Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Had a call today from an ex work collegue who has decided to sell a 1967 White Lotus Elan SE which had been stored in agarage for 40 years. The car was taken off the road and the engine taken out due to starter ring was loose. I hasnt been moved since. Apparently the chassis split and was welded back in time.
He has asked me to make an offer but I havn't a clue how much it is worth. I havn't seen the car as it is burried under 40 years of junk.

Hi,
As no one else has answered I will make a few comments.
The S3SE is a beautiful version and much sought after and it should be restored.
Has it been stored dry, otherwise every screw in it will be difficult to remove.
An engine needing a full rebuild is worth £2000 upwards and will cost another £3000 to have rebuilt.
The body if undamaged will require a lot of time and effort, assuming it needs a full repaint. Start at £5000 if you can do a lot yourself.
Everything on the car will require stripping and rebuilding.
Upholstery, seats, dashboard, new hood, tonneau covers will be £1200, plus.
New chassis £2500.
It will need rewiring, all brakes, pipes, hoses and all rubber parts replacing.
Someone once asked a question on this forum. `I am going to do a complete rebuild of my car. How much time should I expect it to take?
The only answer, which came from someone a lot more experienced than me, was. `Work on it one day a week. If you miss a week, then do two days to catch up. Keep going and do not ease off. Allow about six years and you should be OK.
I know everything I have said here may be wrong and may be disputed but it is just a few thoughts to get you going.
I hope you get it and if so, keep in touch and let us watch the progress. You will get much encouragement on here. If you got it for £5000 you should be OK.
Remember we have not seen it and know nothing about it, but I have just tried to give you a starting point.
Eric in Burnley
1967 S3SE DHC

AAAHHH the glories of a white S3SE..............................D

Better factor in a new chassis, too.

gjz30075 wrote:Better factor in a new chassis, too.

The fashion now seems to be repairing the old one, if it’s not too far gone

^^^ I'm all for that. I still have my original in my Sprint.

gjz30075 wrote:^^^ I'm all for that. I still have my original in my Sprint.

Me too on two of my three cars, my other car (a Mk 14) doesn't have one

Your colleague has to give you visibility if he is serious about selling it. Junk in England means damp, rust and rot, none of which the Elan was designed to resist, therefore you should expect the worst. Unless you are an experienced car man with some space don't even think about it.

It is not going to be worth more than a couple of thousand pounds, as Eric has pointed out, as even a runner could be under £10,000.

Come on you lot, no one has strongly disagreed with me yet. This is not the way we do things on here usually.
What`s the matter with you all.
Eric in Burnley

ericbushby wrote:Come on you lot, no one has strongly disagreed with me yet. This is not the way we do things on here usually.
What`s the matter with you all.
Eric in Burnley

Not disagreeing with your estimates for repairs/replacements but if the OP got it for £5K he would probably have a queue around the block to offer £6K, £7K or possibly more.

Mike

Thanks mike,
I agree with you that the value on the open market could be more, if and when we get to see the condition. This is different as the deal would be between two friends. One who wants to restore the car and and the seller who maybe wants to see it restored.
Frampty, please tell us more when you see the car and some phots please.
Eric in Burnley
1967 S3SE DHC

The cost of a high quality full restoration will exceed the resale value of the restored car - this has been true of the classic car market for a number of years, certainly at the lower end of the market.

From an economic perspective, the logical conclusion is that you should pay a negative price for an unrestored vehicle - the seller should pay you to take it away. As this clearly isn't going to happen, the next logical conclusion is that it is better to buy a restored vehicle than restore it.

This of course misses out on the pleasure of hours of scraping paint from the shell, digging old underseal out of your ear, and the endless fun of making the electrics work.

Yes Eric, we all like a bit of an Elan "teaser" when another one is discovered.

But, there's also a cautionary warning here for the OP as there's many an Elan been bought at bargain prices and then the costs of restoration have been massively underestimated by the new owner. Been there, done that, I've had my basket case S4 for near 15 years but it's only recently that finances have allowed the restoration that it deserves.

Mike

To the question what is it worth, the only answer can be what someone will pay.
How the buyer values it will depend on available money and their dreams. I think the negative value is only true if you are thinking of paying commercial rates for the labour. But without many many hours of free labour the value must be very low.
But there are a lot of people looking for this type of project I can imagine it fetching well over £10k on the open market.

The problem as I see it is far too many people now are buying these basket cases wlth all good intentions and then go somewhat mad and strip the car down completely, get overwhelmed by what they find and the financial cost of taking the project forward then becomes just too much for them!
They then lose enthusiasm for the project and the end result is the car then usually gets sold off in bits and as a car it gets lost forever.

Alan