Elan S4 rebuild - my story chapter 2

[john.p.clegg]

Ken

If it's the vacuum switch you want fixing,I'm only down the road and have done it a few times ( ask Jimj how his is holding up.)

All for the donation of a cheap bottle of red....

John

[ken ob]

Thanks John, I was thinking more along the lines that there seems to be no problem Glen and Drew
can't solve, fix or repair.

Ken

[Certified Lotus]

Ken, too bad your not down the road, my garage is always open for Elan owners. And free beer at the end of the day!

[john.p.clegg]

Free beer!

What is the nearest International Airport...

John

[CBUEB1771]

Free beer!

What is the nearest International Airport...

John

As our Secretary of State recently said to your new Foreign Secretary, "it's called diplomacy".

[Certified Lotus]

I've been driving my S4 the last couple of weeks since completing the rebuild on it and enjoying the car while noting a few more "improvements" that should be done before I put it up for sale. After some serious back country road driving the S4 will get new shocks all the way around to improve the suspension even more. The ones on the car are brand new......from 30 years ago and although they haven't seen any use......well, no use is also bad. I just need a weekend where is not so damn hot and humid to install them.

Here are a couple of photos from LOG36 at the Concour field. I didn't win any prizes as we grouped all the S3, S4 and Sprint models together and of course all the Sprints won! Never the less, it was a great event and everyone had a wonderful time.

[jimj]

Glen, it`s good to see you`re still celebrating independence from Europe.
Jim

[jk952]

Glen, it`s good to see you`re still celebrating independence from Europe.
Jim

Was it called USEXIT?

[elancoupe]

Here are a couple of photos from LOG36 at the Concour field. I didn't win any prizes as we grouped all the S3, S4 and Sprint models together and of course all the Sprints won! Never the less, it was a great event and everyone had a wonderful time.

Is it possible for other LOG 36 attendees to obtain their photo from the car show entry?

[Certified Lotus]

Photos will be available for sale by the photographer shortly.

[Certified Lotus]

I finally got around to replacing the front and rear shocks. Sourced AVO's and replaced the front with coil-overs and 10 inch springs. I had a whole series of springs to test, 8 inch, 10 inch and 11 inch. Tried them all and liked the way the 10 inch felt on the car with the AVO shocks.

Different size coil springs

Installed on S4

The rears, well as most of you know, this is not an easy in/out job for shocks. You need to disassemble the entire rear drive train to lower the shock tube and pull out the shock. The Koni's that were in the car looked brand new. The only trouble is they were seized sitting for 30+ years. There was also no oil on the shock tube so before I replaced the AVO shocks I poured some motor oil down the tube and installed the shock.

Shock tube

OEM Coil Spring with Koni next to AVO shocks

Went for a nice country road drive with lots of spring/shock compression turns and the Elan behaved liked it was supposed to. I could have gone for many more hours the drive was so nice, but I needed to get back to my garage and get the Elan cleaned up!

[Certified Lotus]

I sold my S4 today and it was a bitter sweet moment. Spent the last year with my friend Drew restoring this car and learning how different it was from an Elan S1. I really enjoyed this Elan as being a bit more of a touring sports car than the S1 which is much more pure in its approach to the basics of a light and nimble sports car.

All that being said, I bought this car knowing I would eventually sell it. It's going to a good home and will be in a garage with other Lotus'. Couldn't ask for a better ending!

As some of you know, my next project is a 72 Europa Twin Cam. I'll post my build thread on the Europa site. Have already figured out its a completely different car. Glad I stocked the refrigerator with more beer

[richardcox_lotus]

Thanks for sharing your experiences on this rebuild - it's been a great thread. For those of us who aren't familiar with the Europa site can you post a link please ?

Thanks !!

Richard

[trw99]

Yep, thanks for an interesting read and well done.

Tim

[Certified Lotus]

Thanks for sharing your experiences on this rebuild - it's been a great thread. For those of us who aren't familiar with the Europa site can you post a link please ?

Thanks !!

Richard

Here is my Europa Rebuild thread:
http://www.lotuseuropa.org/LotusForum/i ... pic=1704.0