Small (or maybe not) project. 91 elan

[muley]

Having had a significant number of Elan parts powder coated, please make sure the items are etch primed as part of the process. Some of mine weren't and the result was very poor.

[Saltire]

Might be worth speaking to Polybush or Kelvedon. I think I got some of my poly bushes from Kelvedon, although I stuck to OEM rubber as far as possible.

My local zinc plater is Doug Taylor. They’re a fair distance from you in the north-east, although they do collect and deliver. I’ve never used them for anything as big as a wishbone, though.

[dapinky]

Joao,

I understand your thoughts on the rear wishbones - but still feel that a dip in Phosphoric acid, followed by hand-painting them with Satin Black POR-15 is going to give you the best 'bang for buck'. Powder coating will look great - but I don't know how long for - and it's hard to touch up later down the line.

As for the bushes, then you're limited to the 2 places you have looked at - SJ's & SWL. (Unless there are now any other manufacturers for them). Back when the bushes were developed, an agreement was made between the three parties involved (the manufacturer and 2 retailers) that the funding for the development would be provided in return for sole (split?) rights to retail. As such, the items from either place will be identical, and it is a matter of sitting down with both websites and deciding who will give the best deal (after postage is added) for what you need. It may be that all from one place is best for you, or some from each..... but it won't be a lot different, as the gentlemen's agreement between them is to sell for a comparable price. Some may only be available from one or the other - but they all come from exactly the same supplier (who I know personally, and have used for the last 30+ years).

[Tuga2112]

its been a while, but i have made my mind up as far as the wishbones.
Those will be powder coated.
Im expecting those to be done by thursday, i will upload pictures whenever i get them back.

Today I Made a little more progress and removed the Fuel Tank. At the moment the only thing behind me and the rust that needs to be addressed on the rear of the outriggers is the fibreglass.
I Need to order some fibreglass repair kits, but apart from that, the real thing that stops my progress is the fear of not being able to finish the job.

Is there anyone in the forum who has fixed the rear of the outriggers behind the rear panel that i could look up their experience and learn as much as possible in order to get that little bit extra confidence needed in order to tackle the job.

Im also looking at the rear suspension and thinking of taking out the upper arms and anti rollbar, and give those some rust prevention treatment. it doesnt make sense to go through al the work for the wishbones and leave the rest as is.

Some pictures of the Fuel Tank.

[muley]

I can understand your trepidation in doing the next step

I am fairly happy dealing with fibreglass having mended holes in 60s classic cars and repairing/cladding a fair sized clinker built boat.

Judging by the other stuff you've done ~ you'll be fine.

ETA I sold one of my first M100s because I put my hand down behind the B pillar and pulled out a fistful of red rust...

Get stuck in with your cutting disk ! Fibreglassing and filler can hide a multitude of sins.

[Tuga2112]

progress has been made a few weeks ago.

after that happened Ive removed ALL the front and rear suspension arms. and im getting them powder coated

Currently im looking at the triangulation arms and wondering if the inner sleeves are supposed to come out or not before putting the bushings from SJS

The SJS part im talking about is this ~(code SJ100C0009)


and heres a quick video i took bfore i was finished with sorting out the outriggers.

[Tuga2112]

im not finally in the process of removing the paint from the car.

I Have used a random orbital sander with 60 grit for the easy to reach parts and then tried soda blasting the tricky ones.
after soda blasting failed i moved on to using sand instead, which had some effect but still wasnt good enough to get to the original primer from the facotry.

Ive received a tip from a owner (who i dont know if hes in the forum or not, but he is in the faceook groups) suggesting to use metal scrapers for the bulk of the paint.

so before paying up 35 quid for the suggested tool i tried carefully to do the same using a flathead screwdriver.
This is roughly how much progress i made in a hour in an area that the sander would have limited effect.

im not quite sure if its the way forward, but it sure feels more productive, and keeping up the motivation has its own merits.

I Have also fitted the Bosch/02 Mercedes C Class W203 C220 2.2 CDI Auxiliary Water Pump 2038350064 that Phill suggested.
Mine was ordered from AutoDoc and didnt have cable to connect to the existing plug. so i have recorded the task and will be posting here to help anyone who intends to fit one in the future before i make it availalbe on youtube

[Tuga2112]

just uploaded another video on youtube about the removal of the front suspension.
im just keeping here a record of it as this is part of the whole log of repairs in the car.

Ive also removed all the rear suspension arms off the car, just havent had the time (and patience) to edit the video.

[Tuga2112]

progress has been made and 90% of the car is sanded and ready for primer. but in order to put it on the trailer i need to put the fuel tank and whole suspension back in.

in order to put the fuel tank back i need to source some "rubber foam pads"

Does anyone know what i should be using for these ? Im thinkign about buying just a couple of thick self adhesive EPDM / Neoprene sheets like
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/254496417291 ... 4984148317

hopefully i could souse these from some high street store in order to not have to wait for delivery.

my question is simply, if there is any need to worry about what i use to do the padding ?

[MPx]

Sounds like you alredy know to use closed cell foam (which EPDM is) so that it is waterproof and doesnt hold moisture unlike most padding foams which are "sponges" and will hold a significant amount of water against whatever surface you put them near. Esprit tanks rust through for a past time due to poor padding material selection.

[dapinky]

Joao,

Are you sure you need some new pads?

I only ask because when I changed my tank, some of the pads remained stuck to the bodyshell and not to the tank, so I thought I was 4 missing when I wasn't.

I know the WSM says that they should be stuck to the tank, but in my case the adhesive had separated and they were still on the car.

That said, they were (are?) only really to hold it firmly in place and absorb minor vibration, so I wouldn't think the material selection is over critical. They are quite dense though, so I'd have thought something like 6mm neoprene would be suitable. Water-holding is less of a worry as they don't come into contact with any metal.

Good luck with trying to line up the bolts from the hood stowage area and getting them lined up with the nuts on the metal straps - it is a 2-man job, and even then it isn't always easy - I used some much-longer bolts and found it a little bit easier, but still not easy (until the time it "just works" by lining up perfectly and getting started.)

[Tuga2112]

Are you sure you need some new pads?
I only ask because when I changed my tank, some of the pads remained stuck to the bodyshell and not to the tank, so I thought I was 4 missing when I wasn't.

Big thank you for that Dave.
Upon another inspection i found 2 missing pads attached to the body of the car. 2 attached to the tank, and the remaining 3 came loose when taking the tank apart, lucky I been using multiple types of organization and storage of the parts where on a quick search through the hundreds of bits that came off the car i foudn the missing 3 pads.

This now begs the question as to what is the suitable glue to use. im thinking spray adhesive probably will do the job.

Good luck with trying to line up the bolts from the hood stowage area and getting them lined up with the nuts on the metal straps - it is a 2-man job, and even then it isn't always easy - I used some much-longer bolts and found it a little bit easier, but still not easy (until the time it "just works" by lining up perfectly and getting started.)

parts manual says Bolt M10 45mm
The replacement bolts im using are 50mm i am planning on attaching the top of the strap first at the vry tip of the bolt, carefully jack up the tank to its position and finally attach the bottom of the straps, tensioning the bolts at the end.
removing the tank was a PITA I expect that getting the allignment correct is going to take a lot of attempts.

I'm sure the video will demonstrate how hard it is to align the tank

[dapinky]

Glad you found the pads.

I used some silicone sealant to hold the pads to the tank, working on the principle that once the tank is in, it will hold them in place anyway.

I didn't undo the bottom bolts when I did mine, but it is probably easiest to get the top bolts holding on a bit of thread before doing up the bottom ones - at least you can reach in the door to get to both ends of the lower ones to get them started.

My only tip with replacement is to make sure that you fit the balance pipe at the top before lifting it into its final resting place otherwise it can be a bit awkward to reach under the bodywork - and ensure that you don't squash any of the pipework. I found by putting it under the car, then lifting it up enough to get a jack underneath, then lifting it higher until I could get the pipes attached, then lifting into final position worked quite well. Oh, and I still don't know if it's easier to fit the rubber grommets round the filler neck from the inside or the outside - but I fitted them at the end of the job, which was fun!!!! (it was made harder by the roll hoops, so without them it would be a lot easier, I think).

[Tuga2112]

and I still don't know if it's easier to fit the rubber grommets round the filler neck from the inside or the outside - but I fitted them at the end of the job, which was fun!!!! (it was made harder by the roll hoops, so without them it would be a lot easier, I think).

the manual says to fit the grommets after raising the tank,. however... mine are not really in a ideal shape to refit... i mean they can go back. but they wont be sealing anything given their condition.
this raises another problem with replacements. SJ only has the bigger one, and for what it is. the price seems excessive.

I've measured the diameters of the holes where these grommets fit and i believe they be of imperial sizes
large hose 2" inner 3" outer
small hose 11/16 inner 2" outer

I'm having no luck searching for replacements at the moment. most grommets i come across are in metric sizes and so far the best alternative ive found was to buy semi-blind grommets of 50mm and 80mm and then drill through them a hole of the inner diameter i need.

for the moment, since i need the car able to go on the trailer ASAP i will be fitting the fuel tank without grommets. but will need to figure out how to source replacements before putting the car back on the road.

[Tuga2112]

I may not been updating this thread, but thats mainly good news. as the progress i made has not required to ask for help here (although there was a few times i used the facebook group to ask "quick" questions.

either way. some of the car is currently painted, and im in the process of putting the doors back at the moment.

the suspension has been removed, power coated and re installed, 5 videos on the subject, (front + rear removal + removing bushings + front + rear instalation ) some of the them already "live" on my channel. some are queued to go live in the basis of a video per month

a new radiator has been fixed (video for it not edited yet) (probably going live in november or so)

the videos that are already online are here attached in case anyone whos curious.

Removing rear suspension arms

Sanding paint

Removing seized bushings from the rear wishbones

Using bodyfiller to repair chips and dents in the fibreglass

queued up videos include


if anyone wants early access to those videos i can put them in a mode on youtube where they are visible using a direct link.

unfortunately youtube does not allow people to view videos directly with a direct link that are scheduled, this means i need to un-schedule the videos in order to let people see them.
for instance, the following link is to the video scehduled to be made public on 2nd july. 2022
which if your reading this before then, it shoudl just tell you this video is private.

all in all, progres sin the car is being made, at a slow pace. but nonetheless its progress.

[Tuga2112]

life contnues to go on. BUT i have some sad news to report.

after 8 years of ownership and a restoration task. the car has failed me for the first time during mid december, during a cold -7 degree morning.

the alternator packed in, and the battery wasnt strong enough to arrive at work. making me miss the xmas party from the office.
as a sad side effect. i tried to fold the roof to check the battery connections... which had some unintended results.



so, the car is back in the garage. and 5 videos will be recorded eventually thanks to this unfortunate event.

the plan is to do the following steps

1 - how to remove the sub-frame
2 - how to remove the alternator
3 - refurbishing the alternator (using the kits from SimonP's group buy from years ago)

4- removing the hood frame.
5 - removing and re-sewing a new plastic window

as far as all these tasks. I am not expecting to have any dificulty with 1,2,4 as far as 5. Clemo has given me enough pointers that i feel confident no major dificulties will be at hand.
refurbishing the alternator is a complete mistery to me. however the refurb kit i have together with prior experience in both refurbishing brakes and my electronics experience. im assuming that what needs doing will be fairly obvious after the alternator is opened up.

but if anyone has insight into that or any experience with alternator refurbishment, all help is welcome.

in the meanwhile, according to my youtube channel. the Apost panels are not fitted yet. or the doors. or a bunch of other parts. which sadly are all videos that need to be edited, but the spare time and motivation has been challenging to obtain.

[Hector2021]

Thats a bummer with the rear window. I suppose though it does show it had become rather brittle over its time and was probably ready to give in sometime soon anyway.
The wikilink suggests repair costs to be not much £wise but about a day of yours and a +1 life wise.
Ive been following your excellent videos and its evident that you have gone some distance with this cars restoration. Surely this is just a minor 'syntax' error

[chrism]

Hey Tuga - sympathies offered about that rear window and a high-five for keeping the old girl dancing for such a long time

Thank you; I have benefitted enormously from your super video skills.

Your impending alternator refurb will be particularly useful for most of us (I'm getting the feeling that many of those Asian replacements seem to a bit of a lottery by offering their own problems...) and the plastic window fix is bound to resonate with all of us m100-ers.

I can confidently say that none of us are looking at our watches and tapping our fingers impatiently: You've already helped with so many of our problems so please allow yourself loadsa breathing space...

Thanks again + Happy New Year to you.

[RonR]

Towards the end of last year I refurbed my alternator using one of Simon's kits - wish I'd taken pictures now, but all was fairly straightforward apart from:
1. separating the two halves of the alternator body, my one didn't want to part company.
2. The car's not running yet (real life got in the way), but when it went back together my first attempt gave some slop in the bearing end float, I had to finagle the bearings so the end float was correct on the second go.

[Rambo]

Happy New Year Jõao. 2023 can only get better for you

Re. 5. If you are anywhere near a ship's chandlers it might be worth getting them to sew in the plastic to the hood. They should be used to this in sails etc... and should make a good job of the double stiching