similar interior with the large lotus sign on the seats and floor of the car. Anybody know if this is aftermarket or where this comes from?
• I've got extremely limited information of what happened with the car. I know it was imported from the UK to Germany after 2008, and it changed owners in 2015 to the 3rd and latest owner. Last MOT (german variant) was in halfway 2019 due to this year, so it crashed somewhere in between. What's the best way to try to get any information / history? I've got owner names / license plates, but so far no information found
• Any tips on rebuild are always appreciated, but I will definitely have some good looks around this forum aswell as I am probably not the first that rebuilds one of these

Kind regards, Bart

Hi, I've been looking to join the lotus community for a while now, and I got this S1 offered which I think can be a nice rebuild project. The car seems to have flipped over, there is lot's of body panel damage (windows, front & rear clambshell, engine cover, driver door, driver sill, diffuser all to be definitely replaced) , chassis looks completely straigth and undamaged apart from a minor a scratch behind the left front wheel, all suspension arms & pickup points look solid and almost like new. Engine's running but not done much as the coolant circuit is empty.

Just some general notes of the car:

• Lotus elise s1, 25-02-1999 P.D.I
• 60k miles
• B21 Lotus racing green (?) with a green interior
• VIN: SCCGA111XXHC35172

Here some pictures of what I got myself into
View attachment 1303213

View attachment 1303214

View attachment 1303215

View attachment 1303216

Couple of initial questions:

• I've not seen a similar interior with the large lotus sign on the seats and floor of the car. Anybody know if this is aftermarket or where this comes from?
• I've got extremely limited information of what happened with the car. I know it was imported from the UK to Germany after 2008, and it changed owners in 2015 to the 3rd and latest owner. Last MOT (german variant) was in halfway 2019 due to this year, so it crashed somewhere in between. What's the best way to try to get any information / history? I've got owner names / license plates, but so far no information found
• Any tips on rebuild are always appreciated, but I will definitely have some good looks around this forum aswell as I am probably not the first that rebuilds one of these

Kind regards, Bart

Hi, I've been looking to join the lotus community for a while now, and I got this S1 offered which I think can be a nice rebuild project. The car seems to have flipped over, there is lot's of body panel damage (windows, front & rear clambshell, engine cover, driver door, driver sill, diffuser all to be definitely replaced) , chassis looks completely straigth and undamaged apart from a minor a scratch behind the left front wheel, all suspension arms & pickup points look solid and almost like new. Engine's running but not done much as the coolant circuit is empty.

Just some general notes of the car:

• Lotus elise s1, 25-02-1999 P.D.I
• 60k miles
• B21 Lotus racing green (?) with a green interior
• VIN: SCCGA111XXHC35172

Here some pictures of what I got myself into
View attachment 1303213

View attachment 1303214

View attachment 1303215

View attachment 1303216

Couple of initial questions:

• I've not seen a similar interior with the large lotus sign on the seats and floor of the car. Anybody know if this is aftermarket or where this comes from?
• I've got extremely limited information of what happened with the car. I know it was imported from the UK to Germany after 2008, and it changed owners in 2015 to the 3rd and latest owner. Last MOT (german variant) was in halfway 2019 due to this year, so it crashed somewhere in between. What's the best way to try to get any information / history? I've got owner names / license plates, but so far no information found
• Any tips on rebuild are always appreciated, but I will definitely have some good looks around this forum aswell as I am probably not the first that rebuilds one of these

Kind regards, Bart

great that you have taken this on Bart, I've rebuilt an S1 Elise,
going from this:

to this:

...i promise you it is the same car!
They are not really complex cars to work on, clams are easily removeable, but you may experience spinning rivnuts holding clams in place.

see here for my build thread if interested: https://www.scottishelises.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=43531

Your most likely to need to access the UK for the parts you will need to rebuild as S1's are only just becoming legal for road use in US. SELOC is a good place for parts. Dominic Hughes is a good place for body panels, Junks is also recommended on there.

good luck with your project. Let me know if you would like any more info regarding your re-build or part suppliers etc.

 

[pinballer111r]

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