Plus 2 Projects. Original JPS and a rolling shell

[Elanintheforest]

In the next few months I will be thinning out some of the hoard of Elans that I?ve accumulated over the past few years. I won?t be advertising them until Springtime, but I thought I?d give you guys a heads up in case someone is looking for a project.

Firstly, an original JPS Plus 2.
This is a 2 owner 39,000 mile from new car in need of restoration. It is totally original and never been apart, with everything as it left the factory, including the brakepipes, loom clips all as they were put in. The interior is superb and will clean up well, including the original carpets. The gold roof is original, and I think it?s one of the very rare gel-coat gold finishes?most were re-painted at the factory as the gold gel-coat finish usually didn?t work too well. The black paint is awful, and covered in microblisters, but the body is superb, with virtually no cracks.

It has all the JPS bits, including the cord-insert oatmeal trim, the sundym glass, the 5 speed box and the Turnolock radio.

The story is that the second owner had the car painted in the mid 1980s to tidy up a few scrapes and scratches. Luckily he didn?t get the roof painted. It was a cheap tidy-up job, and after a short period of time it started to microblister. He parked it in the garage in disgust and didn?t use it again, so it has been unused for 20 years.

If you want to restore a Plus 2, they don?t come any better than this car, and it?s an original JPS. Ballpark price is ?4800.

Secondly, a 130 rolling shell in Cirrus White.
I bought this car as a stripped down rolling shell, complete with doors, bonnet, boot, headlamp pods, front and rear glass. The shell has a ?normal? amout of gel-coat cracks, and the panel fit is excellent. Nice registration number too! I can?t see any previous accident damage or botched up repars anywhere.Unperturbed by the fact that I already had 6 other projects, I figured that this would make a fine Zetec project.

What?s on offer here is the rolling shell as I bought it (with V5 and vin plate and some old Mots for the car), but I?m happy to work with anybody interested in providing other parts, depending on what they require for the car. I do have a complete dash with instruments and switches, a complete oatmeal interior, door frames and glass, pedal box, radiator, engine, gearbox, prop, diff, petrol tank and most of the other bits if needed and you wanted to build it back to original spec?.but I thought that it would make a good Zetec donor as is! Ballpark price for the rolling shell is ?900, less if you don?t want the rolling chassis (which you won?t if building a Zetec).

Thirdly, there may be more!
I also have a late 130 4 speed, in yellow, that has had a lot of restoration work completed. It has a completely refurbished rolling chassis with rebuilt engine, gearbox and diff, new seat covers (that need fitting) and most of the bodywork has been prepared ready for painting. Still not sure if I?m going to sell this one, and have yet to figure a ballpark price, but somewhere in the region of ?10k has been spent on it so far?it would be a lot less than that!

So that?s it for the moment. PM me with your phone number if you want to talk about any of these cars. Please note that I will only sell to somebody who wants to restore the car, not break it for parts. No parts are for sale separately, as I still have three other Plus 2 cars even when these are gone.

[elanfan1]

Is that a bubble car parked infront?

People would pay money to see you get into one of those!!

Steve

[Elanintheforest]

It's all in the hand signals....

[Jason1]

If only I had the space

How many Lotii is too many?

Jason

[Elanintheforest]

I don't think you can have too many Lotii.....but for me, maybe too many projects!

Mark

[RobertCrooks]

Mark

I might be interested in the JPS. I have a JPS Esprit and they would make a great pair.

Robert

[Elanintheforest]

A dangerous path, Robert. In a year or so you'd be on the lookout for a JPS Europa Special....then maybe even a JPS Capri and a JPS Norton!

Mark

[Elanintheforest]

The JPS is now provisionally sold, subject to a final inspection and arm wrestling session next weekend.
Mark

[elansprint71]

Mark,
You are a very sick man.

Elans, E-types, Heinkels; what else?

Do you do tours? I sometimes cut thro' the land between two rivers on my travels.

[Elanintheforest]

There's all sorts, Pete, from a 1949 French coal truck that appeared in a few episodes of Maigret to an Australian Mini Moke that was used to ferry disco kit around Europe. Got to have a bit of variety in life.

The latest adventure is with that most rare of all cars...the Peugeot 504 Pickup. Rare because they either rusted away after 10 years or were beaten to death by builders once they discovered that they could load them with 2 tons of bricks. And how many other cars of this size would be able to carry a pair of Camels, eh? Very handy in this part of the world....

Tours given weekly (weakly?)

Mark

[tzar_of_pushrods]

I have been looking for a good Plus 2 project for quite some time. Finding one in Switzerland is a challenge. Too bad the JPS is gone already. Maybe the yellow late 130 4-speed is what I need. I have quite some experience restoring an Austin-Healey and a couple of Triumph TR3 but none with Lotus. I do wish a complete car however and one that I can transport in one trip... Do you have a few pictures? Ideally, I wish I could get the parts needed for a LHD conversion too. I doubt I can get a pedal box from a mail order company.

Fran?ois
[email protected]

[Elanintheforest]

Hi Francois
It's probably worth checking out how easy it is to convert RHD to LHD before deciding on a model of Elan to buy for restoration. The early Plus 2 (pre 1970) is fairly straightforward as it has both sets of holes for the pedal box and steering column, the same as the Healey. The later models do not have both sets, and I seem to remember that it's a bit trickier than just cutting holes in the firewall! I will check out and photograph tomorrow.

I think that the pedal box will go either on the left or the right...again I'll check this out.

You will of course need a LHD dashboard, but most Plus 2 projects require a new dash anyway due to splits in the wood laminate / peeling varnish.

Then you'll need a lhd steering rack, which should be easy enough to source.

The yellow Plus 2 is a late car, and really, most of the restoration is done on that car...it just needs painting and the interior ./ plumbing completed. I'm still not sure that I will sell this car as it's so far advanced, and is probably worth more to me than it would seem to be worth as a project...if you see what I mean! As all the chromework and lights are perfect, the interior new, the chassis new, the engine, gearbox, differential, suspension and brakes rebuilt.....it wouldn't be too much of a project really.

I do have the parts to complete the white car, but again, that is also a late one, and may not be easy to convert. As mentioned, I'll check this out tomorrow.

If you do go ahead and restore an Elan, you'll find it a lot easier than a Healey...no rust, and you haven't got the 10 major panels to try and align!! I spent 5 years getting my 3000 right, and vowed that I'd never do another. Beautiful car though.

Mark

[Elanintheforest]

Francois
A quick look at an early shell and a late shell (the Cirrus car) shows that it wouldn't be a problem converting from rhd to lhd for either...at least for the shell!

As you can see, the early one has the pedal box cut-out on both sides, where the late one is just cut out on the right side. So the later one would have to be cut out on the left, with the right side glassed back in...no big issue.

It may be worthwhile starting a new topic under the Plus 2 category to see if anybody has done this conversion, and exactly what is required.

Mark

[tzar_of_pushrods]

Mark,
Thanks very much for your answers. I do prefer to buy a complete Plus2 or almost complete one rather than go for a basket case. Not that I do not like tinkering, but because I do not have a feel with Loti yet. Past (painful) experience I has taught me that you better know as much as possible what you are getting into before starting a project. I'm sure that once I have had one in my hands, I will feel much better about starting another one from the parts bin.
I'll follow this post to see if the JPS has really sold and if your do sell the almost-finished one
Regards
Francois

[Elanintheforest]

Hi Francois
The JPS is sold.

If I lived outside the UK I would definately only consider buying a car that was complete and running. Over here, the parts for the Plus 2 are very easily obtained, and you could find all the parts you needed if you wanted to restore a car around a good headlamp pod! A very different story if you had to ship eveything in.

I will think about the nearly-restored car.

Mark