Hello And thank you for letting me in to your wonderfull forum I have finally descided to forefill my dream, and buy an Lotus Elan+2, after years of Triumph and Porsche ownership. The money is in the pocket, and this weekend I am leaving Denmark together with my girlfriend, set out to buy, and bring home an Elan. The car in question does have a few problems according to the vendor:

It is absolutely beautiful, and it is restored three years ago. It does however have a few spiders and small cracks in the paintwork, but I understand this is common?
The headlights will raise in about an hour, and they will stay up, until the car is turned off. Is that a serious indicator of problems to come? Or an easy fix?
The car has according to the vendor hot start problems, he says that the O rings/carb mounts are a little perished, and that is why the car is diffycult to start when hot?
During the restoration, the car did NOT recieve a new chassis! The original chassis was checked, cleaned and waxoiled. There are some fotodocumentation. Is this a problem?
The fuel gauge is not reliable?

I am absolutely in love with this car, and the colour is perfect(carnivalred with silverflake roof, and with with magnolia hide interior), it is fitted with GKn alloys. The chassis number, and the engine number is correct for the model. But since the trip to the Uk and bringing back the car to Denmark is not cheap, I would like to buy the right car. So fats advice is needed

Regards

Claus Hansen
Denmark

Claus my friend, be very careful,

I see that the car you intend to buy is the one that failed to meet its reserve on Ebay. Several things spring to mind. How can the car have a valid MOT if the headlights take an hour to come up? So something seriously wrong there. Then to the bodywork. It looks very pretty in the photos. However, the car was restored 3 years ago, and i would think, repainted. Badly! As the owner says, he has only driven it for 500 per year, yet star cracks and crazing are already starting to come through, with so few miles put on the car. What is the bodywork going to look like when you have driven it 10,000 miles. Awful i would think. And lastly, hot starting problems due to the O rings having perished? I doubt it. The engine would not run correctly all the time if those O rings were letting in air. So the hot starting problem will more than likely be the ignition/carbs not set up correctly.

My advice Claus would be do not jump in just becasuse you have the money burning a hole in your pocket. By all means go and have a look at the car. But just because it did not meet its reserve, does not mean that the reserve is realisticly set. For 7.5k i would want a well sorted +2.

Regards

Leslie

I can only reiterate Leslie's comments and .....

"The headlights will raise in about an hour, and they will stay up, until the car is turned off. Is that a serious indicator of problems to come? Or an easy fix?"

Do you mean, car is turned on as on a 1972 they would be failsafe. If so not a large problem but it does mean that either there are leaks in the vacuum pipework (Not expensive), the front cross member (A Chassis problem?) or the solenoid switch (Quite expensive)

How many stress cracks exactly ....a few??? 1 or 2 maybe OK 9 or 10 not so good

And if the car was fully restored , why are the O rings perished?

Have you any more pictures?

Terry

Just a question; where is the photoes of the car?
Not in Claus' post? At least; I can't find any photoes

I would also say be careful (I've sent you a PM, Claus), as it looks it might be done not too good work.
You better consider buying mine, instead...
Far from perfect visually, but with new galvanized chassis, new sills, seatbelts/anchorages, completely renovated engine (to be mated to the car next week (hopefully)), new tires and so on, it shoyld be a safe buy.

Interior is very good, no dents in facia, all electrics less heaterfan and fog lights works, Webasto sliding sunroof.
Paint is not good, body have a few cracs (is strenghtened up from the inside, but cracks are still visible from outside).

New rotoflexes are in the garage, waiting for me to find time to fit them.
All new suspension bushings awaiting the same...

Not cheap. though, due to all the repairs

[/quote]

Just a question; where is the photoes of the car?
Not in Claus' post? At least; I can't find any photoes


elan-plus-f13/buying-elan-130-1972-this-weekend-need-fast-advice-t18594.html

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... AQ:GB:1123

Thank you very much for the fast replies As the plane tickets is all ready paid fore, I will view the car, but I will keep your advice in the back of my head, when doing so! I do have a back up car: http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/1074543.htm It is located nearby the red one, if this fails to meet my requirements.

And I will probably bring home either one of them. And you are absolutely right. At this price, I will expect a decent and sorted +2.

regards

Claus

Aha, another post, identical to the one i Read...
Thanx

Hi Claus

I can't really see too much wrong with the red car which couldn't be put right given a bit of time and effort. That's the beauty of these Lotus, short of a major fire, there's little which can't be put right. The real question though is how much you're going to pay for it, I'd only be looking to pay about half of that £7.5K reserve.

One tip you might want to consider, is to go for a post 1973 car. Here in the UK, cars prior to this are exempt from road tax and so command a price premium, as this doesn't matter to you, you might get a better deal on a later car.

Regards
Andy

I could go for a post 73`car. But only a 74´will do, as I have to pay a lot more import tax in Denmark if the car is not 35 years old. If the car is 35 or older it is also tax exempt in Denmark, and I will also only pay about half the amount in import tax.

Regards
claus

Have a look at the two I have for sale if you want a perfect sorted car. that you will not need to spend any money on.

http://www.pistonheads.co.uk/sales/1058506.htm

http://www.pistonheads.co.uk/sales/1058486.htm

If you are in the UK come and have a look.

regards Jonathan
jd@cab4.com

The brown one on Pistonheads looks to be the better bet by far, and maybe he/she will take an offer below the asking price.
Jim

Think 10k£ for a proper lasting body restoration and paint job, someone else doing all the work.

Regards

Gerry

My votes for the Brown one!
Looks to be a well sorted honest car

Hi again

I know the brown car, it is very good. Howard has only just finished the body off restoration. He had it displayed at Donnington this year in the middle of the exhibition hall. The body is not the greatest colour and the paint is dull, but is has a brand new chassis and everything has been done.

Jason

Hi. For 7.5k you should not expect to have to do anything to the car but it shouldn't look concours at all - a good road going car that's all up together and complete. The lack of replacement chassis worries me on the red one. The headlights - well, with the engine off they are specced to come up in about an hour so that's not an issue - I suspect you were told that as a positive not a negative. I like the look of the brown one - for a start it's got the correct servo, has a replacement chassis, solid driveshafts, a declared good gearbox, and a refurbished engine and suspension with poly bushes. Someone's tried to improve the car over and above keeping it running. Also, it doesn't have the metal flake roof, which I personally dislike.

If there are a few blemishes in the paintwork that's not going to stop you driving it, but look for cracks around the chassis mounting bolts, especially around the bolts going into the suspension uprights through the inner wings in the engine bay. Grab the front bumper and pull it up and down looking for movement around the chassis bolts and flexing in the body, then do the same with the rear bumper looking at the boot floor. If either seems 'floppy', then when you're driving along it'll be bouncing like mad and you can expect crazing on top of the wings etc to get worse especially through a recent paint job. Cracks across the boot floor should show up if you flex the body with the bumper. But obviously you need to be gentle - don't break anything - it's possible to break the nose off a +2 by pulling on the bumper. If there's an issue you'll see it with very little force on the bumper.

If I were you I'd see them both, drive them both, but be very careful of saying that things are easy to fix. An engine rebuild could be £3.5k, depending on how you decide to approach it.

I have a video about looking for a +2 that's really informative - 'The classic Lotus Elan +2, a guide to buying servicing and modifying', http://www.classiccarvideos.co.uk. It features Paul Matty running through what to look for. Very informative. If you can get a look at that before you look at the cars that'd be worthwhile. I just tried the link and it's not working now. PM me if you can't find the vid anywhere.

I hope you find a good car.

Sean.