Lotus Elan Central

by **ronjr** » Sat 03.01.2009, 20:15

This is my first post/reply since I became a member in 2005. The reason has been shyness in coming forward in any technical matter in which you all seem to be well versed already. On the subject of hardtops I do feel I can add some useful pointers, as I got the first one from Simon when he was in Cumbria and a second one from him over a year ago at his Sawtry premises.

The first one was fitted unpainted and unlined inner roof. I had to have both done locally later. The total cost was around £2k. The second one was fully prepared by Simon and required me to drive 600 miles there and back with an overnight stop over. I believe the M100 did not come out of the factory with a hard top option as my original Elan SE did? However I did briefly experiment with windbreak and rollover bar and eventually decided on a hard top from the point of view of safety, comfort, and waterproofing. It is my opinion that the hardtop should be the same colour as the body so that it looks as if it were all one and not an add-on.

The back windscreen is glass (shielded a bit from the rain, a bit like the old Ford 105E). It does not have nor does it require a H.R.S. It makes such a difference to the almost opaque old PVC in the soft top. I do not interchange - for me the HT is on permanently. Not having the soft top gives me more storage space up top behind the seats.

The hard tops come out of a mould and therefore are all identical. Simon's skill is used in fitting it to each car individually, as 15 year old cars and seals have probably moved with age. I feel we are privileged to have such as Simon doing this still. With my businessman's hat on I reckoned all his development would be about £50k and he would need to have charged about £4k each to make a profit from the likely small numbers of takers. I would say to you: "don't keep it pent up: let it flow".

by **MattDon** » Sat 03.01.2009, 20:26

thankyou for that post, and id like to add i just had mine fitted and im totaly blow away with the top, i cant state clearly enough that this is a bargin, while i do apriciate its alot of money to some (myself included) after seeing the labour, tooling and materials that go into making this i realy do apriciate where the money goes dont for one second think its lining someones pockets, this has been a labour of love by a talented desinger who has provided a service to other elan owners. If you want more details on the hood itself and the process goto my project thread (search loki), i'll be posting up pictures and everything else in the next couple days.

by **Mcclure** » Sat 21.03.2009, 12:49

Just to say that we have been up to Sawtry (from Paris takes a longish day) and Simon had the top on in 24 hours.
Couldn't be more pleased with the result : cockpit sound level lower, visibility improved even compared with a new soft-top, looks great and meeting Simon was an added bonus.
Finances permitting... should be given serious consideration. We have no regrets whatsoever.
And we are NOT going to miss our in-cockpit rain gear.
Thanks Simon

by **Specky** » Thu 01.09.2011, 12:13

Well eventually I got round to taking the plunge, and then........ got it painted.

There was a certain hard top covered Elan which is normally driven by a "Nutty Reverend" and that inspired me to go the same route... :shock: