body condition

PostPost by: elanplus2s130 » Wed Nov 17, 2004 4:53 pm

I am looking for a restoration project but don't have an experience /
knowleadge for the glass fibre Elan bodies. What should I look for
when evaluating potential cars for purchase?

Given the age of the car and the fact that I am looking for a project
car, I expect to have to respray the body. So then in that case, are
all bodies created equal? I assume that there is some sort of gel
coat over the body shell and under the paint. Spider cracks that I
hear about are in the paint or in the gel coat? If in the gel coat
then I assume they need to be repaired (is that even possible) before
repainting? I other words on a scale of bad to good condition, are
spider cracks on the bad end and chipping paint is on the good end?

Thanks
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PostPost by: richboyd » Wed Nov 17, 2004 5:44 pm

Spider cracks are no where near the bad end. The bad end can be much, much
worse than spider cracks. We have all seen posts about large expanses of
shredded fiberglass, even burned 'glass, being held together with Bondo and
covered with spray-can paint.




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PostPost by: Unibrain » Wed Nov 17, 2004 6:07 pm

Rich is right on this. Paint, even a bad paint job, can and does hide a
lot of damage. After I got the paint off of my Elan many problems were
uncovered and it ended up being much more work than expected. Damage
was more severe and some of the previous repairs were not done well.
Have a look at some of the pictures I took during the restoration
http://www.unibrain.org/motorsports/ela ... ody_damage

All the damage to the right side of the car was hidden under the paint.
The spider cracks ended up being so bad all the gelcoat was removed,
except for one small section.

Richard Boyd wrote:


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