My Sprint Barn Find

[Nick]

Hi
It was more big garage than barn but just thought I would post some pics of the Sprint I have just bought, it was advertised locally and has been off the road for many years.

The V5 was lost years ago but the owner had a letter from Lotus archives with the original engine number when it left the factory, it was sold to Hammond & Oakwood Ltd. on the 30th January 1971 and original colour was red.

It was a challenge just moving it as all the brakes were seized but managed to get it on a trailer with the help of a few trolley jacks. It's been partially stripped but most parts came with it and a few extras including a spare engine and 2 sets of wheels. The main parts missing are steering wheel, big valve cam cover, passenger seat and a pair of carbs. My local tyre guy has just fitted some old tyres for me so I can roll it around. Although it needs a lot of work, for the price I couldn't say no











Cheers
Nick

[billwill]

A challenging find.

Same steering wheel as my S3 Coup?, so that may be your original one.

[Elanintheforest]

That looks a great project, Nick, and by the sounds of it, you have most of the important bits and pieces. Original seats are quite hard to come by, and the black plastic dash top nearly imposible, so if yours is any good, keep it safe! You also need to look after all the bits and pieces on the dash as many of those are irreplaceable now.

So, what's the plan, or are you just going to sit and have a think for a while?! It would be worth getting three books to help you with the project....

The Workshop manual
The Parts Book
Brian Buckland's book 'The Rebuilding Of A Lotus Elan'.

It may be worthwhile making contact with somebody local with a similar car so that at least youi can see what goes where.

Good luck and enjoy the project....Mark

[RichardS]

Hi Nick

It may be worthwhile making contact with somebody local with a similar car so that at least youi can see what goes where.

Good luck and enjoy the project....Mark

What a find. Should keep you occupied for many happy hours!
Where abouts on the Wirral are you? If you would like to send me a private message with contact details I would be more than happy to pop around in my Sprint if you need to see one fully assembled!

Richard

[ceejay]

Congratulations Nick, it might look a basket case now, but if you work your
magic resto skills on it, you will eventually have a pristine elan sprint.
It is amazing that barn find elan's are still turning up.

If you can devote about 8 hrs a week to the project, and set a workable
budget, I would say you will put in about 2,500. to 3 thousand hours, which
equates to about 312 weeks, or six years to complete.
And the more things you can do yourself, the more money you will save.

Good luck, and make sure you document the whole project with photos
and lots of notes.
Col.

[Nick]

So, what's the plan, or are you just going to sit and have a think for a while?! It would be worth getting three books to help you with the project....

The Workshop manual
The Parts Book
Brian Buckland's book 'The Rebuilding Of A Lotus Elan'.

It may be worthwhile making contact with somebody local with a similar car so that at least youi can see what goes where.

Good luck and enjoy the project....Mark

Hi Mark
The plan is full restoration, it will probably take a while but I will get it on the road. I've already bought a workshop manual, an original one to keep clean and a cheap brooklands one for dirty fingerprints and Brian Bucklands book is on order but had not thought of a parts book, I'll get one of those as well thanks.

Hi Nick

What a find. Should keep you occupied for many happy hours!
Where abouts on the Wirral are you? If you would like to send me a private message with contact details I would be more than happy to pop around in my Sprint if you need to see one fully assembled!

Richard

Hi Richard
That's very kind of you, I'll send you a pm

Cheers
Nick

[EMA7K]

Nick

Welcome to the Elan club, not many on the Wirral. I have two elans in Bebington if you want to pop round for some encouragement pm me.

Gareth
EMA 7K

[RichardS]

Just a quick line to extol the virtues of Lotuselan.net
Nick and I made contact and he is within half a mile of me!
We had a very enjoyable meet the other evening and I was delighted to give Nick his first ride in an Elan. Although he will have to put a lot of time and effort into getting his Elan back on the road he got himself a real bargain.
Look forward to seeing the restoration progress.

Gareth - we should all meet up sometime for an inaugural Wirral Elan Owners Club meeting! Would be interested in seeing your beefed up twin cam in action.

Richard

[EMA7K]

Richard

Yes, i think we nearly met up a couple of years ago at Oulton Park? Nick came round yesterday and i think he knows he has a lot of work ahead of him. I gave a couple of boxes of bits that might help. i've even offered to come and do some rubbing down!

Elaine Spiers (North West club organiser) is also not far from you -near Sheldrakes i think

Off to Oulton on the 11th

Best wishes

Gareth

[Nick]

Yes thanks again to both of you, it's great having 2 local owners. I'll try not to keep pestering you

Going to start making enquiries this week about bodywork and also cylinder head/engine. The head has quite a bit of damage so I'll try to get an idea of price to repair compared to buying a new one.



Nick

[el-saturn]

nice find nick and i reckon you?ll be looking at 2000hrs because certain things you won?t be able to do yourself. the higher your budget the more you can give out of house - the contrary applies also BUT that head looks to be beyond repair OR you?ll find a better one which will cost less to get fixed - that head requires so much different types of machining and it also may be crooked (?) - the body looks better than mine did 30 yeas ago - have fun and get your wife to help ----- otherwise you?ll need to get reintroduced in 5 years! alpine greetings from someone who has spent 3000hrs!! sandy j 36/4982