Lotus Elan Central

After seven years of elan ownership I thought it was about time I statred a project.

Just before new year I traveled 1100 miles to collect and take ownership of Ailwyn's old red SE

The car has not had an mot since 2007 and at present most of the dash board is sat in my spare room

Now that the snow and frost has nearly gone (it still have snow in mt garden that fell on 18 december 09) I can actually start getting to work on the car.

Pictures of the interior to follow, but for now

This is what an elan looks like after following 8 feet behind a landrover discovery for 80 miles in white out conditions

Andy_J wrote: I traveled 1100 miles to collect and take ownership of Ailwyn's old red SE

Wow - that must be about the longest possible round trip you can do in the UK? Sounds like a good chance to see the whole country in one shot!

Yep 10 Hours to get down and 12to get back, unfortunately it was mostly motorway driving.

I must say thank you to Ailwyn and his family for their hospitality, very much apreciated

Andy,

That was a long trip, hope all goes well on getting the M100 back up to scratch and back on the road

That must have cost you a fortune in petrol/diesel Andy What does that old disco do to the gallon ? 20/30 max ??

PS I've heard about Ailwyn's famous Welsh hospitality

Got some more work done at the week end on the elan. Now stripped out the alarm (not going to give any details on open forum), but need a battery and a pile of fuses before I can see if it will turn over. Couple of pictures of the inside before I stripped out the alarm.

Not going to try and start her until she has a new cambelt, current one is 9 years old. Will need new oil and coolant as well as that has not been done in the last 3 years.

Mark, it cost about £200 in diesel to get down and back, I seem to be able to get over 30mpg out of the disco. As for the hospitality, well I am welsh and was born less than 10miles for Ailwyns house.

Nice one Andy, another Elan hits the highlands

One more car and you will qualify for fleet insurance

Will have to pay you a visit sometime when my nose get the better of me!

Still to see the BRG after paint.

Jamie

Jamie Wrote:
Will have to pay you a visit sometime when my nose get the better of me!

You're welcome any time, just pm me first. BRG elan did look really good, but it has got a couple of huge stonechips now.

The snow is back so does not look like I will get the Cambelt changed on the red one today

Andy_J wrote:Just before new year I traveled 1100 miles to collect and take ownership of Ailwyn's old red SE

I think Ailwyn got it from Clemo in Torquay, so it's almost a Land's End to John O'Groats Elan.

Its a while since i posted on this.

Spent the last month trying to do the cambelt (3 weeks trying to get the crank pully bolt off), as looking at the service history the one on the car was 9 years old . Ended up making a locking tool and long breaker bar similar to the one on the WikiLec, found none of the other methods worked, not even my 840lbf air gun.

The old gemini alarm is completely removed now and the the engine turns over and I can hear the fuel pump when I turn the ignition on, so hopefully I can get her to start tomorrow. Just an oil change, add coolant and reconnect the spark plugs, fingers crossed

She runs... no obvious leaks or anything, fired first time without fresh fuel... now to put her back together and source the bits i am missing .....

no brake warning light on the dash board (even with the handbrake on) and permanaent engine check light (could easily be cause I don't have everything connected in the engine bay). Time to get out the laptop and elan scan.. guess it was too much to ask for everything to be spot on

Good one!

At least you're getting there!
Tried the trusty paperclip to see what's the CEL problem?

Keep us posted!

Spent the weekend at the car.....

Rebuilt rear brake calipers, using one of Bob's refurb kits and put in a new set of ebc pads
Rebuild front calipers, pads and disc looked new, except for a bit of surface rust, had to put new sliding pins in.
Engine management light was a code 41, so new hall effect sensor now in.
brake light fixed by plugging in the wiring properly.

I need to replenish my stock of spares

next problem is i am showing no oil pressure on the oil pressure guage, but the red light is out on the dash board, guess it is either wiring or a sender fault

good project Andy! Pictures and prose are always fun to see on these projects!