Jeemy's Elan Rebuild

[Jeemy]

Would a roof-rack strap do in a pinch? I have some here, otherwise I'll need to get ratchet straps in.

[Jeemy]

Dave, because when the car is angled backwards like that, the rear offside static ramp was tilting slightly up off the ground at the front edge, as you lifted the front of the car. Thats why I flipped it round so that the pressure on the back is counteracted by the extension. Then I did it with the other one too. I know it looks like its set up for the car just to roll backwards now; partly why I am worried. But its the safest way round it seems.

[Brit-Car-Nut]

Would a roof-rack strap do in a pinch? I have some here, otherwise I'll need to get ratchet straps in.

Any strap that can be tightened to hold. Ratchet straps are extremely inexpensive in the US, so I use them a lot.

As the wheel rotates, the spoke moves so it pulls against the strap which pulls against the ramp, so as long as there is minimal slack and the strap can't stretch, even a well tied rope will work.

[Jeemy]

Cool. I see exactly what you mean. Its only sitting at a slight incline, on 4 very secure surfaces - its been up there 3 days now (although I kept it level up until today) so I am not too worried but the more the merrier. I have jammed chocks in between the bars on the ramps and the wheel as well.

[dapinky]

Ratchet straps are extremely inexpensive in the US, so I use them a lot.

I got some from Poundland - but I can't remember how much they were

[Jeemy]

*HELLO TO THOSE READING IN THE FUTURE*
*PLEASE NOTE, NOW WOULD BE A GOOD TIME TO USE THE INSERTION POINTS ON THE WISHBONES TO INSERT RUST PROTECTION BEFORE YOU PAINT OVER THEM*
<ahem>

Picked up a couple from Amaz*n, but the next-day delivery doesn't seem so reliable any more.

Here's the rest of the pictures I took of the underside work so far.

These all show the underside before I started cleaning.

Nearside front wheel & wishbone

Offside front wheel & wishbone

Gearbox underside

I am guessing this is an oil pan. It appears to have suffered an impact.

Front centre. Screws holding the rubber lip visible, for those about to change for a Walker Rubber one.

Rear nearside wheel underneath

Offside back wheel & wishbone

First thing I did was spray the entire underside with G101 and pressure wash it off. This was not very successful, although the gearbox and fibreglass undersides cleared up really fast.

I then got out another product called Tardis. This worked a lot better. However it quickly melted my thin gloves, and my thick chemical resistant gloves were just too unwieldy to use a sponge to scrub with.

Good news, was that there is certainly some kind of old protective coating across a lot of the underside metal. The wishbones have surface rust only. Until I find my headlamp, I can't really see inside the back of the B-pillars and such.

So thats going to get a good scraping with a putty knife, before the trusty fibre disc comes out.

The underside of the gearbox which there was a lot of oily crud on, cleared up really nice.

Bad news, there are some kind of flat metal slides which are fixed in by screws on one side, and rattling loose on the other. The rear bumper has holes for fixing bolts and they are all completely missing.

However there's no better way for me to get to know the car then cleaning and examining each and every bit so I am not deterred, I will look up the problem areas in the manual, have a good scrape and then do another round with the Tardis on the metal and real bad crud, then move to the G101 again for closer to the rubber parts, then sand/grind the wishbones, and finish up with an APC, before masking off all the rubber and hoses, and getting the spraygun out.

Eventually as the rain set in I had to give up, there wasn't much light to take photos underneath. Tomorrow, I'm going under with halogen lamps, a brush with a handle, a set of painting overalls, and a balaclava & goggles!

[Jeemy]

*HELLO TO OUR FRIENDS FROM THE FUTURE ONCE MORE*
*PLEASE NOTE, IF YOU INTEND TO EVER FIT AN O2 SENSOR, NOW WOULD BE THE TIME TO MAKE SURE YOU CAN REMOVE THE BUNG, POSSIBLY ASSISTED BY HEAT FROM STARTING THE ENGINE - BEFORE YOU REMOVE THE EXHAUST*

With some better light Thursday morning, I assessed the clean dry bottom.

I spent a good amount of time experimenting with various tools including a heat gun, paint scraper, putty knife, putty scraper and ended up using a little window scraper that takes a Stanley blade. This was the best combined tool for getting the old undercoat off, and scraping down the rust; big enough to do decent areas, but small enough to get in around bolts.

Daunting though it seemed, I initially decided to break it into chunks and work just on getting the back wishbones and anti-roll bars cleaned and rust-treated.

This is a view of the back offside wishbone assembly after an initial scrape:

This picture shows the underbody coating coming off. It also shows the main issue I have here; while I am taking off a lot of good underbody coating, on every panel there are small dots of rust to be found. The only way to stop it in its tracks is to clean all the waxy crud off every panel, expose the rust and treat it:

Its only really surface rust and pitting. I worked down each wishbone to the centre and then up into the guts of the car, finding this at the top of the offside wishbone:

This looked a bit more serious.

To get to it properly, I decided it was time to remove the old silencer. A little judicious application of WD40 on one, and just heat to the other, meant the U-clip came off pretty easily. So far so good:

However, separating the silencer from the main pipe proved more tricky. The car had failed the emissions part of its MOT on emissions and my mechanic had told me the exhaust was a botch job - well he was right. The photo below shows the depth the pipe went into the silencer feed pipe (where the rope is on the left, about 6 inches!

I tried everything; removing the bolt holding the silencer on from inside the boot:

And during which, I discovered the original Lotus toolkit, a brand-new-looking NOS spare wheel & tyre, and all the original jacks & tools with very little rust.

I tied straps to the wheel ramps, heated it for 10 minutes with the heat gun, booted it, had guys with ropes pulling from either side while I hammered screwdrivers down the gap; it wasn't going to shift.

Eventually I gritted my teeth and hacksawed the old exhaust off. I was that p*ssed off with it, I wouldn't even bother trying to clean and sell it.

Unfortunately I decided to saw where there was easy access at the end of the centre pipe. It took about 25 minutes of hard sawing, and then I discovered I had too much pipe, blocking me from turning the silencer enough to get it out!

It was getting dark and I went home, revised the manual, deciding to remove the back bumper, which is only held on at the bottom by one bolt at the moment anyway! More on that later.

When I got in the next day, it was obvious that this was going to be too complex, and so I set to with a hacksaw again. Finally the silencer was out!

At this point I set to with renewed vigor, scraping as hard as I could, taking care round rubber parts and hoses, and started to remove all the underbody coating and surface rust from the centre section, antiroll section and wishbones. Looks pretty ugly, but its not too terrible. I had to stop regularly as even with safety goggles the amount of cr*p and dust getting in my mouth and eyes was pretty foul.

This was an interim picture taken to show progress. You can see the rust very clearly.

[Jeemy]

This shot shows the nearside wishbone assembly after about 4 hours of scraping. The bulk of the paint, crap, rust thats bubbled up under undercoating, and coating itself is off on the wishbones, antirollbars, suspension base, fittings, angled uprights, bolts etc:

And here is the problem area above the silencer pipe similarly:

It looks a lot better now the rust is down to the surface.

I then intended to keep on this section, but as my staff appeared to have borrowed my tools to refinish speaker cabinets, all my batteries were flat, so I went to the front with the scraper.

Light was starting to fail so I didn't take before photos.

The following morning, I started in again, firstly taking photos of my progress with the front. On a lot of the sections (these were virtually jet black before) you can see the same pattern; an almost white plastic coating covering most of it, but rust bursting through underneath. So it all had to come off. This was a particularly bad section:

Here's the offside suspension after a first scrape. I'll be dealing with the wheel hubs and brakes, when I get onto the calipers & wheels, after the car has been sprayed.

Here's the inside of the front bumper after a first scrape. You can see there is some rust on the fans which I will deal with when the downpipe and turbo are out:

The oil sump:

And the nearside suspension:

At this point I got the fibre wheel out on the drill, intending to blast away all the loose remainder rust, and undercoating. However it had an effect I've not seen before and did not expect.

Basically it heated the underbody coating with friction and started spreading around what was left! I had a quick go with a corner sander and it was the same; I ended up with no choice but to run the wheel over every section, which recovered some of the exposed rust!

The final 3 shots I managed to take were of the back area after grinding. There is quite a lot of exposed rust, and also still quite a lot of cleaning to do.

As I had to take today off, I misted Dinitrol RC900 over all the areas just to start killing some of the rust and provide a protective coating.

Monday, I am going to have to try everything in my power to dissolve away the remainder of the underbody coating. I am hoping the phosphoric acid based rust killer might actually dissolve the coating too; you never know your luck!

[Jeemy]

So, back into it today. Absolutely freezing so I developed the following 10-layer miner's outfit for working! I am not a fat bastard by trade but I look like a big fat blue condom! Or thats how my drummer, who took the photo for me, put it…..you can just see the back chromed wheel of my S-specced A6 behind me.

I was very pleased with the effects of the Dinitrol RC900; it all looks a lot oranger under the flash but compared to how it was, it had nicely oxidised what was left on the surface:

However, repeating my mantra "if a job's worth doing, its worth doing well" I still knew I had lots more coating and crap to get rid of.

So on the way in this morning I picked up, after a recommendation on an American site, an inexpensive "multitool" with a scraper attached:

This worked really well for clearing more rust off and by the time I'd spent an hour on the back section, it was starting to get really exposed. It looks a hell of a mess in the photos:

I worked across the centre:

….to the other wishbone:

And the problem area I originally removed the silencer to get to:

And this was what I was left with before rust treatment:

I washed down 3 times, once with my solvent-proof gloves, Tardis, and a scrubbing brush; you can see on the angled upright, its getting pretty clean, but at this point I was just moving the dirt around…..

I've not detailed every section over and over, but after a second going over with 3-in-1 foaming degreaser, then a G101 solution as a washdown, and then finally after an hours drying, a dry scrubdown with a steel brush, this is the difference after applying the Rust Remover.

On the left side of the angled upright (to the left of the brake hose) - virtually no orange. To the right, an untreated area. The camera really brings out the orange and makes me wish I had a proper hydraulic lift to go over this over and over, and get the areas flat and smooth; but you will see on the lower of the bars, and the problem area where the wishbone meets the angled upright, the rust is "inihibited" - this is the best we can hope for…….

You can see that the rust is turned black.

[Jeemy]

Here's a shot of a large area. I am working back to the double bracket just behind where the brake line crosses the body. It looks completely black to the eye, but the camera shows the areas up well where there is still a little surface rust:

Realizing there was no way even after 10+ days on this I was going to get it totally clean and shiny, I decided it was time to treat with POR15, which I've had good luck with and have to put a little faith in their marketing claims, which haven't let me down. Aside: when I did my first project, a van, I used POR15 on the rust and covered with Tie-Coat Primer; this lasted a year with no creep apart from 1 out of about 60 spots. After a respray, rust is creeping from bits both me and the spray guy missed, but a year down the line, the POR-treated parts are perfect. I'm going to trust that it will kill the last remaining specks of rust.

After a long scrubbing session with the phosphoric acid-based Rust Remover, this was the type of surface I was applying it to:

You can see the areas where I am just moving dirt around. The dirt and rust alike are getting hit with the acid, so I don't see a problem with leaving some of it there.

And this:

The application itself was a pig; painting upside down wrapped in as much protective gear as I could, with dimming light. There was no way I could take photos of anything, I was dripping in paint.

These photos are taken from the other side; I'll work back in from this side tomorrow doing a second coat and getting the bits I missed.

Doesn't look like I've done a fantastic job but this was the best I could do in the time I had and the light I had; and the back section is really intricate to paint; there's a lot covered these photos don't show, but I couldn't get back under to where I was looking from, as I was getting dripped on and it would have been too messy to risk squeezing back under the car and getting paint on the back bumper.

Where the photos look from, its obvious I've missed bits, but by this point I was having to exit because there was paint everywhere, it was dark, etc etc.

So the back will get a second coat, the front I am anticipating being a lot easier as the sections are bigger, less intricate, and its higher off the ground so I can work side-on instead of flat on my back.

And once the metal is covered in POR, I will be coating the entire underside in Dinitrol 3125; so anything I've missed will get done eventually, plus the insides of the undersills and other non-visible areas will get hit.

My high aspirations to not paint the brake and handbrake hoses were quickly quashed given the difficulty of the upside-down painting job, so these will end up getting a high-temperature red paint across the top of the POR15, and they got painted black with everything else!

All-in-all, I reckon there was 3-5 years left in the metal, maybe a lot less, and now there is 5-10. So overall, I'm pleased, although I wish I could have done a neater and more thorough job, there is plenty of time to tidy it up, and cover bits I missed, and eventually I just had to cut my losses given that to clean perfectly could have taken weeks, during which time I'd be leaving rust exposed, so what would I gain really?……

The more and more I look at the last 2 photos, the worse I feel about the job. But its wet paint, so it looks super scrappy, its shot from the side I was working on backwards, and I hope to show much better photos tomorrow.

[epipete]

Don't beat yourself up Jeemy, your working very hard and it will pay dividends in the end , at least having undertaken all this work you will be aware of future problem areas, the critical piece is the chassis because that can't be easily changed whereas the other bits can be - although at a price. Quite a lot can be removed, blasted, treated and put back - like the wishbones, radiator support, etc if you want more satisfaction

If you haven't already done so then I think, maybe, that you should look at the manuals for where to inject Dinitrol in the backbone and carry that out to be sure of getting the internals!

[Jeemy]

I'm aware its in the manuals! I hope that by the time I finish doing "what I know" to the underside, I'll be able to understand the injection points!

Certainly when I get the compressor out to do the undercoating, I'll be finishing up by blasting the ML through these points.

I am lucky as the interior is stripped, and the outer is getting resprayed and repaired, so I can be comfortable in perhaps being a bit more gallus on the bottom side than somebody with a finished vehicle would be.

Its a familiar situation as I have seen from these forums; the more you do, the more becomes apparent needing done. I am just feeling a bit bad because I can see really I should be spending 10-20 hours on jobs I am having to compact to 4, but I am constrained by time on work vs time leaving metal exposed, what can physically be done in the space, and of course hoping for reassurance that I am still doing more than most - or at best - enough!

[cliff]

You are doing an amazing job, I wasn´t that keen to work in the garage when it got to minus figures last winter, let alone outside. - Kudos!

I did my rear chassis with the suspension removed and there was still a lot of swearing, the air around you must have been as blue as your play suit.

You are right about the more you do, the more needs done, I just picked up some new front brakes & LH front suspension bits and I know I will not be happy until the whole front is rebuilt.

Probably a bit late to mention it but I found Marine Clean, rubbed in with a brush, was very good for removing most of the dirt from the chassis. Good luck and thanks for the FE 123 recommendation, used it on the front TCA after blasting, great stuff.

[Jeemy]

Well, I did the front yesterday. Again it had to be rushed into about 4 hours, but I'd already cleaned it once.

I repeated the work with the multitool, and as I had some Marine Clean lying around, had a go with that. No better at removing remaining coating than anything else. The only real solution is lots and lots of elbow grease and unfortunately I just had to do the best job I could in the time I had available while the metal was exposed.

So its done. One minor disaster; I made the Marine Clean 5:1 with boiling water and had it in a tub which I was dipping my scrubbing brush in. Unfortunately I managed to dip the back of my upper arm in there, and as it was so warm, I didn't notice until I felt a mild burning. Had to strip off and by the time I did so I was literally bleeding from my pores; that stuff is like napalm at high concentrations! Finally got it washed off and have been left with a mild alkali burn, it will heal fine but be warned! I've used Marine Clean many times and never experienced anything like that, but the high concentration, heat and fact it rested against my skin for maybe 10 minutes before I noticed, combined to be really unpleasant.

So yeah, no photos due to very limited time and having to rush away, plus rain.

The Marine clean did do a very good job of getting the bottom of the gearbox much cleaner.

Again, its not a perfect job and I will need to work on the wishbone uppers from inside the wheel arches later.

But, and I can't quite believe it, aside from removing the remainder of the exhaust pipe and masking up, I'm ready to undercoat the bottom of the vehicle. I should really put another coat of the POR15 on but I put it on as thick as I could, and its too wet to work today plus I have real work to do; they also suggest you do so within 1-2 hours and as it took me almost that to do the painting, I went over the back quickly and got the bits I missed, then went over the front again.

I can repaint sections using the hydraulic lifts and taking a bit more care, whenever I want in the future. Its just getting the major cleaning, grinding and painting done that concerns me for now.

Over the next few days weather depending I'm going to in no particular order, shave the dried paint drips, get the exhaust off, get the turbo out, fit gas struts to the bonnet, clean and detail the engine bay as much as possible, and possibly replace some hoses.

I'd rather wait until I've checked she at least starts OK after the exhaust is done before confusing issues with the hose replacement.

Once there is a dry day with little wind, I'll mask off the bottom of the engine, wheels, brakes and ramps, mask the sides of the car, and clean down the centre section and the bits behind the exhaust, before dousing in 3125.

I've never used it before, so I don't know how its going to affect my plan of painting the brake hoses red; i.e. if I don't mask them, whether they then won't take a coat of engine bay paint. When I paint them I also want to do the top of the engine block a la Dave's in 21063, but I may not be able to do it all at once.

Plenty time to think about my next move.

[hatters]

Great detailed photos and descriptions
Keep it coming please

[norman lovie]

good effort! - your neck must be giving you jip after spending all that time under the car
last weekend I also moved towards the rear end - i,m seeing a bit more rust penetration on the chassis and after a lot of thought - have decided it's coming out and going up onto the bench
good reading and pictures for any potential new owners to review to give them an insight into what to inspect for, - would be good to put a measure on - how typical is your's - my one i would say is at the least comparable, a bit worse in some area's - I would guess maybe about 2yr's tops of life left in it before structural rot would have set in

[Jeemy]

I'd say mine is pretty average and expectable after 20 years of life. Due to the obvious poor care, had it been a metal-chassis'd (chasssied?) car, I think it would be a lot worse.

My estimate of 3-5 years was before actual failure. I think you are right, 2 years before structural rust would set in. While it can only be slowed, not "cured", I think that it will need checked once every year or two and with maintenance and another underbody coat in 3 years, will last 6-9 years before it becomes incurable and needs more extensive repair/treatment, perhaps longer.

The picture below shows the finished suspension and undercarriage, with all metal parts coated in POR15. There is still visible rust but this is deliberate (!) - a couple of bits I know I've missed (between the engine mount sides which need a finer brush, the insides of the suspension mounts which will get Dinitrolled), and then I have deliberately not done:

- the side of the oil pan closest to the belts; it was too messy under there to get those in the master blasting session, they will get painted carefully to avoid getting anyting on the belts

- the screwthreads at the front of the oil pan - just in case I find out something is meant to be in there!

- the top of the oil pan and further up into the engine; I will do these more carefully so they look nice!

- the inside of the pieces sticking out of the bumper whatever they are called; they will be removed and painted off the car

Over the drivers side, you can see the gearbox looking much cleaner, again in needs a new clean with a finer brush, and:

- the mount coming off the gearbox which needs a more careful approach, and the top of the suspension bars coming to the wheel which I will do when I get to the arches.

Here you can see the front centre and what I guess is an anti-roll bar which still needs done, together with the turbo heatshield behind it which is coming off, the top of the front chassis piece which needs a finer brush once the rubber bumper trim comes off, and a couple of other bits to do neatly with the fine brush.

Sorry to go into too much detail but I will refer to this so I don't forget anything!

On the back, there are a couple of bits I didn't even realize I'd missed until I see them in photographs:

In my defence, its really dark under there even with halogens; and so messy trying to paint upside down in limited space. I shall be able to touch these bits up easily referring to the photographs.

Anyway, the bulk of the metal is coated, I know what to catch, the compressor will catch what I missed and I now just need a full day to mask and run the coatings. Hopefully Monday.

[Jeemy]

Having back-to-back meetings today I got a quick chance to do an hour when the sun came out.

I decided to fit the gas struts to the bonnet to make next week easier when removing the turbo and detailing the engine, and hold it open against light winds and while painting it.

I don't know if its the angle that the car is sitting at but there was a load of water and gunk behind the straps.

I wiped it out with kitchen roll!

I am going to have to adjust them to lower the bonnet flush anyway, and I had limited time so I didn't go crazy with the cleaning for now.

Having read the other thread about the Group Buy, I was conscious of the hidden plates, but managed to fit the kit without ever "letting go of them" using the following steps. NB you should put a lump of cloth between the bonnet corner and windscreen lower rail to prevent scratching

- fit upper adaptor plate one bolt at a time
- remove front bolt from lower plate, put back and turn one turn so it grips
- completely remove rear bolt from lower plate
- either remove adjustment nut or spin it to the top
- replace rear bolt and tighten one turn so it grips
- lift lower plate and slip front bolt out, put straight back in (under the old plate, to hold the underplate) and tighten to finger tight to prevent it spinning.
- remove rear bolt and slip adaptor plate under, put bolt back through old plate and new, tighten rear bolt finger tight
- remove front bolt and slip adaptor plate under, tighten front bolt finger tight
- check bonnet alignment
- finish tightening
- fit piston

Be careful the hidden plate doesn't spin; you can drop an allen key down the hole to hold it if you need to.

Done!

[epipete]

Very nice! Where did you get the struts & brackets from?

[Jeemy]

From the guys in Canada noted in the group buy....LC something. If you can't find details let me know, posting from phone as I'm on my way to a comp, can't find details easily just now.