Jeemy's Elan Rebuild

[Jeemy]

So I bought the Elan Monday and joined the forum a couple of days back. I'm overwhelmed with the help and advice I've received so far.

First, the original seller photos. I bought it exceedingly reasonably from ebay although it cost me £160 for flights, about £40 for associated transport and £70 in petrol to get it back to Edinburgh. I need to remember this is part of the value.

First, the initial photos I received from the seller:

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[Jeemy]

Rough plan for the car is:

1) Partial to full interior re-fit & weatherproofing
2) Engine checkup & Everest chip, O2 sensor
3) New cambelt & drive belt
4) HiSpec front brakes
5) Suspension and drive check & tune, wheel alignment & ride height/play adjusts
6) Bodywork tweaks & spray
7) Exhaust upgrade and/or short shift
Rear brake upgrade when/if we do a group buy on hubs

I've outlined quite a bit about the car and my plans in my New Member topic here: viewtopic.php?f=76&t=20833

Now I will document what I am doing in the hope of people chipping in with advice, thoughts or if it will help others. Also to keep my thoughts straight, what better place to do it, right?

I'd initially planned to have the car in for number (2) tomorrow. However after a chat with the amazing Bob Brown to get prices on the brakes he mentioned I should have a read about the rusty outriggers. My initial panicked pull-up of the carpets revealed what looked like good news.

Initial pull-up shows wet foam, but solid red underneath with very little surface rust.

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At this stage I took some other photos of the interior just to have a record. The carpets are OK but you can see some slight rust spots behind the passenger seat. I removed the speaker cover which was totally loose.

Photo of interior showing good clean paint under the speaker too, but some rust spots behind the seat.

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Another photo of interior. You can see the inner portion of the dash fascia is protruding and not fitted very well, but the leather/vinyl trim is very good for the age.

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Detail of the area behind the passenger seat. Whats the silver box beside the speaker?

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[Jeemy]

An overnight read gave me a bit more understanding of the construction and I realized what I was looking at was fibreglass not metal apart from the seam.

When the cover I ordered still hadn't arrived today and the continued water ingress was getting worse with the rain showing no signs of stopping, it made me decide to pull all the carpets up now, which meant removing the seats.

Seat bolts came out very easily with the help of one of my staff on the outer bolts. So nice, after loosening them you could turn them by hand. This reconfirms my opinion that at some point, somebody has taken good care of this, although it wasn't the last owner it seems.

The seats came out very easily. They will likely never go back in. I am looking at some red/black Honda seats, and waiting to hear from poor ratman if he may want to sell me his seats. Having torn up the carpet, it came up pretty easily in the wet places and pulled out from under the door sill very easily for the most part, although I ripped it once, you wouldn't see if it was put back. However having read this thread: viewtopic.php?f=39&t=14146&p=197812&hilit=+carpet#p197812 I am almost certainly going to buy the carpet kit from the same people. Dependent on what seats I can get will decide the interior. I really wanted to go cream/champagne but was worried it would not look good with the black - I initially intended to replace the black dash and completely overcover it in cream but its so expensive, plus its in such good nick, I will likely go red/black or black/cream.

I also had to tear the carpet out from under what I believe are the B-pillars. I didn't want to remove these just yet as I already have water ingress issues, and they are fixed to the seals at the top. Once I get a login for the manuals I will reconsider this and would appreciate advice.

Once the carpets were completely out it became apparent that the water was coming in over the door sills, likely due to the perished weatherseals at the top of the door/foot of the window. The foam under the door sills was quite wet too, the foam in the footwells was sodden, and so I continued to pull it out where I could - it was leaving a lot of residue but I figure once dry, its getting glued back to the residue anyway and covered so no real worries there.

Carpet completely out. Dehumidifer in place to assist in the drying. You can see the glovebox doesn't fit very well but I have a plan for this.

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Closeup of passenger footwell. I've caught it just in time.

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The stripped interior. I'm discovering more and more wet foam behind the vinyl

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The stripped drivers side

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Closeup of the rust with the passengers side foam propped up to allow it to dry out. Its not that wet. I've removed the worst section on the left exposing a couple bits of non-structural rust damage.

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Alternative view of the passengers sill. Inside is OK it seems. The worst part of the rust on the right is still treatable without having to rebuild.

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And the drivers side. I optimistically think this looks worse than it is. The metal is still solid and a lot of what you can see are flakes.

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Closeup of drivers side rust. Again, its just been caught in time I think.

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[Jeemy]

Thankfully, by the time I'd finished doing this, the sun came out in force!

So the car is sitting wide open getting a good airing. When I finish up tonight I'll cover it over and hopefully it can continue to dry out over the next week with the dehumidifier in place.

I'm pretty sure the water ingress is caused by both the weatherseals, and the top corner of the passenger door behind the lock has a piece of rubber completely missing - thats an obvious candidate for fixin' up.

So the new plan for stage 1 is roughly as follows:

1) Dry the car out thoroughly, making use of sun when its around
2) Deal with the inner portions of the sills; I may use a little sandblaster on them to clean them if this won't damage the outside, then give the whole lot a good hoover.
3) Scrape away all the rust, and treat with phosphoric acid, followed by POR15 rust preventative paint.
4) Topcoat the POR15 and find some roughly matching red, paint it all red so its nice underneath - why not eh.
5) Fix the weatherseals and retest until I am sure no water is getting in.

Once this is all done and I know what seats I am getting, I can work out the colour scheme and start to plan refitting the interior so I can get it to the garage!

Questions

- Whats the wee silver box I see beside the speaker
- What am I best to do to stop further water ingress - try the door weatherseals first, and then wash the car with tissue paper inside to see if I can track further leaks - if so try and replace more seals
- Whats the best way to remove the B-pillar - if I have the name right - the one the seatbelt sticks out of; so I can put the new carpet in properly and see right back to the corner if it needs treatment - without screwing up the seal at the corner of the door?
- is the paint Calypso red? I just need a rough match for the hidden parts of the interior. When I get the bodywork done I'll worry about a perfect match.

[hatters]

The floor doesn't look too bad at all I have seen a lot worse ,Well done for having the balls to strip the carpets out and having a look ,I have yet to take a look at mine ,I will wait til Winter I am enjoying driving it too much at the moment

[dapinky]

Calypso red - Paint code A23.

You should be able to get a reasonable match at any paint suppliers - depending on how faded the original paint is!

(and you have PM)

[nyssa7]

Wouldn't worry about cream seats with a red car, that's the choice of 95% of Ferrari buyers in the 80s and 90s. Think it will look really good

[Jeemy]

Its cream seats with a black dash that worries me. I was going to go cream seats and tan dash but if its worth doing, its worth doing in leather and thats expensive.

[rip]

Wouldn't worry about cream seats with a red car, that's the choice of 95% of Ferrari buyers in the 80s and 90s.

So what?
Just because Ferrari have done it, you don't have to like it. I don't.
I still believe that cream leather looks nice when it is fresh but scruffy once it starts to wear when black dirt fills the creases.

Out of the 2 choices you've made, I would definitely go for red & black leather, but I don't like the SE's stripe style. Something more like what Martin Bailey & Dapinky have: black around the outside with a red centre section. Looks a little bright at first but great once you get used to it.

[cliff]

I went for the Honda seats in Red/Black and am very happy with them. Might be a little too much red, but at the end of the day, you have to go for what suits you.

[hatters]

I like the red and black Honda seats they look very supportive

[whippit]

Honda seats are very comfy, the only problem with them, red and black are the most expensive

[Jeemy]

They do look comfy, and I had a bid on the ones that just went on ebay for over £500. Thats really too much I think.

Having spent a couple of hours browsing Ferrari inners I have decided brown & beige with black don't look too weird. However rather than cream it was more of a caramel colour I would lean towards. I have this colour on a suite at home and its magnificent.

The whole thing was to be determined by the seats and having not won these, I am quite glad. I've been pondering it all weekend and I just feel like red & black throughout is too much like something Eddie Murphy might have worn in the 80s. I'm struggling to think of the film where one guy had a black suit with red leather and the other a red suit with black. Its not sitting well with me!

So my choices are going to be using red, caramel, cream, black and brown, with as many of the black bits being eradicated as possible. Obviously the main thing is the dash. I haven't a clue about getting this recovered but my gut is that it will be the same cost as a pair of Honda seats.

First thing is however to get seats so I can move the thing! I am looking at these - anybody any experience with the ebay bucket seats?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LUXURY-CREAM- ... 4604642a72

[bobbrown]

you need to be aware that some seats are too wide not just the part you park your bum on but also at the shoulders and there can be other issues when fitting aftermarket seats.

Not sure if these would fit Linkbut as they were out of a classic Mini they might but I'm not saying they will you'll need to check the dimensions.

[dapinky]

The main problem with aftermarket seats is to ensure that they are narrow enough to fit in the elan - many of them are too wide (at either the base or the shoulder) to fit.

Edit - beaten by Bob!

[bobbrown]

Just goes to show great minds think alike

[JIMBO]

Honda seats are really good but they are a little too wide to fit inside the B pillar which means you loose several inches of adjustment.
Jim

[JIMBO]

Forgot to say that if you buy Honda seats, get Bob to make up the fitting brackets.

[Jeemy]

I've been speaking to Bob a lot. I've already said thank you publicly but I might as well say it again - I can't believe how much time and support he's given to a new member here.

Looking at the PVC bucket seats, and thinking hard, it seems that spending £300 plus brackets leaves me with rather a lot still to do. Its not clear that we could even make brackets to fit....

So I'm thinking the best idea may be to get the original seats refurbished and recovered, and have the steering wheel, gaiters, doors etc all done in one go, matching. Maybe even dash & centre console.

I really like the shape of the original seats. The Honda seats are also beautiful, but I don't want all-black or too much of a red and black interior. Seems like this is going to be the way for me.

The only concern I have is whether refurbed original seats will be supportive enough in cornering.

So I will wait for my quotes to come back and then make the decision.

I've been working on my van all week getting it prepped for respraying next week. So the Elan has been sat under 2 covers. Stuck a hand inside today and its definitely drying out nicely, but it will have another week to go anyway.

Once I know what I am doing with the interiors, I can work out what further to rip/prise out, what bits I need to order and then I'll get all the weather and soundproofing kit ordered with the bits I'll need later, and start getting the thing waterproofed!

[Jeemy]

So while I've been prepping my van for respray I've done a bit of playing around with colours in the evenings.

I wanted a cream interior as its luxurious and interesting. But done wrong, it can look wan and washed out.
When I found this picture of Lotus seats like mine with red piping, I knew it was going to be wrong. This is
exactly what I pictured, but it doesn’t look right. With my wife’s keen eye to help, I set to work it out properly.

Example of the cream leather with red piping I'd originally envisaged.

So I browsed some other interiors, trying to find colorschemes that would work with the black dash, and kept coming back to the interior of the 2010 Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano.

It suits grey (which some of the dash will have faded to), black (like the dash is meant to be), but does it go with red? It must do, its a Ferrari.....time to find an Elan interior pic to play with.

While looking I found all the usual red & black ones, confirming too much red and black is a bit Eddie Murphy for me.

So I ended up hacking together some pics, one is Zaria's, one I don't know, and got to my final colour scheme.

Caramel colour seats, escutcheons, card inserts, steering wheel, and champagne or slightly darker carpet. Keep the black centre console, and black gaiters; perhaps recover and pad the console. Black metal monkey dials with aqua lighting.

The seat is the closest to the colour I want. I'll get leather samples sent to check it out properly.

Wheel is too wooden looking, it will be the same caramel/tan colour