Del's Build: SLC IR/8

Earl Mitchell

Supporter
Del not sure if you know but I noticed in your pics that you had the flex lines threaded onto the IF (inverted flare) fittings on the hard lines,this is not correct unless something has changed since my car.There should be an adapter fitting that goes from an3 to IFF this fitting will also accept a mount to attach to the chassis.Go to ''Speedway Motors'' and search ''brake line mount'' they have straight and 90 brackets that slid over these adapter fittings with a retainer clip included.My adapters were in the bag with the flex lines the ones that came with mine had nuts that clamped them to the mounts.If you already knew this please disregard this post just try to look out for a fellow builder.
 
Del not sure if you know but I noticed in your pics that you had the flex lines threaded onto the IF (inverted flare) fittings on the hard lines,this is not correct unless something has changed since my car.There should be an adapter fitting that goes from an3 to IFF this fitting will also accept a mount to attach to the chassis.Go to ''Speedway Motors'' and search ''brake line mount'' they have straight and 90 brackets that slid over these adapter fittings with a retainer clip included.My adapters were in the bag with the flex lines the ones that came with mine had nuts that clamped them to the mounts.If you already knew this please disregard this post just try to look out for a fellow builder.

I was curious if you can screw -3 into 3/16 IF .... you can without any resistance. You can also screw it into 1/8'' NPT w/o any resistance
 
Del not sure if you know but I noticed in your pics that you had the flex lines threaded onto the IF (inverted flare) fittings on the hard lines,this is not correct unless something has changed since my car.There should be an adapter fitting that goes from an3 to IFF this fitting will also accept a mount to attach to the chassis.Go to ''Speedway Motors'' and search ''brake line mount'' they have straight and 90 brackets that slid over these adapter fittings with a retainer clip included.My adapters were in the bag with the flex lines the ones that came with mine had nuts that clamped them to the mounts.If you already knew this please disregard this post just try to look out for a fellow builder.

Crap, I didn't realize at all that I needed a fitting between those 2. Like Alex said, yep there's no resistance at all. I just put them finger tight, thank you for the heads up on this as I would have been leaking brake fluid! I'll get some on order now. The first of many mistakes to come. :)
 
I have a dumb question...before I potentially screw something major up.

Bolting down my roll cage. When it's just "sitting" on the car, the front base plates don't sit flush with the edge of the dash. I assume I need to bolt the rear of the cage in position, then use C-clamps on the front to pull them flush, mark the holes in drill and bolt... Am I right?

Just concerned with forcing it and it having adverse affects on the frame.
 
A small amount is OK. Think I had to push mine about 1/2" or so to get the forward plates even with the front mounting location. Use a ratchet strap tied to the front upper a-arm if you have one, easier than a C-clamp I think.

Good luck! I would do a quick check with the interior tub and ceiling panel installed as a quick sanity check before drilling the cage in. I had aligned my cage using the overhead bars and it turns out they're not symmetric on my cage. Aligning the rear cage mounts with chassis centerline yielded a much better fit.
 

Scott

Lifetime Supporter
My cage came bolted. Perhaps that’s because it bolts to the removeable side impact bar supports. To get it reinstalled I used a ratchet strap and a hole alignment tool (in my case a small pry bar whose handle is round and pointed). I also needed some to help. One person to align it and the other to drop in the bolts.
 
Thanks for the help guys! I like the ratchet straps idea, sounds much easier. Mine is about 1/2" or so as well too. I have it aligned in the rear but haven't checked the front yet. I needed some hardware to bolt it in before I marked the fronts and picked up the hardware yesterday. Grade 8 stuff adds up, lol. Thanks again, I feel better now.
 
Don't know why it hasn't dawned on me before now, but I probably should update my, now faux, build thread. Probably way too much info, but figured why not be detailed on what’s happened since my last post….and I’m excited.

At some point in April 2018 I contacted Allan randomly, mainly out of curiosity, to just to inquire on cost to maybe get mine to the go-kart stage. After talking with him for a while about everything, he would be glad to get the car to a certain point or finish it completely out. He said he had about a 6 month wait time for me to send it to him and a deposit to hold the spot. Only took me 2 days to decide to let him finish (IE basically a full build). At the time I really had no valid excuse why I was sending it to him, other than I told myself that if my wife ever got pregnant that my personal build schedule would easily double (realistically, probably more than that). I knew it wasn't a very good excuse, but hey whatever it takes to talk myself into it. I was initially pretty disappointed in myself for even inquiring about sending it to him, but in hindsight was most definitely the best move. 1 month after deposit I found out how perfect my timing was as the (basically) impossible happened and would be a father January 2019. I’ll be 40 this year, so better late than never, lol.

So while waiting my turn, I didn't really think much about it or really talk to Allan much....had plenty of other things to catch up on to prepare for the kid....like finding a 4dr vehicle which I wasn't very excited about. I did need to get the engine and transaxle installed. All 4 Brembo calipers were broken down and took them along with engine brace and QA1 springs to get powdercoated Prismatic Illusion Orange. Of course everything had to go back together, plus load it with as many parts as I could fit inside and tape the hell out of it. FYI for anyone else doing it the way I am, fit all the big stuff in the car and ship the smaller stuff, I paid for (quite literally) doing it the other way around. The SLC arrived to Allan on Black Friday (11/23/18). Little did I know that 8 days later on 12/01/18 my daughter would decide to show up 6.5 weeks early. 22 days in NICU and she made it home before Christmas with zero issues.

As of this week, Allan has everything is working/running, all exterior and interior has been fitted and now is blown back apart, prepped for paint and is now in primer. Won't be long to see it in paint. Allan is a fantastic guy to work with, honestly can't say enough good things about him. From communication, talking to him on the phone, his suggestions on solutions to what I trying to accomplish and of course the quality of his work is no doubt more awesome than pictures can show, I was able see it in person on Granville's SLC.

My goal with the build wasn't to get all crazy, I just wanted a more or less basic build. Of course some things evolved over the course of Allan building it, my favorite being when he offered to use the bigger 4" Lotus Elise tail lights which he retrofitted with halos prior to install. I’m really curious to see these on the street tail since hasn’t been done yet, but not one to bug him (much) so will wait to see them once it’s painted. I couldn't have asked for a more fitting use for them since we named our daughter Elise. I'm running cats and mufflers like most do, but I really didn't want to exit around the license plate so Allan came up with the idea to exit the exhaust through the diffuser around the transaxle. Once the car is back, I’ll have to sit down and update the thread with the additional mods that ended up going on the car.

While waiting to send the SLC off, I also sold my Hayabusa in November to help fund Allan's SLC build and get a few upgrades I wanted. I had been thinking about selling for a while and I know once the SLC comes back, if I’m taking a vehicle by myself I will choose the SLC over the bike. I owned it the bike since new (2009) and actually built it in my living room when I lived in the hood and didn’t have a garage or shop. It had 17K miles when I sold it and probably was the best time to let it go since it was fixing to be winter, I’d have the SLC around spring/summer and a new (to me) car as a daily. Also while waiting to send the car off I started looking at family sedans…ugh. I really enjoyed driving the C5 and especially not having a car note for several years, but a Corvette wasn’t going to work with a kid, least safely. I’m a domestic guy at heart so I was 110% sure I’d get a gen 2 CTS-V….that was until I went down the German rabbit hole one evening and started looking at M5s and Audi S6/S7s. I’ve always loved the look of German cars, especially the concave wheels you can fit, but never seriously looked into them. Come to find out the performance is amazing, not to mention the tech is pretty awesome too. Some things are just meant to be, and buying my current car was one of them. I had a white S7 deal fall through due to CarMax’s shipping from Cali to Houston (damage to bumper and check engine lights on when it made it to Houston) and came across a 2014 S7 which was lightly modified EXACTLY like I would have (given the spare cash) other than the wheel color, but they’ve grown on me….of course it helps knowing they’re a $10k set of ADV.1 wheels (which still blows my mind). Car was wrapped in Avery Dark Gray vinyl (funny enough a VERY close color I had planned to pain the SLC), APR Stage 1 tune (563HP), Roc-Euro intake, RS7 front bumper & grill, carbon fiber splitter, diffuser mirror caps, post-facelift tail lights and JL 8W3v3 sub in OEM speaker box. I flew to Vegas to meet the seller and drove it 1500 miles back to Louisiana. I’m not sure if I can ever go back to owning another domestic car and I wish I had gotten a German car before now, lol, guess I've been converted.

I'll upload the build pictures I have and post shortly.
 

PeteB

GT40s Supporter
Lotus Elise taillights should look good on a SL-C. I just converted my taillights to LED halos.

 
Thanks, kind of a long winded back story, lol.

Halos are a must I think. I also like the fact they're EU lights so the middle of the lights also have a bulb. I'm keeping the halos for only running and brake lights, inner centers for reverse and outside centers for signals.
 
Good story. Love my Audis (S8 and TT), although maintenance and insurance is a little on the high side. If you are planning using an SLC as a driver what do you plan to do for chassis corrosion protection (powder coat?) and weather sealing package? Driving one reliably in the rain could be a challenge.
 
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You're not kidding on maintenance, even a 9qt oil change! Or lug bolts blew my mind, lol. But it's a new experience and nice to work on something different.

I have not done any corrosion protection, but probably need to look into it. Honestly never discussed the weather sealing, but he does know it'll be a street car and I assumed it'll be sealed from the weather, guess I should inquire while I can. I don't plain to drive it in the rain on purpose, but I do live in Louisiana so there is no doubt I'll get caught in the rain sooner than later....probably first trip out in it. I wanted to put Cup 2 tires on it, but went with the Pilot SS to have a better rain tire. Hindsight is always 20/20, the S7 has the same Pilot SS (275/30) tires so now I have experience with them in the rain and hate them. They hydroplane way too easy, even in a 4400lb car. Can only imagine how it will be in a ~2600lb car and 335's. The Pilot SS tires on the S7 are awesome on dry pavement though.
 
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Great stuff!

Pete/Del - could you post some detailed info about where to source/cost for doing those taillights? I came across that conversion on a Lotus site a few years back but have since lost the link. I really like the dual round taillight look and tried to recreate it using the factory assembly but I'm a bit meh on it, I think having 4 separate assemblies is the way to go. There just aren't a lot of other good options out there for this size/shape that doesn't look like it was pulled right off a trailer.
 
I'm not sure, Allan found these and asked if I was interested. There is a 3" and 4" version, but it's all personal preference on what you want. I agree though, you need to look closer into these for yours. I think they look considerably better than the Dakota tails, even more so with the retrofit.

Pete's look like they may be aftermarket Else tails, which is another option. Not sure if you retain the center bulbs on them. Not sure on the size, but maybe C6 tails may look good.

Here's the link I think you're referring to for the retrofit.
https://www.lotustalk.com/forums/f92/how-led-cob-halo-ring-tail-light-conversion-2005-elise-369962/
 

PeteB

GT40s Supporter
Great stuff!

Pete/Del - could you post some detailed info about where to source/cost for doing those taillights? I came across that conversion on a Lotus site a few years back but have since lost the link. I really like the dual round taillight look and tried to recreate it using the factory assembly but I'm a bit meh on it, I think having 4 separate assemblies is the way to go. There just aren't a lot of other good options out there for this size/shape that doesn't look like it was pulled right off a trailer.

Cam - The taillights on my Elise are the stock housings that I retrofitted with LEDs. See post 38 on this thread: https://www.lotustalk.com/forums/f9...ight-conversion-2005-elise-369962/index2.html

There are also several aftermarket units available like this one: https://www.gregsraceparts.com/coll...-halo-tail-light-set-for-elise-exige-esprit-1
 
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