Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Posted: **Mon Jul 11, 2005 11:41 pm**

I brought all the bits and pieces off the elan to be chromed by a highly recommended local shop here in the area. This included boot hinges, door handles, gauge rings, interior light covers, hubcaps, boot handle, interior door handles, tail light rings, and a few pieces of random super seven stuff and the guy (with a straight face) told me the cost would be $1500 minimum! Are these pieces available new and if so they MUST be cheaper than this! The guy told me it had to do with most of the pieces being made out of pot metal. Should I just keep shopping around for a cheaper alternative or can I buy this stuff new from somewhere? Thanks so much for everyone's help on my restoration. Ordered some Bridgestone RE92's today.

Chris Lawson
68 S3 Coupe, Super Safety
White Bear Lake, Minnesota

Posted: **Mon Jul 11, 2005 11:44 pm**

Unless they are really bad...forget about it.

I have always liked a car with a little patina..not over restored.

Tony Vaccaro

www.lotusowners.com

_____

From: ***@***.***lto:***@***.*** Behalf
Of Chris Lawson
Sent: Monday, July 11, 2005 7:41 PM
To: ***@***.***
Subject: [LotusElan.net] My Gosh! Chroming is a fortune!

I brought all the bits and pieces off the elan to be chromed by a highly
recommended local shop here in the area. This included boot hinges, door
handles, gauge rings, interior light covers, hubcaps, boot handle, interior
door handles, tail light rings, and a few pieces of random super seven stuff
and the guy (with a straight face) told me the cost would be $1500 minimum!
Are these pieces available new and if so they MUST be cheaper than this!
The guy told me it had to do with most of the pieces being made out of pot
metal. Should I just keep shopping around for a cheaper alternative or can
I buy this stuff new from somewhere? Thanks so much for everyone's help on
my restoration. Ordered some Bridgestone RE92's today.

Chris Lawson
68 S3 Coupe, Super Safety
White Bear Lake, Minnesota

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Posted: **Tue Jul 12, 2005 2:01 am**

I only re-chromed the bits I could not find new elsewhere and others
not at all. To give you an idea the inside rear view mirror arm for
my S3 Coupe', 1 piece, not the mirror, just the mounting arm was
$95.00! He gave me a price of IIRC $50 (or $75) for each knock-on
nut. So yes, it is VERY expensive.

Mike G

--- In ***@***.***, "Chris Lawson" <lawson74@c...> wrote:

hinges, door handles, gauge rings, interior light covers, hubcaps,
boot handle, interior door handles, tail light rings, and a few pieces
of random super seven stuff and the guy (with a straight face) told me
the cost would be $1500 minimum! Are these pieces available new and
if so they MUST be cheaper than this! The guy told me it had to do
with most of the pieces being made out of pot metal. Should I just
keep shopping around for a cheaper alternative or can I buy this stuff
new from somewhere? Thanks so much for everyone's help on my
restoration. Ordered some Bridgestone RE92's today.

Posted: **Tue Jul 12, 2005 3:50 am**

From: "Chris Lawson" <***@***.***>

Chris,

Take a look at Europa Specialist Spares. The name is coincidental... they
don't specialize in Lotus Europas, but in bright work and accessories for
cars in general. If you need things like door handles and boot hinges,
Europa may have new ones for you.

Later,
Tim Engel
Lotus Owners Oftha North

Posted: **Tue Jul 12, 2005 1:02 pm**

Chris,

Unless your car had been abandoned out in the weather for many years, the interior parts should clean up well with some chrome or metal polish and some effort on your part. The exterior hinges and door handles, the pot metal pieces will also polish up well, but they may also be pitted and that doesn't much go away with polishing. Still, if they are pitted and polished, they can be made to look pretty presentable.

Then there is the way the platers would remove the old plating. Unfortunately, I've seen too many shops just grind it off rather than using a reverse plating process. I had some pieces plated on the DCO-3 carbs on my Eleven and the shop ruined the parts. Some unique Weber castelated 10mm hex nuts needed a 11mm on one pair of flats and 8mm on others. I had to use them to beable to run the car. The little trumpets that screw into the float bowl tops are throw-aways and will have to be remade.

Just curious as to your chassis #, as I have SS DHC 45-7380. Do you have the reversed ear KO hub caps? Your interior door handles are unique to the SSmodel. Be careful w/ them. The interior door pulls, chrome ends on a plastic handle are same as MGB, so could be replaced.

Roger

Chris Lawson
68 S3 Coupe, Super Safety
White Bear Lake, Minnesota

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Posted: **Tue Jul 12, 2005 7:38 pm**

I would not rechrome the trim rings on the gauges. New ones are available
from Holden (http://holden.co.uk/) in the $7-$9 dollar each range.

At 05:40 PM 7/11/2005, you wrote:

Posted: **Tue Jul 12, 2005 7:40 pm**

I would not rechrome the trim rings on the gauges. New ones are available
from Holden (http://holden.co.uk/) in the $7-$9 dollar range.

At 05:40 PM 7/11/2005, you wrote:

Posted: **Wed Jul 13, 2005 11:49 am**

On Tue, 12 Jul 2005 13:39:12 -0600, Marc Fuller
<***@***.***> wrote:

That's a pleasant surprise. When I saw the Holden catalogue back in
the 80's such were their inflated prices I thought it had been priced
all the way through with the decimal point in the wrong place.

Martin

72/45
--

Posted: **Thu Jul 14, 2005 2:05 pm**

You are lucky to getting chroming done at all these day. Next to nuclear
waste, Chrome is one of the nastiest products to eliminate on the planet! It
is also highly cancerous when functioing in the VAT in the liquid state
Gram.

Posted: **Thu Jul 14, 2005 4:10 pm**

Difficult toe eliminate? In the UK we have a product called R.U.S.T. which
makes short work of any chrome. ;-)

David

-----Original Message-----
From: gram [mailto:***@***.***
Sent: 14 July 2005 12:05
To: ***@***.***
Subject: Re: [LotusElan.net] Digest Number 2633

You are lucky to getting chroming done at all these day. Next to nuclear
waste, Chrome is one of the nastiest products to eliminate on the planet! It
is also highly cancerous when functioing in the VAT in the liquid state
Gram.

Message: 4
Date: Wed, 13 Jul 2005 12:48:08 +0100
From: Martin Evans <***@***.***>
Subject: Re: My Gosh! Chroming is a fortune!

On Tue, 12 Jul 2005 13:39:12 -0600, Marc Fuller
<***@***.***> wrote:

That's a pleasant surprise. When I saw the Holden catalogue back in
the 80's such were their inflated prices I thought it had been priced
all the way through with the decimal point in the wrong place.

Martin

72/45
--

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Posted: **Thu Jul 14, 2005 7:07 pm**

But I think the patent is held by FIAT.

Steve B.

--- In ***@***.***, "ALLEN, David" <david.allen@e...>
wrote: