Car Wars III: Return of the Clam

Well, it's done -- the painting of the clam, anyway. Still have a lot to do, though. I had L&S Restoration in Rochester, MN, handle the painting. The quality of work is excellent. However, I'm really unhappy with the final cost: $1285!! His estimate was 10-15 hours of work (@ $45/hr), but with the understanding that it wasn't guarenteed. The final time supposedly came to 25 hours. How the hell can a so-called professional be so unable to judge the time required to perform his job? It would have cost me the same to have the Lotus dealership paint it. At least the final finish is really nice. He did repair a headlight cover at no charge, which will allow me to return the new one for $600. Yes, that's right, a headlight COVER for $600.00!! Ah, exotic car ownership.

About a month ago, Eric came over and gave me a hand with the oil cooler bypass mod (see figure 2). I had big ideas about cutting and welding, but Eric saw how to just align the lower bolt hole with the upper bolt. This simplified it considerably and we just cut some excess bracket off (less weight!), bolted it up, and......voila! Relocated bypass!

About a month before that, Steve (aka sbranda) came over and helped me repair the cracked fiberglass on the crash structure.Steve has become pretty good at repairing fiberglass (ask him how...). We used a putty-type, 2-part epoxy to fill in the cracks. Figure 3 shows how it looks right now, but I plan on smoothing it out and hitting it with some primer and flat black. Once I get that done and the clam on, no one will ever notice. The red wires are just temporary until I get the black zip ties on.

The actual new oil cooler is now on the right-hand side. It was a bitch to get in as the foam insulation made for a VERY tight squeeze. I made sure to fill the cooler with oil first before sealing it up. Held quite a bit. Something like 1.5 - 2 quarts (1.5- 2L).

The final task (other than actually putting the clam on) is to transfer all the crap from the old clam (figure 5) onto the new one. There's lots: radio antenna, headlight assemblies, turn signal assemblies, side marker lights, vibration insulation, wheel arch liners, cable assemblies, etc, etc. There's also the undertray that was damaged, which I have a new replacement for.