Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Hi all,

Now that I have this Elan Chassis No. 45/6714, I was wondering if anyone can give me any more information about it.

Mark was kind enough to let me know that it left the factory on 27th Jan '67 with engine number LP7387,,,,

But I would like to know what colour it was originally (as I can see traces of red under the yellow paint) and how did it end up here in Australia.

Also while I am asking questions, does anyone happen to know the correct colour codes for the cam cover (looks to have been green originally) and the code for the yellow that many Elans were painted?

Thanks in advance.

Paul

Good evening Paul and Welcome
I can't answer your questions but there are plenty on here who will be able to
happy motoring
Stuart

Here is a colour chart from Tims site http://www.lotuselansprint.com/index.asp?pageid=41827 (http://www.lotuselansprint.com/index.asp)
I painted my S3 SE cam cover with Hammerite dark green:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hammerite-HMM ... 4188a11189
although I have seen several painted with a lighter green which I think was the colour BMC used to do their engines.....Olive green or British Standard Middle Bronze Green (BS 223) ??? but I could never find a definitive answer to whitch green the SE cam covers were originally.

Hi all.

This may be of help.

My Elan 1600 (26/0538)was delivered from the factory, winter of 63/64, with blue cam covers. In latter '64 the factory offered a "stage two" engine tune option - a 10 hp increase consisting of camshaft grind upgrade and webber rejetting from stock. The cast exhaust manifold was retained in this option.The camshaft cover color was changed to green to identify this upgrade. The factory advised me of the availability, I ordered the bits, did the upgrade as well as flowed the head passages.
I repainted the cam cover green to suit the upgrade. I am occasionally asked about the color - few folk were aware of this option that I think was only factory supplied on the Series two.

Bill

I wasn't born when Bill took delivery of his Elan! I got to know Elan's in the early 1980's and many of them then were just old cars which hadn't had major restoration work carried out. I reckon Lotus would paint the cam covers with whatever they could get from the local paint supplier; Lotus was a small operation and as we can see from our cars there was nothing like the QC we know of today. I believe Lotus used several different colours on the S/E cm covers.

Bill wrote:Hi all.

This may be of help.

My Elan 1600 (26/0538)was delivered from the factory, winter of 63/64, with blue cam covers. In latter '64 the factory offered a "stage two" engine tune option - a 10 hp increase consisting of camshaft grind upgrade and webber rejetting from stock. The cast exhaust manifold was retained in this option.The camshaft cover color was changed to green to identify this upgrade. The factory advised me of the availability, I ordered the bits, did the upgrade as well as flowed the head passages.
I repainted the cam cover green to suit the upgrade. I am occasionally asked about the color - few folk were aware of this option that I think was only factory supplied on the Series two.

Bill

Bill just out of interest, did you send the parts back to Lotus in the UK or was the work done by your local dealer?

Mazzini

When I ordered the car in '63 there were no dealers in Canada west of the one in Ontario (3000 miles away) which was just being established and they had no cars yet - by the factory shipping log their first 2 cars were shipped out in March of '64 about the same time as mine. So the factory sold to me direct and I was my own mechanic - the factory was kind enough to supply me with both a shop and parts manual at the time as they knew I was on my own.

I did my own work on the car then, still do now.

Easy - peesy!

That is still the most fun (doing it right) of my Elan ownership.

Bill

Hello all, thanks for your replies and the links to the paint codes.

The car has a long way to go before I get to painting it but it's nice to know what direction to head in.

Here is a picture of the cam cover as it is now, you can see what I think is the original green under the darker green.



Also does anyone know where I can get these ribbers from?



They are listed in the Elan parts book as CA.39 Part Number 046 C 6001 if that helps.

Regards to all

Paul

Hi just search ?lan bush on eBay, they're readily available. However i prefer rubber. I bought mine from SJ, or was it Rdent, can't remember

This forum has posts about how to fit them, I think the consensus is mount the bush into the link first then squeeze the whole thing onto roll bar with lots of lubricant (and be careful, the links are handed, this is not a job you want to do twice!)

Just on your cam cover colour, and as I'm "local", you might find it useful to know that I just went to repco and bought some of the off the shelf green duplicolor engine enamel. It was close enough, I'm no purist. Pics on my resto thread.
lotus-elan-f19/australia-now-has-one-more-elan-t21042-45.html

Any of the lotus parts suppliers can supply the bushes. Poly or rubber available.

Fitted Polly bushes to mine, quite straight forward and easier than expected. Used a vice plus sockets to fit the bushes into the drop links. Then slide over the anti roll bar and as said make sure you get the right one on the right side. I'd do the top bushes in the link as well. Also check the bushes on the end of the shocks.

My top tip would be remove the anti roll bar from the car and paint it with por 15. The smooth surface of the paint allows the links to slip on really easily with lub once you have pushed them over the flattened ends.