On Rusty Chassis

[billwill]

Way back in '78 the chassis of my '67 Elen 2-seater failed. I skidded on ice, quite slow, hit the kerb & the front suspension broke; the turrets had rusted at the bottom, due to the drain holes being blocked.

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So talking of Rusty Chassises, has anyone ever seen a case of a chassis failing due to rusting..IN ANY MODE OTHER THAN the front suspension turrets failing.

Has anyone ever repaired front turrets by having patches welded on rather than replacing the whole chassis?

[Chris-72-Sprint]

Back in 1974 I bought a 1965 S2 which had too much negative camber on the front nearside.

On investigation I found that someone had repaired the rusted front upright by welding angle plates.

Thats when I got the Elan bug having to fit a new chassis.....which I have now rekindled with my current project

regards
Chris

[SADLOTUS]

Hey Chris, did you buy my old chassis? until I had a tax rebate in '84ish my chassis was regularly patched by the mobile welder and his van and the camber changed annually! One year at a Goodwood track day another driver asked to see my chassis setup - I was too embaressed, made an excuse and slinked away. With the tax rebate I bought a Spyder chassis that's still on there.

[garyeanderson]

When I bought 45/7334 it had been driven until 3 of the 4 strut/shock towers were completely separated from the chassis. The front two towers just had the single 3/8 unf bolt holding the top of each tower to the fiberglass body and most of that was broken away. The left rear strut tower was completely rotted off and the big 7/16 unf bolt was holding that stut top to the body. I think the owner wanted to get his moneys worth, this Elan was out of the Buffalo, N.Y. area. The owners name was Derek Woolatt, any one know him?

Gary

[rgh0]

Bill

My Plus 2S 130/5 chassis failed due to rust along the bottom of the backbone. The 5 speed gear box does not leak oil to rust prevent in this area as the 4 speeds do and water retained in weld seam where the top section joins the back bone base plate rusted out that seam along both sides.

I only picked it up when i took the body off to repair a cracked rear wishbone inner mounting bracket.

I installed a new spyder chassis and sold my old one to a guy who was goign to cut the front off which was good and use it to repair his chassis which had rusted out front towers.

cheers
Rohan

[SADLOTUS]

Gary, sounds like you still hold a grudge! name, address, you looking to take out a contract on this guy?

[garyeanderson]

Gary, sounds like you still hold a grudge! name, address, you looking to take out a contract on this guy?

No grudge, I bought it and used many of the parts. Just looking to see if anyone knows him. The land of Lotus is a small world, people just don't loose the addiction, surely you understand

[Gordon Sauer]

In 1977 when I was rebuilding my 67 S3, I had front turrets replaced, not wanting then to fall in--they were replaced exactly as and according to specs excepting blocking off the top of the turret so it was a long box section rather than open--has done well. Gordon Sauer

[DP45UK]

Some while back because of lack of cash I attempted to weld up the front turrets & weld in new front wishbone pins to my S4.I took the body off to do this which is when I discovered the rear of the center section had a crack across one side diagonally starting from rust in the lower flange where it joins a rear Y piece and then (stress) cracked up to the top sheet which forms the top of the transmission tunnel. This is when I decided that a new galvanised Lotus chassis was really quite affordable & I had been wasting my time. Supposedly the original chassis design was just Colin's quick solution to find a way to attach suspension components to the fiberglass tub which was meant to take all the loads.Possibly why my Elan had remained connected to all its wheels & still driving straight despite having effectivly a broken chassis.
With hindsight it really isn't worth the effort involved in repairing a Lotus chassis which will be work hardened & stressed even before one considers the tin worm .Not sure how much a Lotus chassis is now ,they were under a ?1000 when I replaced one & considerably cheaper than the admittedly technically better Spyder and its still really is a Lotus Elan !

[garyeanderson]

Some chassis are worth fixing, I guess it all depends on where the Elan was run for the first portion of its life. If you need to repair a couple of front turruts then its not that big of an issue, but once you start having to travell with the welder from one end to the other then probably not. If you have to take the body off, there is usually enough work to justify a new chassis. I think the tarriff is up to ?1465 (just checked, http://www.spydercars.co.uk/spyder_chas ... r_bars.htm )
so its not that much, but by the time you get one here in the U.S. it will run the better part of 4 to 5 thousand dollars. Now start looking at all of the other stuff that has been ignored for too long and what happent to the $10k I had in the checking account.

Gary

[billwill]

As some might suspect, I had an ulterior motive in starting this thread.


I had just discovered that the front suspension turrets on my 67 Elan had rusted again (it last happened 30 years ago). And I wanted to know whether others had managed successful welding repairs, instead of fitting a new chassis. Last time I fitted a new chassis and it was a LOT of effort and 6 month off the road. Replacement chassis were not galvanised back then, but I put 6 coats of Hammerite on at that time.


Back to the Present:

In early May this year, while cleaning off the external surface rust prior to applying more paint,though the turret looked OK, I discovered that a screwdriver would very easily go straight through the metal. Waggling the screwdriver about a bit gave the result in the photo below., with gaping holes in the metal and a very long face on me



One cannot stress enough, that if you have not checked your drain holes recently this can happen to you too, I strongly suggest that (unlike careless me) EVERY TIME you have reason to get under the car or take a front wheel off, you poke a small electrical screwdriver up these drain holes (see photo) and wiggle it to ensure that it will drain freely. This applies to galvanised chassis as well as the older ones, as we all know that the zinc eventually wears off.


The tale of how I repaired this problem, I will post with photos in a separate topic, in the "Things In Common" section as I suspect that this can happen to Elan+2 as well.

[billwill]

And here is the link to that topic.

http://www.lotuselan.net/forums/viewtop ... 5841#85841

[CBUEB1771]

And I wanted to know whether others had managed successful welding repairs, instead of fitting a new chassis. Last time I fitted a new chassis and it was a LOT of effort and 6 month off the road. Replacement chassis were not galvanised back then, but I put 6 coats of Hammerite on at that time.

Many years ago one of our local lads repaired a couple of Elan frames by fabricating completely new front sections (cross member and suspension towers). The result was quite good but there were no savings in terms of either time or money. I have been told that Lotus replacement frames are no longer galvanized, they are supplied unfinished.

[billwill]

As mentioned in the other topic. If you have to take the body off for chassis problems, you might as well get a new chassis.

The repair this time did not need to take the body off.