Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Davidb wrote:Well, I didn't do this just today! When I bought this Elan, ten years ago, I told the previous owner that I was going to paint the bumpers and wheels gold--I finally got around to it. Each bumper took a week to strip, repair, prep and paint:

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This is how it looked before:
[attachment=0]31530965_10155837346122886_7677363808079183872_n.jpg[/attachment

Comments? I have painted the wheels on the left side gold and have left the other side black until I decide which colour I prefer.

GOLD looks great!!!!

Slowly getting bits removed in prep for engine and gearbox removal... radiator, exhaust, starter, alternator and tonight, the reverse light switch. That little switch was a bugger!

Should just unplug at the firewall. Two leads come out of the harness that runs 'east west' along the
firewall meet the two leads from the switch about 6 inches down from the harness.

gjz30075 wrote:Should just unplug at the firewall. Two leads come out of the harness that runs 'east west' along the
firewall meet the two leads from the switch about 6 inches down from the harness.

Thanks Greg - I found that after getting the switch out, and will take advantage of it to mount the switch before reinstalling the gearbox and engine. I'd done a quick look hoping for a disconnect, but it had been tucked away out of sight.

I have had an intermittent noise for several months which started after driving from Slaidburn to Bentham (north England). As I came around a fairly tight blind bend the car seemed to take off and I heard what sounded like breaking glass but fortunately I did stay on the road and carried on until it was safe to pull over. On inspecting the car I couldn?t find any obvious damage other than our vacuum flask was a complete right off but when driving away the car felt fine but had developed a new rattle/ clonking noise.
The next day I put the car on ramp but still couldn?t see any damage to anything and later on a test drive the noise had gone?
Over the subsequent weeks I could take the car for a long drive and never hear the clonk(sounded like something loose behind the dash) but sometimes it would appear on very short trips or after a fuel stop etc. I had several attempts at tracing the noise but I could never recreate it at home and it became very irritating.
Today it started just before I arrived home and I decided to have another go at finding out what it was and I finally discovered what I believe to be the cause. I noticed what I initially thought to be a crack in one of the flanges that attaches the body to the chassis but when I undid the bolt it had completely broken?
I am really surprised that this was broken by a price of really rough road ( even by north of England standards) please see attached photo assuming I manage to attach it properly. I had already slackened the bolt which makes the break more obvious
Ed

Nasty and quite surprising. Hopefully it can be repaired easily enough.

On Monday I fitted a cable for trickle charger to the battery (the battery never has enough go to cold start it even when left discounted), took the wife out for lunch and adjusted the hand brake. Would have like to have done more but other none lotus things needing doing....

I used it as a 'regular' car for 200 miles driving my wife down to see her aunt on the south coast and back. For once in my life it's a Lotus story with a happy ending - nothing went wrong, nothing needed adjusting and it drove along in rush hour traffic as easily as either of our modern cars would. It came back filled up with shopping and two unstressed people. It's the sort of trip that makes the weeks of oily fingernails worthwhile.

Today the lad dropped the Spyder chassis out of the S4. It took him about 4hrs as he already had the engine and gearbox out. He could have done it faster if he had actually read the book and found the; seatbelt bolts into the tunnel and the seatbelt anchorages to the turret tops. As he put it, "I wondered why the back wouldn't drop down!".

Still, it's all good learning experience. Now to steam clean it and then away to be blasted, repaired and painted before he can pop it back in.

Working on the fine tuning of the weber?s On my 65 Elan S2 this evening. Had my three mates keeping me good company. Anyone recognize them?

Bob Dance on the left?

gjz30075 wrote:Bob Dance on the left?

Yes that would be correct! Bob Sparshot and Alan McCall are sitting with him. The last of my LOG36 beer. It has fermented very nicely but one bottle gives quite a kick.....

I am empathetically embibing with you after today's activities- Adding Lightness...!

So, today's pre-libation effort was to remove a non-working stereo and an amplifier and what seemed like at least 10 pounds of extra long wiring stuffed under the dash (seriously, how much antenna wire is needed? Answer: as much as Radio Shack would sell). And another dead mouse. Which makes five now as I work on getting the "barn fresh" remnants off the car. But at least now I can reach the crusty heater core hose!

Cheers!

After fixing a nasty leak in the gearbox, and constructing a new oil pan for the Plus2, put everything together and finished reinstalling it back in the car. Saturday will be the time for a nice relaxing test drive,

I started the engine... Maybe I shouldn't mention the last time I saw/heard it run was 1986. Still plenty to do, but maybe this year...