Project Lazarus

[S2central.net]

Yes definitely planning for that - with the plan for car to be as light as possible (without going crazy on a spaceframe project - that is way beyond me). I am leaning towards torque and responsiveness - not looking for 500bhp.

Funny thing is we are 7 pages into this thread and I have barely got past jacking it onto stands for an underbody inspection.

Actually I did remove the headlights two nights ago - that turned into a comedy version of project binky where I had to get the dremel out to grind a screwdriver slot in two of the lower fixings which had seized up badly.

Need to order things like a chassis cradle before I sweat about turbo sizing too much.

[Henkjan]

light eh: there are some carbonfibre doors and bonnet for sale on the forum that and killing the aircon would be the quickest wins. then move the hydraulics back (e-pump and vac brake servo). top it off with a nice set of ultraleggera rims.

[diesel des]

Light. The efr 6758 turbos I have are the fancy alloy center ones saving almost 1 kg. ... lol

Sent from my GT-N7105 using Tapatalk

[S2central.net]

Managed a bit of progress over a few hours on Sunday past (woohoo). End result is rear bumper and inner wings removed. I also cut out the rear section of exhaust and removed all the rear carpet trim pieces.

I had never removed the rear bumper before so I took a few pics along the way… In an ideal world the removal of the rear bumper would involve the following three simple steps -

- removing the central fixing screw via access point on underside of the rear bumper

- unfastening the two outer TORX screws at each side where it mounts to a bracket on the inner wing

- removing the two mounting bolts via the access points on the underside of the rear bumper

[S2central.net]

In my case, the central screw actually came out a treat (despite being untouched for ~20yrs) - its actually a self tapper going into plastic anyway so not much drama there.

All the other fixings were crusted up solid as they are not stainless so I had to tackle the removal from the inside (pretty much what I expected). On one side, the plastic bracket that mounts to the inner ring was already damaged, and it didn’t take much torque to destroy the other side. This is actually a superior design than the front as the bumper itself doesn’t get damaged from such stresses - just the silly little plastic brackets (he said not checking if they are still available) !

So I took off the inner wings - these mostly have stainless fixings which are superb. The two inner TORX fittings on the bumper bracket are NOT stainless but they came out without much grief. My only tip here is to use a sharp probe to poke out the crustiest rusty stuff on the fixing, a squirt of good penetrating oil and a nice fitting TX tool (it was 25 or 27) will despatch it.

It is truly amazing to report a complete and utter lack of any rust lurking behind those rear inner wings - actually the metal outers are pretty perfect too. Very impressive for a 20yr old machine, but a pity the front wings don’t fare so well with age !

[S2central.net]

Rear bumper removal from the Inside is a bit more time consuming and roughly along the lines of :

- taking off the trim around the rear lock carrier (two bolts one side for the parcel carrier supports, one bolt other side and a handful of plastic trim clips which prise out easily enough)… the trim piece lifts off with some gentle persuasion

- remove rear light clusters and the cubby hole bucket - there is a little screw and trim clip lurking down in the right corner which holds a couple of carpet sections together

- remove enough of the rear carpet to get access to a pair of domed mounting nuts on each side

- the bumper pretty much falls off at that point !

[S2central.net]

Some more pics including those of the domed mounting bolts for the rear bumper bracket.

[S2central.net]

I continued with my strip down along the lines of :

- remove the CD magazine from the rear central storage area…this is fitted in a surprising way with some extremely sticky double sided brackets which offer up mounting points for the magazine - clearly a dealer retrofit bodge job… topped up with a strip of velcro to keep it in the right place.

- removed the rear seat side bolsters (one big pin each side and then it just lifts out)

- removed the rear carpet that covers the petrol tank enclosure

- removed the rear seat belts… only niggle with this is the lack of clearance at the fuel filler neck - I untwisted some breather device to get enough room on that side

- removed the trims carrying the rear tweeters… after removing the screw where they attach to the rear cards, I thought these just pulled out but they don’t - there is a screw hiding where the seat belt goes but I didn’t see it and ending up breaking the booger off… did it on both sides out of anger at breaking the first one


The end result is that I now have a complete set of black / Anthracite (code is TX) carpet trims, front and rear seats (with quattro script cloth) for a Coupe in very decent condition if anyone wants them. I don’t want to bin anything that could otherwise go to a good home - I won’t be fitting them again but don’t have the space to keep them stored forever. The drivers (right) side shows its age of course.


More pics added......

[S2central.net]

With the rear exhaust practically falling off the old girl, it was time for the old angle grinder to come out - I started to cut the pipe where it enters the rear box but it was already severely weakened here and I buzzed thru that in no time. Off with the back box and damn that is much heavier than I expected - this is the original exhaust !

There was no way on earth the mounting bolts for the rear box (this is the pipe that goes up and over the rear drivetrain) would be serviceable… I cut the lowest bolts as access to that was easy - then I twisted the bracket round for the other two and cut those thru - much sparks and noise later and that is off too.

I forgot how much I hate working under the car with power tools like that - my bones are fair aching today.

[John B]

Rear Bumper

That's handy seeing the bolts and fixings for the rear bumper - haven't seen too many on the forum........I'm thinking of making an RS2 style rear bumper from the S2 version by plastic welding a number plate recess in......rather than taking a RS2 bumper and chopping it. There's not much space though behind the plastic before you hit the rear of the boot

Great work though......keep it up...

[John B]

With the rear exhaust practically falling off the old girl, it was time for the old angle grinder to come out - I started to cut the pipe where it enters the rear box but it was already severely weakened here and I buzzed thru that in no time. Off with the back box and damn that is much heavier than I expected - this is the original exhaust !

Yes it is heavy.....what are your plans for an exhaust? I seem to remember you had a modular design in mind from one of your posts elsewhere.

[S2central.net]

Ahh yes the old modular exhaust design... i have the vaguest recollections but like many things it was never important enough to do anything about.

For old Lazarus I would really like to have a side exit and avoid all that nonsense of routing a 3" pipe over the rear driveshaft - a certain Australian made S1 looky-likey space frame gave me the idea to do something more creative as it also creates loads of ground clearance but I have lots to worry about before I get to that point. Depends how brave/outrageous/flush I am feeling !

[S2central.net]

PS - talking of bumpers I am actually torn between RS2 and late Cabrio for the front with those nicer curvy light shapes.

[S2central.net]

LOL - over a year since last post on this, but pleased to say I have finally made some progress the past few weeks. The engine is well stripped of ancillaries and such in readiness for removal.

Worst part was removing the exhaust downpipe with the car up on axle stands - there wasn't enough clearance to get the ******* thing clear of the stands so I chopped it in frustration.

Other memorable moment was the only one of the EM bolts that put up a fight - from the underside, I had to cut off the head with a dremel - then grind down the remainder... fun fun fun.

Got lots of pics along the way to keep me right - nothing wildly interesting for here though - except maybe as evidence that I finally got my finder out ;-)

[mcandmar]

Probably not much use to you now, but its easier to just yank the engine/gearbox/downpipe as one unit and disassemble it out of the car. Also avoids skinning those knuckles trying to remove the pesky down pipe nuts