New Member - Oahu

[kuehjo]

Aloha!

I saw my first Elan in 1992, in Los Angeles when I was a surgical resident at the County Hospital - one of my co-residents had one. I drooled - often and a lot. But never found one in a price range I could justify. So the years go by, and I build a couple of Miatas, a 928, a TR7, miss on a 1972 TVR (still crying about that one), build a 68 Firebird, purchase Sterling #1 (Nova for my brothers on the European side of the Pond) - (and that's a story all of its own) and generally mess around with a bunch of stuff. Drool over the Elise's, and then the Exige's, and ultimately the Evora - but still can't quite justify one. Then, I'm cruising through Craigslist one day (while visiting family in New Mexico), and there's a project M100 for sale for $5500 - nope - I missed on that one too.

Well, long story short, I'm on call one night, killing time waiting for a case to start, and so I'm on Craigslist (of course), and there's a 1991 M100 for sale here in Honolulu - and it's been listed for a week. I manage to put it off for another 2 days - but I can't resist - the guy is only asking $5500 (price had STARTED at $7500 a couple of weeks prior). So I call. And he still has it. And now I have it.

But here's the rub. The original owner put 39K miles on the car, then thought he heard a noise, so he pulled the cylinder head off, and had it checked out (fortunately it checked out just fine). But he never got it back together - and it has sat apart for 5 years. As near as I can tell, all is there with the exception of the muffler (apparently someone wanted it for their Honda...). So I've been reading, taking inventory on parts, tools, and fluids, and cleaning/prepping parts to go back together. Hoping to start putting some things back in place this weekend.

Just to set minds at rest - I will plan on doing a pretty thorough tune-up - oil, coolant, PS and brake fluids, spark plugs and wires, timing belt, water pump. I know that not all of that is due, necessarily, but the water pump is cheap, and too easy to do while I've got the rest apart - and I've seen some that didn't look so pretty for sitting... Am I missing anything else major that I should plan on addressing at the same time? I've seen the YouTube video on the Cambelt change (several times), downloaded the PDF on the head gasket change, and printed the Factory Service Manual (all are EXCELLENT).

(And trust me - after the 928, this isn't so intimidating.)

Ah - exhaust. That's my other question. I understand the stock exhaust to be 2 inches. I really only need a muffler, and I'm considering the Borla Thumper (sorry - I know some of you are real purists and are cringing to see me say so - I'm just not ready to plunk down the money for a full Piper or PECO yet... Shipping to Hawaii can be absurd...)

Thanks all - this is a great board, and I'm excited to be one of the (less than, now) 559 federal owners!

Mahalo,

Jonathan

[quiksilva]

Welcome to the site Jonathan,
not many places i can think of better to be driving around in a top down m100! As you are obviously aware plenty of info here on the site and don't forget to check the m100 how to guides on you tube
Regards
Andy

[Saltire]

Welcome! Excellent car, excellent to see a namesake enjoying it. You have an eclectic and enviable car history; mine includes Porsche RS60, Chimaera, TR5 and Elise 2. 928GT was the one that got away for me.

You’ll find a lot of mechanical parts available from Rock Auto in the US, albeit listed for different cars, and there are many US Elan owners who will prove a mine of information. Welcome to the pleasuredome.

[Steve A]

Hi Jonathan,
Sounds like you have more than enough skills to put your Elan back on the road in a very nice part of the world

[TorqueHorse]

Congrats on the steal! I'm looking for one myself and remember seeing that ad and actually looking up how much it would cost to ship to Texas Looking forward to seeing dramatic shots once it is running.