Series 3 Dhc About To Undergo Surgery.

[DrEntropy]

Well, finally motivated to start the resurrection of me beloved Elan. In the garage as a partially disassembled rolling LUMP for the last decade! Seems like it's only been a few weeks... It's Hell to get old.

Bean is sending me ~one~ 125E conn rod to replace the one whot got a crack in 'er. Currently "suffering" thru an Alfa Spider as me daily driver. heh. Life's tough.

Goin' to be th' ol' "frame-off" kinda thing: cracks at th' diff arms onna bottom side, three coats of (REALLY gooey) paint on it... but I want to DRIVE it before I get to the point where I can't get in and out of it anymore!

Hope to have some good communication with this group. Haven't found much on Usenet (Lotus) to call "fun" for sure. Though I do like (and post to) the Alfa bunch.

[pereirac]

It's must be the great engines and dodgy wiring which attracts Elan owners to Alfas? We have an Elan, also off the road for a long time... but hopefully this year and an Alfa Romeo (164) both have electrical problems but are real drivers cars.

Has anybody ever put an Alfa Twin Cam into an Elan?

Good luck with the rebuild

[DrEntropy]

heheee.

I've had 3 GTV's and now this Spider. Much prefer the GTV but they're gettin' scarce.

I think the Alfa engines are too tall to fit in Chapman's cars, but I do know of a 7 whot had a Fiat 2L TC shoehorned into it!

[steveww]

Forget the Alfa twinc. If you want to play with different engines in the Elan just go for a BDA

FWIW I have been toying with the idea of supercharging the Lotus twinc to get a bit more power and torque <_<

[DrEntropy]

Yup! straight in, no messin' about.

FWIW I have been toying with the idea of supercharging the Lotus twinc to get a bit more power and torque

WOOHOO! If you do it, post photos someplace!

[The Cyclist]

Welcome to the S3 restorers group; the model that is neither the fastest, nor the original, but still the best. I'm just restoring mine (well actually I watched it in a friends garage unused for 15years before he'd sell it to me). But fortunately my wife says I've got to make it a runner really quickly because I'm not allowed to have two dead lotii in the house.

The yahoo group for the elan is fun if you haven't seen it. B)

[brassringfarm]

Hope I'm permitted to add to this string - but I just finished a 4 year frame off restoration of my 65 S2 Roadster. I replaced everything made of rubber, rebuilt everything and it was pretty straightforward to put together, all things considered. I did make a wooden floor and pedal box to bolt temporarily to the chassis - so that I could drive the car before I put the body on. It was well worth the effort - even though driving it at 55mph was a little scary! If you have any questions as you go along, this group can answer them! We can also give sources for just about any part. Good luck
Paul Zimmerman
26/4600

[simonknee]

Alfa in a Lotus, shurely shum mishtake. Knowing my brothers 2000GTV it wouldn't fit and you'd go slower!!

[pereirac]

Ah!! If only I could afford a BDA!!

There again the twin cam's not bad.

BTW has anybody fitted the Burton front cover with removable water pump, it looks like a good idea although the only time my waterpump failed was when I fitted one myself!!

Mine's a S4 Sprint B)

[khamai]

<!--QuoteBegin-brassrngfm+Mar 18 2004, 06:40 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (brassrngfm @ Mar 18 2004, 06:40 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> I did make a wooden floor and pedal box to bolt temporarily to the chassis - so that I could drive the car before I put the body on. It was well worth the effort - even though driving it at 55mph was a little scary!
Paul Zimmerman
26/4600 [/quote]
Paul,
Surely there are photos of this that you could share... Seeing someone driving an Elan chassis around would certainly turn heads!

I've driven by F/B car around the neighborhood sans bodywork, but an Elan chassis would be even more of a hoot!