Sows Ear Chassis

[PanoGuy]

That looks to be a heck of a nice collection of HiFi gear, what are we looking at?

[garyeanderson]

Really enjoying this thread, Gary.

So, 160 lbs of sand and another 60 of finer material; what do you reckon that much media costs these days?

I dunno, I would guess $10 a 100lbs of sand but its probably $13 to $15 now. I will know in the next week or 2 when I go and get more. I am hoping that these are just squaters for a few months and not permanent residents. I don't have any other space to work in at the moment. This is to clear other areas. An Elan in pieces takes up 3 times the floor space as on thats assembled and running. Keep them together!

That looks to be a heck of a nice collection of HiFi gear, what are we looking at?

Kind of off topic but I like speakers. About 400 posts from me over on the Klipsch forum, take a look. Several build topics by me using info from previous postings.

http://forums.klipsch.com/forums/MyForums.aspx
first build
http://forums.klipsch.com/forums/t/1377 ... ageIndex=1
the last build is here
http://forums.klipsch.com/forums/t/147639.aspx
16 months ago
http://forums.klipsch.com/forums/t/141425.aspx
Speakers are heavy and Elans are light, different design criteria for different uses...

One can tell you are not a married person.

Off topic and no I am not and never have or will be.

I weighed the two chassis and they were heavier than I thought at 83 and 84 lbs for the stripped and painted units respectively. I then checked the scale with 80 lbs of zink bars and its close enough for what I use it for. I was wondering why they felt a bit heavy on my shoulder when I was carrying them out, I understood why they felt like a ton bringing it back in yesterday when I was done.

Nice balance point eh!

[jk952]

Good post Gary, now I know why I kept the so so chassis that's in my shed, too good to discard, but needs attention to use - a better starting point than your sow ear version....
keep us updated....

Elan chassis' are a work of art, so deserve to be in the living room on display!

Jack

[garyeanderson]

I got started on the second sows ear chassis, I guess sows ear II isn't going to cut it so this one is going to be named "two bit whore". I got it outside about 7 am and didn't get far, I tossed it in the back of my truck and drove over to Lowes and picked up some 80 grit DA paper, I did the Sows ear with 120 grit after sandblasting and I was able to get a significant portion of the outside so thats where I was going on this beauty. I also got the welds ground and smoothed with 36 grit and about 40% of the chassis down to bare metal but the sprinkles moved in and I got out the EPDM membrane out to cover it.

I am leaving the top of the saddle painted till the SEM red oxide paint comes in, I got some SEM I.H. Red from Willy so I can tint it to match the saddle area that is original. I should have just gone with black and be done with it as its hard to miss with a black chassis.

Saturday 17 March

I was too tired to carry out the chassis this morning, so I sand blasted the rear arms with Black Beauty (ground coal slag, I picked up 4 bags for $89 Wednesday). I had found 6 arms and 2 looked pretty good and 4 were bent so Bill and I straightened them at Chris?s Wednesday after lunch. They are just fine now for this project and I?ll use the best 4. I also brought up 14 upper and lower front control arms to sort through and picked out the best 8 with Bill's help, I value a second opinion and just makes it easier to say "this will work ok", they are on the list of parts that need to be blasted, maybe tomorrow. I ordered bushings Friday and they will be here on Tuesday so I?ll get them pressed in and then paint them Red with the same batch I have for the chassis. I have an parking-brake cable coming too as I don?t want to keep looking for one and I don?t want to get to far along without one and have to fish it through later.

before blasting

after

[garyeanderson]

I got a few more parts ready for paint this morning and the weather is looking good all week should be able to get color on most of them as the week progresses. The allow in the uprights was already bead blasted in a combonation of glass beads and black beauty at Carl's several years ago but the project stalled. Glass beads are fine except in a cylinder head Never bead blast a Twin Cam head unless you want to ruin a fresh rebuild.

[Sea Ranch]

A real treat to see a stack of these suspension parts all together like that, Gary. Lovely (and rare)!

Question: I have a bent rear A arm, too. How did you go about straightening yours? And residual denting?

Thanks,

Randy

[garyeanderson]

A real treat to see a stack of these suspension parts all together like that, Gary. Lovely (and rare)!

Question: I have a bent rear A arm, too. How did you go about straightening yours? And residual denting?

Thanks,

Randy

Hi Randy

Just put them on the opposite side and jack up the Elan in the same point

Not quite but similar to the above snide remark. We just looked at the arms to see where they were bent and spread out the supports on a hydraulic press where they "looked right" and applied force. They needed to be "over bent" to allow for spring back. The dents were not addressed but could be if they were minor, major creases will be discarded to the "future" total pile of dung.

So here are a few photos of the straightened arms up close where the dents are.

They could be welded and ground to make them "look perfect" but I won't, they also could have studs welded (spot studs) that are used at body shops to pull dented panels for straightening but that method has not been tried by me and these are not that bad that I am going to do much about them other than paint and choose the best ones. There is a picture of 2 of the arms that I found up in the shed attic yesterday (see topic treasure hunt in Free Parking)

and these will be pressed straightened and checked for flatness then blasted and painted too. That?s 9 arms and I need 4 for these two projects so I think I can cull out any that are questionable. I normally replace them with NEW arms (that?s why I have all of these) but I am financially challenged (who isn't right now?) and I need to get this stuff back together.

One final point, these arms came off of the Elans I bought, none of them were sidelined and left for dead for bent lower rear control arms. If you look at most Elans you will find that over the life of the car that someone used a jack in the wrong place and did the same damage. I guess these are the arms from 11 Elans that I have bought over the years and at least 5 arms are bent, some may have minor tweaks that could not be seen or worth the effort to see if I could make them better (or possibly make worse). These are $1500 to $4000 Elans that were bought over the last 20 years.

Gary

[garyeanderson]

As I mentioned elsewhere I had a day on Monday when I was finishing up sand blasting the second chassis (now called Two Bit Whore). It got the name as I was uttering those same word carrying the whore into the house after the first day of sand blasting, spending 5 or 6 hours out in the sun I was pretty tired and picking up the chassis was not a lot of fun and in the process of getting it out of the back yard it was getting heavy quickly. As I got it up over the stone wall and around the corner I was grunting pretty hard and approached the steps to the house and climbed those and got to the third step and that was about all I could do. Once in the house I was still not clear and the rear strut towers caught on the top of the door, not once or twice but 4 times and each time the profanity got worse and worse until I called it a Two Bit whore and in she came, Just as easy as sliding in to home plate.
I got the welder from my friend about 5:30 yesterday and all I got done was to open up the rot holes a bit and I cut out the two filler patched. This morning I managed to drag the pig out again for the 4th time and started on the metal repairs. I took pictures as I went along and the time spent was about 2 and ? hours from start to finish according to the time stamps on the pictures. It took another 20 minutes to resize and probably another 20 to upload and write this trash. Please have a look and enjoy the pleasures of this Two Biit Whore?

first repair to the front of the turret.

The indication that I had to do some more work

view of the back side of the welds, not textbook but better that it was.

[garyeanderson]

back of the turret, I poked a hole with a screw driver and I had already reached in and felt the thin area so while I was at it this one was cut away and repaired too.

about 3 or 4 hits with the screw driver and I was through

some ugly welds, it will work just fine.

[garyeanderson]

I couldn?t put it off any longer, it?s been two weeks since I got these chassis back from Bill and I think that the two bit whore was ready to get red. I carried it out again and mixed some Red Primer with about 10% I.H. Red and added the hardener at 12% and started to work on the hubs and cross members. Once I figured the spray gun was working ok I started on the inside of the spine and then flipped it over and did the inside of the spine again. I worked my way to the rear and did inside of the triangle too while I had it in both positions. I guess there are a few runs and a couple of holidays that needed a bit more mixed up but all in all it looks good for what it was and I will move it in later today. The wind was blowing a bit and I would have liked a calmer day but I wasn?t going to wait. I need to get some chassis black for the control arms and other parts but it was a good start, tomorrow I am going to try and get the Sows Ear Special done in red. Its probably about 80 degrees and good weather for drying so by 5:30 I?ll carry the chassis back in?

[Sea Ranch]

Gary,

Been busy doing some "building" of my own (rear deck, etc) so not keeping in daily touch, but thanks for your comments on my question. I'm pleased to know that there are others who are willing to try the "foolish" and repair parts instead of replace them. You're a big encouragement!

Nice welding, too, by the way.

The thought of having perhaps a dozen old Lotus' go through your house over the years . . . quite amazing. Thanks for the pics and commentary . . . keep it coming!

Randy

[garyeanderson]

Round two happened this morning. I didn't have quite enough Red Primer so I used a lot more of the I.H. Red than I had planed and did the internal spine in I.H. Red. Then used the mix of 90% Red Primers and 10 % I.H. Red that I did the chassis with yesterday. Once the Twin Cam starts leaking it will all be one color anyway and all of my Elans have leaked unless they are out of oil. Besides I don't want the chassis to rot again so they are not leaks but a designed feature to prolong the life of the Elan.

I normally just replace the chassis as this is the foundation of any Elan but I am challenged money wise at the moment and to buy a couple chassis from Miles was going to run me a more than a years worth of property taxes so Miles lost and the money is going to the town of Scituate instead so I can stay here another year. Foolish would be to let these Elans stay just parts, as the longer they are like that the more likely these Elans will vanish from the face of the earth. Once reassembled a chassis change is always possible and really doesn't take all that long if everything else has been done to prep and paint all of the other parts like I am doing. My guess is that these chassis will live a long time and work just fine. I put this all out for everyone to know and If it comes time to sell I will point them to this topic. I don't hide my work and I don't lie to folks as most people that know me understand. Everyone knows what I think and do because I tell them, sometimes I speak and it seems to bother folks but one thing for sure is that they know what I am thinking!

Gary

[memini55]

They look nice now that the rust has been taken away. The long journey of assembly will soon begin.

So I noticed no red gravel, that probably will make the neighbors happy.

Keep up the good work!

[PanoGuy]

Beautiful work, and a lot of work. Only thing I wonder about is whether it might make sense to open up those front turret weep holes a bit, seems like mine have been cut open a bit, and a good thing in my messy roads and climate.

[garyeanderson]

Mark

I don't thing my neighbors care what I do. I turn the music down at sunset and at 50mph no one is looking at the crushed stone in my driveway.

Doug

I think that Bill used a 5/16 inch drill, I will probably open them up to a 3/8 or 7/16 inch soon. I probably should have done it before I painted but a que-tip will dab them with paint pretty easy.

Anyway I had some time to think about which is going into which Elan. While I was thinking I got out the taps and Cleaned out all of the tapped holes. That includes the 4 lotocone (rear strut top) mounts (3/8 unf), 4 frustacone (top diff housing) mounts and 4 gearbox mounts (5/16 unf), 2 seat belt mounts (7/16 unf), both parking-brake adjustment holes (3/8 unf), The 6 chassis to body mount holes, 2 (7/16 unf) for the rear turret to body and 4 (3/8 unf) dashboard bracket to chassis and front turrets. There was some grit and some paint in them, a couple of them I was able to run the tap through with my fingers but in a couple, I was cutting threads so its just a good practice to start with a clean chassis when you have everything all open and easy access. I also ran a 5/16 unf die over the 2 studs that are used to mount the diff torque rods to the chassis. The bodies I have were not attached to these chassis but I will make the holes work. I may find that the body that I selected will not fit the chassis and I will try both bodies to see if either fit and then decide. If that fails and I can hog out the bobbins slightly, that will be the way to go. If I can't get the body to line up with the chassis I'll move the bobbins. My guess is at least on will bite my ass, such is life with a Sows Ear Special and Two Bit Whore

Gary.

Saturday 11:10 am

I got a few things done this morning on the Sows Ear Special. All tapped holes have had anti-seize applied in advance so I don?t forget.
I got the fuel line re-installed with the center Omega clip also.

Brake lines have been fitted and snugged up, I am using some old brake lines that will probably not make the final build. I need to see how much new ones are before I commit to them. My guess is they are gone but I needed to fit the hard lines and without a destination they are difficult to fit and just flap around.

Parking-brake cable is installed and cable lubed with grease, anti-seize on the adjuster. It?s starting to look like an Elan chassis again.