Recently aquired two and a half Lotus Elans

[lotuseuropabrit]

I've been on the group for a while but just got back into owning an Elan again. I currently have a 1974 Europa TCS but as of a week ago purchased two and a half Elans in conjunction with a friend. So we now have two complete, but pretty much, basket case Elans. A series 1 (3878) and a Series 2 (5156) and a rolling Body/Sub-frame (no engine or tranmission) Series 3 FHC pre-airflow (5634). Lots of work ahead of us for sure. I want to make/keep the S1 as original as possible but it has been updated with a later dash etc. Hence my other post about S1 fiberglass glove boxes for LHD.
I anticipate on having lots of questions for the group and requests for photographs etc as the builds progress. This is not the first Elan I have rebuilt, you may have seen my posts about PTM 852R in the past, a Series 3 FHC S/E.
I look forward to being more active on the site in the future.
All the best,
Ray

[pharriso]

Looking forward to following your rebuilds!

[Elanintheforest]

We need photos Ray! That's a great collection in one purchase. Are you going to find a shell for the S3 Coupe?
Mark

[Europatc]

Welcome again Ray

[lotuseuropabrit]

In response to Mark's comment about the S3 FHC. (Elan in the forest) I used the words body/subframe as recomended in "Buckland's" book it's really the body/chassis just in case the car ever gets Titled again under its original body/chassis numbers. I'll post some pictures shortly when I get time to edit them a little.
Regards,
Ray

[knockoffnut]

Hi Ray, that sounds like a great haul. I would love to see some pictures. I have an S1, S2 and S3 as well as a horde of NOS and vintage parts for S1 and S2 cars. I also have a spare S2 shell if you want to go in that direction for the S3 roller. If you need any reference info or parts please let me know. I get to Ohio pretty often as well. (I also have some NOS +2 parts, BTW, including front lamp lenses)
cheers,

[ACBC fan]

Best of British luck with your Elan projects, Ray. Restoring, or just maintaining, Lotuses keeps us all youthful.

Marvellous site this is - glad I was referred to it by the NYLOC.

Peter
Hope for my FRA 693H yet (current task is alternator rebuild).

[lotuseuropabrit]

An S1, S2 and a S3 FHC pre-airflow. S1 and S2 are complete cars but basket case and the S3 is a rolling chassis hand painted by previous owners grand kids with white latex paint.

Hi All,
Anybody have a spare S1/S2 trunk lid for sale? Anybody have a LHD glassfiber glove box for the S1 because I'd like to return the S1 to as close to original as reasonably possible. If no LHD S1 glove boxes exist is (RH side of the dash) anybody willing to loan me one to take a molding from?
I attached a group picture of the three Elans as we found them in the "proverbial" barn.
Regards,
Ray

[Elan45]

Wow Ray, What a haul!

I'm in Columbus and I looked at an early Elan roadster in the Cincinnati area back in the late 70s or early 80s. What was of more interest to me was the pre-airflow coupe body he had sitting in his backyard. It had all sorts of different paint colors on it, like it had been a test surface to check paint matches or spray gun patterns in a body shop. We stayed in contact for several years, perhaps the last time when an Elan chassis showed up for sale in Cincinnati. We surmised that it and the Coupe body must belong together. From your photo, it looks like this may be that project and if so, someone re-united that body and frame.

If this is that same project, I probably still have some info on those cars and the then owner. I can't remember if I took photos or not, but glad to help if I can. I am currently restoring my pre-airflow coupe, about 100 numbers from your new acquisition. You may contact me at [email protected].

Roger Sieling

[knockoffnut]

Looks like a lot of fun. It looks like the early car is primrose yellow, which I especially like. I believe that's is a fairly rare color which showed up on only a few early Elans. It was a carry-over from Elites, and was also used on E Types. I don't think it ever made it onto the Elan color charts, but it suits the car very well in my opinion.

[trw99]

The S1 looks very nice, good find.

For the early Elan 1600s five factory colours were offered, none of which had Lotus LO paint codes. They were: Medici Blue (Standard Triumph colour); Carmen Red (Jaguar colour); Fiesta Yellow (Austin colour); Ford Sunburst Yellow (had been used on Elites) & Jaguar Racing Green (lets not get started on the various green hues!). Then the two colours offered that did have colour codes for the early cars were: LO1 British Racing Green (Jaguar Spruce Green) and LO4 Cirrus White (Ford colour).

Primrose Yellow was a Jaguar colour, and very nice it looked too on early E Types. It was not too dissimilar from the Lotus colour and some owners may have even asked the factory to spray their car in the Jaguar Primrose from new.

It was not until mid 1967 that Lotus introduced the wider colour palette for the Elans. Indeed, I have never seen a Lotus colour chart dated earlier than 1967.

Tim

[Mazzini]

My Elite was originally painted in Ford Sunburst yellow, it had more of a green tint in it than Primrose...not a great colour in my opinion.

[nomad]

Ray, I played h*ll trying to find a S1 left drive glove box and finally got lucky on flea-bay. I've threatened to pull a mold off of it but didn't figure there was any demand. If you can give me some time I'll pull a good enough mold to make a box from. Perhaps you will get lucky and find one. I'm pretty much booked up till the middle of winter right now.

Kurt
26/3754