Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Hi all

After very recently joining LotusElan.net I just wanted to say a quick hello - my name is Dave

After many years of waiting, my 1974 S130/5 has finally and recently winged its way (not literally - it was on a trailer!) from my mum's garage in south east London, to my prepared garage at my house in Kent (south east England for those outside the UK).

A growing family, grandchildren, work and also waiting to move house for a few years all contributed to my favourite car being left alone in a garage for a few years without use. But that is all about to change...

When the car was garaged and covered it was running well, but like most of these cars, always needed tweaking in one area or another, and the distance to the car along the M20 motorway was becoming an issue. But the distance is no longer an issue, as the car is approximately 30 feet from my bedroom

I have only just got the car here and this weekend will be the first time that I will get to spend time looking over the car, checking it out, and generally seeing what (I would love to write here 'if anything' - but I think we all know that won't be the case!) will need attention.

Tomorrow I intend to make a new wooden support frame just like the one that I used to have, to support the car on axel stands, while I carry out some checks underneath.

I hope to check over the engine and get it running soon (it was running fine previously), and then I can decide if I am going to use lead replacement additive (like I did previously) or if I will run the car on neat unleaded for the couple of thousand miles that the car will do each year.

That's it for now, and I will post some updates as the overhaul progresses, and of course if I need some assistance from the forum!

TTFN
Dave

Welcome Dave

Welcome!

Welcome Dave! Got any pictures of the car?

Welcome Dave. You should pop along and see us at www.northkentlotusgroup.org

welcome Dave !

Good move, Dave, getting the car home and good luck.

If you're going to drive it like a Morris MInor you'll be fine with unleaded.

But if you're going to drive it hard use an additive as a lead substitute. Choose one type (check the archives) and stick with it. Then when/if you take the head off change the exhaust seats to hardened ones.

Hi all

Thanks for the warm welcome and the advice.

As requested, see attached pic of car in its new house.

Dave

Beautiful!

Having a yellow Plus 2 myself though, I *am* a little biased!

As part of the planned restoration, I need to decide upon what to do about the colour?

Yellow is not the original colour of the car but was the colour when I purchased the car back in 1984.
The original colour from the factory was Purple (metallic), and the cream colour interior is still in reasonably good condition, but will be restored also.

While I do like the yellow colour (I know its a popular colour choice but I am not totally convinced that the light yellow exterior matches a light cream interior) as part of the restoration I am considering changing the colour back to another one of the original colours that the S130 was supplied in

However, not all of the original colours go with the cream colour interior which I definitely want to keep.
Decision, decisions!

The exhaust seats are hard enough and are fine on unleaded without additives. You will need to do a rebuild for bearings or a water pump or something else before valve seat recession is a problem!!!

cheers
Rohan