Editing Remove the rear clamshell (section)

== S1 rear clam shell ==
Firstly, you need to jack up the rear of the car and remove the wheels. Secondly take of the soft top. For those who don't know how, you need to undo the two 8mm hex fixings at the rear tips of the soft top's canopy. Inside the cockpit there is a clip on each window beam near the back, pull them down and the canopy can be taken off and then the beams. Either side of the rear window is a black metal clip. These hold down the roll bar cover (body coloured piece).  Take care not to drop the glass if it sticks to the cover when you lift it.

Once the roof is out of the way, get behind the seats(or remove them: 6xM8 cap heads and 2xM8 button heads going into the floor, plus 17mm seatbelt bolts) and remove the speaker surrounds sneaky self-tapper behind the rollover bar, M4 pozi pan in the stowage net hook, then just velcro round the edges).  You can remove the trim with the speaker attached, there is quite a bit of wire, but remember to detach the spade terminals before throwing it in the corner of the garage.  You want to get between 300mm and 450mm of extensions for your ratchet now (or you can reach in with a spanner, preferably with a ratchet because there isn't a lot of room for manoeuvre). There is one 13mm bolt behind(ish) each speaker. If you haven't taken the seats out, get your hand in and reach out to the side of the vehicle (closest to the door but upwards slightly).

Once that's done, take the engine bay door off the hinge (3xM6 bolts). There are four body coloured or stainless steel bolts in the engine bay gutter closest to the rear window (plus two fixing the boot bulkhead on early cars). Remove these and then take out the carpets in the boot and the foam underneath. You should see a bare fibreglass floor now with two sets of two 13mm bolts nearest the centre, and a row of three bolts on either side of the boot. The four centre most bolts are holding the silencer exhaust hangers (be careful, these may have deteriorated over time and its worth removing the diffuser/undertray to inspect the other side first), so removing at least the silencer makes things easier. The outermost bolts fix the clamshell to the longerons and are simple enough provided the rivnuts don't spin.

Remove the wheel arch liners, fixings vary depending on the model year.  I'm not going to lie, you'll probably end up replacing all or most of the fixings. The rawlnuts may be seized beyond recovery, but you can pull back the liner and reach the backs to try and unfasten them.  Scrivets can usually be removed with a sensitive approach, but go at them like a bull in a china shop and you'll just spin them and eventually strip the heads. Don't forget the bolt near the top of the damper (and the shear plate bolts on early cars).  Unscrew the fuel filler cap and remove the screws holding the retaining ring. On the inside of each door there should be two 8mm Allen bolts that need to be removed.  Don't forget the single bolt behind the number plate, if you have an early boot-bag car.

Before removing the clam, disconnect the electrics going into the boot, they should be going through the offside rear of the boot, and unscrew the ECU at the front nearside.  Detach the boot release cable from the catch and feed it back through the clam.

[[Category:Body]]
[[Category:DIY]]
[[Category:Lotus Elise]]
[[Category:S1]]
[[Category:S2]]