I've driven the elan only a couple of time since I've had it registered. My daily commute is not a very exciting drive and I'm often stationary in traffic for longer than I'd like (although probably no longer than a minute at a time). I don't want to have the Elan stuck in traffic to often as I still havn't put the new cooling fans in and I'm also worried about the condition of the oil cooler lines. I have a small oil leak (no drips on the floor but an obviously wet oil radiator and inside of the panel directly below) and I really want to get the lines replaced before I'm stuck in a traffic jam again. I really don't want to have to deal with a 10 second oil change.
I've also got a set of Samco hoses on order, when they arrive, I'll be giving the whole cooling system a good going over.
In the mean time, I've not been idle. I've been giving the glass house style number plate enclosure a bit of attention, I had to remove it anyway to install the new number plate. I can see why moisture was a problem with this design. It looks like they had tried to stop all moisture from getting in by putting a foam seal around the back mounting edge, but on my car the perspex panel wasn't exactly sealed. In fact it had been stuck on with the following adhesives in about this order, sikaflex (I think) then double sided tape, then more sikaflex then more double sided tape and finally silicone, and the previous adhesive had not been remove between each effort! The old UK number plate was pretty badly delaminated thanks to all the moisture that was running around in there. It didn't help that the internal surface to the fiberglass was very rough and the cover strip of plastic hiding the raw fiberglass below the number plate would allow water to wick underneath it into the nooks and crannies, just waiting for a warm day to evaporate and cause number plate havoc!
I've gone through a bit of body filler whilst filling in the uneven raw fiber glass, and then a lot of sand paper getting it smooth. Then most of a can of spray putty to fill in many pin holes in the gelcoat, with 400 wet and dry sandpaper in between appliactions. Then primer and 800 wet and dry and finally I've given it a coat of satin black. I still need to give it one more sand with 1200 and the final black coat and it should look brand new. I wont be putting the cover back on the bottom of the enclosure and I'v drilled 2 small drain holes in the corners so if any water does get in in the future, it'll have a place to drain out during enthusiastic cornering
.
The old perspex cover cracked and broke into 2 pieces whilst I was removing it and on closer inspection, it has lots of micro cracks along the top and bottom edge, probably from all the botched attempts at gluing it in place. So I'm having a couple of pieces of perspex cut to the correct size and I'll have a go at bending it using the heat gun method. I'm getting 2 sheets just in case I stuff one up.
It's been a slow process as there is a surprising amount of surface area on the enclosure and each time i went through the paint and sand cycle I'd find another small pin hole or air bubble that needed to be filled (OK they probably didn't 'need' to be filled but knowing they were there would annoy me). Hopefully I'll have it back on soon but now I'm thinking I should paint the area the number plate is mounted to as it has been damaged a bit by the moisture and will probably look crap next to the shiny housing. Project creep anyone?
Knowledge is realizing that the street is one-way, wisdom is looking both directions anyway