On a Saturday evening earlier this year, I stopped by the shop and unexpectedly saw an Evora in our parking lot that looked like it had been in an accident. I later received an email confirming this, and it had been towed in for an evaluation.
Inspection
On Monday morning, I brought the car into the shop to assess the damage and create a repair estimate. Besides a broken toe link and wheel, the rest of the rear end damage was cosmetic. The front end is where the main point of impact was and upon further inspection, I was able to see that the car made contact to the right side of the bumper beam, bending the front subframe to the left about 1/2 an inch. Luckily, the subframe is replaceable, but I knew that anytime one needs to be replaced along with front and rear clam damage, the cost in parts and labor would add up quickly.
As a shop that specializes in Lotus cars, we do accident repairs on them frequently. We work together with body shops and have them focus on the body repair and painting while we do all of the sourcing of parts, disassembly, reassembly, and mechanical repairs.
After meeting the owner in person and going through the car together, we discussed an estimated repair cost based on what I could see without taking the car too far apart. He sadly came to the conclusion that the total repair cost was more than it made sense to him, so he decided to sell the car as-is.
buying the car
A few days later, I got a message from the owner asking if I could park the car outside because he was going to have it towed to a company that purchases “junk” cars. With only 5k miles on the odometer, this car was one of the nicer examples that I’ve seen. We’ve serviced this particular car in the past and I really didn’t want to see it go to a junk yard, so I asked the owner if he would be willing to sell the car to me. His answer was, “I would absolutely prefer to sell it to you.” After discussing it with my wife, we decided that it was finally time to own a “street legal” Lotus, and a final agreement with the owner was made!
The Rebuild
The first step of the rebuild was to tear the car down and make a list of what needs to be replaced and what can be repaired. One challenge about working on low production vehicles is that the parts may not be available from the dealer and the used market can be scarce. Before parking the car in the shop where it would live for a while, I wanted to give the car a good pressure wash.
After taking the car apart I was able to make a shopping list.
Rear end
Rear bumper
Rear diffuser finisher
R/H side marker
R/H toe link
Rear wheel
Evora 400 decal (I promised to give this back to the seller)
R/H tail light
Rear clam (repairable)
Front end
Front bumper
Front subframe
Front frame rail crossmember
Front bumper beam
Undertray brackets
R/H duct assembly
Radiator duct assembly
Front clam (repairable)
Once I had my shopping list, I reached out to a few of our parts vendors to order everything that I needed. A few parts were on backorder and took several months to receive. The front bumper never became available even after months of waiting and searching for a used one, so I ended up upgrading to a Hethel Sport GTE front bumper (Thank you Sherman).
As parts started to roll in, I would slowly put the car back together over the next few months. After taking care of all of the mechanical repairs, I wanted to install the new bumpers and make sure everything fit well before sending it off to the body shop. Even OEM fiberglass parts from Lotus require some work to fit nicely.
Body Repairs
Since this was going to take a good amount of fiberglass work and attention-to-detail, I decided to have Luis at GL Dysigns take on the job. His shop is relatively new, but they specialize in restorations rather than general repair work. I was given updates often as he documented the repair process. I was happy to see that everything was all done properly and it gave me the confidence that the repairs would last the life of the car. The repairs turned out great and I could hardly tell there was damage to begin with. The beauty of fiberglass is that in the right hands, a repair can still be reliable, strong, and look original.
When it was time to pick up the body panels, I towed the entire car to the body shop. Bolting the panels to the car is my preferred method to transport newly painted parts.
Final Assembly
With all of the body panels back at my shop, it was time for the final reassembly. When working with fiberglass body parts, a lot of time is spent getting things lined up and shimmed so that it all looks decent when it’s together.
Additional Work
Beyond repairing the damage, I did some additional work before getting it on the road again. I flushed all of the fluids, replaced the drive belt, upgraded clutch master cylinder, and aligned the car. I also sent an oil sample out to Blackstone Labs for an oil analysis, just to get a baseline on the engine’s health.
Final Details
Before reapplying the PPF to the car, I had Juan at Ultra Detailz come by with his detailing light to identify and correct any fine swirls in the paint that most people wouldn’t ever notice.
After the PPF was installed by our friends at Motoskin, Juan ceramic coated the entire car for some added protection to both the film and paint.
PPF installation
This has been a long journey, but I’m happy that I made the decision to save this rare car. The result was better than I expected and I can confidently say that the car is restored back to its original condition.
What’s next?
The first Lotus that I bought in 2018 quickly transformed into a track car, so despite working on them for over a decade, I haven’t spent much time in one on public roads. My intentions for this car was to keep it relatively stock and road legal. I’m excided to finally have one to enjoy on some of our canyon roads. The first stop will be the 2024 West Coast Lotus Meet!