Lotus Elan S4 SE DHC 1970

[kieran9990]

Hi all,

Im a new member on here. I am about to start a full restoration on my S4 SE.

A Breif run down on the car

The car was bought my my father in 1977. He bought it locally from a oldish gent who needed a bigger car. Initially when he bought it, it was in a tawny brown but he soon had it resprayed in white with gold bumpers. He then fitted a big valve head and a set of webbers. In 1980 he put it in his aunts garage to where it was still sat 2 years ago due to his aunts death. He then put it in his garage where it still sits exactly the same.
I have spoken to the lotus archives who have sent me a copy of the build sheet and invoice , the car originally was white and was sold in the kit form.

I have just sold my elise and now have room in my garage to set about restoring the SE.

I am a complete lotus nut and cannot wait to drive this car. it will be such a fantastic day.

I would like to say thanks for reading this and i will post some pics when i have posted more than 3 times

Kieran

[elansprint71]

Welcome! Look forward to seeing some photos. Where are you?

[kieran9990]

Im in derby , but im a engineer who works all over the uk , which will be handy for picking up parts

[kieran9990]

Heres a few pics

[Old English White]

Welcome abord Kieran !
You start with this forum like every new member should do ...
Have I done the same at the time !?! I am afraid no ! I was allready looking for help , and because of the location of its members , this forum is nearly 24hrs/7days/week ...
This is maybe not the funniest place on web (they wanted me to keep writing black prior anything ... a bit of a clue , no !?!), but you ll get allways a fast , complete and fully documented answer , whatever the question , if not on 26R shapesomething , Ed.
One last advice (black writing apart); use the search button , every subjects have been now covered several times , and the olders don't like newbies asking the same questions ...
Christian.

[Frank Howard]

Kieren,

Thanks for posting the photos. I'm especially impressed with the car wash!

[alexblack13]

Welcome indeed.

Best of luck with the job. It has got my juices flowing again. I wish I was close by, you could not get rid of me.

It looks a nice little car. How is it underneath?

Looking forward to progress pics.

Again.. Welcome aboard

I am begining to think God put me on this planet to restore Lotus cars and I am so far behind right now I should never die



Have fun. Nights are begining to lengthen again.

[kieran9990]

Thanks

I have no idea what its like underneath yet. Its been sat in a dry garage but i suspect ill need to put a new chassis on it.

I am also in 2 minds weather to take it back to concours original spec or slightly fast road spec with minilites and a few engine tweeks .

I also want to change the colour when i have the shell off. no idea what yet . i want a original s4 se colour.

[alexblack13]

All part of the fun of owning the car. Its up to you how you do it. No right or wrong (some may argue that point) I went for originality where poss' and put back most of what came off the car during its resto' Original paint etc is nice I think. Wheels can be swapped back n forth and you have the originals. Minilites look great!

It will look super no matter how you do it.

Just enjoy. It is huge fun and very rewarding.

This forum support is just wonderfull also. Great bunch of Guys. Very very helpfull and what they don't know aint worth knowing.

Alex B....

[Elanintheforest]

Hi Kieran and welcome....looks like a great place to start!

Have you got 'the three books' yet? The workshop manual, the parts book and Brian Buckland's bible on Elan restoration. You'll have most of the information available (and needed) once you have those....and with well over 1000 pages between them, you'll have something to read for quite a while as well.

I have the twin of your car, which is waiting it's turn in the workshop. And between us, we don't have the right colour wheels

Mark

[Jas]

Hi Kieran and welcome.
I must have the tripling then.
My wheels are standard but the interior is not, but I?m working on that at the moment.

[SADLOTUS]

Hi Kieran,

Looks like a good car to start with - looks like all the bits there and from what I can see, an easyish job to find the missing parts. Hope it's not too bad underneath. Patience and enthusiasm ...and I suppose money will see this through - fortunately the parts for these fab cars are fairly reasonable. Every time you see one on the road, you'll be scurrying home to do another little job on your own car.

Dont take what Christian said to heart, (apologies Christian) most of us old fogies cant remember what we said yesterday let alone last year, and anyway we like to repeat ourselves, and anyway we like to repeat ourselves - (apologies everybody else).
We like to know the problems you are facing and reassure ourselves that we're not the only ones with that problem.
Also... if you find a source of parts or a man who can spin up that elusive part, let us know.

Good luck and keep us up to date.

Paul

[Frank Howard]

Thank you all three listers for the wonderful pictures. I have a comment and a question for Jas. I like the pleated door coverings a la Turbo Esprit and your dash and wood steering wheel are superb. All of my wires run through the door sills to get to the back of the car. What are the wires running down the back bone? Are they speaker wires?

[Jas]

Thanks Frank.
I like the door sides also, the car came like that, but I don?t like the colour. I?m in the middle of recolouring the leather seats and door sides to black. The wooden steering wheel is also making way for a leather wheel of the same kind, I don?t like the feel and small rim diameter of the wooden one.
Yes the wires on the back bone are for the speakers, they will be soldered and not just twisted together and go down the sill with the others.

[davidfost]

Hi Jas

You have my old car! I put 15000 miles on it in 2000-2001 as my everyday car, it came with that probably very expensive but totally non standard interior. I have a few more pics if you're interested.

... and good luck Kieran. I'm on my third Elan now, they're very addictive

David