Recovering Elan Seats

[pereirac]

Has anybody had experience of recovering Elan seats using kits provided by companies such as Christoper Neil. I used to buy parts from CN years ago and sometimes they were really good quality and value and other times .....

I need to recover my Elan seats and am trying to decide whether to do it myself or pay somebody else to do it.

Carl

[gwnorth68]

I recovered the seats from my S3 Elan with a Christopher Neil kit and was quite happy with how it came out. I had some very badly rusted circular clips but didn't think I needed as many as the British craftsmen originally used. They don't come with the kit, which consists only of 2 tops, 2 bottoms, a piece of black vinyl for the seat backs and a can of spray adhesive.
Appearance is comparable to original in my estimation.

Tom Moore
Foster Quebec

[Foxie]

I got a CN kit to restore the seats in my Plus 2 last year. I was unhappy to discover that the seat bases were not included. I had to improvise repairs on my damaged seat bases with webbing .

Ther seat coverings themselves are OK.

Sean Murray

[Alpine_Ian]

Yah, I just got a set of seat covers from Dave Bean. I asked about the foam back and bases and they told me that the kit they sold came with everything I needed. I only had to supply my old seat frames. What I got from them was a set of new covers... no foam! Is the foam available?

[Unibrain]

I took the seat covers and the frames down to a local shop. They cut new foam, installed the covers and repaired a couple of broken welds for about $150.

- Jim

[nebogipfel]

Carl,

I know what you mean about CN quality I had the same experience. In the 80's the trim mouldings they supplied were horrible! I have been thinking about the door and seat kits for my own Elan and am interested to hear the experiences of others.

Has anyone fitted the CN door kits?

How authentic does the perforated vinyl in the seat and door kits look compared to original?

Thanks

John

[pereirac]

I wimped out and decided to let a 'professional' do the job. They welded my broken frame and recovered and restuffed one seat, keeping the original webbed seat fabric and only changing the sides (which were split) and the back. Total cost was around ?100. THe other seat was OK. The company is up near Cambridge (UK) and still do work for Peter Day. If anybody needs details please email me.
and I will dig out details
Carl

[nebogipfel]

Hi Carl,

I'd be intested to know the company you used. I live fairly close to Cambridge.

Cheers
John

[pereirac]

John (any anybody else who need to know),
(Assuming you are the John Penny who emailed me - I tried to email you but it bounced back!!)


The trimmer I used in Burwell is:

P & M Taylor3,
Meadow Industrial Estate,
Reach Rd,
Burwell,
Cambridge,
Cambridgeshire
CB5 0AH

Tel: 01638 741776

Carl

[nebogipfel]

Thanks Carl, I've changed ISP and not updated my settings!

John

PS I've done it now

[robb4100]

Happy Holidays everyone. I am just about to get my S2 seats re-done and have now heard about the "webbed" seat at least twice but have never seen it. Someone described it as a wicker seat. does anyone have a picture? Was it available in the S2?

Thanks

robb

[cabc26b]

I did the DIY kit it on my first S1, moving forward I used a shop . by the time I fixed the frames, redid the foam , crawled around the breakers yard looking for more clips it did not seem worth the trouble.