Recovered from the wedding!

[peterexpart]

Hi Tim.
Yes, I will be driving to the church,( Southsea to Steep,near Petersfield) with my daughter,along with two classic vw campers for the groom's party and Bridesmaids etc.
After the church,it is a short 2 mile or so,drive to the reception venue( a beautiful field with stunning South Downs views) and yes HE will be driving!
(it's bad enough that he's stealing my daughter,now he thinks he can get his grubby paws on the car as well?)
But seriously,I feel very lucky that she has chosen such a fine fellow.(Did I mention that he owns a brewery?)
I think my daughter is very happy with the idea that the Elan is "hers", but will remain under my custody until I either become unable to enjoy/maintain it,or snuff it!

Off to my shed to continue cleaning and polishing my lights and bits! Deep joy!

Ray
S4 fhc nearly there!

Ray
Have you actually tried fitting her into the Car wearing her Dress, I don't mean you wearing the Dress !!!
I only ask as I did the same two years ago S4SE DHC in Lotus Yellow and there was no way she would fit, had to rethink at the last minute

[Oldthumper]

I just liked the look of this, seemed a little surreal!

[661]

Tate Modern.




Is he a Ballard?
(or a Harvey or a Dark Star????)

[Oldthumper]

Well he's sitting at my bar drinking HopHead at this very moment!

[661]

Lovely tipple. I was at the Dark Star tent for some time at the Borough Market beer festival on Saturday.

Did I say I like the colour of your car? I got side tracked.

[Oldthumper]

Wheels shotblasted, straightened,primed and now looking beautiful in the correct paint, ready for the tyres to be (carefully!) replaced. The question is, should we refit the tubes or not? The tyres are brand new Firestone tubeless. As I said in a previous post, we were a little surprised to find repairs to the "brand new'" tubes as fitted by F.S.
Our local tyre experts are a bit divided on this one.

Ray S4 fhc, looking very good!

[Oldthumper]

Looking very good!

[Tournesol]

The fun of putting everything back together is not far off. If you need any help at all with it, just ask! would love to help.

Tournesol

[Oldthumper]

Hopefully the car will go into the actual spray booth tomorrow,after a bit more rubbing down,and if time allows,the top coats should be going on.
We're hoping to start the reassembly on Monday,or if not on Tuesday, and yes,it should be a very satisfying exercise!
There are a few screws,bolts etc which need replacing,due to the usual problems of chewed up heads and so on,but we shall probably put it together using the old rough ones,make a list of requirements,and replace at my leisure later.
I am very lucky to have a friend at the pub who's family business is fixings for the aeronautical industry. I showed her the list of bolts,screws etc from Brian Bucklands book,and she was completely unfazed by the list of unf,unc and ba fixings that might eventually be required. All in finest aviation quality materials!
I do so love it when a plan comes together!

Ray S4 fhc
Nearly there

[S3FHC]

Ray,

I am really enjoying watching the progress of the car and all the accompanying photographs.

For me personally, it has been genuinely uplifting to see the gradual transformation.

Nearly there!

Mark.

[Certified Lotus]

Ray, I'm equally excited about your near completion of your ?lan. The whole process is a journey and when it nears the end the best is yet to come.........you get to drive everywhere and no where in particular. Even better it's for your daughters wedding!

A significant memory for a lifetime. Enjoy it!

[Oldthumper]

Thursday was spent flatting the paint and sorting out any blemishes,final coats probably Saturday morning,as today's afternoon temperatures are expected to be hotter than Dorian likes for topcoats.
An added bonus for me is that I have a little more time to clean and polish up the removed fittings... Oh,and boring time consuming things like running a business!
The plan is then to refit doors,boot lid headlights,bumpers etc early next week,so the end is very much in sight! A very experienced window specialist is going to try to sort out the awful windscreen seal,to fix those bottom corners. He is talking about possibly having to throw out the brand new(F.S fitted and supplied) rubber and start from scratch.
After the wedding,I intend to fit a new carpet set,as although it was "good enough" before,it certainly needs doing now to match the standard of the body and mechanical parts.
Also, I will need to get the steering wheel recovered properly,as my old lace- on leather one,needs redoing properly. Any recommendations for the wheel recovering?

Ray S4
Nearly there

[martynbrown]

Your comment about the windscreen seal struck a chord. I replaced the windscreen seal on our Elan a year or two ago because the existing one was perishing impressively (very black marks on the sponge after washing the car). I bought the new seal from a Lotus specialist and was pleased to see that the bottom corners had been pre-mitred and bonded, so it was (I thought) one less potential problem. After fitting the screen and seal, I soon realised that it had been mitred to an angle that was too acute, since the outer part of the seal was bulging out and the inner part was splitting. I managed to make it look reasonable, but it was more than a little disappointing, because with the correct angle it would have looked spot on. It reminds me that it is very important to be aware that when an Elan has had a good re-spray any detail "discrepancies" can look very conspicuous, and your eyes will get drawn to such things all too often!! Keep up the good work.

[pauljones]

Seeing and reading all this progress makes me want to get my finger out and restore mine..looks fantastic and it's not even finished...can't wait to see that beauty in the flesh.

[Oldthumper]

Topcoat going on this morning,and I've a very busy weekend getting all the parts ready to go back on. Oh, yes, and tedious other things like going to work to pay for it all.......

Ray s4 very nearly there!