My first Lotus.

[SwampMonster]

Hi everyone,

A friend sold me his '68 Elan S4 SE a couple weeks ago.
I'm new to the Lotus world and I'm loving the car so far. I drove the car up to Seattle from San Francisco last year with the previous owner. It currently runs great.

The car only has 65K miles on it, but I do need to find a few small things for it, like right side headlight trim ring, and a new valve cover gasket.
Any suggestions on sites specializing in old lotus parts would help. I'm sure I'll need more parts as time goes on. I've got the original shop manual so that helps.

Any suggestions on care/maintenance and where to find parts would help me out.

-Scott

[RotoFlexible]

Hi Scott, and welcome to Elan ownership. That is a nice looking car.

Three US resources that I have used:

R.D. Enterprises (rdent.com) - excellent website (including invaluable illustrated parts manuals). Lots of trim items.

Dave Bean (davebean.com) - the website that time forgot, but they are particularly good on engine and other drivetrain parts. You MUST get a copy of their catalog - a treasure trove of information.

JAE (jaeparts.com)

[stugilmour]

Welcome aboard Scott. Looks real nice.

Great parts supplier list for you already from Andrew. Another US supplier is

http://www.sportscarworld.com/

They were out of commision for a while due to a death in the family, but some guys here have got parts recently and their web site seems much better now.

If your car is running (and your passport up to date ), consider the All British Field Meet in Vancouver on May 19th. Lotus is a featured marque, and would be great to have another Elan. Haven't registered yet myself, but still shooting to make it down.

http://www.westerndriver.com/?page_id=3527

Plus 2 on the poster this year

http://www.westerndriver.com/?page_id=96

Cheers!

[gordont]

well done Scott and welcome aboard, looks like a nice car and great that it is out their being driven. I am sure you will enjoy the elan and find the forum of great use, there is some great knowledge on the site (far more knowledgeable than me)

[ardee_selby]

Hi everyone,

(Pt.1) Any suggestions on care/maintenance and (Pt.2) where to find parts would help me out.

-Scott

Hello Scott,

Pt.2 has been covered but one of the "tricks" of Elan ownership has been to identify where (a lot of the) components were sourced. e.g. Lucas headlamp rims I believe are Mini? MGB? Can't recall exactly but, no doubt, others can confirm.

Pt.1 could run to many, many pages! But to kick things off...

Based on the picture (v.nice ) the short answer is to keep up the previous owners regime. It, clearly, was working well. The shop manual covers the bases.

Since you are about to remove the camcover. Whilst it is off: measure current valve clearances for reference? check timing chain adjustment?

The means of getting an oil tight camcover (both gasket and cam bore half moons) is covered here in detail by others. If you cannot find it by searching the archive, or in doubt on anything else. Just ask...simples!

Apart from that...frequent use. (and frequent lubrication). They suffer more by lack of use than anything else!

Cheers - Richard

[elansprint71]

Welcome aboard!
From the UK I have dealt with both Dave Bean and JAE in Ca. and their service has been excellent. There are several specialists in the UK and Australia who, between them, can supply just about any part.

[stugilmour]

Scott, thought of another possible service name / resource for you, mainly 'cus relatively local. They are known for their head work, particularly conversion of Stromberg to Weber.

http://www.omnitech-engineering.com/

Omnitech/SCC Inc.
3313 McAlpine Road, Suite C
Bellingham, WA 98225 - 8437
U.S.A.

[SwampMonster]

Thanks for the warm welcome and information!

I would love to head up to Vancouver for the May 19th show. Unfortunately I'll be driving the car down to Eugene that weekend for my sister's birthday. I'll keep an eye out for future events across the border.

I've bookmarked the sites and fortunately have only needed to order brake pads and the cam cover gasket.
I'll be sure to check the forum and ask questions as I need information, advice or help.

I'll make sure the car isn't neglected. It wasn't built to sit in a garage.
I'll do my best to drive it like it was intended to be driven...
-and hope I don't get too many speeding tickets!

Thanks!
-Scott