# Polished Bliss®: my Lotus project.....



## John @ PB (Aug 25, 2010)

A change of face here: my first venture into the Studio section with a write up.

The story of my Elise refurb is long - and expensive.

I bought the car about 7 years ago after going out to buy a jeep. Living in the North east corner of Scotland and being January, buying a two seater, sub 700kg, rear wheel drive, leaky sportscar seemed the only sensible thing to do.

I moved house just over two years ago, and not yet having a garage, the car stayed at my mum and dad's and was given the occasional run. The most recent run involved some rather salty roads. I then parked the car and all but forgot about it.

Fast forward to autumn 2010: a quick look at the car showed the full extent of the damage caused to the underside by the salt and the galvanic corrosion hastened by the aluminium tub and steel components.














































A half-hearted attempt to strip the old suspension resulted in a lot of swearing and not a great deal of progress so our neighbours at Clark Motorsport were called upon. After the initial suggestions of 'putting a match to it' were rebuked, the car was trailered down and Barry and Calum started ripping rusted bits off.

After all the suspension components were removed, they were sent to PPS Glassfibre for shotblasting and powder coating. Meanwhile, I set about the aluminium tub, initially with Meguiar's Super Degreaser and a stiff detailing brush to remove the worst of the surface grime.

Next up was Raceglaze's excellent Alutech Metal Polish, applied with a Lake Country Hand Pad, cut into chunks. The tight working area under the arches made this a better option than heading in with the machine and the results were pretty impressive.










A good 50/50










And now some suspension off the car (those brake discs are frightening.....)










And looking much better:



















The old exhaust was fit only for the skip and a friend who upgraded to a particularly nice exhaust sold me his old one. Lovingly described as 'the mutt' the exhaust hasn't done a lot of mileage and was in generally good condition, save for a broken hanger and a lot of surface tarnish.



















Again, Alutech came to the rescue, this time with a Lake Country Light Cut Constant Pressure pad and the DAS 6 machine. After one hit, the results were pretty good.




























The pad took some punishment though:










Some further work with a drop of Briliant Chrome and Hot Environment and a coating of Blackfire All Metal Sealant saw the exhaust in good shape: certainly good enough considering it's not actually visible.

The undertrays had seen better times and whilst it would take an incredible amount of work to make them actually shine (they were matt from new), they cleaned up quite well. The trays were pressure washed at high temperature (around 90degrees) then scrubbed using a stiff brush and Meguiar's Super Degreaser. After rinsing, Tardis was applied in the usual fashion.

Once dried, 0000 grade wire wool and Alutech were used for more severe areas followed by Briliant Chrome and Hot Environment again, this time applied with the Light Cut pad via DA. A benefit of Chrome and Hot Environment is the layer of sealant protection it leaves behind.

All the shot blasted hub carriers and other suspension components were given a coat of Blackfire All Metal Sealant as were all new suspension parts with the exception of the springs and dampers and powder coated parts. The new Bilstein dampers and Eibach springs were protected with two coats of Swissvax Motor Shine. I chose this product as not only does it offer excellent protection but being sprayable it was easy to apply to the springs when a more regular metal sealant would've been a little more laborious.

A good side by side of the hub carriers pre and post a session in the blast cabinet:










The net result is a series of suspension parts looking rather neat and with excellent protection on all surfaces.




























With all the suspension sorted including all the bushes, hubs, track rod ends, etcetera, the brakes were also revived. As you've seen the old discs were in as bad a condition as the suspension, particularly on the back where their braking capability must've been minimal.

The fronts weren't as bad, but still not great. As the car will be used on the road 99% of the time, a new set of straight discs were fitted and I then deliberated for several days over brake pad choice. In the end, Ferodo DS2500 were fitted, chiefly on the advice of Clark Motorsport who use these pads regularly for tarmac rally cars to great effect. My main concern was heat from cold as with the car being quite light, it can take a while to get heat into pads.

The braided hoses remained as they were quite new and cleaned up well and the fluid was changed.





































Whilst the car was on stands, the wheels were cleaned with R222 Wheel Gel and a ferrous contaminant remover...... Autosmart Tardis was used for tar spot and after they were clean and dry, 2x coats of Blackfire All Metal Sealant were applied.

Before










And after:



















The engine was fully serviced, all filters changed, oil, fluids and the like and a MoT certificate obtained.

Back over to PB HQ I started on the interior, which was, it's fair to say, pretty rank.




























The seats were, as you can see, taken out and I cleaned these with a Meguiar's APC and a triple duty detailing brush before applying Raceglaze Leather Cleaner and Leather Balm.




























The rest of the interior was cleaned with Autosmart G101, Autosmart Tardis (yes, really) and Werkstat Prime Strong.

A little side by side:










The dashboard was dressed with Werkstat Satin Prot to leave a matt finish the interior glass was cleaned with 3M Glass Cleaner and the exterior cleaned with Werkstat Prime Strong, wiped down with IPA then Nanolex Premium Sealant was applied.

Cleaning the rear screen was pretty easy:










The paintwork wasn't in terrible shape but wasn't amazing: any swirling was very minor but there were some deeper marks across most panels. The sills were, and still are, badly chipped but short of respraying them they'd not really improve. We took a series of readings with the composite gauge and were happy there was plenty of paint across the car.



















The wash stage was straightforward and followed our usual methods. The roof was power washed, then sprayed with Meguiar's APC and scrubbed with a Meguiar's the car was moved inside for claying which revealed surprisingly little contamination.

The multitude of number plate sticky pads were removed using a combination of a blade and Tardis before the area was lightly polished by hand with Menzerna 203S.



















I started the correction via DA using Menzerna RD3.02 on a Lake Country Cyan pad as experience with Lotus paint tells us the paint is usually hard. There was an improvement with the slight swirling disappearing quickly but even working the area at reasonably high speed for a long time did little to improve the deeper marks.

Before:



















A switch to Meguiar's 105 Ultra Cut Compound, again with a Cyan pad saw a little more correction but still the deeper marks weren't knocked out. 105 also suffers from quite a lot of fill and drop back so an IPA wipedown with this polish is absolutely vital. With the Menzerna polishes, you generally know what you're getting in terms of correction and the drop back in minimal.

Obviously the paint was very hard so a switch to the Makita was required and a Lake Country Foamed Wool pad with Menzerna RD3.02. The wool is great on composite panels as it keeps the temperature down nicely whilst giving excellent cut. 3.02 is also nice to use with wool as it's quite slick in use and can be worked for quite a long time.

This combination worked really well, knocking out all but the very deepest of marks. Interestingly, there was little pigtailing apparent, far less than I expected and the finish after this stage was pretty sharp.

At this stage, with only the deep marks remaining, there wasn't much point in going for more correction: the deepest of the marks would remain and those that would come out would've required serious work and in all honesty, on a 12 year old, which is peppered with stone chips and some gravel rash on the flanks, it really wasn't worth it.

The refining stage was straightforward, with a Lake Country Constant Pressure Light Cut pad and Menzerna 85RE which finished down beautifully leaving a pin sharp, high gloss finish.

One coat of Werkstat Acrylic Prime was applied to all the body work andit pulled out a quite impressive amount of grime. 4 coats of Werkstat Acrylic Jett Trigger were then applied - with so little bodywork and the ease with which Jett Trigger goes on, each coat took about 8 minutes.

And, after a colossal amount of hours and quite a lot of cash (and it still needs new tyres....) the results:



























































































Big thanks to the guys at Clark Motorsport and PPS Glassfibre for their advice and assistance.

Many thanks for making it to the end: comments, as ever, welcome.

John


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## mas (Oct 4, 2010)

looks lovely, very smart colour too. well worth your hard work (and cash!)


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## jpmcc (Mar 3, 2007)

Stunning detailed write-up, thanks for taking the time to post the thread


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## TUBS (May 9, 2006)

Great work there, when I saw the first few picks I thought it looked like a binner, but that looks an awesome ride you got !!


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## Mini 360 (Jul 17, 2009)

Seen that a few times over the years! Love it! Same tyres as the Mini


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## The Cueball (Feb 8, 2007)

John @ PB said:


> I bought the car about 7 years ago after going out to buy a jeep. Living in the North east corner of Scotland and being January, buying a two seater, sub 700kg, rear wheel drive, leaky sportscar seemed the only sensible thing to do.


I don't see anything wrong with that! :lol::lol::lol: 

Car looks great, well worth the time and effort!

:thumb:


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## DW58 (Nov 27, 2010)

Looks fantastic John, what an amazing transformation. It just goes to show what a lot of hard work and TLC can do. Thanks for sharing and well done mate! :thumb:


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## dazzyb (Feb 9, 2010)

now thts a transformation to be proud of
well done


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## gally (May 25, 2008)

Thanks for taking the time to post John, can't believe how bad that suspension got before! Jeeez!

Immense work as always, were the rest of the PB team involved?

The best shot for me...










I'm sure it feels like a new car, I did the same only last week.. my thread... 
http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=207792


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## John @ PB (Aug 25, 2010)

The actual work was all done by me: got a second opinion from Clark before going with the wool pad (he confirmed my suspicions) but all my work. 

(Apart from the mechanical side: if it was left to me that car would just be a pile of bits: I know where my skillset ends!)


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## John @ PB (Aug 25, 2010)

Mini 360 said:


> Seen that a few times over the years! Love it! Same tyres as the Mini


Not for long: they've perished and are rock hard. Loads of tread but no grip.

R1Rs? R888s? AO48s? Decisions, decisions.


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## hmsilset (Dec 28, 2010)

Great job!


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## Paulo (Aug 11, 2007)

_Looks great and very fun cars....:thumb:_


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## UBRWGN (Nov 25, 2007)

Looked like flood damage before you started! :lol:
Your hard work really paid off. :thumb:


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## paranoid73 (Aug 5, 2009)

great turn around and write up John :thumb:


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## Leodhasach (Sep 15, 2008)

Great write up, really interesting, and cracking work! Looks lovely now :thumb:


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## prokopas (Apr 29, 2010)

Very nice transformation and results Well done


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## Ducky (Mar 19, 2007)

I'm shocked at how must corrosion the suspension was showing! that's a great turnaround and I bet it feels like a new car to drive now! :thumb:


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## GSVHammer (Feb 7, 2009)

Very nice turnaround. How many times did you wish you'd bought the Jeep?:wave:


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## ercapoccia (Nov 14, 2008)

Well done! I can't fit in this car but i love it.


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## John @ PB (Aug 25, 2010)

Ducky said:


> I'm shocked at how must corrosion the suspension was showing! that's a great turnaround and I bet it feels like a new car to drive now! :thumb:


The combination of steel and aluminium had hastened the corrosion but it would've been bad on any car.

It feels so much different now - between all the steering components being replaced, new springs and dampers etc it's a great transformation - just tyres to replace now.



GSVHammer said:


> Very nice turnaround. How many times did you wish you'd bought the Jeep?:wave:


Never really! (Bought a jeep this winter though: with 3ft+ of snow up here it was pretty useful!)



ercapoccia said:


> Well done! I can't fit in this car but i love it.


You must be pretty tall! I'm 6ft and fit well and the seat's not all the way back.


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## SimonBash (Jun 7, 2010)

Very interesting post, excellent turnaround.


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## Lemongrab (Jul 27, 2009)

BRAVO! This looks absolutely fantastic!


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## Mini 360 (Jul 17, 2009)

John @ PB said:


> You must be pretty tall! I'm 6ft and fit well and the seat's not all the way back.


Im 6'6" and I cant fit properly. Dont get me wrong I squeeze in and its worth it in the end but not for long journeys! What sort of prices were PPS giving you for blasting and silver powdercoat? Thinking of getting the Minis running gear done in that and seeing as PPS are local and all....


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## Christian6984 (Dec 20, 2007)

nice work, looks like it just left the factory :thumb:


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## Lukewarm (Feb 24, 2011)

Excellent job John, the car looks brilliant. :thumb:


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## John @ PB (Aug 25, 2010)

Mini 360 said:


> Im 6'6" and I cant fit properly. Dont get me wrong I squeeze in and its worth it in the end but not for long journeys! What sort of prices were PPS giving you for blasting and silver powdercoat? Thinking of getting the Minis running gear done in that and seeing as PPS are local and all....


Best to nip and see them and they'll give you an idea for the work involved.


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## 500tie (Oct 15, 2009)

That is a really smart looking lotus i love these little cars so much fun and boy does it look nice all cleaned up definatly worth all the hard work and money living up to the polished bliss name i must add


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## Wax-IT.be (Feb 3, 2011)

Love your work, I should actually do the same on my car... 

Regards,

Simon


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## Gleammachine (Sep 8, 2007)

An enjoyable read, nice one John and looks great in the final pics.:thumb:


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## Ultra (Feb 25, 2006)

Nice, john, like it


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## slrestoration (Nov 11, 2009)

A very enjoyable read John :thumb:


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## Dohnut (Feb 4, 2011)

Wow great see the amazing transformation, putting some life back into the little motor. Had a go in one of those years ago and was the best fun I've had in a car, well lol the only one I want to talk about on here


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## dsms (Feb 1, 2008)

Awesome!


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## Steve ZS (Oct 15, 2009)

Stunning!! :argie:


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## hutchingsp (Apr 15, 2006)

Crikey. When I started reading I was expecting it to be an old Elan or a classic or something. Shocked that any modern car could get so bad in so little time and what a cracking turnaround!


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## John @ PB (Aug 25, 2010)

hutchingsp said:


> Crikey. When I started reading I was expecting it to be an old Elan or a classic or something. Shocked that any modern car could get so bad in so little time and what a cracking turnaround!


Thanks for all the comments guys.

Yeah, the corrosion was pretty bad: it's worse as the aluminium/steel combination will bring on corrosion more quickly and hastened on by the salt from the roads that chewed its way in.....


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## TIODGE (Jan 26, 2011)

nice work there fella !!


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## stevefj (Feb 22, 2010)

What a great turnaround! Smashing work!

Re tyres I've used Camskill and would highly recommend themreally good value prices better than Black Circles/MyTyres etc and p&p ;

http://www.camskill.co.uk/

Cheers Steve


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## John @ PB (Aug 25, 2010)

stevefj said:


> What a great turnaround! Smashing work!
> 
> Re tyres I've used Camskill and would highly recommend themreally good value prices better than Black Circles/MyTyres etc and p&p ;
> 
> ...


Thanks Steve, that who they're ordered via!

Arriving today or tomorrow.

Bet it snows next week.....


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## Alan W (May 11, 2006)

Great read John and nice work! :thumb:

It might be worth looking into fitting some sort of sacrificial anodes due to the amount of dissimilar metals present and the corrosion resulting.

Alan W


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## John @ PB (Aug 25, 2010)

Alan W said:


> Great read John and nice work! :thumb:
> 
> It might be worth looking into fitting some sort of sacrificial anodes due to the amount of dissimilar metals present and the corrosion resulting.
> 
> Alan W


Thanks for the comments Alan.

Re: sacrificial corrosion: I'm a step ahead of you there..... :thumb:

(Is it great minds...., or fools seldom..... let's go with great minds!)


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## Alan W (May 11, 2006)

John @ PB said:


> (Is it great minds...., or fools seldom..... let's go with great minds!)


:lol::thumb:

I'd suggest Zinc (and plenty of it!) due to it being less noble than aluminium or steel. It should corrode in preference to the other two metals. :thumb:

Alan W


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## John @ PB (Aug 25, 2010)

I was thinking magnesium which I think work well too?


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## horned yo (Feb 10, 2009)

Loads of tread but no grip.

R1Rs? R888s? AO48s? Decisions, decisions.

[/QUOTE]

Go with the R888s probably the best rubber i have ever put on my cars. Super sticky :thumb:


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## Alan W (May 11, 2006)

John @ PB said:


> I was thinking magnesium which I think work well too?


Magnesium would be a good, albeit expensive, choice but may be more difficult to obtain in the quantities that will be required for an effective annode.

Alan W


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## John @ PB (Aug 25, 2010)

horned yo said:


> Loads of tread but no grip.
> 
> R1Rs? R888s? AO48s? Decisions, decisions.


Go with the R888s probably the best rubber i have ever put on my cars. Super sticky :thumb:[/QUOTE]

Gone with the new R1Rs.

I've had AO48s before on another car and they were good. I know some Lotus guys who swapped AO48s (and R888s) for R1Rs and reckon they're slightly better - and cheaper. :thumb:



Alan W said:


> Magnesium would be a good, albeit expensive, choice but may be more difficult to obtain in the quantities that will be required for an effective annode.
> 
> Alan W


What do you reckon I'd need in terms of weight for it to be effective?


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## PaulN (Jan 17, 2008)

John @ PB said:


> Thanks for all the comments guys.
> 
> Yeah, the corrosion was pretty bad: it's worse as the aluminium/steel combination will bring on corrosion more quickly and hastened on by the salt from the roads that chewed its way in.....


Nice work with the car :thumb:

I seem to remember Lotus recalling the S1s due to the footwell rotting. they basically wacked another floor over and glued some mats in.....

Good old LOTUS!

Cheers

PaulN


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## Alan W (May 11, 2006)

John @ PB said:


> What do you reckon I'd need in terms of weight for it to be effective?


Sorry but I haven't got a clue for a car! :lol:

You'll need to do some research to find the answer to that. 

Alan W


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## Alan W (May 11, 2006)

Hi John,

I was thinking more about this on the way home from work on the train (as you do :lol. Whilst dissimilar metal corrosion is certainly a factor I think the salt combined with the damp storage conditions is the main culprit, or catalyst, for the severe corrosion your Elise has suffered. I would liken this to a galvanic corrosion.

Now that everything has been restored and protected, including with the Swissvax Motor Shine, I’m not sure if you need any sacrificial anode protection. Just ensure any salt is washed off before storing again and perhaps run a dehumidifier part time to take the worst of any dampness from the air.

The above should be sufficient to prevent a recurrence of the severe corrosion but you could always source an original set of magnesium Minilites and bolt them to the car as a further preventative measure! :lol:

Alan W


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## kennethevo6 (Mar 3, 2011)

great job john, top marks for the effort put into that..


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## RandomlySet (Jul 10, 2007)

nice motor, and nice "restoration" there mate. Gorgeous colour BTW


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## John @ PB (Aug 25, 2010)

Alan W said:


> Hi John,
> 
> I was thinking more about this on the way home from work on the train (as you do :lol. Whilst dissimilar metal corrosion is certainly a factor I think the salt combined with the damp storage conditions is the main culprit, or catalyst, for the severe corrosion your Elise has suffered. I would liken this to a galvanic corrosion.
> 
> ...


Funny you should say that, it was a mangled beyond repair Minilite I had in mind for a sacrifice.....


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## Ns1980 (Jun 29, 2011)

Awesome - looks like lots of hard work but what a result!


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## ted11 (Jul 8, 2011)

great job


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## ROMEYR32 (Mar 27, 2011)

Great work John, nice to read and see the outcome. :thumb:


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## badman1972 (Jun 24, 2010)

Sorry I missed this at the time of posting, but still enjoyed reading, what a transformation, awesome :thumb:


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## maxtherotti (Mar 2, 2009)

i ued to do exactly the same job when i worked at Guglielmi motorsport

nearly all well used elise/exige suspension looks like that
we used to do full strip and recoat all arms in a gunmetal/silver powder coat then rebuild with new bushes/ball joints nitron dampers and eibach springs

used to drive fantastic 
even better with the audi turbo engine in the back too:car:

Rob


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## -Raven- (Aug 26, 2010)

Awesome project there John! 

You just need some Honda K power in there now!!!


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## John @ PB (Aug 25, 2010)

type[r]+ said:


> Awesome project there John!
> 
> You just need some Honda K power in there now!!!


Na, not into a 135 but if someone want to donate a basic S1 to me.....:thumb:


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## Keith_sir (Jun 27, 2011)

Wow, great work on it!


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## Lewis. (Feb 26, 2008)

Very nice mate, a lit of hard work there! Reading this has made me lust after an Elise damn you!


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## Pedro.Malheiro (Mar 18, 2011)

awesome recuperation! great work


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## elsad-140 (Dec 27, 2011)

Awesome


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