Bonnet to Screen Bodywork

[trw99]

I have had an interesting query from a Sprint owner I am in touch with. In fact he owns the very last Sprint built at Hethel. I would appreciate the wisdom of the forum coming to some definitive answer to this one!

His question is: what is the highest point of the front bodywork of the car, when viewed from the side? He excludes the screen and is referring to the body between the front of the bonnet opening back to the base of the screen.

He goes on to say he had another look at photographs in Elan books and found they appear to indicate that the bonnet flows in level with the ?strip? just in front of the plenum grill. He then asks if the body line should drop towards the screen or should it be level? He has tried making a template of the centre curve of the bonnet pushing it backwards from the bonnet in an attempt to continue the shape of the bonnet. On his car this line ends 3-4 mm above the centre of the body just in front of the screen. A further template taken from side to side of the rear of the bonnet shows the same gap, if the template is checked just in front of the screen. He accepts that this could indicate some degree of distortion caused by old age (and most of us know what that feels like!)

He plans to raise the centre of the body in front of the grill to make it level with the centre of the bonnet when the rear corners of the bonnet are flush with the body. He is also considering raising the centre of the body in front of the screen to extend the line/curvature from the bonnet. The highest point should remain, as I suggested, at the meeting of the bonnet/body just in front of the grill, falling a couple of mms towards the screen.

I have suggested to him Susan Miller will probably know the answer to this one, as she used to do a lot of the bodywork preparation for Mick.

What do you reckon?

Tim

[richardcox_lotus]

My immediate question would be - Why ? Has the car been in an accident & he's trying to bond in a new section ?

If you have a spare couple of hours, you should read the ancient contributions to the mailing list forums on here. Some of our US friends - who must also have had far too much time on their hands - were measuring across all faces & views as to the lines of the car. I think they concluded that the "normal" bodywork of the car had a different width left-to-right when running a line down the centre of the chassis. We all know about wheelarch offsets being inconsistent as well. I would suggest that there is no right answer - it's however it came out the mould on that day.............

Other contacts I would recommend him calling would be Frank at Option 1 or Miles Wilkins.

Richard
'72 Sprint

[garyeanderson]

Photos might help us to see and understand the problem
April 70 S4 Coupe SE




Early S2, 26/4020




26/4597


36/9686 with top chop and S3 rear

[johnsimister]

Looks like mine is a lost cause, then.

John

[steveww]

I agree, it correct answer is the way it came out of the mould that day. Lotus never made two the same

[garyeanderson]

Tim
Were the photos any help, not sure they were of the area that the "last Sprint" owner was looking to see.

Gary

[richgilb]

And weren't a significant amount of them assembled by novices in garages who had bought a kit?

[trw99]

Tim
Were the photos any help, not sure they were of the area that the "last Sprint" owner was looking to see.

Gary

Gary

Most helpful and thank you - and to John too. I have passed them on to The Last Sprint Owner and asked him to let me know what he decides to do. He is in Denmark.

Tim

[bill308]

I'm going thru a lot of body stuff right now, at the contour level. My thought is that if you are happy with the body contours at key places like bulk heads, then make the other panels like doors, bonnets, and boot lids flow into them. Bonnets especially tend to distort with load, time and heat. They creep and distort. Bulk heads, the intersection of panels, pronounced curves, and character lines tend to be pretty stable.

To my eye and based on Gary's photos, the cowl, in the vicinity of windscreen vent, seems to want to be nearly level with the ground and this is the way it is on my S2.

Bill

[garyeanderson]

Hi Tim

Thanks for letting me know, If I don't hear back from folks, I do not know if I was helpful. If the photos were not what the owner was looking for, then I could take others.

Thanks Gary

[bill308]

John,

It appears you have a bit of a problem cosmetics wise. I don't think it is a lost cause. One can do amazing stuff with fiberglass and resin.

In your case, the leading edge of the firewall cowl appears to stand proud of the general lines of the car. The front, lip in the center of the car, appears too high by maybe 1/4-1/2 inch.

The cowl skin could be separated from the fire wall and slit along the body center line, pushed down into place, and rebonded. The bonnette trailing edge looks like it also needs a litte recontouring to remove the little lip now needed to blend with the current body work.

Bill

[trw99]

I have a progress report from Denmark:

'I took a cut with a very thin cutting disc 20 mm below the front edge of the bulkhead just in front of the grill opening. Guess what? The top raised by itself to align nicely with the bonnet. Before the cut it was 3 mm too low.

After removing the plenum I raised the centre of the screen frame so that the curves from the bonnet aligned both seen sideways and from the front. As a long shot I put a heat gun to the frame/dashboard front part. After cooling down I removed the centre support. It stayed in place.

If I am still happy with this I'll glass in some additional profile for support. Your pics have been a great help, thank you.'

Tim