Chassis and Suspension Restoration - Job List

[AJSGSE1990]

Good morning, finally had the time to get the car on the lift and have a good look at the underside. I have just under 2 years to get this car ready to be a reliable daily driver for the next 10 years. To my eyes the car looks reasonably sound, sure there are some spots of surface rust but nothing looks terrible for a car of this age. The idea is to take it all apart, body will get a respray anyway, and clean and paint every component. I would really appreciate if somebody could look at these pictures and say if there is anything that looks worrying and that might require more than a parts washer and refurb. Once the chassis is bare I might just acid dip and re-coat. I did that for my 1969 Alfa and it worked very well.

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[Simon_H]

If you are planning on stripping everything back to a bare frame and spending on it you could, if you felt like it, get a spare frame and swap everything over to it as you refurbish everything. There is one for only £105 on eBay and it looks pretty good as well.

[roy666]

I restored mine a while back… and i think the best indicator of rusted-through areas that need repair is the good old screwdriver prod… as hard as you can. Where the rear chassis suspensions arms attached to the main box chassis is usually one of the prime areas to get rusted through. These are pics from mine….everything else was good, but this area just tissue paper!

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[AJSGSE1990]

If you are planning on stripping everything back to a bare frame and spending on it you could, if you felt like it, get a spare frame and swap everything over to it as you refurbish everything. There is one for only £105 on eBay and it looks pretty good as well.

True, but I would have no way to tell if it was straight. I am a little too scared to mess with that side of things.

Cheers.

[Tuga2112]

If you are planning on stripping everything back to a bare frame and spending on it you could, if you felt like it, get a spare frame and swap everything over to it as you refurbish everything. There is one for only £105 on eBay and it looks pretty good as well.

True, but I would have no way to tell if it was straight. I am a little too scared to mess with that side of things.

Cheers.

even if it isnt straight. it will be safer if its robust and not straight. if you do the work with the car held up by the main chassis tube those will not be under load, so i would expect them to be right, or at least close enough.

however from the pictures. it looks like its not "through" rust. so a good clean and protection should suffice. the wishbone and steering rack are the ones id be most conserned about i think.

i havent looked in the elan manual, but i seen in the MR2 manual and there are measurements stated there about how to know if the car is straight. i know the "body" section of the lean manual is very chunky in my printout, i would be having a browse there for guidance

[dapinky]

i havent looked in the elan manual, but i seen in the MR2 manual and there are measurements stated there about how to know if the car is straight. i know the "body" section of the lean manual is very chunky in my printout, i would be having a browse there for guidance

There are measurements and datum points in the manual for the main chassis and also bolting on the longerons (which are individually shimmed at the factory) - I have measured a few in the past to look for damage following collisions - yet to find one that is actually too bad, unless it is visually obvious (twisted).