Long and winding road, best taken in an Elan

[gearbox]

Running out of time with only 10 days before I have to jet to China for another 2-3 months. Have most of everything disconnected for a body lift, but no buddies around today and I still have to build a body rolling cart. I got a set of trunk panels from a friend, but it looked like a home built with lots of modifications cut out for his car. I made the mistake of focusing on the corners and cut outs and completely disregarded the overall size. Needless to say, the cut outs were perfect, and contours well with the trunk, but now I see that I should have matched up the depths of the panels. Oh well, wood is cheap and now I can return his and I have another set of patterns to fuss with. Project for my next trip home. But the corners and filler tube was perfect and sanded the edges round, so no splinters. Seems that the right panels is 1/2" too high and 1/2" too short. Simple fix, but have to buy more wood.

When I took the glove box out, I noticed that it was just riveted cardboard. I found some Picture framing matting that looked the same and cut a pattern. I was thinking of making it out of aluminum, al la Jay Leno, but card stock was much easier. Plan on reinforcing it with balsa strips and coating it with polyurethane to give it strength without much weight like on RC airplanes. Found a site that sells the flocking and tossed between grey or original black. I know these are available for $89, but where would the fun be in that? LOL.

[DeanG]

Please trace it out or provide a dimensioned drawing. It will help out future owners.

[gearbox]

My OCD really kicked in on the trunk panels, so I got two more sheets of 4' x 4' 1/4" ply for another try. Laid out the patterns and corrected the mis match heights and added an additional inch to the tops so they would lay on the trunk shelf a bit better. I also noticed the cut out around the battery was missing the top section so I added that in as well. The second try went much faster and the thrid for Eagle flew by. Panels laid in nicely, although despite being the same heights, the over lay of the Left panel over the Right one gives the apperance of it still being unequal. I also see a bayonet reciever for the left panel, anyone know what the bayonet should look like? It would be a good idea as it would prevent the panels from moving about. But even without them, they feel pretty secure when in place. I returned my first attempt to the owner of the original panels as they were much better than what he had. Since I did this all by hand, I will eventually do some 3D CAD drawings and post them for everyone. If anyone needs them faster, PM me and whip them off. I used some Polyurethane Satin Black Stain and the results matched the original. But I think they would have looked better in clear Poly to show off the wood.

[fatboyoz]

Hi Gearbox,
I know you said that you weren't too concerned with originality, but you do realise that the Elan boot, at least from the S4, did not have a full wooden floor. The largest piece is fitted to the left of the fuel tank, using that bayonet fitting you mentioned. A smaller, triangular shaped, piece filled the gap on the right of the tank. A piece of thick, durable cardboard/milboard was used to fill the gap at the forward end of the tank. The top of the fuel tank made up the rest of the floor and the whole lot was covered by carpet or a rubberised mat.
Regards,
Colin.

[abstamaria]

Allan, thank you for posting and taking the time. The photos are very interesting and taken well. I wish I had a laser cutter.

Quite by coincidence, I bought my 1969 (released from the factory in 1968) Elan S4 also for $3,000. But that was in 1977! I bought it from La Monsa Motors in Mahwah, New Jersey.

I replaced my dashboard with one made by Randy Keller of Prestige, whom Stu recommended to you. Randy did beautiful work.

Colin, would you have a pattern for the boot floor? Or perhaps post a photo? I discarded mine long ago.

There's at least one vintage Lotus guy in Hong Kong, Allan. And I'm not too far from China either.

Best,

Andy

[abstamaria]

Colin, just found this thread with a pattern for the boot floor. Thanks for reminding me to check.

elan-f14/dhc-trunk-boot-layout-t24368.html

Andy

[gearbox]

Hi Gearbox,
I know you said that you weren't too concerned with originality, but you do realise that the Elan boot, at least from the S4, did not have a full wooden floor. The largest piece is fitted to the left of the fuel tank, using that bayonet fitting you mentioned. A smaller, triangular shaped, piece filled the gap on the right of the tank. A piece of thick, durable cardboard/milboard was used to fill the gap at the forward end of the tank. The top of the fuel tank made up the rest of the floor and the whole lot was covered by carpet or a rubberised mat.
Regards,
Colin.

Colin;

Thanks for the info, strange that I didn't find th thread with all this information on it before I started. The guy who lent me the patterns swore it was original, now I know and something for me to rub in his face as he is a self proclaimed Lotus afficianado lol. Is it possible that this was from a S3? While I was doing this project, I was thinking of modifing it and making it a better design. Needless to say, I will be attempting this again, but at a later date. Not to crazy about the cardboard on the tank, maybe something more durable like Sintra, a poly foam board that is stiff, water proof, and it comes in black with a texurized side. The fun never stops lol.

[fatboyoz]

Gearbox,
The full wooden floor looks pretty good. With a piece of carpet, cut to fit and bound, over it, it wouldn't look out of place.
I was lucky that my S4 still had all of the original pieces in good condition. To finish the boot, I glued .5" reasonably dense, closed cell foam to the vertical sides of the boot and then glued carpet (left over from the interior) to the foam. This protects the paint (outside) from starcrack damaged from things rattling around in the boot. One particular sharp point is the edge of the battery closest to the outside.
I then glued carpet remnants to the other forward, bare fibreglass sections, as well as the vertical filler between the rear suspension struts.
Finished it all off with a piece of the foam cut to the shape of the floor and then a piece of carpet cut to the same shape and bound.
All of this to protect surfaces and to cut down on any thrumming/road noise if there ever was any. So long ago that I started the reno's that I couldn't remember.
Regards,
Colin.

Hi Gearbox,
I know you said that you weren't too concerned with originality, but you do realise that the Elan boot, at least from the S4, did not have a full wooden floor. The largest piece is fitted to the left of the fuel tank, using that bayonet fitting you mentioned. A smaller, triangular shaped, piece filled the gap on the right of the tank. A piece of thick, durable cardboard/milboard was used to fill the gap at the forward end of the tank. The top of the fuel tank made up the rest of the floor and the whole lot was covered by carpet or a rubberised mat.
Regards,
Colin.

Colin;

Thanks for the info, strange that I didn't find th thread with all this information on it before I started. The guy who lent me the patterns swore it was original, now I know and something for me to rub in his face as he is a self proclaimed Lotus afficianado lol. Is it possible that this was from a S3? While I was doing this project, I was thinking of modifing it and making it a better design. Needless to say, I will be attempting this again, but at a later date. Not to crazy about the cardboard on the tank, maybe something more durable like Sintra, a poly foam board that is stiff, water proof, and it comes in black with a texurized side. The fun never stops lol.

[gearbox]

As my days home are counting down, I had to start getting things packed up, boxed up, and stripped down so I can park them for 3-4 months before I get home again. Wanted to get the body off so I can get to removing the suspension, engine, trans, and diff. I decided to use two hydralic floor jacks on both sides of the car just to lift the body slightly and still be able to check for that stray wire or cable. But it was working so well, I kept on going higher and higher. I got lucky as the jack location, perfectly balanced the car. Outside of the emergency brake cable, everything survived the seperation. My son, friend, and I, easily lifted the car to a body cart I made from 2x4's the day before. Can't believe how light these things are. Tomorrow I should have the frame stripped and tossed as it is beyond restoration.

The Farme was so rusted out that the motor mount support gave up the ghost as the body was pulled.

[gearbox]

After 3 months overseas I finally was able to return home and get back to the elan. Unfortunately mother nature had different plans and I arrived home admist of power failures, no gas, and numerious downed trees and electrical poles. Then there was the snow storm. But things are getting back to normal albeit slowly. Outdoor activities was a challenge, so I decided to make some shifter knobs indoors. The original knob deteriorated and the emblem was lost. I found some Maple wood balls and eggs that were the size of the OEM shifter knobs, but the challenge was the threaded inserts and Lotus emblem. Finally found a brass insert with the correct thread 5/16-24 from an online wood crafts dealer. They also had the correct 1.75" round balls and "eggs" which replicates the earlier shifter. I was not able to find a shift pattern emblem, but did find that a Lotus logo tie tac was the perfect size (0.50") which looked original.

First step was to find the center of the ball. Since I was only making them for myself, I didn't bother with a jig and just eye balled it. But I did need to have something to hold the ball and egg steady. I had a base plate with a 1" hole that worked well. Bolted it to the table and adjusted the Y and X axis to get it centered. I do have to admit, I did miss the first few times, but these balls are cheap. Once I found center, I drilled a 1/8" pilot hole through the entire ball to center both the threaded insert and emblem.

Next was to use a Fostner Bit or Brad Bit to drill the hole for the insert and to countersink the top of the ball for the logo. What I found was the threaded insert specified a 1/2" hole, but was too small for the insert to be screwed into the hard maple, so I opened the hole a bit more with a normal 9/16" drill bit.

The threaded insert has to be screwed into the wood and is not as easy as it sounds. I bought the special tool and it was well worth the few bucks. You have to screw it in, back it out, and screw it in again several times. You also have to make sure it screws in straight and requires a lot of force both turning the insert and pushing it in at the same time. But it does go in, even with the larger hole than recommended. I thought I would have to glue it in, but the final twist holds it tight.

I tried several stains, and the samples that look closest to OEM came out too dark on the Maple. I finally decided on Golden Pecan which is a little on the light side, but makes the knob brighter and shows off the wood grain better. Don't forget to dip it in "Pre Stain" before staining so the stain does not blotch. After staining the wood, I hot glued the Lotus tie Tac to the top of the ball.

I used a Poly Acrylic clear coat by Miniwax to give the knob a deep shine. I screwed the knobs on a set of disposable chopsticks from a sushi resturant that allowed me to dip the knobs directly into the tin of clear coat and then let it dry by sticking the opposite end in a lump of clay. I later found that if you have a corgualted box, you can stick it in the edge which holds it extremely well. I ended up putting on about 8 coats.

After making 5 of these knobs, I figured it costed me about 12 bucks a knob including all the parts and my screw ups. Still have enough supplies for another 5 knobs, but I think I am good.

[gearbox]

A break in the weather allowed me to finish disassembling the front end off the old chassis. While all the suspension parts were covered in rust, it was still solid. I turned to my old friend, Muriatic acid. I have used thiis stuff for decades and is the secret ingredient in almost every rust removal product on the market. The acid completely removes the rust while leaving the good metal intact, and it works fast. You just have to remember not to stand around the stuff when you have parts in the dip as it releases lots of nasty fumes. You can buy this acid in most hardware stores and it's cheap, about 8 bucks a gallon. I use it full strength, but you can dilute it with water as much as 30% acid to 70% water. So it will last a long time.

After dipping for a hour or so, you have to neutralize the acid by having a solution of baking soda and water nearby. Just dunk the parts into the solution and it starts fizzing. Once it stops it has been neutralized. I then wash the parts in hot clean water. Since the acid gets into every nook and cranny, you know the part will be completely free of rust.

Once the parts have been dried, I painted the parts with POR15 to rust proof the parts. POR 15 takes a few days to fully dry, and once dried, I'll put on another coat of satin black to protect the POR15 from UV rays which will degrade the paint over time.

[Mazzini]

I'll put on another coat of satin black to protect the POR15 from UV rays which will degrade the paint over time.

I live in the UK...what are these UV rays of which you speak? Sunshine? No sorry you've lost me

[gearbox]

I documented the caliper Rebuild, but instead of boring all those who know the process like the back of their hands and not to take up bandwidth on this site, I decided to post the thread on my site at http://thelolaregistry.com/Projects/LOT ... ebuild.htm . It's a bit pedantic but it is a step by step procedure that may help some.

But of course, soon as finished rebuilding all the calipers, I come across an almost new set of Wilwoods 4 puck calipers and Vented rotors that I could not pass up. Needless to say, this has happened before and I am sure it will happen again. What I didn't mention was that I was also accumulating parts for a +2 brake mod. The fun never stops lol.

[gearbox]

Back home for my semi annual trip back to the States and my Elan project. On my last trip, I had the entire car stripped down and all 4 corners restored. This trip I have my Weber motor parts back from the machine shop and started on the Frame.

The original Frame was toast, rotted beyond repair and broken in half. While I hated to throw it away, there was very few parts that could have been salvaged.

Through my travels in trying to buy an Elan, I found this one from a 26 that was refitted with a Spyder Chassis. The Frame had all the common issues, cracked motor mount, other typical cracks in various places, pulled out stud for the Diff bar, and some rust through on the Diff cross member. Overall, much better than mine and this one was repairable.

Lots of welding, grinding, aligning, and pounding to get the frame straight and true.

Sandblasted the frame and other parts and it started to look as it should.

[gearbox]

Not to bore everyone with another 26R mod, but I was amazed on how easily these frames can be tweaked. Setting the car up and going through it with a laser trying to get the frame and especially the suspension true, I used a Porta Power to move the frame around and finally got it square. But it didn't take much to get the frame to move. So after studying the mods, I thought it was a very good idea and a necessary measure to ensure that the frame stayed straight. Through my research, and especially after so many people who proceeded me, I was very surprised that outside of pictures, there was no good drawings of the panels needed to do this mod. So based on numerious picture I had collected and taking measurements off my car, I developed the parts in Solidworks 3D CAD. I will be happy to share them with anyone who needs them.

Some fitting was necessary, but it went together fairly quickly and everything was welded up in a day.

A coat of POR 15 and gray paint and we are done. I couldn't help myself and I had to add the lightening holes. They just look so Buck Rogers, ahhh, I mean period correct lol. But total added weight, including the the 10 ga. plate under the vacuum tank totalled about 10 pounds. But the frame became very stiff and felt more solid. Overall, an easy mod that is well worth the trouble. It took me about two days to do the entire fabrication with most of that time waiting for the paint to dry. Add another day for developing the parts, but again, I have the drawings for anyone that wants them. Now to rebuild the diff and hang the suspension.