Jeemy's Elan Rebuild

[cliff]

Alfa do a similar Tan leather, I had it in in my first GTV, red & tan looks superb. The same colour in a GT:

Have you thought about an Elise wheel? I think it looks better & you would only need to cover the middle section to make it look good.

[Jeemy]

hmmm. had a look about and can't see a price on an elise wheel easily, found one pic of one that had been coloured in the centre panel. i really like the wheel. i think having to leave the centre horn button in black is a shame on the elan wheel, and Elise is a better style for a two-tone wheel.

each to their own, and its a really cool wheel, but i'm guessing its a few hundred pounds and for me i don't think its worth it.

i'm wanting the look to be knowingly retro rather than to try and modernise the interior too much. trying to aim for a timeless look rather than to show up the older materials and design features by shoehorning in parts that are too modern. i'd discarded the idea of tan handgrips on the left and right section of the wheel only as its still a bit modern.

Love the leather in the Alfa. Wife reckons its a honey orange I am looking at. There are only so many colours for leather so we will see what the samples bring.

[Rice crispy]

Can do the wheel centre yourself with a bit of time and patience. I did mine in alcantara which i glued on

[Jeemy]

I'm definitely passing all the leatherwork to somebody else to do for this car. As I do different projects I am picking the pieces where I can't do any real harm or cost myself money to practice techniques.

For example, I am going to remove the trim from my Audi project and wrap it in the carbon fibre type material by 3M that heatshrinks. If I rodger it up, its a cheap and small thing that I can strip and start again. Or buy new trim even.

I will however be removing the inner dash fascia from this car, and fibreglassing the breakage back together then recovering it. Either black plastidip or if I can think of a cool neutral colour that would work and look good, like a grey or dark grey, possibly a gloss spray.

For practice on that I've been working with my van projects' fairing, badges, trim and dash parts - one interesting thing I stumbled across was Tamiya polycarbonate paints for modelling. The Smoke paint works amazingly on silver/chrome plastic/tat to give an unusual gunmetal approach. Its too expensive to be worthwhile in large batches but the van I'm just finishing is going to have a black chrome/gunmetal type finish to the merc badges, AMG badges and door handles.

So I am quite confident on my indoor spraying and lacquering now (could do small items, happy to try a bumper and have one to practice on; had a mixed experience doing the van roof outside so whole vehicle work is out) and am thinking either the matt plasti-dip (except they dont make a dark grey, I need to look for a better product) or a black or dark grey gloss for the dash inner.

Its also possible I can use a light spray of this smoke paint just to add some interest to it.

But yeah, I've got a price I am happy with for seats, handbrake/gear gaiter and doors, out of which I am going to cancel the gaiters because the wife just thinks it looks awful to have the standout gaiter colour flashes. I don't 100% agree with her but I do think its a matter of personal taste; and I don't want to fling in features for the sake of it that aren't to many peoples' tastes.

The original wheel is about 20% of that cost again to cover. So the Elise wheel does seem to be a cheaper route to adding a bit of flair. But I always factor in my time as well and with my limited knowledge, and the fact I *still* can't find a price on an Elise original wheel; just finding Chinese fakes, I think I'm going to be stuck with the full wheel trim. Happily, the removal of this will be the practice job for replacing the SRS Merc wheel on the van with a colour-coded Momo I have been sitting on for a year.

Its the black dash and red body causing me the problem; I don't want a colour scheme thats based around black and red but thats the two largest colour swathes I have to deal with - so I don't want to do anything thats going to contradict them too much or stand out against them.

[Jeemy]

It rains, and it rains, and it rains. The van is taking up all my time anyway, I'm still going down to the spray shop daily and stripping little bits off, customising final trim, and cleaning up bits the spray won't hit. Bonus is, when it comes back, all I need to do is put a fresh coat on the calipers, and clean up the little bits of damage and paint the wheels and it will be 100% done, in and out. Which is not something you can often say about a project. Very excited. One last little hurdle which is to actually fit the spoiler perfectly.

Stuck a hand inside the cover and the foam is DRY! I am however thinking of replacing it all. I'm researching options on the sound system and am almost fixed on 2 Peerless subs behind the seats, a DLS Nordica component set in the doors which will mean some customization of the door cards, and an Image Dynamics amp perhaps as they are on closeout, or more likely, another Genesis Profile 4 - I love those amps.

I am slowly slowly building the full list of parts I need, working out who to get them off, what order I need them, and building up shopping lists with a few different suppliers. This is frightening. You know how you go down to B & Q when you are working on your house and end up spending £2-300 on 4-5 visits for bits you didn't get enough of, or order enough of. You just let it go as unavoidable expense. Actually sitting and planning out all the tiny parts, shipping, fitments, tools and masking needed, is a chilling exercise if you do it before you are deep into it.

I found an Elise steering wheel here: http://compare.ebay.co.uk/like/15084839 ... adtype=pla

I will post it up in the eBay thread also. For £65, plus the refinishing, I can get my existing wheel done for £175. I'm definitely sticking with that. Less messing around.

In the next few days I should have all the plans done, and get stuck into the roots of the cockpit work. I'm going to build all the fitments for the audio system first and then buy the actual kit once its done. No sense in sitting on a grands worth of audio equipment when you can't listen to it.

So the first part will still be waterproofing, together with further stripping of the foam, rust treatment and any strengthening or rebuilding of the sills, and finally removal of the door cards, trunk, map pocket and B-pillar carpet, to make a perspex window for the amp, the custom sub boxes, and baffles for the doors. Then I'll plaster the entire shell in Dynamat Superlite (which incidentally you can get bulk packs of for £140 just now - superbargain!), treat the rust, paint the interior because I just love the fact that under the carpet, the paintwork is pristine for no apparent good reason, and post pics when I do it all.

So its as ever going to be more destruction before the construction happens, and I won't be driving her anytime soon, but the plan is solidifying!

[bobbrown]

I found an Elise steering wheel here: http://compare.ebay.co.uk/like/15084839 ... adtype=pla

I used an Elise air bag wheel on mine less the air bag with a cover over what used to be the air bag.

[Jeemy]

Bob, while you are here - weight thoughts?

By my estimation the subwoofer system will add 22kg to the car weight. I don't know what the stock speakers weigh, I'm guessing 2 pounds lighter than a meringue.

So I'd guess by the time i put in the Nordica, I will be adding 27kg to the vehicle.

I honestly have no clue if this is good or bad, or indifferent. The car is under its cover "drying" (this is Scotland) and until I get good weather or a period I can justify not working and putting the tent up over it, I am just planning. So I've not even measured if the alloys on the vehicle are messing with the offset. But I know my plans will add some weight.

The brake upgrade I have worked out will be pretty minimal, your HiSpec brake upgrade kit will take 3kg off this so +24kg all told. How much weight is a problem? If I add 24kg in sound install (and truth be told, at least 50% of the enjoyment of driving for me is enjoying music while I do it) - will performance suffer?

As far as I see it, a 1-ton Lotus isn't really going to suffer with +/- 2% weight work. From what I've gleaned the difference is going to be an HP or so. I just thought I'd ask that its not going to be a dealbreaker.

While keen to enjoy a good pure driving experience, and having driven GD427s, super7s, elises, exiges, m's, etc etc on-track, I am much more geared to a medium, rather than mediocre, experience. I am happy if the car is fast, I don't want to squeeze every ounce out. I just don't want to pull it down to mediocre.

Equally with the sound I will spend enough, I want it to be good. But I won't spend tons, I don't want the highest performance. Just a level that the layman (me) will feel is over-par.

[Jeemy]

So tonight she came home. After much agonizing about the order in which to do things, I decided to go back to my original plan of getting the engine done (but not powered up) first. I've got enough covers that I can monitor her at the garage and make sure she isn't drenched.

The battery had drained over the last few weeks, but the dehumidifier had pulled out over 3 pints of water from the cheapo foam inside. More on that later.

So after an overnight battery charge, and a stripping of the passenger door, more of which later with pics, the drive home was without incident apart from the turbo gauge pinning, which on my arrival was quickly fixed by spinning the VBO (?) ground wire. That will get a proper clean shortly.

Samco hoses turned out to be a 3-4 week lead time, but a quick order at Paul Matty Sports Cars gleaned me:

New badges
4 Red lock clips
Cam belt
Power Steering Belt
Alternator Belt
Oil Filter
Water Pump

...all of these should arrive Thursday for the drive over to hiflowheads.

Having neglected to obtain the door lock clip surrounds, both of which are broken, I decided I might instead repair with fibreglass and then finish these and other key parts in the same anthracite grey I plan to do the wheels in (very similar to Audi centre caps, based on Oz wheels' signature style). I feel using grey is going to tone down the fading of the vinyl and such.

So tonight she had her first, and likely only (without the shower cap) power wash, and the ingress points of water were obvious:

- from the passenger speaker (i.e. through the weatherstrip and down the path of least resistance

- from the corner of the passenger window and B-pillar. The seal top is missing, so a rebuild in Sikaflex is likely before I go any further on cost there

- surprisingly, from the top of the drivers window at the front apex. I'll need to look at the seal there.

I used half a tub of Meguiars Hot Wheels and a scourer on the backs of the rims, as they've been getting the cover straps filthy. They felt like scrubbing the grill from Harga's House of Ribs - absolutely black. But after a snow foam and a good jetting, I reckon they'll only take 5 or 6 more cleans, haha.

So the doors will continue to get stripped as I work my way towards the outer weatherseals, which I have the vintagecarparts replacements for - doesn't look anywhere near close, but ho hum, I'll see when I get there.

The car and parts are going to the engine tuner tail end of the week for a bench test, and either he will fit it all, or I'll work with him to do it and clean the engine bay at the same time, or he'll just test it and I'll fit them later. Either way all I want is to walk away saying, as much as one ever can, "yes, I can work on this, its going to be worth it".

Tomorrow I'm taking it to my spray guy because I honestly think its going to need a full spray.

Stereo is proceeding apace, with most parts and tools bought, its ending up looking at:

Pioneer DEH P-88 Rs-ii head unit
Dynaudio 3-way component system & crossovers
2 x Peerless 10" subwoofers
Genesis Profile Sub amplifier
...to which I will add a 2x3 amplifier at some point. I'm going to wire for that just now.

Other little bits picked up:

Battery Brain Gold V3 (hello immobiliser)
Gearstick, knob, gaiter
Second set of keys (first thing I should have done)

Not even going to post pics just now, cleaning a car in the dark doesn't count. Just posting up to dot my thoughts down. Planning on really powering this through over the next 4-8 weeks so expect some full pictorials of the interesting stuff soon.

Basic plan is:

0) Engine check. Fit all new belts, pumps.
1) Finish up stripping doors, check weatherseals and beef up pillar seals, check its waterproof. Debadge car.
2) While doors are down, work out mounting strategy for components; door cards will likely need chopped, Measure once again space behind seats for subwoofer boxes.
3) Respray vehicle, powdercoat wheels. Pirelli tyres.
4) Send off door cards, seats, steering wheel and gaiters for new leather and heated/cooled/perforated seats. Strip remaining carpet, and Dynamat every vibrating panel.
5) While seats are out, strip dash console fully. Install Bobs Brake Kit Hi-Spec. Refurbish dials and knobs, fix up heating/air-con. Tidy and refibreglass dash console, make good, deal with curling vinyl on main dash. Wire in stereo first 6 channels and sub lines to boot.
6) Fit subwoofer boxes behind seats. Final measure of carpets and order. Wire in amps to boot, wire up subs.
7) Fit carpets over custom-fit sub boxes so everything looks integrated. Fit trim to curling console/dash edges to cover it.
Fibreflass fix dash centre console, coat in black plastikote, try to make it neater fitting to main dash and refit.
9) Refit seats, steering wheel
10) Replace engine hoses with Samco, full engine bay clean.
11) Pop in Everest chip, install O2 sensor and BOV.
12) Laser wheel alignment

Seems like a good order now. Comments appreciated. Promise, promise to post good photos when I actually do something worth looking at!

[Jeemy]

So a parcel arrived today from Paul Matty Sportscars which included L & R A-pillar weatherseals, which I'd forgotten were on my original list.

I took the car up to the spray shop yesterday, and he told me about a 'flip' paint he has which looks candy apple red as normal but when the light hits it, has a gold sheen to it; kinda like a TVR tuscan's paint. Sound pretty out there but might straddle the line between OEM and bling quite successfully. I'm waiting for pics and a quote, and am going to do the wheels in a grey anthracite to mimic these Oz designs.

OzVittoria.png (59.54 KiB) Viewed 9596 times

Should look quite good on a red car with gold calipers, better than the existing black I think; closest example I could find:

RedCarGreyWheels.png (116.79 KiB) Viewed 9596 times

So the parts below include new badges for when the car is debadged and sprayed, new cambelt, alternator belt, power steering belt, oil filter, water pump & gasket.

P1010103.png (100.3 KiB) Viewed 9596 times

These will all go to the garage tomorrow for the engine to be checked. If he'll fit them for a reasonable cost, I'll have him do it, or if he will allow me to help on the vehicle I'll work with him to get them done next week. If not I shall be fitting them over the weekend; although I've not done anything like this I've watched it be done and the belts might be fiddly but it will be good fun/practice, the water pump might be inaccessible but it looks like a fairly simple part to replace. The oil filter I might need to buy a special tool for and it should really get a full oil drain and change but we'll see what the garage says, I won't be doing that on the front of the house, missus would kill me! There's enough fibreglass and oil spots on it already, I am banned from parking projects on the drive anymore.

Fingers crossed for tomorrow!

Jeemy

[Jeemy]

Well, a bit more research which I really should have done gleaned that while the cambelt is being done, the tensioner assembly and idler pulley should also be done, thankfully Paul Matty had both in stock so they are ordered for arrival Monday.

[surfboardfiller]

Will B sells used/refurbished Elise wheels in excellent condition. I think they go for less than £100.
I have a couple of Momo wheels from him that aren't too dissimilar to the Elan and aren't too small (like the Elise wheel is IMO) they fit the Elan Boss too.

[Jeemy]

OK,

While the car is being compression tested I am wondering about paint. I'm considering 3 options;

1) Calypso red again
2) Red with a gold flip
3) Rosso Monza as per 430 Scuderia.

Option 1 keeps everything classic and would be done with a 2-part Hi-D paint and lacquer so no more pinking, ever.

Option 2 would be pretty bling. I'm enclosing photos of an MG done like this - it looks plain red until the light hits it and then you see the gold flecks.

Option 3 I don't think I will go for. The maroon-type red is shown in the 4th pic. Can't find it easily on a 430 but have a pic of a 599. Its close enough that the door sills wouldn't clash massively and would be a bit more understated than bright red.

MG looks red under natural light

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Another angle

085.png (99.74 KiB) Viewed 9543 times

Gold fleck shows up under sunlight

087.png (118.25 KiB) Viewed 9543 times

Ferrari Rosso Monza

RossoMonza.png (106.17 KiB) Viewed 9543 times

I'm seriously leaning towards the gold flip - whats peoples thoughts? Too tacky? I know its very hard to say until you see it but its an interesting thought…..

[bobbrown]

The main problem with changing the colour is all the "shuts" and is not so straight forward as painting the same colour.
It can require an lot more work to change the colour and I would get quotes for both and if the differance is huge it may well make the choice simple.

Bob

[Jeemy]

Yeah, option 3 is pretty far down the list. Its being quoted at the moment, but if I do the gold flip the red base will be exactly as stock, so the door sills and other interior red won't look out of place, but it will shine gold in the sunlight.

[Jeemy]

All good news. Compression tested at 168-170 across the board, belts went in without fuss, there is a very slight tapping which he thinks is just the fuel injectors firing and nothing to worry about.

I need one plug lead as the cover is a bit bashed, will probably just look for a nice set of 4, and a nearside outer cv gaiter, and its getting MOT'd tomorrow.

Oil change and flushes to go, but happy days all round mechanically.

Rear bushings have a bit of play but hopefully these can wait until the rear hub group buy comes off. As ever thoughts on any of this appreciated, next step will be the initial detail of the engine bay and the rustproofing.

[bobbrown]

Rear bushings have a bit of play

You may be able to adjust the play out as they are adjustable but if there is a little wear in the stub axle then no amount of adjusting or new bearings will take this out, I used a touch of bearing lock to get rid of the small amount of play in mine.


Bob

[Jeemy]

Oh. Erk. Doesn't sound as hopeful. Hopefully it is not axle related. Will mention it to Andy at Hiflowheads when I get the next set of parts up there. Incidentally for anybody Scottish, he did the vehicle in under a day, £45 per hour, seemed rapier-quick whipping the bits in and out and fitting the belts, so up til now, very much recommended for engine work and general overchecks.

[Jeemy]

So I drove the Elan back to town to get started on the bodywork prep.

First thing was to get the seats back out, which was made immeasurably easier by use of a 12" ratchet and slim 17" socket on the upper part, with a breaker bar and a standard wheel socket on the bottom; I was able to do it myself.

Bolts and cups were placed into envelopes by area, just in case there is any variance by area.

I'm still awaiting a couple of bits for the compressor, and I had to fix the exhaust, battery and stereo on my van before I had anything to drive home in, so I spent the rest of the short period of afternoon I had left working on the door, which bounces open too far with some kind of botch-job bolt rattling about in the centre retaining hinge.

Managed to get it out using a screwdriver with a universal joint extender and a mini ratchet, and I made up a new M8 bolt with rubber grommets on either side, a square bolt to perhaps give it more of a chance of locking into place, and a second bolt below it to stop it coming loose.

Hey presto - door opens satisfactorily and smoothly and doesn't bounce off the paintwork anymore! I just need to epoxy repair the small chip caused by the previous bolt rattling off the bodywork, which isn't visible when the door is closed.

[Brit-Car-Nut]

So I drove the Elan back to town to get started on the bodywork prep.

I made up a new M8 bolt with rubber grommets on either side,

Jeemy: it is supposed to be a tapered pin: A100B6020F which is now obsolete, but you could use two flat washers and a clevis pin with a "P" linkage clip instead of a cotter pin.

Definitely easier to install or remove than a bolt and nut.

[Jeemy]

Cheers John, both sides have a bolt, and I just assumed that was the correct item. Obviously I didn't check the manuals, lol. That makes a lot more sense, even though its currently gibberish to me, I'll look it up and get the correct fitments.

The last 3 days have been busy, so I am proud to show the first real progress on the Elan.

*Outriggers (Interior)*

Today was a good day. Sunshine, little wind (otherwise I'd have been windsurfing anyway!, and my red Samco hoses arrived!

I'd hoped to get the rust treatment completely done but it took a little longer than anticipated to strip the vehicle.

First step was to get the B pillar covers off. This proved trickier than it looked.

I started by pulling away the carpet to expose the screws.

I noticed there was a little vanity cover so I removed it and filed it (I am already up to over 50 plastic labelled bags of fittings. Sadly, its missing from the other side.

So far so good, but then the top screw, had no head left, and just spun.

Once I worked out by going to the other side, that it just locates in a plastic clip, I pulled it with pliers. The clip is intact. All the screws will be getting copper-slipped on the threads, and black POR15 on the heads, so they will be uniform. I filed it in a plastic bag for later.

Pulling the carpet further down exposed all the screws. I was really worried I was going to damage the B-pillar, so I started using a little orange plastic radio removal tool to scrape the carpet away without damaging it - I'll need it to measure and cut the replacements later.

I then had to carefully remove the top of the B pillar seal (if thats what it is; the one that goes around the hood compartment and comes to the top of the B pillars. If it is, then Paul Matty can't get them anymore, and with the cost of seals and the fact its not leaking, I decided to try and rescue it) by carefully cutting away the Sikaflex, and prising it lose with the Tool of the Day, my little orange radio removal tool.

Once prised loose, I found another screw with no head left, seized solid. This took me over an hour to free with WD40 (taking care not to get any on the seals), various screw bits, attempting to loosen it by hammering a flat-head screwdriver under it, trying to turn it with pliers, and eventually success was had by hitting it with an impact screwdriver.

I wasn't keen on this as I felt I could hammer through the fibreglass if not careful. But luckily it yielded results, and soon the B pillar cover came off for cleaning and detailing away from the vehicle.

The second B pillar needed the same treatment as although the top screw had a head, it was pretty solidly seized. The impact driver free'd it without the need for WD40, and before you knew it, the second one was off.

The next step was to try and remove as much cosmetic items as possible so I don't risk getting overspray on them. I'll be masking up anyway, but nonetheless, parts need cleaned and treated, so off came:

- the door sills

- the back carpet (little orange tool proving brilliant at prying it from under the back bolster without damage)

- map pocket

- the ECU. This won't go back there because of the subwoofers I will be mounting, but there will be space behind the subs on top of the back sill.

Then I ventured into the centre console, prying the switches loose with, you've guessed it, the little orange tool, undoing the bolts which are in two places, under the storage lid (shown) and under the mirror switches.