A new elan in Australia

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Re: A new elan in Australia

Postby Fetnas » Wed 08.09.2010, 13:04

I'm not pleased with whoever it was that decided to put copper brake lines in my car. The lines in question were the ones running along the side of the chassie. They weren't overly difficult to undo and remove, it's the fact that the DPO had smeared these lines in sitcky black grease :evil: which made it a very messy job. I picke up some new lines I had a brake place bend up for me and I've fitted them this evening. They were a bit more difficult to install as the steel lines are stiffer than copper and one was slightly too long but there's enough room up the back to have a bit of a loop in the pipe.

Whilst working under the back of the car I noticed some of the grease had rubbed off (propably in my hair) one of the brake lines connecting the proportioning valve to the limiting valves (my car has the early barke setup) and bugger me, it's also copper :twisted:! Not happy, but at the moment I just want to get the car on the road so I'm going to ignore this latest find for a while.

I also freed up the bleed nipples on the limiting valves so I can bleed air out of the highest point in the rear brakes. I suspect they hadn't been used since the car was assembled as the took a lot of coaxing to undo.

Tomorrow night I'll put some new brake fluid in, suck on some nipples (hehe) and hopefully have the car ready for it's final visit to a road worthy garage on Saturday morning.
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Re: A new elan in Australia

Postby bobbrown » Wed 08.09.2010, 15:47

I am a little surprised you get a fail on "copper" as I would have thought the pipes were more likley "Cunifer" which is used buy some manufacturers as standard. Steel is only used as it is cheaper.
Link
I use Cunifer over steel all the time.
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Re: A new elan in Australia

Postby Fetnas » Thu 09.09.2010, 11:29

Hi Bob,

The pipes were definatly copper, brown in colour and very soft, I suspect they hadn't been on the car for long, that said, the car had only done 6000 miles in about 10 years before I got my hands on it. (Its covered a hell of a lot more miles now although many of those were on a boat :lol: ) I believe Cunifer has a more brassy colour to it, correct?

I suspect I'll upgrade the brake lines when I get around to lifting the body off the chassie and repainting it but I suspect that'll be a couple of years down the track, I've got to renovate a house first.
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Re: A new elan in Australia

Postby Fetnas » Sat 11.09.2010, 10:02

Today I finally got my road worthy, what a relief. Now I have the paper work required to get it registered. Thankfully I won't need to do this again (unlike MOTs, a road worthy is only needed to transfer a registration, not every year) unless I need to sell it but I have no plans to do that!

I'll be looking at about $950 a year to insure it and around $1700 for the initial registration and about $600 a year after that. A lot of money but It's worth it!
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Re: A new elan in Australia

Postby bobbrown » Sat 11.09.2010, 10:20

Nice to hear you are almost on the road again with your Elan and summer is comming.

Cost are difficult to compare, how does that compare to your adverage Holden?
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Re: A new elan in Australia

Postby Fetnas » Sun 12.09.2010, 09:02

Hi Bob,

The insurance is about $300 more than my current Holden (a V6 Opel Calibra) which has a market value of not much, where as the Elan has a market value of up near $30,000. If I had a locally made Holden, it would probably only cost me a couple of hundred to insure, but being part of the crowd really isn't my style!

The initial registration includes a tax against the market value of the car and a pile of other small fees including the issuing of a number plate, the annual registration fee is basically the same for all cars and includes the minimum 3rd party insurance require by law. That insurance only covers injury so you'd be farily stupid not to have a comprehensive policy as well.

Overall, I think that's not bad value for a very exclusive high performance sports car. I haven't told an insurer that the car is a personal import as yet, that may change the calculations but I hope not!
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Re: A new elan in Australia

Postby Fetnas » Fri 01.10.2010, 12:40

Afet a long slow process, mostly due to my current lack of spare time, I finally have the Elan registered and insured and on the road. :banana:
The process at the local registration office was fairly striaght forward. Fill out a form, provide proof of identity, proof of ownership, import compliance certificate and road worthy certificate. The guy then checked that the vin and engine number matched the documents and asked for a market value figure to which I told him $10,000 instead of the actual $30,000. My Great Uncle was a car sales man and told me to do this as the people at the registation office won't have any idea of the true value and they won't check. That brought the rego fee down by about $700. I then handed over about a grand and they handed me a set of number plates and a registration sticker for the windscreen. Took less than half an hour.

I had to fit the plates before I left the registration depo. I drilled 2 holes in the rear plinth to fit the rear plate. I have to refit the perspex cover and surround. I'm smoothing out the inner surface of the fiberglass surround in an attempt to reduce the surface area and allow any water that may get in there to drain to some strategically placed holes.

I'm not happy with the front plate mounting. Aus plates are not as wide as EU plates so the outer 2 holes that the UK plates were fixed to are visible and the plate is angled downward more than I'd like. I'm not sure how I'm going to improve this.

I spent most of the day driving around visiting people and enjoying the car, I had the top down to start with but the sun was too damb hot so the roof had to go up again. The car did cut out on me 3 times, it simply died, but started up again straight away, another item to add to the list of things to sort out.

I guess this is the conclusion to this thread, now it's time to read up about dismanteling the doors and replacing a broken butterfly clip.
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Re: A new elan in Australia

Postby Dave Eds » Fri 01.10.2010, 12:44

Fetnas wrote:I guess this is the conclusion to this thread



Please not :cry:
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Re: A new elan in Australia

Postby Fetnas » Sat 02.10.2010, 04:01

OK Dave, I won't end this thread, but only because you've given me the sad face :wink:.

Perhaps not the conclusion of this thread, but at least the end of the first chapter. Geting her on the road was the primary goal and that has been achieved. That said I do have a number of minor things to attend to.

The posts might be few and far between, but as I sort stuff out, I'll throw in an update or 2.
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Re: A new elan in Australia

Postby theelanman » Sat 02.10.2010, 05:26

:-D
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Re: A new elan in Australia

Postby Fetnas » Mon 25.10.2010, 13:34

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 :wink: .

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? :-?
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Re: A new elan in Australia

Postby Fetnas » Mon 06.12.2010, 10:45

Things got a bit more major on the Elan works front recently. I have been planning to overhaul the cooling system to help the car cope with an Aus summer and of course project creep has crep in!

I started out by removing the bumper, easier said than done, the studs in front of the oil cooler and intercooler were badly rusted and snapped and one of the captive nuts on the left hand side of the car was also seized, I ended up drilling hte head of the bolt as I didn't like the fiber glass tearing sounds the area was making when applying lots of force!

With the bumper off it was time to remove the oil cooler. The bolts and unions all came apart easily, it turns out the oil leak I had was not from the hose crimp beginning to fail but from the Banjo not being tight enough. That said, I will get new hoses crimped whilst their out of the car.

Then the towing eye came off, lots of rust around the lower fixing but it should clean up OK. Then I tried to remove the fiberglass piece under the radiator sub frame, 2 of the bolts came out with a bit of coaxing but the rest either sheared off had to be drilled.

The next job was to remove the old fans, not a lot of space in that area, I'm thankful for the ratcheting ring spanners with the adjustable head. I was trying to be careful of the small studs as I know their not very strong. Ended up breaking 1 stud from the rad sub frame. I'll have to braze a new stud in its place.

Next was to remove the rad sub frame. Again, tricky access, but all the bolts came undone with only minor swearing. I need to strip, derust and repaint the subframe, I intend to use POR 15 products for this area, but I'm not sure how I'll paint the inside of the central box section, I'll need to think about that area for a bit.

Final job was to remove the radiator, of course the breather plug managed to shear off whilst draining the coolant (I've already done a search on the forum for the thread pitch and bolt type, I might try to replicate the part from a nylon bolt if I can match the size). At this point I discovered that this preventative work was well worth it. The rad look fine from the outside, no sign of corrosion or leaks, but when no more fluid was coming out of the drain plug, there was still fluid on the other side of the radiator when the lower hose was disconnected. So I have a partially blocked rad, I'm not sure how I'm going to clear it, but I think it may involve a rad flushing product and a hand held ultrasonic cleaning wand I have. Anyone got any ideas?

Hopefully I can start putting my Samco hoses in this weekend, I like putting things back together, much more than having to break things apart!
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Re: A new elan in Australia

Postby racerstev » Mon 06.12.2010, 14:45

I plan on using this for the inside of the tunnel and any place I can't
get to.

http://www.eastwood.com/internal-frame- ... ozzle.html
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Re: A new elan in Australia

Postby Fetnas » Mon 13.12.2010, 13:10

A quick update, over the weekend past, I replaced all the old coolant hoses for nice new Samcos, and fitted the next notch down of fan thermal switch. I also stripped the towing loop of old paint and rust and gave it it's first coat of POR15. It will be getting a second coat next weekend and then a coat of UV stable topcoat. I also began stripping the paint off the radiator sub frame, but I'm not sure how I'm going to get into all the little nooks in that bit of metal, may have to try a sand blaster! Finally, I started fettling the new plastic cooling fans so they cleanly fit on the old mounting lugs.


Still got a lot to do but I'm making progress, I also have to find stainless steel replacements for all the bolts nuts and screws I'v undone so far as most of what came off the car is not in a re usable condition. Next weekend I should be installing a new oil cooler and newly crimped hoses.
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Re: A new elan in Australia

Postby Fetnas » Thu 14.04.2011, 12:49

Progress has been slow over the past few months as I'm spending most of my weekends renovating a house, thankfully my dad has enjoyed working on the car so things are still happening. The rad had been cleaned, the subframe and 'Y' brackets have been sandblasted and I'll be POR15ing them over the weekend and the power stearing return line has been derusted and will also ger some POR.

The interesting progress is the AC system my dad is designing for the car. He was involved in the original AC design and testing so he knows what he's doing in this department. He has designed a bracked in Solidoworks that mounts to the existing points on the block, fits a variable displacment compressor form an Astra, supports an idler pully between the crank pully and compressor which wraps the belt further around both the compressor and crank pully and incorporates a threaded tension adjuster for the power stearing pump. The parts are being laser cut at the moment and will hopefully be no heaver than the old cast mount.

We already have a modern high efficiency evaporator that will fit in the existing air box, just need to source a receiver dryer, fabricate a custom condensor and sort out some plumbing.

And for all those out there cursing me for adding weight to the car, when it's 40 degrees and the sun feels like its drilling holes in your skin, you don't want the top down and you need some cooling!
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Re: A new elan in Australia

Postby Fetnas » Sun 18.12.2011, 04:54

This weekend I took a break for house renovations and finally had some time to work on the Elan.

The AC installation is going well, we found a consensor from a tractor that was the correct height. The spec's also suggested it was the correct lenght but that wasn't quite right. The core was the correct lenght, but the consensor was a serpentine style and the 180 degree bends in the coolant lines extend beyond the core. A little trimming and refiberglassing of the air ducts to the oil cooler and intercooler is required. Other than that the installation is almost un detectable, the only obvious thing different in the engine bay is the receiver dryer behind the air filter. My dad is also planning to install some relays to have the coolant fans running in series when the compressor is on to keep a small amount of air moving over the radiators. In this configuration, each fan will see 6 volts. When the fan switch trips, the fans will be switched back to running in parallel and get 12 volts each. Another little trick he's come up with to reduce the likly hood of the car overheating. Just need to install the evaperator and complete the wiring.

But that's just an update on what my Dad has done. This weekend was about installing Bob's excellent gear cable upgrade. A bit of a fiddle feeding the cables through but other than that fairly straight forward. The cables had definatly been woked on before and I believe one of the existing cables was an S1 and the other was an S2. Both ends of both cables were metal and one looked a lot shiner than the other. I'll keep them just in case but I can't imagine the new cables could ever fail.

I also adjusted the hood storage compartment release cable, it had slipped resulting in the passenger side catch being difficult to release, access was tricky but it got done.

Should be able to reinstall the front bumper soon and put some new fluids in the engine soon, then its driving time, its been too long.
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Re: A new elan in Australia

Postby HJ2 » Sun 18.12.2011, 10:05

Busy, busy busy!
Good to hear that it's almost driving time again. Keep those updates and stories coming! 8)
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Re: A new elan in Australia

Postby JIMBO » Sun 18.12.2011, 12:18

Dave Eds wrote:Keep it going Stefan and keep us all up to date - I've enjoyed this thread! Thanks! :wink:

:agree:
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Re: A new elan in Australia

Postby Fetnas » Sun 15.01.2012, 09:01

Two steps forward, one step back!

This weekend was supposed to end with driving the car along the sunny coast road, alas that did not eventuate. I filled the engine with all the necessary fluids, priming the oil cooler prior to installation. Connected the battery and cranked it with the plugs out and the fule pump fuse pulled. I was surprised at how long it took for the oil pressure to build, seemed to be over 25 seconds of cranking for the oil pressure to register. The car has sat for about 6 months so all the oil galleries in the engine would have been empty.

The next step was reinstalling and connecting the plugs and fuel pump fuse. Crossed fingers and turned the key and it started instantly. "Great" I though whilst looking over the engine bay checking for leaks. The powersteering pump bearing screached a bit as it primed itself but was then quiet. It was a this point that I noticed a few drops of green coolant on the ground under the front right hand side of the car. Closer inspection showed that none of the hoses were leaking and that the leak was comming from the crimp between the rad core and the plastic end tank. Looks like having the rad dismantled and cleaned was a bad idea :cry: .

Oh well, off to Ebay to pick up a new alloy rad as pointed out by Bob a little while ago, I just hope it can be shipped quickly so I can put it back together next weekend. Fingers crossed
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Re: A new elan in Australia

Postby bobbrown » Sun 15.01.2012, 11:15

There is a rad listed here Link amd they are based in Australia so may be worth a call.

Bob

BTW it is probably going to cost about 475 AUD from here so if the mob above can do it for less................
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