Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

I made up these side windows at the insistence of my father who was going to go with me when I first got the S2 running back in 1997. The windows didn?t come along until March of 98 when we were going to take the Elan to Nantucket for the annual Daffodil Parade and it being held on the second weekend of April it can be one cold bitch of a day (we were driving a 31 Model A pickup one year and the temperature was low 30?s and blowing about the same wind speed). At my fathers insistence I rigged up a pair of windows out of lexan. This Elan was re-built by me with no heater so it normally sees little use in the winter. The window used to ride around in the back and over the years they have become more or less translucent (the right side is the more, left side less so) and yesterday I was making a back window for a friend of mine and I had enough lexan left over to replace both of the side windows. I guess I could have used the original glass windows but they are a bit on the heavy side and what I really don?t like about them is that they don?t go all of the way down and the pinch the skin on the underside of my arm when I am working on my red neck tan (left arm burnt to cherry red from tee shirt down to my fingers and the rest of me white as a ghost). These windows are either in or out and I can hang my elbow out the window all day long. This mod is not for everyone but works with my hardtop, it works good enough for me.

lightweight frame


Replacement lites cut this morning


Right and left side are slightly different sizes


Last winter with windows installed

Red neck? These look just about as good as what Lotus did for the Elite.

I think I will be able to see out the right window now if Beau keeps his big nose off of the window

it won't be the nose you have to worry about, it will be the big slobber.

Glad I got you to digging for the lexan!

Gary mine came with perspex side window and a scissors arrangement for up and down----I made a plywood pattern and had some cut [ next time Ill do it myself] there are some lifter devices I still have to fit on the windows --ed

Gary, I can't tell from the pics what holds them in?

Kurt

26/3754

A couple of 1/4 x 20 thumb screws and a 1/4 x 20 bolt (I didn't have this in the original spec, the front plywood was an ECO to correct a deficient design ) .

Gary

Looks effective but if the wood had a nice stain and varnish you could pass them off as "factory"

Kurt

26/3754

nomad wrote:Looks effective but if the wood had a nice stain and varnish you could pass them off as "factory"

Kurt

26/3754

But the car is not "factory" so why would I want that. It is supposed to be a fun Elan and when you put your foot down it goes. Under 1300 lbs and maybe it still has close to its 150 hp and 133 lb/ft of torque.

Gary

Well, Gary, from your other posts I would say that you have acomplished your goal admirably. I figured that I could still work on getting melanoma of the left arm with the S1 side windows but hadn't taken into account that they pinch along with being just uncomfortable. The idea of Elan "side curtains" has a lot of merit and since I have no interior anyway. Well.......just another direction to consider.

Kurt.