The next stage in the Elans' life - a colour change to silver. Why silver ? well, mainly because I hadn't seen one before and the red paintwork had suffered over the last few years and the chassis change.
So shortly after the chassis was replaced, it went back into the garage for a couple of weeks to try out my new spray gun.
"It's working now, why can't you just leave it alone ?"
Here I'm just fitting up the door window frame, and there's silver dust everywhere. It's 1980-81 and we were still living in Cheshire.
The car was in frequent use, we even managed to pack a frame tent and walking gear in for a few days wandering around the Lake District. Lotty was quite good mechanically now, and so breaking down needed a bit more thought.
Which was why she pulled the exhaust box off on a dip in the road on the night we drove up. A double whammy because I hit my head on the roof as we took off but managed to see the sparks as we landed. Whoops. And if you're not familiar with the S3, to re-fix the exhaust you need access to the boot floor - from the inside, underneath the spare wheel of course.....
"I told you you shouldn't have packed all that beer"
Lotty in the grounds of the Bellsfield Hotel in the Lake District on a Club Lotus weekend. Helen deserved a bit of luxury and the car needed to get a few brownie points in store, just in case.....
At this point I was quite happy with the car. We were about to move to Yorkshire with my job and there were plenty of other things to occupy my time.
So it was time to go garage-hunting, and it would be really nice if Lotty's new home had somewhere attached for us to live in as well.
What do you mean "double glazing this time" love ? Lotty won't need a double-glazed garage dear.....
Ouch
