Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

What happens when a parked car pulls out just a couple of meters in front of you...



Hope Miles is not too busy at the mo'?

Bummer,
Sorry to see that. There are some idiots on the road today...

Where are you based? Chris Neils did an A1 top top job on my daughters Elise and the paint match was better than new (no connection) but credit where its due...

cheers
Mark

Thanks Mark,

From South London I always head down to Miles at Fibreglass Services and he too does amazing work matching old paint.

Luckily I managed to swerve the worst of the impact so it was glancing rather than head on. Hopefully no chassis issues as a result (fingers very crossed). However it did then scrape all down the nearside. The flexing of the body panels has crazed and cracked the paint. It was enough to cause a bit of paint to crack and break off near the radio mast. So I suspect a lot of stripping back will be required to get to sound foundations once more.

Typical really especially since I had a great day yesterday fitting new bits and fixing a bunch of minor issues.

Brooklands is looking unlikely

Oh dear...I am very sad to see this... Good luck with the repair.

Thats bad news, hope every one is ok.

May i make a suggestion, use SMS http://www.smsautospray.co.uk/ over Miles, i know he wrote a GRP book / many hang of his every word but i've seen some of his work and frankly in my opinion SMS is far and away better quality (just bit further away for you)

Sorry to see that.
I recall my Elan being 'run over' whilst it was parked in South London. 'Sorry Guv' I didn't see you'
Miles did a great job on that. And in answer to the last post, although it appears I'm not in the majority of experiences, SMS did a rubbish job for me on a separate repair.

Really sorry about this.

I'm sure it will soon be better than new, but it's such a shame it happened just as the weather is getting better.

Some people out there seem like they are driving blind. When in the Elan I always feel like I have to expect everyone else to act like a lunatic. Pulled out to overtake a van driving 35 on a de-restricted road today, when he decided to move into the middle of the road straddling both lanes and blocking me. No sense or reason at all.

Closer inspection shows the flex of the body work was enough to pop the rear window rubber out of it's flange. How far would the forum experts be worried that any stress could have spread? What extent would you be looking to strip back and inspect?

Simon

Hi,
When I wrote off my S2 Europa (I'll send some pics) every single panel had/developed stress cracks over the few weeks it remained in my ownership. You will need to wait a while for all of them to appear, end even then not all may be obvious.

thanks
Mark

Ugh... sorry to see... that'sjust plain horrible...

You have my deepest sympathies Simon, and I've got fingers crossed for an excellent repair.

Gut wrenching, but if the steering's still straight the chassis should be OK. Miles will know how much the stress will have travelled and I suspect it will be a long way. Hope the other party was insured with a proper company.

What with juggling our half-year old son and our home being a building site I've only just got the Elan to Miles yesterday. There steering is a bit out of whack so made a lads outing of it in a knackered Transit transporter from http://www.Transporterhire.co.uk. Cheap and dirty, literally, but did the job - the tachograph unit claimed a very believable 488,000km. Though I did point out to the mate that hired and drove the thing that since the other chap was fully insured (on a classic policy with Footman James) and admitted liability (yeah!) then we could have pushed the boat out to something a bit more swanky...



A couple of weeks sitting in my lock-up and no further crazing is evident. Which is a small positive at least. A new front quarter wing is to be fitted and the rest repaired. I'm definitely getting using the opportunity to scrap the old hood and fit a new one. But now do I stump up to have the other side resprayed at the same time?

Up on the ramp it went whilst refreshments were had...



After much obligatory teeth sucking and muttering between Miles and Ian the chassis was pronounced OK. So don't know where the extra 1-2cm of right-hand down at the steering wheel is coming from yet but this will become apparent. The young lad got himself christened underneath the Lotus as an oily finger accidentally smeared his head.

The wheel itself is shot.



The accident managed to bend a few inches of the rim and the whole thing is now warped like an old bike wheel. I'm adding a Wanted Ad to see if any of you can dig out a straight steel bolt-on for me, there must be one or two decent ones tucked away somewhere?

Rounded off by indulging in a few tales from back in the day from Miles, plus recent tales of "sheep fluffing" apparently the key is the talcum powder! My mate talked obscure paint products with Ian. Offered a derisory amount for the Elite that has been left behind in the "showroom" for decades (join the queue said Miles). And then we were off back to the big smoke.

When my Plus 2 needed the front half repainted after its engine fire my painter gave me a very good price on respraying the back end at the same time given that I was paying for the back half and the insurance company paying for the front half. Time to negotiate with Miles on how he allocates the costs between the two

cheers
Rohan

Really cute baby by the way My three are all grown up now.