Early Elan

[GLB]

I am starting to prepare my Bourne bodied Elan for repaint. I know some areas were left in the grey resin finish but I don't know if the underside of the bonnet was painted or left in resin. The underside of my boot lid is grey resin as are parts of the inner door skins covered by the door card and some areas of the inside of the nose. What should the bonnet underside be? Gary

[jonsered 11]

Hi Gary
the underside of the bonnet should be the grey gelcoat colour, same as the boot lid!

Jonsered

[GLB]

Thanks for the confirmation of what I thought. I don't think I can sand back to uniform grey color so I guess it will be paint. Any suggestions? Gary

[jonsered 11]

Hi Gary,

yes, you will have to paint it if fibreglass won't clean back to the original grey! Get your paint supplier to match the colour of your gel coat, if you have any areas that aren't discoloured?

Jonsered

[dougal cawley]

Is anyone still fitting 145R13 tyres on the early Elan.

The reason i ask is because Pirelli are making the 145R13 Cinturato again and i wondered if that was what Lotus fitted as OE. I know that is what they used on my Elite, but it was the 155R15 Cinturato.

[trw99]

Dougal, the earliest Elans had, I'm reasonably certain, cross plies in the UK. Certainly the earliest road tests indicate Goodyear tyres of 5.20-15 and the bare chassis shown at the 1963 Motor Show had cross ply tyres fitted.

By mid 1964 Lotus were fitting Dunlop SP41s of 145x13 and by spring the following year they were onto Goodyear G800s (I can see that distinctive tread pattern in my minds eye as I write!).

Tim

[types26/36]

Certainly the earliest road tests indicate Goodyear tyres of 5.20-15 .Tim

I didnt know the early cars had 15" wheels ?

[richardcox_lotus]

Had to stop reading that as soon as it said ?fully rust-proofed? !

[trw99]

Brian, clearly an error, of course they were 13"!

Actually, that error was not mine but Motor magazine's. Their Oct 62 review of the Elan had the miss-print in it and when I was looking through the article I inadvertently reproduced the errant over size.

Tim

[JonB]

While we are discussing tyres, this doesn't look like a very rounded shoulder to me!

capture.jpg (25.16 KiB) Viewed 3033 times

[types26/36]

[quote="JonB" this doesn't look like a very rounded shoulder to me![/quote]

Back in the day that's how crossply tyres looked .........primitive by todays standards but probably what Fred Flintsone had on his car

[cabc26b]

FWIW, the early cars had sound insulation glued to underside of the bonnet/hood -

[elanner]

FWIW, the early cars had sound insulation glued to underside of the bonnet/hood -

Is that so? Interesting. This topic crops up occasionally and I've often wondered about it. I'm pretty certain that my original S3 & S4 didn't have insulation, and neither does my current S4.

Can anybody report on the effectiveness of sound insulation under the bonnet? I would definitely consider installing some if it's worthwhile. Does it cause the engine compartment to get hotter? What material/product did you use? What did you glue it with?

Nick

[dougal cawley]

Dougal, the earliest Elans had, I'm reasonably certain, cross plies in the UK. Certainly the earliest road tests indicate Goodyear tyres of 5.20-15 and the bare chassis shown at the 1963 Motor Show had cross ply tyres fitted.

By mid 1964 Lotus were fitting Dunlop SP41s of 145x13 and by spring the following year they were onto Goodyear G800s (I can see that distinctive tread pattern in my minds eye as I write!).

Tim

That is brilliant. thank you TRW99.

I want to get our web site as up to date as possible, so iu have re written my Elan web page

https://www.longstonetyres.co.uk/classi ... tml#page=1

My updates will be on the site soon mention your data about Goodyear.

If you see any mistakes on there please let me know, or have any good period pictures or paperwork that you think is relevant to tyres please let me know. i am also interested in tyre pressure data for Elans

[Famous Frank]

Since we are intensely ready this wonderful topic on originality, I just thought I'd mention I have just completed manufacturing my first run of the oval intermediate exhaust pipe. Same size as the originals only made of T304 stainless!

Photos to follow. Anyone know how I make a pipe look good in a photo?

Frank