Breathing new life into an old car

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Download the manual from this site as a pdf, then print off all of it or just the relevant sections.

That is definitely what I am going to do, I forgot to clarify it was an original/authentic factory copy of it he was after if I happen to come across one.

[Tuga2112]

i understand you trust these mechanics and they have a lot of experience.
its interesting you mentioned evora, mr2, esprit, ferrari and exige. (all mid engine cars. )

if your going to get the car painted. i would suggest to postone the work to remove the engine until you have the clam shell and the prongeron out. the mechanics may change their mind about removing the engine when they see the difference in access when those parts are out.

i dont mean to be rude about it, but unlike Dave. i find it hard to simply accept a decision that seems very excessive for the intent you specified earlier on.

I can understand why mechanics are keen on the idea tho. Working on a engine outside of the car must be very easy and allows them to estimate fairly accurately how long any task will take. and since they have the tools and space. maybe removing the engine is not the kind of trouble Myself or Dave would have to go through to achieve.

[dapinky]

In fairness, I have done an engine/gearbox swap in a day (a long one, but all in a day!) on my own, from the top.....

.... with 2 or 3 blokes working on it, and from below on a lift with a hydraulic engine/tranny jack, I'm sure it can be done in fairly quick time. Much of the work is a 1-man job anyway, as extra people get in the way, until you need a hand, then they become a godsend. With the best of both worlds, and all the kit, it is certainly an easy way to get at everything.

I would suggest that whilst it's out, you look at (and swap for silicone) the short hoses for the secondary throttle - they are usually hard to get at, but easy with the engine out. Likewise, consider doing a replacement of the IAC valve (not cheap for a Lotus one, but a GM one can be adapted to fit for $10).... at the very least, I'd undo and replace the 2 setscrews which hold the IAC to the rear of the inlet manifold.... they can seize a bit and are a bugger to get tools on when the manifold is fitted to the engine in the car - but a breeze with it out..... lastly, a good time to check that the starter motor is in good condition - nasty job to replace it with the engine in, 5 minutes with it out!

[Relevance]

its interesting you mentioned evora, mr2, esprit, ferrari and exige. (all mid engine cars. )

that is interesting but it was purely coincidental, although there are probably more mid engined cars there than any other layout....

if your going to get the car painted. i would suggest to postone the work to remove the engine until you have the clam shell and the prongeron out. the mechanics may change their mind about removing the engine when they see the difference in access when those parts are out.

i dont mean to be rude about it, but unlike Dave. i find it hard to simply accept a decision that seems very excessive for the intent you specified earlier on.

I can understand why mechanics are keen on the idea tho. Working on a engine outside of the car must be very easy and allows them to estimate fairly accurately how long any task will take. and since they have the tools and space. maybe removing the engine is not the kind of trouble Myself or Dave would have to go through to achieve.

Paint is still to be determined, I tried to get creative and reach out to a local vo-tech school to see if they would be interested in taking my car in as a "learning experience" since they likely never get to work with fiberglass but I haven't heard back. I have a feeling you might be right about a change of course once they get in to it
but only time will tell. Regarding it being excessive, I would agree with you based on what I've heard. It might help to add the context that I do not have a garage, or even a driveway of my own at my house and the owner of the shop is allowing me to store the car there and work with his technicians to do this restoration as a favor to me. I happily provide all input that I receive from the forum to them but at the end of the day they are the ones doing the work

I would suggest that whilst it's out, you look at (and swap for silicone) the short hoses for the secondary throttle - they are usually hard to get at, but easy with the engine out. Likewise, consider doing a replacement of the IAC valve (not cheap for a Lotus one, but a GM one can be adapted to fit for $10).... at the very least, I'd undo and replace the 2 setscrews which hold the IAC to the rear of the inlet manifold.... they can seize a bit and are a bugger to get tools on when the manifold is fitted to the engine in the car - but a breeze with it out..... lastly, a good time to check that the starter motor is in good condition - nasty job to replace it with the engine in, 5 minutes with it out!

Are there part numbers for the short hoses or are they generic hoses cut to length? I do have an IAC valve in my cart at Rock Auto and was going to ask if that was something I should get so theres that answered! good idea to check the starter too - I keep coming across an Ebay listing for a "high torque" starter motor for some reason, maybe its a sign....

[dapinky]

hoses are just a length of 3mm bore vacuum hose - I buy it 5m at a time, and it's enough to re-plumb an Elan entirely..... for the bits at the back of the engine, you'll only need about a foot at the most..... unless you use the opportunity 'whilst you're there' to do the rest of the vacuum hoses including the one through the bulkhead to the heater control unit.....

...... oh, the joys of project creep.

[Relevance]

bit of an update...

For the time being, a respray is back to being the plan going forward. Received a great quote for some paint work and have tentatively made plans to have the car sent out for paintwork/bodywork while the engine is out. The shop is in the middle of a few major projects to get done first and then we'll work on my car over the winter. In the meantime, I have been receiving boxes almost daily from Rock Auto and am finalizing an order of parts that I will likely only be able to get from the UK (springs, struts, OE head gasket etc) so I can make sure it all looks good before the work begins.

Throughout this process I have done a lot of research on this forum and other Lotus websites for cross reference parts and have been keeping them in a spreadsheet which I will attach here. Some of these come from GGLC x ref sheet as well as the ElanM100.com table, others are from users here on various LEC threads that I combed through.

Notice: I am NOT an automotive professional nor an engineer and cannot verify with any degree of certainty that any or all of these cross referenced parts are correct. If you are in doubt, many of these OE parts are still available.

Xref.xls

Cross Reference parts spreadsheet

(40 KiB) Downloaded 563 times

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I was able to salvage the hubs, rear wishbones, and oil pan off of the Calypso Red Elan in LA that met its untimely demise with the sawzall (in addition to the front rafts, wishbones, TCAs, triangulation link etc). Paint is still being figured out as the initial painter we were going to use fell through but there is a backup. I’m down to very few things that I know that I will need and am planning to order the Road/Race springs and dampers from SJ (SJ100C0012) - has anyone used these that can provide any input?

[Tuga2112]

your stacking up more spare parts than me :$

[Relevance]

your stacking up more spare parts than me :$

for what its worth, they were incredibly cheap and were already in the US. The owner of the parts car either had no idea what the parts were worth or simply didn't care.

Given the current state of the vehicle I would be more inclined to believe its the latter.

[Tuga2112]

i saw the pictures on facebook. was certainly not looked after with intent to sell a fair share of the parts

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i saw the pictures on facebook. was certainly not looked after with intent to sell a fair share of the parts

Certainly not but from being in LA it’s whole life the parts are certainly in a lot better condition than what’s coming off of the car

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A long update made as short as possible...

no progress had been made on the car in a few months for a variety of reasons up until recently. With the battery charged we were able to drive it enough to get it on a lift at the shop, where we found rust, lots of rust. At this point it became apparent that it was not going to be financially worth it to restore the car the way I had it planned out.








Fortunately, I have also moved in this time and now have a garage that I will be able work on the car in. Last Friday the car was trailered to my house but decided it had no desire to start when leaving the shop, even while on a jump pack. Once it was in the driveway it did manage to get it to start when it was hooked up to my Jetta and it actually ran smooth for a couple of minutes. I was feeling pretty good about my little Elan hearing it run and sitting in it for the first time in months.... all the way up until the brake pedal went to the floor as I was backing in to the garage. Oops...

so now, after doing a complete 180 I'm going to be doing as much of the work as I can myself. My main goal before it starts to get warm outside is to get it up on some jack stands, fix the corner with the brake leak/replace front brakes while i'm in there , then remove and replace the alternator so that the car can start under its own power and worry about everything else in due time.

[par]

Anti-roll bar looks a bit crumbly but the other rust just appears to be mainly surface rust which can be dealt with quite effectively with wire brushing, rust treatment with something like Bilt Hamber Hydrate 80, painting POR15 (which in grey is a very close match to the chassis colour) and then a layer or two of chassis protector. Quite a lot of hours of messy, awkward and uncomfortable manual labour but very satisfying when you see the transformation.

If you are going to be stripping a lot of the parts off anyway it helps with accessing some of the trickier areas.

Good luck and keep the pictures coming

[Tuga2112]

i remember the post on facebook... it was clearly a moment of panic... and i was looking at that thinking.... "nothing to worry about. just a lot of elbow grease needed "

let the "fun" begin

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small update as I've actually finished something. I bought the car with a broken left hand tail light cover that I figured I could do something about. After taking the lights off the car and taking them apart I cleaned, degreased, and wet sanded the covers to clean and prep.

I began by making a mould out of Crayola Model Magic I got from work - the material does not absorb resin and is also water soluble for removing the mould.



I did not let the model magic dry fully due to impatience and some of the surface material stuck to the resin, not a huge deal as it could be sanded off but an avoidable mistake.


after sanding I poured some additional resin as a top layer to allow me to sand the excess down the pour to flush with the light cover.





I let the resin cure for a full 5 days before giving the whole unit another thorough cleaning. the biggest issue remaining is the color of the resin was no where near the color of the lens cover. To combat this, I sprayed a few light coats of Rustoleum tint spray to level everything out.





overall, the labor on this repairs was extraordinarily easy but it did take a few weeks between letting all of the coats of resin cure

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Decided to do the responsible thing this week and check the outriggers and jacking points...







I got out various cutting and sanding tools and went to work for a good 20 minutes, then I saw the front legs of perhaps the biggest spider I have ever seen retreat into the rear section of the outriggers. I considered trying to angle grind him into oblivion but thought better of it - going to return tomorrow with some chemical warfare options

[Relevance]

long overdue post, with progress!

it took a lot of cutting, grinding, pleading, getting creative and swearing but the jacking point on the drivers side is finally out. Once I finally got an allen key to fit the bolt it wound up pushing straight up and through the body still in tact with what was left of the box. All the pieces are with a welder now to fab up a new box and jacking point then we get to put it all back together. Fun times ahead no doubt.


the hole through the body left by the jacking point




during the time I was trying to figure out how to get the jacking point out I managed to removed the rear springs and dampers, which were absolutely disgusting and rotted, the top links - also disgusting and rotted, and the Rear ARB which wasnt too far gone and looks alright after a sanding and coat of paint.


right to the dumpster with these




ARB before and after

[Tuga2112]

easy jobs.

[dapinky]

The top links take some battering before they get degraded to a stage where they are unusable...... The 'adjustment' bit is solid cast steel with an eye (bush) welded to it. The 2 bolts which do the adjustment will look crap, but should come out with a suitable hammer (once the nut is off - or destroyed) - they are just a pair of bolts really.

If the channel is rusted it should clean up - just so long as it hasn't gone so far as to have holes. It can be welded/plated or replicated, but new (s2) versions are available.

[Relevance]

easy jobs.