My new Lotus Elan and Plus 2 book - a call for help

[Matt Elan]

Afternoon all
I'm working on a new book on the Elan and Plus 2 for Veloce. It's what I'm calling a 'Source Book' which gathered a load of information on owning, running and restoring the Elan and Plus 2. It's based on my knowledge and experiences of working on my Plus 2s and various Elans and is intended to give the prospective owner an insight into what its like to own and run our cars, as well as hopefully giving experienced owners a few rueful laughs and maybe a few new gems of information. Plus lots of pictures of real owners cars of course. It's up on Amazon on pre-order already - search for Lotus Elan and Plus 2 Source Book by Matthew Vale, with a publication date of December 2020.

One section I'm doing is miscellaneous hints and tips - things like how to open the plus 2's boot when the cable stretches, putting the screws for the Elans bonnet latches in from inside the cabin so you can undo the clips when the bonnet cable breaks or buying the three pronged spinner spanner to avoid damaging your newly chromed spinners. Now everyone who has an Elan will have their own stash of dodges and what would be great would be to get a decent list of them - both on this site and in the book. So if you've got a good'un then post it up here, and if you want to be acknowledged in the book (I'll be referring to Elan.net in the section anyway) then give me a name or ID as well.
Over to you, and thanks in anticipation.
Oh and its two cold to fix my horn on the Plus 2 now, so I'm writing rather than fettling!
Matt

[miked]

Matt,
There is a thread titled "Most satisfying long term upgrade" were most of up put our best things. Suggest you look at it as it was pretty good.
It had dodges and nifty ideas as i recall.
Cheers Mike

[Gordon Sauer]

My main thing that made my +2 so much more livable was putting in an aftermarket combined heater air-conditioning unit instead of the mimimal heater and attempted air conditioning by the distributor. Makes the car so drivable all year with good heating/cooling/defrosting but certainly not a small fix. Used a Vintage Air unit, San Antonio Texas. Written about here in several places and the experiences of those installing them. Another thing I found a lot of good use for is hook and loop material (Velcro) where are you can use a small piece to keep the sometimes wobbly map light correctly positioned in the +2 and also it helps keep up the underdash bolsters and keeps the carpet aligned. Gordon Sauer

[gjz30075]

Matt, I'm not coming up with it on Amazon. Can you provide a link?

[Matt Elan]

Link to book on Amazon UK - remember it's not out for a year!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lotus-Elan-Plu ... 145&sr=8-2