Winter Walk Reveals Barn Find Sprint

[Elanintheforest]

The car looked a complete wreck when I got it, and the smell of rat pee was too much. I pulled the interior out on day one and pressure washed the inside of the car before work could start.

Found a lovely old Rolex watch under the passenger seat, which luckily seems to be unaffected by leaky rats.

Two more days and the shell was off the rolling chassis, and I started to soda blast it to see what lurked beneath. Unfortunately ran out of soda about half way though, but I could see that she was a very honest and solid car.



A few days later and the rest was blasted, and the shell cleaned down, dried under heat lamps for a couple of days, and a guide coat applied. That's pretty much where the car is currently.



Mark

[Quart Meg Miles]

Careful, Mark, the rats are still in there. Probably hiding under those S3 rear wings.

[gjz30075]

Dibs on the vacuum switch.

Greg Z

[Elanintheforest]

Probably hiding under those S3 rear wings.

Bugger!

[GrUmPyBoDgEr]

I thought that someone had gone to the expense of getting TTR wings fitted to it; are you sure they're simply S3 wings?

John

[trw99]

They were correct when I found the car.

Quick work there Mark!

Tim

[Elanintheforest]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Lotus-Elan-Sp ... 3f268568db




Mark

[Mazzini]

Lovely looking car, but my garage is full (it's official) so I won't be bidding. I guess we're going to find out how strong or weak the market is, if the auction runs full course.

[pharriso]

I'm confused!

I thought Mark (Elan in the forest) bought it to renovate & had stripped in down & soda blasted the body...

Mr. Clugsdon seems to be selling the car as dragged out of the barn

Is there more than one car?

[Elanintheforest]

I think Phil that the story has been a wind up from the start. For sure it was found in a barn, and that's the same car that is for sale by a strange coincidence.
You will notice looking at the car I 'stripped' that it is a S3 shell..,..just happened to be roughly the same colour.

Mark

[nomad]

The seller should have left the dirt on it.
From cars I've seen sell in the state's it would have increased the selling price dramatically!!

Kurt
26/3754

[Bombay Racing Green]

Quite by chance I saw it last month. I was over working in Crawley for two weeks. With a change of plans came a chance to drive down to Kent to see another +2 to get some idea of how something's are attached. Got chatting to the young lad there and he was kind enough to show it to me. At the time it was in an as found condition. Very interesting and very tempting now! I just have to shift mine now to make room and appease "management". I suspected it was the same car but I didn't say anything. The lad asked me to keep schtum but I guess the secret is out now!

Also got a look at an immaculate maroon elite and my first chance to sit in a Europa. Well I can fit in an Elite but the Europa was "snug"!

Good luck and best wishes to ever gets it.

Pete

[trw99]

Well it looks like the car has now been sold.

My real story behind this car is this. In July 2011 I was contacted by a fellow from Sussex with a story about a Sprint and he attached the photos I posted on page 1 of this thread. He told me that a 26 year old friend of his son had a Sprint which his father had given to him eight years previously. It later transpired that the car in fact belonged to the father's sister, who lives in north London.

The lad was offered the opportunity to do the car up, but he lives in London and was described to me as being clueless and lazy! His aunt had bought the car second-hand from the Len Street dealership. She ended up taking it off the road to swap for something more reliable, as she apparently had the usual Elan niggles with the car. So it was running when it was parked up at her brothers place in Sussex. Some time thereafter someone removed the body and repainted the chassis, then put most of it back together. It then languished in the garage for many years, dry and without all the accumulated road crud associated with many cars parked up and forgotten about. I was told it had 46,227 miles on the clock. I was given it's VIN, which showed that it had come off the production line in August 1971.

So I corresponded with the original contact for a while. He was interested in buying it. I did not hear anything for many months so asked him for an update. He told me the sellers had gone cold on him and he had therefore given up his interest.

That is the true story behind this car. All that I wrote earlier in this thread was what I thought would be a pleasant day-dream, with photos!

Tim

PS I know of a FHC Sprint in a lock up in Scotland; been off the road for 30 odd years ...

[Elanintheforest]

Yet another barn find? Just how many Colorado Orange convertible Elan Sprints can be left to find??!!

This one is a lot more shiny than the last, and no mention of microblisters either...must be a far better buy!!

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LOTUS-ELAN-SP ... 1e7d4bafb3

Mark

[pharriso]

Same Vladivostok vodka sticker on the console - same car!

It will be interesting to see what it goes for.