A new elan in Australia

[Fetnas]

About 3 and a half months ago I delivered my elan to a shipping agent near Heathrow on the M25. This Friday morning, we were reunited in a removalists warhouse in Melbourne. Apart from a ligttle dust in places she was just as I left her.

Reconnected the battery, crossed my fingers and turned the key. I was excited to the point I forgot to check the fluid levels first (not that there were any issues). She came to life almost instatntly, impressive after such a long time of doing nothing.

The next stage, and where the project begins, is getting it inspected and registered so I can actually drive it on the Aussie roads.

I've done a lot of reading up on the process and it doesn't sound difficult. I need to get a road worthy certificate (MOT) which shouldn't be a problem and an engineer's certificate that confirms it's structurally sound and complies with the basic safety requirements. I'm not sure what that will require but it may mean changing the seatbelts to ones that have an Australian compliance tag on them and other annoying little things.

Once I've sorted the certificates I can pay my registration fee, install a personal import compliance plate in the engine bay, buy some number plates and take her for a propper spin!

It's an expensive exercise but cheaper than trying to buy one of the 25 elans that are already over here.

Then after driving her for a while, I can start the major project of lifting the body of the chassie, removing the surface rust and giving it all a good coat of POR15. Let the project creep begin

[Dave Eds]

Great to hear this Stefan exactly a year on from when we met at Hethel!

Hope it all goes well and looking forward to you posting progress reports and pictures.


And you can update your avatar now too!

[Fetnas]

Thanks Dave,

So another job is to take a good photo for the Avatar update, I'll have to find a suitable back drop!

[Mike_H]

Hey Stefan its good to hear of someone else taking their Elan with them halfway round the world.

I brought mine over to New Zealand with me about 5 years ago and I don't regret it even though I had a lot of hassle getting it through the import compliance .

I don't know the rules over in Oz but here you need to have a high stop brake light fitted and after a lot of head scratching I decided to fit one off the current Mazda mx5 model.

It fits really well and looks like it was designed for the car .

Anyway hope it goes well for you and that you soon get out for a drive in the Melbourne sunshine


Mike.

[Fetnas]

Hi Mike, I can imagine there are some great Elan worth roads in NZ. It must be a great place to drive such a car with all the twisty mountain and costal roads.

I have been contemplating installing a 3rd brake light, for safety if not compliance. Is it possible for you to post a photo of the MX5 light? I've been contemplating custom options but if there is a good off the shelf option I'd go for it.

I've got enought projects on my hands at the moment with the elan being the newest and probably the one that'll get the most attention in the comming months so a quick and easy option is definatly favourable.

[RichardK]

Well Done Stefan - it is worth the hassle isn't it!!!

[Mike_H]

Hi Stefan we really are spoilt here in New Zealand for good driving roads

Here are a few pictures of the high stop brake light I fitted to mine .

The rear deck is not flat but the MX5 light has the same curved base and matches the Elan perfectly.

I had to drill a hole in the rear deck for the wiring but the light itself is just bonded using sealant.

The other option I considered was to mill out the rear spoiler and insert an LED strip but it just seamed like too much trouble.

All the aftermarket lights that I could find are the ones you stick in the rear window so you are quite limited for choice.

Mike.

[Fetnas]

Thanks heaps for the photo Mike, that exactly what I'm looking to achieve. I think I'll be off trawling ebay to find that exact MX5 light.

I too have thought about mounting a light inside the spoiler and there are pictures of a very well done installation on LEC somewhere. But it is a lot of work and can't be undone, I like the idea of being able to remove this sort of addition easily if necessary.

[Fetnas]

Pregress report.

The elan has been at a garage all week. The good news, I have compliance! There was one small item that needed to be done which is a bit of a funny regulation thing. In the land down under (and probably other places), all unleaded petrol pumps have a smaller diameter than the old style leaded pumps. The throat in the filler neck of cars sold locally has a restrictor so that only the correct size pump will fit. This is to stop you putting leaded fuel in an unleaded car and killing hte catlyst. Now the funny thing is, leaded fuel was phased out quite a few years ago and my elan doesn't even have a cat! Stupid regulations, at least it's an easy job to fit a restrictor to the filler neck.

Surprisingly, the garage I've taken the car to said they've seen a few elans come through in the past couple of years. Interetsing!

They were doing the road worthy test (MOT) this afternoon so hopefully I'll hear from them tomorrow if there's anything I need to do. But as I got it through it's MOT at the end of last year (after overhauling the brakes and replaceing the turbo) they shouldn't find much.

It getting closer!

[speed-demon]

I've seen the above 'steel blue' parked up in Christchurch on my travels...

If you don't mind me asking. How much did you pay for the shipping to OZ?

[Fetnas]

The quote I used for shipping was around the 1,300 pounds mark excluding insurance. Unfortunatly, between dropping the car off and getting approval to ship it, the shipping costs went up resulting in an additional 200 pound cost. Not much I could do at that point as I was in Australia whilts the car was still in London.

So total cost ended up being a little over 1,500 pounds. Expensive? Yes. Worth it? Hell Yeah!

Including all the costs associated with getting the car on the road, if I sold it at market value in Australia, I'd probably make a profit similar to the price I paid for it in England. Not that I have any intention of selling .

[speed-demon]

That's not bad really.
Do you pay import taxes too?
Still. Better than buying a boring Aussie car. Have you seen all that Ford crap they drive?

Why not get yourself down to St Kilda for some photo' ops'... There's a Kia Elan (black I think) around that area too.
Enjoy. Maybe I'll spot you one day when I'm passing through.

[cjay]

Great to see another Elan in Oz

There is another white SE in Brisbane, the only other white one I know of.

[Specky]

There was one small item that needed to be done which is a bit of a funny regulation thing. In the land down under (and probably other places), all unleaded petrol pumps have a smaller diameter than the old style leaded pumps. The throat in the filler neck of cars sold locally has a restrictor so that only the correct size pump will fit. This is to stop you putting leaded fuel in an unleaded car and killing hte catlyst. Now the funny thing is, leaded fuel was phased out quite a few years ago and my elan doesn't even have a cat! Stupid regulations, at least it's an easy job to fit a restrictor to the filler neck.

I don't get it personally, The car was designed to run on four star or unleaded

Could you imagine the horror of putting fully leaded in your car.... ummmmm nothing

Sounds like a scam to me....

TTFN

[Fetnas]

I'll be picking up my elan tomorrow night. Compliance sorted but 10 items were picked up on the RWC - MOT. Ranging from minor things like cracks in one indicate lense (no white light showing so it shouldn't have failed) to the aim of the headlights and a smokey haze in the low beams (should be able to clean them out) and more major things like a leak in one of the rear brake handbrake lever pivots (annoying as I overhauled them for the last MOT, obviously I didn't put it together correctly) to a loose ball joint that connects the suspension to the roll bar on the front right (apparently it was seperated when he inspected the car, I did notice that it was loose when I overhauled the suspension) to the most annoying item. The brand new ProTech rear shocks don't comply with Aus regulations! They don't like the adjustable seat! As far as I can see the only other shock avaliable is an AVO which also has an adjustable seat!

This guy has been heavy handed with the assessment and I think he's over charged (I'll know once I get the invoice) but as I now have the compliance plate, I can complete the RWC at my friendly local garage who will probably pass most of the items the other guy failed.

Getting closer!

[Fetnas]

That's not bad really.
Do you pay import taxes too?
Still. Better than buying a boring Aussie car. Have you seen all that Ford crap they drive?

Why not get yourself down to St Kilda for some photo' ops'... There's a Kia Elan (black I think) around that area too.
Enjoy. Maybe I'll spot you one day when I'm passing through.

Now I think about it, that price also covered the customs clerance fees and all shipping and handling fees. I did have to pay customs dutys and taxes and the quaranteen inspection fee, but paying it up front was about half the price of paying it when the car arrived. A good deal I think!

I live in St Kilda (at least untill I can afford to buy a place of my own) and I regularly pass a black elan on Barkly street. I guess this is the one you've seen, I didn't realise it was a Kia! I'll have to have a closer look!

If you don't mind me asking, where are you based?

[Fetnas]

I've just received two 9 inch fans from Ebay, they are almost identical to the ones avaliable on the group buy but have curved blades and are rated at 160W, allegedly, the rating isn't noted on the motor. I'll hook one up to a bench power supply to see just how much juice they need. Should be well within the 15 amps avaliable with the existing fuses.

The great news is they cost me $30 each! A total of $60 or about 30 pounds. Bargain!

I've got a few jobs to tackle this weekend but I doubt I'll get around to fitting these fans. I've also got a lower temp thermal switch for the fans to fit. Thankfully it's winter down here at the moment so overheating isn't a problem, but I'll have to put these in before the 40 degree days of a Melbourne summer!

[Fetnas]

I'm making good progress. I've ticke off 9 of the 11 items the mechanic listed for the road worthy

I've rebuilt the right rear brake caliper that was leaking, it turned out the O ring on the handbrake shaft had been pinched when I assembled it the first time, luckly I'd kept the old seals which were still servicable. I've replaced the perished boots on the rear roll bar ball joints and regreased the joints. I have glued cracks in one tail light lense and one of the front indicator lenses and polished away any excess glue, the cracks are still visible but the lenses are now solid and water tight. The cracks are less obvious than before, so hopefully they pass. I've removed and polished the inside of all the head lights, they all had a smokey haze on the inside of the lenses. I also found that a couple of the springs for the headlight aim adjustment were missing so I've put in some new ones. The headlight aim is way off at the moment, I'll fix that up a bit and let the mechanic do the final adjustment on his machine. I've unblocked the left hand windscreen washer, and glued some new tread onto the worn clutch pedal rubber.

There were a few dubious items listed. The mechanic said the front left roll bar ball joint had poped off and that they put it back on. I had a good look at both ball joints and there was no sigh that the left one had been touched as there was the same amount of road grime on both joints. I'm also fairly sure I would have heard the roll bar clunking around if it had come apart. I think they were trying to take me for a ride on this one. They also noted the windscreen has some minor chips in it, and by minor I mean pin prick size and not even in the field of vision so that's not a fail. The final item they noted (that I'm sure my friendly helpful mechanic will pass) was the rear shockers. They are brand new ProTech adjustable shock absorbers, but the first mechanic said adjustable coil overs are not allowed. Then how come I can go to most local auto parts shops and buy adjustable coil overs for many mass market cars? I was a bit pissed off about that one!

I've also had a chance to hook up one of the new cooling fans to a power supply. It drew just over 4 amps at 12 volts so it actually rated at about 50 watts, not the 160 as stated. They still move a heap of air and will be a lot better than the stiff old fans in the car at the moment.

Hopefully I'll be able to get the road worth done this week, then I just need to get it insured and registered, then the process will be complete and I can go out and have some fun looking for good driving roads.

[Fetnas]

I'm very time poor at the moment and that's about to get worse as I've just bought a house that will need a lot of work. I get the keys in a month so I need to get the elan sorted before then. Nothing motivates like a deadline!

This week I've had the car inspected by another road worthy mechanic who was much better than the first lot. He passed all the items that were raised the first time round. He also found a serious issue with the brakes that the first guy missed. A section of the hard brake lines have been replaced with copper pipe ! A bit of concern considering how copper work hardens with vibration and can crack!

So this weekend I'll be putting the car up on ramps, crawling underneath, draining the brake fluid out of the system and pulling out the copper lines. Thankfully there are a lot of mechanic type places near where I work so I can choose from a number of brake places to get new hard line made.

I'm not looking forward to bleeding the system as I'll have air in the rear limiting valves but the vacuume vessle method I've used before seems to work well.

Then I'll have to take it back to the garage to finalise the road worthy then I can orgainse the last bit of the process and get the car registered. It's been a long process!

To add to the things I have to fix, the dirvers side window decided to fail this morning. I knew I'd have to open the doors at some stage but I was trying to put that one off for a bit. I'll have to replace the speakers and put in the new lock barrel I have that matches the ignition whilst I'm at it. Damb project creap! It also doesn't always idle correctly at the moment, it sometimes sits up around 2000 but if I turn it off then start it again it settles down to the correct speed. I have an undated CAS to install which I hope will improve the idle, I also have an elanscan but I havn't had a chance to hook it up yet. I'll have to plug it in and take some readings before I make any changes to the electronics.

Look like I'll be spending most of the weekend on the car!

[Dave Eds]

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