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Seriously Seeking Minilites

PostPosted: Tue Apr 04, 2006 1:44 pm
by guerrilla garage
I would dearly love to have a set of, period correct, real live
magnesium, knock off/peg drive, Minilites for my S2. If anybody's got
some to sell or knows where I can get a set in the USA, the referral
would be greatly appreciated. Yes, I already know where to buy them
new, but I prefer old used stuff. thanks, Steve

Seriously Seeking Minilites

PostPosted: Tue Apr 04, 2006 6:04 pm
by elansprint71
Steve,
I don't think that you do know where to get new Magnesium Minilites-
they only sell alluminium ones these days and they are bought in from
the Two Gates Foundry Company. :-(
Very occasionally old Mag Minilites come up on eBay UK but they are
very, very expensive and would really need to be x-rayed before use in
any case.

My advice is buy some new ally ones- I did.

Cheers,
Pete.



guerrilla1 wrote:


Seriously Seeking Minilites

PostPosted: Tue Apr 04, 2006 6:44 pm
by steveww
Try www.minilite.co.uk and yes they do still make magnesium ones as well
as aluminium.

guerrilla1 wrote:

Seriously Seeking Minilites

PostPosted: Tue Apr 04, 2006 6:47 pm
by theelanman
pete
I think we know someone with 3 dont we????
he couldnt find a 4th for love or money and has since gone with the std
minilites
cheers
g

Seriously Seeking Minilites

PostPosted: Tue Apr 04, 2006 8:46 pm
by elansprint71
Ian's were the ally "Sport" originals.
I don't know why I bother responding to Elan.Net sometimes- just after I
told someone that they don't make Mag wheels, or in fact any wheels
these days (I got this from the boss direct only a few weeks ago)
someone else says that they DO still make mag wheels.

:-(

***@***.***e:


Seriously Seeking Minilites

PostPosted: Tue Apr 04, 2006 9:16 pm
by mikecauser
On Tue, 04 Apr 2006 21:45:53 +0100 Pete Taylor <***@***.***> wrote:


Perhaps you should back to "the boss" and tell him/her that his/her own
website says "We continue to manufacture limited runs of original wheels
in magnesium".



Mike
--
Mike Causer Email - mailto:***@***.***
GPG KeyID 1C2DDA07 WWW - http://www.mikecauser.com
Flood the fen again! - Wicken Fen enlargement - http://www.wicken.org.uk

Seriously Seeking Minilites

PostPosted: Tue Apr 04, 2006 9:28 pm
by elansprint71
Mike, my point exactly; that is the difference between having knowledge
and quoting from websites. :-D

When will they flood that fen? It was on TV last night on the repeat of
"Picture of Britain, but the name was not mentioned: one of my favourite
places, btw.

Pete.


Mike Causer wrote:


Seriously Seeking Minilites

PostPosted: Tue Apr 04, 2006 9:29 pm
by M100
How well does the 5 peg hub arrangement work with minilites? Has it
changed from the old wheels to the new?

Some I saw a few months ago, apparently the correct type and straight
from the manufacturers had very little metal around the drillings.
Some of holes were only about half the effective depth of others due
to the spacing of the pegs falling foul of the heavily sculpted rear
of the castings and breaking out into thin air. If the pegs had too
big a chamfer on the end then they'd effectively be doing nothing. 4
pegs or 8 pegs would have probably fitted the wheel without a problem
but 5 just looked a bodge waiting for something to go wrong.

--
Martin
72/45
--

Seriously Seeking Minilites

PostPosted: Wed Apr 05, 2006 6:45 am
by Arno Church
Try Compomotive in the UK
Arno
-----Original Message-----
From: ***@***.***lto:***@***.***
Behalf Of Pete Taylor
Sent: 04 April 2006 20:04
To: ***@***.***
Subject: Re: [LotusElan.net] Seriously Seeking Minilites


Steve,
I don't think that you do know where to get new Magnesium Minilites-
they only sell alluminium ones these days and they are bought in from
the Two Gates Foundry Company. :-(
Very occasionally old Mag Minilites come up on eBay UK but they are
very, very expensive and would really need to be x-rayed before use in
any case.

My advice is buy some new ally ones- I did.

Cheers,
Pete.



guerrilla1 wrote:

> I would dearly love to have a set of, period correct, real live
> magnesium, knock off/peg drive, Minilites for my S2. If anybody's got
> some to sell or knows where I can get a set in the USA, the referral
> would be greatly appreciated. Yes, I already know where to buy them
> new, but I prefer old used stuff. thanks, Steve
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> * Visit your group "lotuselan
> <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lotuselan>" on the web.
>
> * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
> ***@***.***
> <mailto:***@***.***ect=Unsubscribe>
>
> * the Yahoo! Terms of
> Service <http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/>.
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>










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a.. Visit your group "lotuselan" on the web.

b.. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
***@***.***

c.. the Yahoo! Terms of
Service.


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Seriously Seeking Minilites

PostPosted: Wed Apr 05, 2006 10:21 am
by steveww
Perhaps if you qualified your answer i.e They no longer make magnesium
wheels despite what it says on their web site. This was confirmed when I
spoke to Des (the boss).

Rather than sniping at people who reply only trying to help.

Pete Taylor wrote:

Seriously Seeking Minilites

PostPosted: Wed Apr 05, 2006 5:41 pm
by Rob_LaMoreaux


These may have been PanaSports. The Panasport for the Elan has two holes
that are only have holes since the other have is out into the spoke. The two
missing halves are on opposite sides so one transmits torque going forward
and the other going reverse. They seem to work well as long as the drive
pegs are not loose. With loose drive pegs they made the pegs walk out on me
which meant that I had to jack the car up and put the tire back on.
Fortunately the tire dropped as I pulled into a parking lot two blocks from
home and not 2 minutes early when I was going 70mph. New Pegs and a bit of
MIG Work and that won't happen again.

I am surprised that PanaSport didn't use a more solid center section for the
Elan wheels since I have seen other 13 inch wheels from them that had the
area behind the spokes filled in around the center. Maybe whomever it was on
the list that helped Panasport develop the Elan wheels knows.

Rob LaMoreaux

A & D Technology Inc.
4622 Runway Blvd.
Ann Arbor, MI 48108
734-822-9696
Fax 734-973-1103
Main Desk 734-973-1111
www.AandDTech.com
Work email: ***@***.***
Home email: ***@***.***


Seriously Seeking Minilites

PostPosted: Wed Apr 05, 2006 7:35 pm
by rodbean
Steve,

Please contact me offline at ***@***.***.

Rod Bean


--- In ***@***.***, "guerrilla1" <sotuknang@...> wrote:

Seriously Seeking Minilites

PostPosted: Wed Apr 05, 2006 8:43 pm
by The Cyclist
--- In ***@***.***, "guerrilla1" <sotuknang@...> wrote:




There has been a lot of too & fro between Elan owners & the makers of
minilites in the Club Lotus Magazine. In the end this comes down to
the fact that Elans were not made to close specifications. This meeans
that the wheel arches can be problematic if you get rims any wider
than standard - apparently the required rim offset can vary by an inch
from side to side in the same car. This would be a problem both new
and second hand.

Geoff
S366
TCS 72

Seriously Seeking Minilites

PostPosted: Wed Apr 05, 2006 9:25 pm
by Elanman99
-----Original Message-----
From: ***@***.***lto:***@***.*** Behalf
Of geoffsearle
Sent: Wednesday, April 05, 2006 9:43 PM
To: ***@***.***
Subject: [LotusElan.net] Re: Seriously Seeking Minilites

There has been a lot of too & fro between Elan owners & the makers of
minilites in the Club Lotus Magazine. In the end this comes down to the fact
that Elans were not made to close specifications. This meeans that the wheel
arches can be problematic if you get rims any wider than standard -
apparently the required rim offset can vary by an inch from side to side in
the same car. This would be a problem both new and second hand.

Geoff
S366
TCS 72


I have Bolt-on Minilites on my S4 and can confirm that there was a
difference in side to side wheel arch clearance on my car but nowhere near
the 1" you mention. I would say it was possibly 1/4". As it happens when I
installed a new chassis I was able to centralise the body at the rear of the
car completely solving the problem of the tyre wearing an elliptical hole in
flare of the arch.

I did have other difficulties (now sorted and not aired in CL magazine) with
the Minilites relating to the amount of offset needed to ensure clearance to
the bottom suspension bolts and also relating to the nuts holding the wheels
on! Knock on wheel owners wont have the second problem but need to check
that the wheel flange is in the correct position.

Ian Phillips

Seriously Seeking Minilites

PostPosted: Thu Apr 06, 2006 12:00 am
by richboyd
Rob,

Kiyoshi Hamai wrote a very nice article for the Golden Gate Lotus
Club about the development of Panasport wheels for the Elan.
I refer us all to:
http://www.gglotus.org/ggtech/elan-pana ... anwhls.htm
Thank you Kiyoshi.

I agree with Rob. Tight pegs will result in four (of five) doing
their work at any given load. Surely enough to do the job (but don't
ya wish it were all five). Loose pegs ....

Rob, expand on your MIG work a little, please. Did you weld the pegs
into the hub? The cast iron hub? Or something else?


Rich Boyd