My slow-but-progressing '67 S3 Coupe thread
Posted: Sat Aug 03, 2019 12:05 am
So here is my story and how I ended up wallet deep in this gorgeous Elan. I agreed to buy this car in the fall of 2017 from a heck of a nice guy with limited knowledge of the cars after the owner committed to putting in a new water pump. It took ~9 months to complete the water pump replacement and by the time I actually took delivery, my wife was 8 months pregnant.
I knew it had some minor issues relating to the horn honking while the wheel turned and various electrical components not functioning, but I didn't expect to fall down the rabbit hole of a partial restore.
First, I replaced the 20 year-old tires with new 195/45/15 Toyo Proxy T1Rs.
The exhaust looked pretty rough.
So after a few weeks of driving it around the neighborhood, one of my brake lines burst in my driveway. I needed to address the brake lines as well as the various electrical issues if I wanted to get it registered.
It took me about 5 months to commit to a shop to work on it because first, I'm partially mechanically inept and second, my infant was taking up the majority of my free time.
I decided I didn't want to simply fix the issues but fix as many potential reliability concerns down the road, so I started ordering parts from RDent. I ordered the CV joint conversion, Petronix ignition, and ended up picking up their small alternator kit to replace the failing Lucas unit the owner before last installed.
So first and foremost, all the brake lines were replaced with stainless steel custom lines.
This miraculously freed up the three stuck calipers I had (the car had sat quite a bit with the prior owner).
Pretty new exhaust to replace the leaking, rusted out piece it had:
Beautiful, new CV joints to replace my donuts:
The new alternator:
My mechanic noted that my wiring was dodgy to say the least, with numerous splices and pieces of electrical tape keeping everything together, so it was determined to order a fresh harness from British Wiring.
I also ordered a Spiyda RCI to RVI conversion kit in the hopes my tach will place nice with the new Petronix distributor. I also had a series of other items installed like a new choke cable, new horn button (mine crumbled in my palm when I removed it), and plan to add a pair of 10" fans to the front of the radiator.
Is there anything I'm missing? The car is almost done being rewired and I'm dying to drive it.
Also, I noticed the cabin was very hot while driving. I've read here the fans in front of the radiator will do quite a bit to dissipate heat in the engine bay and thus the cabin and can be coupled with a pair of 2.5" holes in the engine bay near the header. Will this work?
I'm kind of learning this car on the fly so I'm at the "while I'm in there" stage of the project so any recommendations are greatly appreciated!
I knew it had some minor issues relating to the horn honking while the wheel turned and various electrical components not functioning, but I didn't expect to fall down the rabbit hole of a partial restore.
First, I replaced the 20 year-old tires with new 195/45/15 Toyo Proxy T1Rs.
The exhaust looked pretty rough.
So after a few weeks of driving it around the neighborhood, one of my brake lines burst in my driveway. I needed to address the brake lines as well as the various electrical issues if I wanted to get it registered.
It took me about 5 months to commit to a shop to work on it because first, I'm partially mechanically inept and second, my infant was taking up the majority of my free time.
I decided I didn't want to simply fix the issues but fix as many potential reliability concerns down the road, so I started ordering parts from RDent. I ordered the CV joint conversion, Petronix ignition, and ended up picking up their small alternator kit to replace the failing Lucas unit the owner before last installed.
So first and foremost, all the brake lines were replaced with stainless steel custom lines.
This miraculously freed up the three stuck calipers I had (the car had sat quite a bit with the prior owner).
Pretty new exhaust to replace the leaking, rusted out piece it had:
Beautiful, new CV joints to replace my donuts:
The new alternator:
My mechanic noted that my wiring was dodgy to say the least, with numerous splices and pieces of electrical tape keeping everything together, so it was determined to order a fresh harness from British Wiring.
I also ordered a Spiyda RCI to RVI conversion kit in the hopes my tach will place nice with the new Petronix distributor. I also had a series of other items installed like a new choke cable, new horn button (mine crumbled in my palm when I removed it), and plan to add a pair of 10" fans to the front of the radiator.
Is there anything I'm missing? The car is almost done being rewired and I'm dying to drive it.
Also, I noticed the cabin was very hot while driving. I've read here the fans in front of the radiator will do quite a bit to dissipate heat in the engine bay and thus the cabin and can be coupled with a pair of 2.5" holes in the engine bay near the header. Will this work?
I'm kind of learning this car on the fly so I'm at the "while I'm in there" stage of the project so any recommendations are greatly appreciated!