Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Thanks guys. I would definitely urge you to to find a project Alan as they are a lot of fun to restore and unlike most cars can be done in phases. Restoring everything on a rolling chassis is very satisfying and completes 90% of the mechanical restoration. With the body off and a copy of Brian's book, the workshop manual and the parts manual it's all pretty straightforward as well. Apart from those bloody flashing headlamps!!

Mark,

What are you doing about tyres? The rears appear to have good tread (but mismatched?) are they new enough to use or have they been on the car for years?

The car has a set of Cinturatos fitted Steve, but one kept deflating so I put a spare on. Loads of tread, but unfortunately they are dated 1981 or 1982 from memory!

I don't know what I'll fit, but it won't be the excellent and sticky XAS at £180 a corner. I rather like the Elan to be a little playful on the back end for a bit of fun. And the wheels will be blasted and painted silver of course.

How about these then:

Cheap as chips too

https://www.blackcircles.com/catalogue/ ... gJmBPD_BwE

Surely Shirley Steve, you meant to recommend our friend TBG's tyre of choice, the Nokian iLine 165/70/13.

https://www.tyreleader.co.uk/car-tyres/ ... K8QAvD_BwE

In another recent thread he was saying how marvellous they were, not expensive and allowed him to have a bit of fun too. They would seem to fit the bill for Mark.

Tim

I've never heard of those! I bought a set of 5 Cinturatos for a Cortina earlier this year discounted from £85 to £45 each. They are just right for the 60s cars, although I wouldn't like to push them in the wet....although that situation almost certainly wouldn't arise.

It's gone a bit quiet.... you OK?

Still pottering on Pete. Just doing the trimming out now whilst waiting for the dash to be refurbished...that should be another 3 weeks or so. Also waiting for a tank to be built by Axminster, then I can get to see if my rebuilt engine works!

Also finding a lot of little jobs to do whilst waiting on the dash, like cleaning up the window motors and wiring, and tidying up the door trims, handles and speakers. I had a pair of NOS internal door handles that replaced the rather rusty originals, and a pair of speakers from an old XJS to replace the rusty covers that sat on the door. Amazing the difference a couple of small bits like that makes.

Don't forget to glue a bit of "basket weave" under the door handle flap.
Alan

Is that what's supposed to be there?!! I thought it looked a bit naked.

I shall hunt out a bit of basket weave, or at least some black leathercloth.

Ta very much!

You may well find there’ll be a small bit of basket weave you can liberate from under your seats if you’re lucky. You can also get like a carpet paint if you wanted to refresh the carpet around the speakers. Those speakers really do look nice.

Those speakers look superb on the back shelf of a Coupe or Plus 2 as well Steve. I haven't seen any better ones for Elans.

If you feel the need for "speakers" you are not accelerating hard enough.

elansprint71 wrote:If you feel the need for "speakers" you are not accelerating hard enough.

Truth

I put those speakers in place to fill the holes left by the old ones until I can get a good bit of loop-pile carpet to repair the door trims! I've never been able to listen to a radio in an Elan due to spark interference, and the quality is awful compared with even the cheapest modern car system. The dash is being refurbished with a radio blank in place, and that's probably how it will stay.