Who needs jack stands when you have kitty litter?

GoodMojo · 08:35 PM

Somewhat off topic, but an entertaining read. This is one determined guy.

http://www.theriens.com/lotus/

rstoll · 12-01-2002, 05:26 PM

That sure is a lot of work to put together a non matching, salvage title car huh??

Tyson Schmidt · 12-01-2002, 05:49 PM

I think that guy Rules!!!! He's having a great time doing it, and has a remarkably good sense of humor about the tragedies he's encountered along the way.

Reminds me of a guy I know........

(Hint: His initials are Jack Olsen.)

Jim Garfield · 12-01-2002, 06:18 PM

Whew, I couldn't stop reading that odyssesy. Good luck and God bless him.

Does he know that is the EXACT same process that the Lotus factory used
to build the car in the first place? One step forward two steps back.

emcon5 · emcon5's Garage

I think this is the quote of the week:

Quote:

My wife told me "If you hurt yourself bad, make sure you die". I think she knows about the insurance policy.

Tom

1973911s · 12-01-2002, 07:56 PM

I would think that he could have bought the 97, and still had a few bucks, for what he has put into it.

rstoll · 12-01-2002, 07:59 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by 1973911s
I would think that he could have bought the 97, and still had a few bucks, for what he has put into it.

Yeah, but anyone could do that. It's more fun to take 3 wrecks and a burnout and make it run again.

masraum · 12-01-2002, 08:06 PM

Hmm, removed the cage and the brake cooling ducts, huh? To each his own I guess.

Otherwise, sounds like a cool, long, difficult, fraught with misery and strife, expensive, time consuming project.

gregk1 · 06:03 AM

In one picture I saw Like 8 five gallon buckets of kitty litter, Must have alot of cats or one Big Fat one that is a $hit Factory!! Bondo??

silverc4s · silverc4s's Garage

Guy should get some kind of humanitarian award for taking four Lotii off the roads, looks like at least three for good and all....

note: I am a former Europa owner...

Kmatts · 12-02-2002, 10:32 AM

That is the most amazing thing i've ever read.
I can't believe he did all that work on that car.

k9handler · 12-02-2002, 11:57 AM

I must say that he is dedicated to his Lotus. I mean four parts cars that will one day make a Lotus!

dickster · 12-02-2002, 12:24 PM

wow - i guess at some point theres no turning back

that post was some time ago, i wonder if he finished it......

Thomas Owen · 12-03-2002, 07:49 AM

I was so inspired by this man's determination that I wrote him about an update. His last photos were in August, and here is his reply:

Thomas,
I have made some major progress on the project especially in the last 10
days. Things were a bit slow before that due to the normal cycle of overseas
travel I go through. I am dreading having to post another "body work" page
after the next so I was hoping to finish all the body work and then post a
single final "bodywork" update. I am almost there now. I visited the lotus
Esprit assembly line in Hethel on the way back from Israel through London in
mid November. This provided a number of key assembly tips and some
motivation. It seems the 12 guys that work the assembly were quite impressed
with my project. They said they had never had anyone through the tour that
knew so much about the car's assembly
The key point though was that the body shells are painted before assembly
and protected with various tapes etc. The doors, hood, hatch, etc are
painted separately and attached. The exact paint sequence was providing me
so angst so after seeing this I decided to do the same i.e. finish all the
body work, prime and paint the body shell before continuing the re-assembly.
I am working on the grinding for the rear wheel well extensions. I got the
fronts done but I am missing the left rear one (stolen - long story) so I
have to wait for it to drill and grind both the rears in the right place.
Then I will finish sanding, prime and paint. I bought the paint past week -
$471. gulp. Thanks for your interest. I will ping you when I post an update.

Regards,
Guy

P.S. By best friend is Martin Peters - PR manager for PorscheCars NA.

I personally wish him the best of luck - he has done a remarkable amount of work in that garage!

Rouxzy · 12-03-2002, 02:47 PM

This guy has got big ones. A runaway roller ran him over before rolling into the woods and dislocating his shoulder. This could be made into a movie.

Emission · Emission's Garage

I am very impressed. What fun! I wish I had the time.

kristian85 · kristian85's Garage

Well, I think, frankly, that the Guy is completely silly. It is very nearly a Don Quixote story. He didn't even bother to find out if his initial ideas would work out. He's going to end up with a car that absolutely noone but him in the world is going to want to own, and a car that is also uncollectable with dodgy reliability, very expensive running costs, and brick wall depreciation. Excellent low-mileage V-8's go for $50K.

A good friend has a '94 Lotus Esprit S4, and, while a blast to drive, it is inanely expensive to run ($2+K tuneups, $110 wiperblades, etc.). A new gearbox in those things runs tens of thousands of dollars--they didn't get good, durable boxes until '99. Clutchjob--$4-5K.

I guess the only reason to do it is--well, to do it! I'd only put that much labor into something collectable.

That's it for my grinchiness.

9XI · 9XI's Garage

That is insane. I wish I had time to do something like that with a Porsche! Maybe a Spyder?

TimT · 12-03-2002, 05:21 PM

This guys project makes my project look simple!!

olav_a · olav_a's Garage

I noticed this...

http://www.theriens.com/pets/pets.htm