S4 Heater Box De-mister Rubber Elbows

[RAJ2628]

I have a 1907 Lotus Elan S4 FHC and have been refurbishing the heater box. The de-mister vent rubber elbows are perished at the junction where they fit the 1.25" diameter hole and one has an additional hole at the internal bend. I have looked for replacements but have failed to find any. I have seen similar items for MG and Jaguar but they are designed to fit larger diameter holes. One option is to increase the hole diameter to suit. Do any of the membership know of any suppliers of new rubber elbows and what solutions have any of the membership used to overcome the issue.

[pharriso]

I got creative with PVC pipe fittings before finding original elbows, see https://lotuselan.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=24345

[RAJ2628]

Thanks, I'll look it up.

[RichardHawkins]

A long time ago, probably 10 plus years ago, I bought these from Sue Miller. She may still have some.

Hope this helps,

Richard Hawkins

[RAJ2628]

Richard
Thanks for the info. I'll contact her tomorrow.

[fattogatto]

Go to a local parts store, take the existing pieces of junk, and ask the proprietor if you can rummage through his radiator hose section to find a hose that can be cut that is of the proper diameter. Our suppliers on this side of the pond (Autozone, Pep Boys, etc) are quite willing to let you do this. Find what you need for a few bob and cut off the needed lengths. Save the other pieces.

[mbell]

https://www.pegasusautoracing.com/group ... COOLELB90K

A lot of race suppliers have a selection of elbows you can buy and trim to fit. Probably able to find similar houses for much less money with a bit of searching.

[c.garde]

GENTS AND NERDS ,

When rebuilding my sprint I found the same problem: Perished rubber elbows and no spares.

My solution was introducing a solution .
That is the vulcanising solution used to repair a blown bi-cyckle tube.
It was even possible to introduce additional rubber where needed.
The resulting repair was excellent .

Best regards C.Garde.

[TomR]

Very useful restoration trick C. Garde! Tom

[RAJ2628]

C.garde
I tried your method using my bicycle inner tube and rubber cement. I rubbed them down with sandpaper, glued a disc to the rearmost face (inside the box), trimmed it when set then added a 6mm band around the circumference rear of the positioning slot. To keep the band in place, the assembly fitted neatly into the internal diameter of some 40mm waste pipe. I also used the inner tube and a small circular patch to sort out the hole. The perished sorry looking week flange is now substantial. It looks a little untidy but does the job.
Thanks for sharing your idea.
Al

[baileyman]

It's funny how useful bike tubes are. A few uses:

Output from the blow-by catch tank--run it down behind the front wheels and out the available drain hole.

Drain the fresh air plenum--find a 1" key ring, insert a racing bike tube through, then invert the end back over the ring. Drop it through the hole and the ring holds it perfectly. Trim from below.

Hard top front seal--slit a large maybe 35mm tube lengthwise, fold and edge over 1/2" and sew 1/4" in from the fold. Then the contour is a tee that will glue up to the top and seal the front edge. Now, the trick is to use the wide excess to further seal the top. It runs back from the front along the tab on the top, around the tab edge and back forward along the tab top, fully wrapping the tab. Then the tab wrapped in rubber will jam in the slot of the windscreen for a good seal.

If my current elbow fix fails, I'm sure a bike tube will become involved.

And that's all so far! John