Is this chassis bent? Forum wisdom required!

[berni29]

Hi There

I am soon to take delivery of my early +2. It used to be raced a fair bit by the PO and has had a new nose section before being painted about 5 years ago. The repair was done by someone who used to do fibreglassing on the original production lines. So the PO says. I don't see any reason to doubt him.

While the body was off the car the PO welded the chassis and added strengthening plates etc. He also made some other modifications such as uprated suspension mountings at the front.

However....... If you look in the engine bay, you can see there is a hole (made by the PO) where the top of the front damper can be seen peeping through. This must mean that the chassis in that corner is bent yes? All of the other mounting holes line up and everything else looks great.

What do we think? I have bought the car and have allowed for a chassis change (well, the cost of a good secondhand replacement chassis), I don't count the labour as it will be fun.

Opinions as to the state of play here invited. The welding to the front turrets was pretty extensive and could have caused movement, as could the previous damage if it was not straight when welded.

Unfortunately I do not have a photo of the chassis on the side that has the problem.

Thank you in advance..... Berni

[ill_will]

Hi Berni

I assume the rubber bush at the corner is ok and hasn't collapsed in some way allowing the damper to stick through more than it should?

[berni29]

Hi Berni

I assume the rubber bush at the corner is ok and hasn't collapsed in some way allowing the damper to stick through more than it should?

Hi

I like your thinking but sadly not. I have the chassis off the car, and indeed the LHS turret is canted in a few deg. I now have an early but unused spyder spaceframe to go on.

All the best

Berni

[Foxie]

You might be interested in the tower brace I fitted.

[alan.barker]

Imho if you need a Tower Brace the Chassis/Subframe has seen better days.
Alan

[rgh0]

On my Elan i have one side front shock top bolt that sticks through the body hole above it and the other side does not. On the Elan there were holes originally in the body. I know my chassis is straight but the body clearly is not so dont assume its a chassis problem versus a body problem.

cheers
Rohan

[alan.barker]

+1 Rohan 100%.
I also have 2 TVRs and when you measure things on one side and compare to the other side the grp is assymetric
Alan

[RichardHawkins]

My body changed shape quite substantially after painting, which I suspect was caused by the paint being cured in an oven.

Richard Hawkins

[Foxie]

Imho if you need a Tower Brace the Chassis/Subframe has seen better days.
Alan

It's on a new Spyder chassis.

The original Lotus tower cracked across. IMHO a design fault.

Live and learn !

[snowyelan]

Quite the interesting failure. Did both sides (front and back on the RHS that is) crack the same way? I have seen corrosion erode the lower portion but not this before.

[Foxie]

Quite the interesting failure. Did both sides (front and back on the RHS that is) crack the same way? I have seen corrosion erode the lower portion but not this before.

The crack had travelled from the front to half way across the inner face. The chassis was repaired (the rear "ears" were also badly bent ) and used for another 11 years, before the Spyder chassis was fitted 24 years ago.

It's been hanging on the garage wall ever since.

[alan.barker]

Looks to me someone had ajustable Shocks and set them on hard. Or at the back if it is a +2 carried Adults which is far tooo heavy.
Our Elans are very delicate. Designed for soft long suspension and a pleasure to drive. Not karts, turn and squirt with blurred vision.
Alan

[Foxie]

Looks to me someone had ajustable Shocks and set them on hard. Or at the back if it is a +2 carried Adults which is far tooo heavy.
Our Elans are very delicate. Designed for soft long suspension and a pleasure to drive. Not karts, turn and squirt with blurred vision.
Alan

The facts are, at the time, the car only ever had the original soft long travel shocks as fitted at Lotus.

Adults were carried ? Was the Plus 2 not built, marketed and sold with 4 seats ? However, this car seldom carried any more than the driver.

It would be completely agreed that Elans are very delicate. There is a very good reason why Spyder have been doing nice business for well over 30 years !

Finally, I'll leave the last word to Mario Andretti:

When we first got together, Colin said "Mario, I always want to make a car as light as possible" I said, "Well Colin, I want to live as long as possible. I guess we need to talk"

[Foxie]

To be fair, I should advise that before I bought this car out of a scrapyard in Limerick in 1985, it had been driven for a number of years on the pot-holed bog roads of County Clare in the West of Ireland, where the second owner had retired to from the Manchester area . Definitely not fragile Lotus Elan country.

[berni29]

You might be interested in the tower brace I fitted.

That is very interesting, and on the face of it an attractive idea, but I am not sure that on a chassis such as ours it might not just transfer any flexing along the line so to speak. Having said that I know people strengthen the tower uprights by welding in gussets. In fact my chassis has had that done. Sadly it has locked the upright at an incorrect angle.

All the best

Berni