New car arriving

[alexblack13]

Brill' Richard,
Keep the faith and get on with it. I am at the stage now where the pressure is off (apart from the windows n locks). Feels good, I can now sleep at night

I will be starting the windows this weekend. I need to restore the bottom panel in the frames which has lost all of the chrome plate. Thinking ... carefull beadblast (protect all threads and the little pulley spindles) then etch prime, 2 coats and some top coat prob' just satin black as I have some of that left then get on with restoring and rebuilding the door inners.

Still awaiting my seatbelt back from rebuilders, so still that to fit, seat to fit and fit hood cover ass'y to finish interior.

Winter projects... Electronic ign' and new coil / fit full width radiator / New lecy fan and controller. That should see it well and truly ready to go for next year.


Keep us posted on your project bud.

Alex B....

[RichardS]

Alex

Just had my window frames rechromed and one of the bottom plates needed replacing. They look very nice and shiny although I will have to return one because the glass is damaged. One of the few jobs I have farmed out and cost a fortune!

Richard

[alexblack13]

Hi Guys/ Richard,
Trying to keep mine original The chrome is not bad on the top half. Bottom plate is still there but has the normal splits. I am having the bottom plates gently blasted and then will paint them. The splits will either be welded (I am waiting to see what's left ! ) Or I will pop rivet on some all'y right angle over the return on the top edge to stiffen them up. The rest is fine and they look quite right for 35 + yr old car, so I am sure I will get away with it. They are remarkably strong still. Just the splits and no chrome plate. Then its the rebuild! As I say.. Not looking forward to this bit, but I have said that before.

I'll let you know how it goes. With some pics !!

Now have both door handles and locks fitted with new gaskets all round and new s/s fastners . Looking better all the time.


Have fun....

Alex B....

[GrUmPyBoDgEr]

Re-Chroming window frames; a word of warning.

Firstly if the visible parts of the frames are OK then the suggestions of cleaning up the lower parts & painting is IMHO the best way.
Wanting to "do it right" I went for re-chroming but the man that did it tore his hair out with the problems that the mixed materials caused him.
(The upper parts being brass & the lower parts of steel).
He described burning, dicolouration & all sorts of pain.
He did eventualy manage to do a nice job of it but:-
When reassembling the window frames into the doors I found that the threads in the "spun in nuts" by the door locks had been partially "burned" away. In a couple of cases an additional "thin nut" was needed to provide some thread for the bolt to engage with.
A particularly irritating job using a "magnet on a stick" up in that very confined area.

By the way the doors on my S4 seemed to have reasonable shut lines without all of the mechanical bits fitted.
Afterwards with all of the additional weight in them they needed re-adjustment & I never achieved the previously "acceptable?" shut lines.
I've now got some "original" door seal that should give me some more room to play with & hopefully some improvement.
I wish you good luck.

Cheers
John

[alexblack13]

Thanks John,
I have not received the frames back from very carefull blasting by my friend who is also a lotus owner and knows how I wish the parts to be cared for. On their return I am 'restoring' the bottom steel panels as discribed above. I am not having the chrome touched as the tops and in fact most of the brass which is chromed is in very good condition. So I am leaving well alone. I have new wire rope. New pulleys and new E clips. The motors are cleaned and serviced and working great.

Just an assembly job which I am reading up on (Brian Bucklands' bible)

This weekend should see one finished and fitted to the car I hope.

Thanks for the luck.. I might need it.

Alex B....

[alexblack13]

Hi All,
Probably last update as the car is now near a dam it finished.

Door frames took a bit longer than expected (I just knew they would be trouble!) I broke 2 side windows. One new ...!!! If you have your glass out of the car at any time make a template. Just in case. I took the template to a local glass supplier and had two new ones made at half the cost from the usual suspects. Toughened and polished edges two off came to just over 60 quid ...

The cause of breaking the glass was the fastners which clamped the cables to the glass on top of a copper washer. Useless and a recipie for a glass explosion.(ever seen one of those go off? scary ) I designed and made a different solution to the problem which is explained in a another post on this site. Have a read.

Frames are now in the car. Motors next. They look just fine and wind up n down nice and freely.

Some pics of the recond frames etc..

Have fun...

Alex B....

[alexblack13]

Hi Guys,

I forgot to fit the door pulls to the inside of the doors b4 fitting the frames into the doors. Scream!!.. Almost impossible to get nuts onto the fastners in that situ' so I used 2 rivnuts in each door. I used 4 mm dia ones to start (they are exactly the right dia for the existing holes in the grp). They have fixed in really solid and I have slammed the door shut a fair few times on testing. I think they should be fine.

I tell this wee story in case anyone else does the same. Use a little 'releasable' thread lock on the screws just to prevent slackening off.

Just the door cards to fit now.

Alex B....

[RichardS]

Alex

Looking good - you've become a bit of a dab hand at posting the photos after a slow start!

I,ve just spruced up my window motors and cleaned and painted the mounting plates. Also rewired and fitted the number plate lamps - got them off Ebay and spotted your ebay name on the feedback page. Mine fitted well but I had to bend the spade tabs to fit the female connectors from the loom.

Getting nearer the stage when I refit the carbs etc and hopefully hear the roar of the twin cam for the first time in 18 years!

Richard

[alexblack13]

Brill Richard. What a thrill that is eh? Hows' about recording it for us all to enjoy ?

Have fun Mate.....


Alex B....

[Jens]

Reading all eleven pages of comments, questions and pictures gives me a small view of what I am going to be facing... Eventually.

I am still looking for a good place to spend most of my spare time before I eventually get my Elan from Sweden, where it is still standing at a friends place, and has been for a couple of years.

Sigh... Can't wait untill she is near enough for me to just sit, look and have a beer in the garage whenever i feel like it.

Congratulations Alex to a job well done. She's really astonishing.

//J

[alexblack13]

Thank you Jens.

You sound like you have a very bad dose of lotusitis

Have fun when the time comes and your car arrives. Anytime you are in Scotland let me know... We will have a beer or two...

Guys....
Those rivnuts I fitted to mount the door pulls don't half work. Soooo simple. Why the heck did lotus not use things like these. Were they around then. Must have been , surely. I can think of a few more places to use them and they would make life much simpler. Bulkhead to bonnet catch/release cable attachmnt for eg. Have a swaged on screwed end fitted and bobs' your uncle. Ever tried to get at that great big nut up behind the glovebox? How stupid is that?

Have fun........

Alex B....

[Jens]

As if Lotusitis would be a bad disease to have. IMHO the happiest people around are the fools that just don't know better - guess why I am a happy camper most of the time...

Just to get an indication, how many hours did you spend working on your Elan in order to get it in this condition? Mine has been basically untouched since it once was assembled and I am now the third owner, my father was the second but gave the car to me insted of doing all the work himself (the option was selling it, but I really didn't like the idea of that).

I will surely give you a call when I am in Scotland. A beer (or two, or a nice Single Malt, or all of the above) sounds like a good idea!

Have a nice weekend,

Jens

[alexblack13]

Hi All, Jens...

Hours spent is difficult to tell but an estimate would be something like...

Sat & Sundays.. Most mornings normally till around 1 -2 pm.

So say 5 hrs / day on average would make around 40 / month just on weekends.

Then there were the full days. I recon' at least 1 / week some times two so if I said another 12 hrs / week there. That would give an average of around 48 -50 hrs / month which is now totalling around 90 / month. There were weeks when more hours than that happened so I will round it to aprox 100 / month... x 12 is 1200 hrs. I would say an accurate guesstimate. It took exactly one year, give or take a week.

Remember I did not do the body. So no hours counted there.I only did the mechy and lecky...

Just the last door to finish off, then its time to look to see what can be improved.

Couple of pics attached .

The invite to Jens is of course open to any other Lotusitis sufferers who happen on by. Give me a nod and a beer or two will be 'dispensed'
Purely medicinal of course.


Have fun now...

Alex B....

[Old English White]

Alex ,
At first , congratulations for the work done .
I will be happy to send "OEW" here in Scotland for a so short period and having it back this way .
For your battery , more than something to hide it , pay special attention to the fixation , as it's so close from the inner wing , prone to crack .
Put some foam between will reduce possibility ...
For "covering" the battery , may I suggest something "light" & "right" ; What about a piece of your boot carpet + velcro on one side ...
Christian.

[alexblack13]

Hi Christian,

Many thanks for your nice comment. The battery has indeed been well fixed. I might try and photograph the special heavy duty clamp system I made and post a pic' or two. I have also packed plenty of protection for the rear wing. When I got the car this was badly 'crazed' due to battery battery in you see what I mean. Fixed!...

The cover I had in mind will be fixed with zeus type fastners. Made from fibreglass or similar non conductive material and covered in the same carpet. Plan 'A'... Don't have a plan 'B' if that doesn't work. I am in no hurry to do this yet but I will get round to it...

Cheers...

Alex B....