Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Hi Gino, it's one of the best looking Elan's in my opinion: I love the clean and pure style you've chosen. Perspex lights, rear arches and colour: A + + +! Join driving her as much as you can...
Fred

very nice Gino - congratulations and well done.

It's a lovely car, Gino!

Andy
Manila

1969 S4 DHC

Gino, Fantastic resto! Congratulations!

Now for a a couple of questions from an S2 owner. You say you stitched in S2 arches in the rear. What are S2 arches. They don't look like the arches on my S2 but they do look very good.

Also, my old Elan S2 SE in Cirrus White (painted in 1992) recently sold again for $40k US. They look great in white!

Famous Frank

Gino, I forgot to ask a second question. What muffler are you using? It looks like the "In" and the "Out" are on the same end. Is if loud? 2 inch pipe?

Famous Frank

Frank, if you go to the Archive and look up "muffler" the very first one will show Phil Mitchell's muffler that is the same as Gino's and a picture of mine before I changed it. And how low it was. It would scrap in and out of my driveway. Here are pics of how the pipe was changed by welding up one end. The other picture shows a full clearance and sits up almost 2 inches higher than the original, I applied self adhesive heat reflective shield to the body. The sound was great and not too loud.
Gino, another fine fine job!!! Can you use the original 3 eared knockoff spinner tool on your new wheels? New alloys seem to work with the tool as shown on the business vendor listing on my site's last post.
Sarto

Common Frank !

Be a square like me !

Gino Superb job on the coupe. makes me want to look for a pre airflow for the next project....

George

Very nice, Gino!

Thank you all for the nice compliments.
I've still got one or two stupid little things left to do but when I go in the garage to fix them i'm completely distracted for lengthy moments just looking at how nice the car looks !
Frank, the arches are the 26R type and not the S2 apologies for having misled you. I had a couple lying around off a crashed shell and stitched them in. The front arches of this shell already had enlargened wings, but I must admit the end result is very nice.
The wheels, by the way, are 4 and a half inch alloy wheels that I was fortunate enough to find and are on just for the test centre and will be swapped for 5 and a half inch alloys wheels off a plus two. Apparently, so i've been told, these 4 and a half inch alloys (same pattern as the plus two type) were made by Paul Matty in a limited number. Must be worth more now !!
The muffler was with the other Green S3 coup? I have and is exactly the same as yours Sarto. Must be the same supplier, as my car did come from the US in 1991 even though it is RHD. It was registerd NTT ... can't remember the rest or the state where it was registered
The sound is a very nice rumble, not too loud but enough to attract attention.
The next project is an S2 and already have 26R arches all round to stitch on. As soon as I get some photos taken I'll post them on the forum, although this will be a race car so not too much attention to detail inside !
Gino Milano
Italy

Gino and Christian,

Gino, I love the car and you have done an outstanding job. I've got to find a pair of those rear arches. They look so...............correct!

Christian, I am truly impressed with the poliching cloths you depict being used on the green Elan! I've got to get some of them too!

Famous Frank

Gino, as a total ametuer when it comes to fiberglass body work, ( you may have seen where I just cut off the entire front half of my S2 ), I was wondering why you had to remove the inner fender well in the picture of the rear arches being stitched on? Was it to gain better access to the inside seam of the rear arch?

Famous Frank

Hi Frank, Thank you for your kind remarks.
If you take enough of the rear wing away you'll see that you not left with much and it literally needs reconstructing as, from behind inside door and above the entire depth is much larger.
In fact if you look at a 26R from the side starting from the door latch to the back you'll see that the bulge is immediate after the door split and extends right down to the back edge just above the bumper. The contour is very, very nice and I think, could have been created by pure coincidence after needing to increase larger wheel clearance.
I'm not sure but if you measure the width of a standard car wheel arch rim to wheel arch you'll probably find that the 26R shell must be 6" wider.
Gino Milano
Italy

Hi all,
I tried to send these pics of the engine bay off but couldn't so i'll post them here.
Gino
Milano
Italy