Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Folks

I note that many of the items on my Elan Sprint are held onto the body by self tapper screws that go through the glassfibre panel and then have a small captive plate behind to secure the screw.

Does anyone know what these plates are called and where I can get them in the UK?

They are a type of "Spire Nut" try this site although I think it can be difficult to get the ones for small screws.
https://rimmerbros.com/Item--i-GRID007193

If they have a tapped hole they are called chimney nuts
Ian

Thank you, yes they are the Spire Nut, Flat type.

I had seen Spire ones on eBay but only the curved over types which are usually used for connecting two panels, but not the Flat type as required for the Elan !

Over here we also call them Speed Nuts. The varieties at called Flat and U.

Cheers!

Stu

Try these guys.

https://www.bresco.com/acatalog/Spire_N ... __cal.html

Regards
John

John

Thank you for that link, seems a good choice of sizes.

They are made in the U.S., by Tinnerman, who has made them for over 70 years.
There all all kinds (thousands in fact) and sizes. They are made under license by a number of companies world wide.
They are still used extensively in the aircraft industry.
I have boxes of them which I got either as samples, or from aircraft company surplus stores...unfortunately a thing of the past.
Hope this helps.

Regards,
Tim McCoy
1962 S2 Elite
1963 S1 Elan

A lifetime's selection here

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre ... 2309625610

Cheers Mark

Unfortunately, they seem to be mostly the doubled over variety and not the single plate ones, however, I seem to have several sources now. A selection of the ones from Rimmer Bros are due tomorrow, but suspect they will be for the larger/medium bore screws. A lot of the smaller electrical stuff seem to be very fine screws, so hopefully plates for those can be sourced.

Incidentally, the items we had the most bother with (so far!!) removing were the side repeaters on the front wings where the fine screws seem to have bonded to the plastic base plate of the lamps and the lamp units ended up having to be extracted rather than screwed out !!

I thought the back row were flat and front u shaped.
Anyway glad to hear you've sourced some.