Panic Ensues as We Meet Another Impossible Deadline With Our Project Lotus

For the third (and last) time, we have agreed to have a car on the field at the Amelia Island Concours before starting to restore it.

The two previous times we agreed to this folly, we had less than a year to do ground-up restorations, working mostly nights and weekends. The first was a Group 44 Racing Triumph GT6, followed by a Tornado Typhoon that event founder Bill Warner asked us to bring when fiberglass specials were featured.

This time we would be smart. We would give ourselves an extra six months of leisure time to finish recreating the Lotus Elan that we found broken in half in a northern Michigan field, where it had rotted away for nearly forty years.

In every restoration, there are a few inevitable truths.

First, things will take longer than you think. If you had told us two years ago that it would take nearly half a day to properly refit the glove box door (a job that seems like it should take five to ten minutes), we would have said you were crazy. Today, we would tell you differently.

Another truth is that things will always go wrong. The old saying “two steps forward, one step back” is never more true than in car restoration.

As of this writing, the big event is just three weeks away. Two weeks ago, the car was nearly done. Then, while trying to force ill-fitting reproduction molding around the back of the cockpit, we noticed a six-inch-long crack in the paint on top of the bulkhead.

Unbelievable! We would have to repaint the entire rear half of the car.

We quickly took apart much of what we had lovingly spent the last few weeks assembling and rushed the car back to the paint shop.

After much begging, bribing, and overtime, we got the car back after just a few days and spent the better part of a Sunday hurriedly putting the Elan back together.

While this crisis was averted, we have no room for further error. If just one more thing goes wrong, or we need one more part, we’ll miss the field at this year’s Amelia Island event.

So what does it matter?

Compared to eradicating disease or ending world hunger, none of this matters. But this is an important event in our world, and we are going to make sure there’s no empty spot on the lawn where our car should be.

It’s a great honor to have a car invited to the Amelia Island Concours and, frankly, it is a pretty darned cool way to spend a weekend. Entrants receive VIP treatment, and having thousands of people admire your work provides quite a bit of vindication.

And then, of course, in the rare instance you should win an award, the trip through the grandstands into the winner’s circle is something no car enthusiast will ever forget.

So Why Put Yourself Through This Stress?

We could argue that magazine deadlines require a rigorous schedule similar to restoring a car in months instead of years.

While partly true, the larger truth is that our personal weaknesses require this schedule.

Car restoration is arduous and laborious. There are many nights and weekends when going out in the boat, hanging with family, or just binge-watching TV are more attractive.

Without a deadline, either real or imagined, it’s easy to slack off and leave your project unloved and unfinished.

So How Does This Story End?

Come hell or high water, we’ll get the car done in the next couple of weeks and have the car on the field at Amelia.

If history has taught us anything, we’ll be so frazzled and tired that we won’t enjoy the experience as much as we should.

And after swearing that we’ll never do it again, we’ll most likely dive into the next project, throwing caution and common sense to the wind once more.

We’ll tell you how it all turned out in the next issue. For more immediate updates, check out the many, many posts on our website as we document every part of the restoration.

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