1970 Lotus Elan S4 SE Project, Cheshire UK
Posted: Sun Mar 18, 2018 6:30 pm
This is my 1970 Lotus Elan S4 SE Fixed head Coupe restoration project.
I would estimate that parts wise the car is over 95% complete, with only a handful of readily available parts needed to complete the restoration-
1)Front screen & rubber (approx. ?120)
2)Rear screen rubber (approx. ?20/30)
3)A pair of doorlocks (approx. ?45)
4)A drivers side interior door panel (approx. ?45/50)
5)A set of driveshaft rubber doughnuts or driveshaft conversion (approx. ?320-?500)
6)A couple of metres of black carpet for the floor (approx. ?30)
7)Seatbelts or harnesses (?50-100?)
8 )Exhaust centre pipe (?63)
I bought the car from a friend who started work on it but then fell ill. He had the chassis, rear diff, steering rack, brakes and a few other bits refurbished before I bought it in August 2016.
I have decided to sell it as I don?t have as much spare time to work on it & have other cars & projects that I want to concentrate on.
The chassis/ subframe is a Spyder/Lotus refurbished item. This comprises of the much better Spyder front section with towing eye, tubular vacuum section and improved turrets, detachable brace etc so you can gain access to the sump etc without needing to remove the engine. The back end is stock lotus, the chassis was refurbished by Spyder but then not used. You can see the lack of holes drilled in the front section confirm this. It was then put in storage but has since been blasted and repainted lotus grey by the previous owner.
I have had the engine and gearbox fully rebuilt and built the full rolling chassis as you see in the pictures. It has adjustable dampers front & rear, adjustable rear wishbones (for toe adjustment), uprated brake pads and adjustable handbrake rods, otherwise it?s all standard elan stuff. The wheels are new Dunlop style with new Uniroyal rainsport- 3 155 width tyres. It has been built to a high standard by an engineer (me!) as I am very picky and like things to be right.
The engine has had new Qed pistons, bearings, gaskets, valves, new waterpump, oil pump, timing chain & guide, gasket faces skimmed, crank reground etc. The full spec is available on request. The gearbox has had new bearings, gaskets, various syncros and other work/parts replaced.
Many of the parts are new or fully refurbished, and apart from the body only a handful of things need work, eg the petrol tank which needs cleaning internally. Some parts you may wish to replace ie to fit an alternator instead of the generator and a locking fuel cap instead of the non locking standard item. The identity plate is present and correct but the logbook will have to be applied for, this is a relatively straightforward process & costs approx ?55. Details of this are included in all the paperwork.
The bodyshell is very good and needs only a minor amount of fibreglass work doing, unlike many which have had major accident damage. It?s currently in sprint colours, the main colour being bahama yellow which is the cars original colour from new. The all important door frames are present and in good condition. The headlamp pods are present along with a pair of new 26R headlamp covers to suit the preference of the buyer. I was going to paint the car green with 26R headlamps and a yellow stripe as per many of the race cars. There is also a pair of new lexan side windows which I was going to use with sliders instead of the problematic (awful!) electric window mechanisms.
The interior comes with a new dashboard, freshly trimmed seats, rear quarter light panels, new door trim covers, new headlining, new dashtop, new centre console, new underdash trims and new carpet overmats. The clocks and gauges are all present along with interior lights, ignition switch, ashtray, steering wheel, indicator stalks, covers, correct airvents, windscreen trims and other interior panels, steering column etc. A new wiring loom is also supplied with the car
Elans are in short supply generally, projects moreso especially at reasonable prices. Basket cases which need everything doing fetch over 10k. I am asking ?13,495 ono which I consider to be very reasonable in todays market for a project where the full rolling chassis, engine, gearbox, diff etc has been completed to a high standard. What is required now is for the body to be stripped and painted and then the car can be put back together. As a reasonable estimate if you spent 5k on paint and parts you will have a ?30k car for less than ?19k. If you did the work yourself you could probably do it for about ?15k.
I'm just outside Sandbach in cheshire, 5 mins from Junction 17 M6.