Lotus Elan Central

First of all a massive thanks to everyone on LEC. Since I bought my SE, I have been borrowing ideas, learning, understanding and hoping that one day I can give something back.

I have been in contact with the owner before last (hope that makes sense) and discovered that my car has an S2 hood & wheels, new clutch & gear cables, new A pillar seals, radiator & front pads, AB shower cap,too much more to mention and a private plate - XIL.

Since I saw the posts about S2000 seats, I wanted some. Note: There is a very fine line between want & need. Won some on Ebay, then had to wait a few months until I had time to go to the UK to collect them.

Removed the old seats. The S2000 ones are a dark red, which after cleaning look great.



Made some brackets from 5mm steel as per the dimensions posted elsewhere. I wanted the front brackets to be one piece, made them up in my dad's garage as he has a good pillar drill, but found out that the dimensions of my seats are slightly different (my own fault for doing it with the car 500 miles away) Center to center the Elan seats are 340mm, the S2000 seats are 440mm. One slotted hole later and the brackets line up.

Immediate project creep warning! Thought that I might as well take out the carpets and clean them.



Then the bad news.









Most of this seems to be surface rust however there is a hole under the fuse box. I have searched a lot of posts but have not really found a definitive answer. As I want to use the car this summer, the rust will be treated with POR-15 and the car put back together.

The hole will need to be dealt with sooner rather than later. I am no expert but it would seem that the area could be cleaned, a plate could be welded on to the existing outrigger and then bonded to the tub. I would welcome any advice on this.

Further mods will be the closed loop ECM, Dave's short shift, Gordon's fans, uprated front brakes & a respray. However I bought XIL to drive her and that will come first. All of this stuff can be done during the winter or during bad weather (that's the plan anyway).

On the premise that if i had not removed the carpets, I wouldn't have known about the rust, I put XIL back together today.

The outriggers have been cleaned and treated with POR-15. While not a solution, it will slow the rust until the winter.

Carpets refitted & seats installed. Points to note, fit the seatbelts first as there is not much clearence between the seat & the sill and the front inner seat mounting rail will need to be ground down a little to allow enough space to bolt the new bracket into into the existing holes.











Infinity Kappa speakers and new Gear & Brake gaiters fitted. (http://stores.ebay.co.uk/TOP-GAITERS-BOOTS) Even though they advertise all black, they will supply with any colour stitching.



New gear knob from ebay



The door carpet and panel will be replaced with leather to match the seats. Hopefully this should arrive next week. I also have an Elise steering wheel to fit but my puller was not up to the job of removing the old one.

I have read before about how much this transforms the interior but I am amazed by how much. It looks modern without being too modern, the style fits the Elan and they are so comfortable.

Looks very good! Let's hope the POR-15 is enough to halt the spreading tinworm. Seats, door panels and (esp) shift boot w/red stitching look a treat. Excellent work!

So these arrived today. Colour is a bit off in the pictures but they are the nearest match to the seat colour. Decided to leave the stowage pouch black as that would have been too much red leather.



Good excuse to get the door trim panels off and fit the Infinity 4032's. Good to see Don was getting the hang of it!



Don't think this is Don's work though.



Getting interesting now, could be drugs, money, something worth more than the car?



Sadly only this in a Tesco's plastic bag:



That might explain a few rattles. Infinitys fitted, 4032CF front & 5032i rear

.



Set of MB Quart PVI 210 4" & DWA 130 in my cellar free to a good (or not so good) home.

Now off to scrape 20 years of glue from the door trim panels.

You can fit 5 1/4" speakers in the door pods with minor trimming to the black plastic bit. They sound much better, are less likely to blow due to greater power handling and less distortion at higher levels. That's what I fit in my doors. Much improved sound.

Nice thread. Keep the pics coming please

Thanks LGM, I wasn't too sure what i would find under the trim so I went for the easiest solution. Something to think about for the winter though.

Upper leather trim fitted. Lower ones will need a bit of adjustment before fitting, my fault really as I just gave the trimmer what was left of the carpet on the passenger side to use as a template.



New plates with GB on them. Managed to find them on the internet without that awful EU flag. Need to find some black screws when the shops open again.

Set off for the UK on Sunday, drove out of the village and had a did I lock the garage moment. Headed home again, alternator light came on. Better there than the autobahn though.

Back into the garage, found that the drive belt had snapped! Had new belts but a lack of spanners slowed me down. I have lots of A/F stuff for normal cars & Boeings, 13mm = ½ inch, no problem but what sort of a clown specifies 12mm bolts?

Belts changed, as someone on a thread posted 'can be a bit of a bugger" - definately second that!

I am a little concerned, as far as I know the cambelt was replaced in late 2009, but the AC/Steering belt was in pretty poor condition as well. Not sure why someone would replace a cambelt and not do the drive belts at the same time.

Test drive, car warmed up, time to play. Round a bend at about 60mph, pheasant in the middle of the road, I went left & so did it! Glancing blow on the left front corner. Stopped down the road, some crazing, paint damage and broken indicator lens. No sign of bird so hopefully it got lucky.

In the garage again, took off the lens & realised why there was a spare light in the boot when I bought the car. There was not much left of the original light holder. The car must have had some impact damage at some time, one of the bumper mounting points is broken as well. Managed to pull out the pieces of the old lamp holder.

Taking the bumper off was going to be a world of hurt so that was not an option. The rear part of the lamp holder will almost fit into the hole in the bumper so taking a dremel to the top & bottom flanges and making it flush, meant that with a little persuasion, the whole holder would fit through the hole, After that it was easy to fit the seal & guide it into place.



Not sure if this would work for everyone, you would have to break the old holder into pieces, remove it and be careful not to let the plug inadvertantly become disconnected. The loom is held on with a couple of clips behind the wheel liner, and needs to be fed back through to the light connector. Saved me a lot of work though. I had to drill out the wheel liner bolts (cobalt drills are wonderful) so I dread to think what the bumper bolts are like. The winter project list is getting longer.

Piper exhaust fitted - sounds fantastic!









Having now had a good look under the car, the winter list is getting longer & longer. Better buy some shares in POR 15, I am going to be needing a lot of it.

Kumho Ecsta Le Sport KU39 tyres fitted



Nice to get rid of those awful Nexens. Blackcircles screwed up the order and didn't deliver but managed to find a set locally. 18 pounds a tyre dearer though. Not impressed with Blackcircles at all!

MOT today. Failed on:

Nearside headlight too high - adjusted

Nearside rear wheel bearing has excessive play - not my idea of excessive play! Nut tightened 2 flats.

Nearside front brake binding - He said he couldn't move it! Was a bit stiff but moved without without any problem. Sliders replaced, thanks to whoever posted the info on the wicki.

Parking brake efficiency below requirements - I have been parking in a garage with a 40 degree slope for six months without a problem, to keep them happy I adjusted it a little.

CO2 emissions 3.9 (3.5 max) - will be adjusted on the retest. (HC level was 145 ppm max is 1200 ppm)

All in all, quite pleased with that. I think that the MOT guy was being a bit pedantic though and had he bothered to speak to me during the test, I would have told him about the CO2 adjustment pot.

Retest monday, somewhere different though. This guy only does retests at 5pm, I need to be on board a ferry by then!

I thought that I had finally finished the doors.



Then I saw this:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LOTUS-ELAN-M1 ... 415b070066

Guess the door panels are coming off again.

I am happy with the interior now, the Elise wheel makes quite a difference. (Glove box missing for access to the CO2 pot)



Another few weeks then it's time to start on the rest of the car.

I found out today that a retest can only be done by the MOT station that did the original test. Not very impressed!

So the car went through another full test this morning & passed with 1 advisory on the rear wheel bearing. That will be cured when i fit Bob's rear hubs.

Many thanks to Ray for the advice & to Eddie Wright Aftercare in Scunthorpe for getting me a test at really short notice.

So, as I mentioned in the exhaust thread, I got the dreaded 5th gear problem. viewtopic.php?f=48&t=14484&hilit=gearbox+nut+loose&start=60

Car was taken to GST in Newmarket.

Gerald called me today to say the car is ready. Gearbox recovered, Bob's cables & Daves shortshift fitted. Annual service done & he recommended changing a front wheel bearing, so that was done as well. Only downside is I am back into my shift pattern & I can't pick it up for another 2 weeks.

Looking forward to that and also meeting Gerald & his team. Thanks guys!

Also many thanks to Bob B for pointing me in the right direction & letting me leave my car outside his house for a few days. Hope your wife didn't mind too much.

Car picked up last thursday, met Gerald's team but sadly not Gerald (overdosing on Keo in Ayia Napa!) Also met Paul, the last but one owner, great to have a chat about the car. Bob B came along as well and kindly led me to the M11 - nice to have a little convoy! Thanks for that Bob. Fantastic weather, roof down all the way from Newmarket via Kingston (I have never driven so slowly in a city before, nearly missed the ferry) to the German border (getting dark & cold by then).

The A3 from Cologne to Frankfurt late at night or early morning is a wonderful road. Lots of unrestricted areas, long sweeping curves and very little traffic, it's what driving is all about.

Bob's cables & Dave's shortshift fitted - only one word, brilliant! The gear change is transformed. Thanks guys. Just think what the car would have been like if the brains of LEC had been around during the development stage. Lotus might even be winning a few F1 races.

GST did an annual service, changed a wheel bearing & set the base timing. The car is running much smoother & quieter now, although I think getting rid of the old tyres helped as well. Gerald did say that it didn't feel planted though, the drivers front wheel tracking is definitely out so some suspension work is called for over the winter. Ideally new shocks & springs plus brake upgrade and whatever else I find when I take it apart.

A good read Cliff. S2000 seats look good.

Wow..
This is realy turning into a beautifull little car!

great write up, and inspiring
I started my restoration at the front - bumper and top clam shell off - glad I did - a lot of rust, a bit of fabrication and repair work - but it all look's recoverable with imagination- but recon if it was left another year it would be expensive - but look's like i,ll go lift the carpets and see whats what under there

trolling through the forum, seem to be getting a theme, you buy one now - then be prepared for a restoration project

Thanks Guys.

I think that given the age of these cars, most are going to need work so restoration is the way to go. I chose the place I live in now because it has a double garage. The peach carpet upstairs makes me grimace every time I see it but the fact that I have space for working on my car makes it tolerable.

Work is erratic at the moment, just got back today from a month away and am heading off again on monday! I am itching to do more on the Lotus but will have to wait until things settle down. I would rather leave the car as it is and be able to use it than strip it and have no time to put it back together.

Norman, how difficult was it to remove the clam & bumper?

Spring is on the way and it's warm enough to do things again (-8 inside the garage last month!)

Took her out for a short run but all was not well, stuck waste gate. Couldn't move it with the mole/vice grips so decided it was time for a bit of porting.

I read a lot about removing the turbo, some great threads but as I don't have the lump of iron any more, decided to leave the manifold on. pretty straight forward if a bit fiddly. I found that using a 1/2 inch drive 14mm socket (& slim spanner) to crack the nuts worked but it was better to use a 1/4 inch drive socket to take them off.





Leave the turbo on the studs but slide it forward to loosen the water & oil pipes, makes life much easier.

Looking at the turbo, there are no obvious leaks and minimal play in the spindle, not sure about the condition of the blade leading edges though.





The compressor looks worse. I know a lot about allowable damage for CFM-56 & RB 211's on Boeings but small turbos are not really my thing, anyone know where to find the wear & blend limits? Need to call CR Turbos on monday and discuss some options but thinking about getting it overhauled it as it is out plus they can do the porting.

This is more like it, a Fan blade from a CFM 56, 737 Engine, it's only out of limits because of minimum weight.



Not too happy with some of the water hoses.



Is this mess a standard fit?

Time for some Samco and while there is plenty of space, I can finally get round to fitting Gordon's fans.

Project creep is out early this year.

[quote="cliff

Norman, how difficult was it to remove the clam & bumper?[/quote]

Sorry for late reply - it is straight forward to remove: and it does open up access to work on the front end by a huge amount; however - atleast in my case: several of the fastners involved were well past their sell by date, so best think of replacing them rather than try and mess about with them - i.e. shear them or grind the heads of - whatever - and plan to fix with new

One BIG recommendation ( i,ll remember next time )
sketch out a plan view of the shell identifying all the mounting points - include the lamp brackets etc..
now be carefull as you start removing bolts etc.. and lifting off the shell - note all the washers ( spacer's) - measure the overall thickness used - at each shimmed part - record this on the diagram for reference when you come to putting it back together

I wasn't quite expecting to see as much corrosion as there was - all being mucho more obvious when the body work was fully removed; I,m happy with the renovation work i,ve done - but i,m typing this rather than going back to the garage - because
my heart say's put it back together now in time for some summer fun
my head say's - do it right - cancel this year being on the road - take the engine out to gain access to the engine bay rear crossmember etc. - get the sump repaired - etc.. etc.. i.e. - warning - removing shell = sevear potential of project creep