Lotus Elan Central

Hey there all,

As you've probably have seen, we are the new owners of a known Steel Blue Elan, well preserved and cared for by HJ here on this forum and we will try to keep him as good and maybe even better than we bought it two weeks ago.

We don't expect major changes on the car as it's in 'good' condition and my husband is already using the Elan as his daily driver. Sure, we have noticed some small details that need our attention soon and we hope keep this thread updated with the (minor) changes, repairs, upgrades etc etc

As I've said in our last post in our Introduction thread, we bought a Bluapunkt Frankfurt radio for the car. Remco pulled the originally Mazda radio out of it's home position and where all the plugs were bond with soldering, he choose to have it a little less messy (soldering isn't in his or my skillset yet) with little clams and heat shrinks. Well, in the end, we can say we did what uncle Chapman would approve.. We added lightness to the car


Old radio out...


New radio in..



The cd-unit in the trunk.. gone

Remco has a morning shift this week, so he had send me a picture of the Blaupunkt Frankfurt in action


While my husband was working on the car saturday, the cap under the steering wheel was laying face down on the floor.. We know there is or was a tradition at Lotus Hethel, coworkers in the factory signed carparts as they assembled the car together.. The full interior is (probably) done by a guy with the initials J.P.C. as we know his (The Elan's) birthday too as often the interior is the latest thing you would assemble before it leaves the factory

I'm looking forward te see the pictures of the Blaupunkt Frankfurt in your dash, Meike! Still considering what to do... Yet I have a terrible looking Alpine radio/cd, and the Frankfurt-option is a nice one, but also quite expensive. Matbe the Blaupunkt Madrid 200 is an alternative.

Well.. time for an update?

The Elan is waiting for it's service and we are not sure about the technical condition of the engine / cooling fluid. So in that case, we parked it in our garage and next week we will bring him to Lotus Van Der Kooi for inspection.. and fingers crossed notting serious is happening under the hood. Lately we discovered some white smoke while starting and it continued a little longer than expected.. till the engine is warm and there is no white smoke anymore.. but still ..better to be precautious.

In the mian time, I'm thinking of the first changes we probably could do to our Elan. When we were looking to the green Elan in Belgium, I remember the green or the red Elan had the blinkers on the outside and the white city (?) lights on the inside. Which I was curious, is it easy to change or not? Because, to be honest, I think it looks better with the orange turn signals on the outside. What do you others think about this?





Not the best photoshop I ever did.. but it's just for the image.

Also. My husband has, the same as this forum, the cat on skates logo as his avatar, in his whatsapp profile. I have my own diy-corner in our garage/unit and I was thinking to make a parking sign for in our unit (metal walls so magnets will do) to make something out of wood and make it a Lotus parking (not only the Lotus) spot !

To be continued ..!

I will leave the engine/coolant issues to VDK to sort out for you.....

....but can offer some insight into the 'right' way round for the lights.

Basically, when the car was designed/produced in the late 80's the Road Vehicle Lighting Regulations 1989 came into law, and it threw a spanner into the works.

Prior to that date, the rules allowed for the front lights to be fitted as per the whim of the designer - with the indicator on the outside, and the side-lights to the centre of the car..... but the new rules meant that the individual lamps were not located correctly (in relation to distance between the edge of the car and the centre of the light).

The easiest way for Lotus to make the vehicle compliant was to simply fit the lamp units upside-down.

So, early UK cars were different to later UK cars - but I don't know if the NL legislation has such a worry..... and it was all so long ago that it really has no bearing on the car today. It was done purely to allow 'approval' for sale as a new car.

So, while there is a "correct" way to have them, it is really more down to having it look the way you want it to look.

Anyway, if you want them the other way round, and it won't affect your ability to pass any inspections that are imposed, turning them round is as simple as mounting the units the other way round - getting them out and swapped may be easy or may be harder, depending on access and corrosion of any fittings of the bumper.

dapinky wrote:getting them out and swapped may be easy or may be harder, depending on access and corrosion of any fittings of the bumper.

my experience is that the fasteners tend the rust, and since some of them are attached to plastic. they can break the plastic enclosure.
these can be repaired and the fasteners replaced with new ones, but its a little faff. and if you dont have the right stuff around, you may end up waiting for a week or 2 to receive the right things to DIY your repairs.

so, its not a big issue, but something to be mindful of when tackling the job. if it goes wrong., its annoying and likely going to hold your car hostage to the garage for a week before you get everything you need to put it back.

Thanks for the advice.. I really thought it was a simple swap. left and right or rotate them 180 degrees on each side.

Regulations here in the Netherlands aren't that nitpicky, I assume. Compared to the UK police I see sometimes on televison sometimes the smallest details can be a problem and worthy for inspection.
Yes they, police and such, can bother you with not fitting the right license plates (like stickers on the Elise S1 ) well, but we owned a Nissan Figaro for about two years, with blue plates and there they didn't bothered us at all, although the car was from 1991 and not 1978 or so.. It is who you meet and as far as I know, with MOT kinda regulations, they aren't that strict either.

But I won't swap them just on a tuesday afternoon. Really have to be cautious as you said with the rust and the fitting etc.

Sorry to read about coolant problems.
If there is white smoke, simply changing the coolant will not help you here i’m afraid…
I beloeve the car had fresh coolant when i finished it. Don’t know what happened in between?
Where is the smoke exactly coming fom and is the expansion tank wet on top by any chance!?

Love the radio!

Front indicators… when you indo the screws, for petes sake don’t push the housing in the bumper!

GijsBert wrote:I'm looking forward te see the pictures of the Blaupunkt Frankfurt in your dash, Meike! Still considering what to do... Yet I have a terrible looking Alpine radio/cd, and the Frankfurt-option is a nice one, but also quite expensive. Matbe the Blaupunkt Madrid 200 is an alternative.

Ik heb deze nog liggen.
Retro look, moderne features, klein prijsje

https://www.beslist.nl/products/elektro ... dio~105121

Sorry it has taken so long for updates !!

@ HJ ; As I remeber it correctly, the white smoke was also a bit blue sometimes. After we got the Elan back from VDKooi, they said the replaced a hose from the header tank to the engine.. but appereantly that didn't work. Still the cooling problems and the pressure in the header thank rose that much up, it also caused a leak. My partner bought a new one thanks to this forum Well, we didn't had the nerves to install that new header tank and then it occurred the car didn't start at all. We called road assistance (ANWB) and they said it was 100% sure the head gasket was done. A new appointment at VDK was made and they replaced the head gasket ofc for a new one and also did the header tank recplacement for us too.

After your reaction about the front indicators I've set the idea out of my head, especially things can brake that easily and the win after all.. why do I would like to try that after all? Nope.. They will stay the way we got it.

My husband drives the Lotus daily now again for work and we experience a low iddle.. because of the MOT check last year maybe, before we bought the car. The car isn't running nice, starts poorly sometimes and now with braking or selecting the reverse.. the engine stalls. As far as we know from VDK, it's not easily just thigthen or loosen a screw here or there. In about 4 weeks time we will bring the car to VDK for that issue and also, possibly / maybe / ask for the replacement or restoration of the fuel tank that leaks. They already stated it's the tank and not the pipe to the fuel tank. Advice is not to give it too much juice otherwise you'll smell that. Badly. It's like driving when you think (especially in these hot summer conditions) , will this car become a fireball when I brake or accelerate too hard? I think it won't do that so.. but it doesn't add up the fun by driving the car on a summer day.

Yesterday we visited a company not far away to measure and probably make us a new roof, because our roof has a little scar on the right (passenger) side above the first segment of rubbers/door. But my husband did a repair with a special kit.. sadly the repair kit caused a new scar below the patch he attached there. The guy, big fan of uk classic cars, helped us and will give us an offer soon I guess. A comforting idea when fall and winter already peaking around the corner. At the end of September/October we will have our holiday to Portugal and France with the camper. Then the Elan will have a sleepover at VDKooi and maybe directly after we got home again, maybe the appointment at CabrioCare.

Also.. a few months ago Remco (yes my husband) gave me huge inspiration with the idea of making our own centercaps for the standard rims under the Elan. Like on this forum and on his WhatsApp as well, he uses the Cat on Skates logo as his user icon and because I have a laserEngraver and cutting machine, he thought about making our Cat On Skates center caps. Maybe in color, maybe in silver and black.. I don't know yet. But yes.. working on it and hopefully my busy head will stay and be focused on this project this year.

Hope to gave you all more and frequent updates in the (near) future !

*Note to self ; Make more Elan photo's for the forum and ourselfs