Sows Ear Chassis

Post by: **memini55** » Thu Sep 20, 2012 6:35 pm

Hi Gary,

OK so I will ask the big question, what is so special about that particular hose? Over normal heater hose that is.
Looks like maybe it has a wire wrap or support in the rubber to hold shape on tight bents.

Hope the pressing is going well and sorry we won't be out to taste in a few weeks. Good stuff you make!

Mark

Post by: **garyeanderson** » Fri Sep 21, 2012 10:38 pm

Things weren't looking good this morning, I was still hurting from apple picking Wednesday and grinding up apples all day yesterday so I got a late start. There were a couple of things that I needed or wanted to do before I put the dash in place and even then I wasn't sure it was ready. I cleaned up the wiper motor in place and painted most of what was visible, it may be coming out like everything else so I am not worried. When everything is hooked up and tested I'll tighten all of the fasteners.

I was satisfied that the under dash area was pretty good I looked at the dash one last time and saw a few things that needed looking into before I placed it in the Elan and even then I was still finding stuff that needed to be done. Even with it in I still have to crawl under the dash and hook up the wires to the relay mounted to the left hand wiper wheel box, I just forgot

.

One of the jobs that seems to be a total pain in the ass is feeding the S2 wiring harness though the hole in the firewall. When its in place it is one of the milestones that I look forward to and today that happened.

So here is a photo of what else was done in the last 3 days

Gary

Post by: **Spyder fan** » Sat Sep 22, 2012 5:41 pm

Hi Gary,
I know that you don't like to throw anything away, but stockpiling your own wee has got to be a bit of a serious hoarding problem :!:

Keep up the occupational therapy recycling all those old bits and everything will be okay :mrgreen:

On a serious note, your topic has turned into a serious blog and an inspiration to all of us, it's even made me want to put my cheque book away and let the business go to hell whilst I get my hands dirty and build for myself once again. Well done! I don't contribute here often, but I follow every post on this topic with interest.

Kindest regards

Post by: **garyeanderson** » Sun Sep 23, 2012 9:08 am

Seem like yesterday was a day of "looking" at what needed to be done. I plugged in some stuff into the wiring harness but some of the stuff that wasn't hooked up needs more parts or fasteners so I just moved on to the next junction of the harness to see if it could be connected. I think the under dash is close to being done, the wiper motor and rear harness are not connected yet but the rest is. Up front the Generator was missing so I looked in the Lucas draw and pulled out one of the many and wiped it down with gunk to take off the oil and dirt found a couple of bolts and tossed it in.

I had the water-pump pulley just loose on the pump, when I went to tighten the 4 bolts, it promptly locked up, when I looked I could see the the pulley hub had been pressed on to far (OK, I am not that observant), I got out the large 3 eared puller and tried to pull it back the 1/16 of an inch that it needed, it wasn't going to happen. The alternative was to pull the engine, or to think about it so I did. After doing a few other things I found another pulley and made up a spacer to place behind the pulley. It spins ok now!

The front cover had a plug in it where the water return from the heater came in so I figured, just swap in the nipple from another cover. Well not that simple, the block was just enough offset that the nipple when square to the front cover to start into the threads wouldn't turn, more thinking about pulling the engine or grinding a relief into the block for the nipple flats to clear.

The other heater hose needs the heater valve and I don't have one. I need to order one and install it, that means unbolting the engine-mount and jacking up the engine or taking the valve apart and installing it as two pieces so that is the plan for that.

Gary

Post by: **billwill** » Sun Sep 23, 2012 3:48 pm

Since you can put in a longer hose, you could swap positions of the temperature sensor and the water valve. The latter can, just, screw in when it is in the forward hole.

Dunno why Lotus put it in the difficult rear hole anyway!

Post by: **garyeanderson** » Mon Sep 24, 2012 10:40 pm

billwill wrote:Since you can put in a longer hose, you could swap positions of the temperature sensor and the water valve. The latter can, just, screw in when it is in the forward hole.

Dunno why Lotus put it in the difficult rear hole anyway!

The hose is cut to length and the rear hole is where its going. Not a big deal to drill out a rivet and disassemble the heater valve and install it and reassemble in place. I don't have one yet so I need to make a list of stuff needed to keep this project going. I'll be running out of things to do sometime and will have to break down and spend some money.

Today was Donut day, I needed to get the front of the Elan up in the air a bit to fit the started, I had a Super starter from the other green S2 and it gave me some problems so I just got another and put it on the shelf, The solenoid was intermittent so I am using an external one and have added a jump on the internal solenoid. I don't know if will have any issues or not but it was on the shelf and I feel better about it than any of the 20 or so Lucas units that have over run my house over the years.

Once the starter was in place I turned my attention to getting the rear suspension compressed. I had a little bit of everything to get the weight needed to do that. 220 lbs of lead, 34 gallons of cider, a couple of flywheels, a 100 lbs of zink bars, 80 or so lbs of cast iron sash weights, probable 6 or 7 hundred pounds to get the rear control arms parallel to the floor in total.

Took me a while to remember the sequence of the install, some assembly and disassembly involved with this as it has been a few years since I last did a set, the joy that I remember is still there and I hope it will be the last set I do. About ten minutes to five I walked in to look at the clock and wash my hands.No record times were set today but they are in and pretty tight, I will go back and check them all tomorrow and tighten the other loose bolts that have been waiting since back in May when I dragged the chassis out of the house.

Thursday September 27th 02:00pm

Tuesday came around all too soon and I was still hurting from "the day of the donuts" so I did as little as possible. I think I tightened 12 of the rear suspension bolts and found some needed parts that would be needed soon. Yesterday was not a lot better but I did get the rear hub bolts torqued up, not sure what the reading was but close to my limit. I also spent some money to get some ball ended Allen wrenches so that I could install the top bolt on the starter. The design of the starter offers no direct access so a button head cap screw with and 7/32 Allen recess is what I had used before. Anyway it went in and I called it a successful day. I am thinking I need to make a punch list to order some stuff but I keep finding things to do so that will wait.

When I blacked out the body shell I meant to do the inside of the doors but the 18 hour day put that project on hold until this morning. After tightening much of the front suspensions bolts (except the fulcrum pin nuts and the 1/2 inch bolt for the control arms to shocks), I taped off the doors and then gave them a coat of plastic and mixed up some flat black and acetone and spayed them out in the drive. I don't plan on much for an interior for this S2 at the present as I just want to heat and eat this winter and if things improve I'll see about it maybe in the spring.

October 2nd 02:50am

Not a lot done over the weekend, mostly rain and just wasn't up for working in the garage with out being able to move around with all the cars inside. The sun came out yesterday so I figured to get on with something. I guess I have looked at the windscreen frame for most of the summer and did nothing and yesterday was the day. We had talked about the screen frames in the past, the discussion revolved around whether they were black gel coat or gloss black paint or satin black and I think that they may have been a bit of both. I started sanding the screen frame and this one clearly had paint on it, it also had a dark gel coat under that. I suspect that in a perfect world that every S1 or S2 would have come with the windscreen frame straight out of the mold with black gel coat in perfect condition and ready to mount on the body. My guess is that it didn't work out that way and most (if not all as the realities of producing this bit of complex molding) were painted black.

The above photo shows one of my repaired areas across the top of the screen frame, there is black gel coat on either side of the repair along with gray prime and black paint. Clearly this could have been repainted and I don't know when it was applied but looking at other areas that had filler under the prime my guess it was at lotus to fix defects that needed correcting before it passed the world famous Lotus QC inspectors. I'll have to sand another screen frame sometime and see what I find to make a more definite statement.

I guess it was about 2 pm when I was satisfied with the look of the screen frame so I gave it a coat of black, It didn't turn out all that well as it had a lot of angles to shoot from and I sagged the paint across the top of the frame trying to get it all covered. I guess its another "do-over" , shit happens and so things go! Maybe it will sand out

Post by: **garyeanderson** » Wed Oct 03, 2012 8:19 pm

Time to switch projects again (I need to spend money on the green S2), I don't know how far I can get on this but there was a fine drizzle all day so rather than sand the screen frame outside I rounded up some parts and went to work on Tingles medici blue roadster. I guess I need to get another harness "tuned up" to keep going, I don't think I need all of those functions as the plan for this is just an autocross car but sometimes plans change and I thought that the amount of weight that this stuff adds may not hurt too much and to go back after the fact if it becomes a street rat would be a lot of work so I'll build it like it was going to see the street.

Gary

Post by: **mark t** » Wed Oct 03, 2012 9:43 pm

Hey Gary,

I could kiss you on the lips, all of your last pictures have been a great help with my car. Thanks,
by the way my wife also thanks you. the picture just my keep me out the garage this weekend.

Thanks for all you do, Mark T

Post by: **memini55** » Thu Oct 04, 2012 1:31 am

Oooohhhh and autocrosss car?????????
What great fun that will be!

Keep it going as you continue to make great strids forward.
Mark

Post by: **garyeanderson** » Thu Oct 04, 2012 10:19 pm

mark t wrote:Hey Gary,

I could kiss you on the lips, all of your last pictures have been a great help with my car. Thanks,
by the way my wife also thanks you. the picture just my keep me out the garage this weekend.

Thanks for all you do, Mark T

Hi Mark

If it was good for you, I am ok with that. Give the wife a Kiss instead though.

memini55 wrote:Oooohhhh and autocrosss car?????????
What great fun that will be!

Keep it going as you continue to make great strides forward.
Mark

Hi Mark

I sampled the cider yesterday, looks like I am in trouble for the foreseeable weeks ahead...

back to the program

I looked at (4) front wiring harnesses this morning, I had culled through them to get the harness for the greens roadster and the choice was some what more dyer. I ended up choosing the one with the big wire nut (house wiring) on the 12 gauge Brown/yellow at the generator. I soldered and crimped on a new 3/8 female spade connector so that was satisfactory. I'll keep an eye on it but it may give me problems down the road. After a bit more cleaning, I was looking at the white ignition wire from the switch and it had been on the warm side so I pulled back the black plastic tape and decided that it ought to come out due to the fact it had some exposed wire stands showing. I unwound more of the black tape, all the way to the tach and left all of the sticky tape under it. I put another wire on the end of the melted wire and twisted and taped it together and pulled out the melted wire and left in the new replacement wire and re-wrapped the unwound non sticky tape, I came up about an inch short so closed the wound with some black electrical tape. A couple of other small issues were cleaned up and figured I would start on laying it on the dash. More parts hunting and I am short on a few items but for the most part it is starting to look like a dashboard again (with some down graded speedo and tach gauges and a snipped water temp line)

Gary

October 7th 03:15pm

This build is another learning experience.I installed the windscreen wiper wheel boxes to make it so this can become a street car if that is what the plan becomes. When I did I just took one of the LHD wiper assemblies and pulled of the motor and put it in. Doing the wiring yesterday I realized that the relay that hangs off of the wheel box needed to be on the right side as that is where the wires are - easy right? Just move the relay right? nope, the wheel boxes are different as the stud spacings are just a bit different and so that all had to come back out and so thats the way work sometimes when building up from a bunch of bits. I got a steering column down from the rack after I thought things were close, this is a GT6 unit that has been around for 15 years, I had some others that were painted but this one was complete and for my purpose I didn't want to use a wooden wheel so this looked like the right one for the job. everything is just put in place with either loose or temporary fasteners as I still need to make the bracket for the bottom of the dash and I don't have the right angle stock I want to do that.

October 8th 01:45pm

I had some new L692 red lenses and enough lamp housings to fill in the holes so I put them in. These are all dual filament lamp housings and I am going to see if I can get all 4 to light up and the two on each side work as directionals. not really needed but I don't think they will hurt much.

October 11th 1:00 pm

Yesterday I went to see Uncle Carl and we had lunch at Tiny's. Probably a dozen of us total and after lunch a few of us went back to Carl's and took a look at my leaky fuel tank. This tank was in 26/4997 when I bought it and it was last run on the roads of Massachusetts in 1969. I took the tank out in 1994 (and drained it if it had anything in it), it's been on the shelf since with it's neck down until last week when I filled it with water to check for leaks. None on the bottom and I thought I was in good shape but I have been beat before so I filled it till it was right up the neck. I went back in the house and came back a few minutes later and the water level was back to the top of the tank. It was split right along the roll welded seam on the side next to the filler tube. I drained the water and left it in the sun to evaporate the water. Carl said braze yesterday so thats what he did, solder would probably just open up along the seam again on the first bump where the boot floor flexed, the leak looked to be about an inch long but Carl filled the seam for about 4 inches. The sender was leaking too so it got a new gasket. We tested it with 10 more gallons of water and a few leaks through the screws were taken care of with pipe sealing compound. Today I gave it a light sand blasting and a couple coats of flat black, I plan on one more as there is still some in the paint gun. Here are a few pictures of the repair and with some paint on it. I would not recommend brazing, soldering or any of the above to anyone if you haven't done this before, you may not do anything ever again :cry:

Post by: **garyeanderson** » Mon Oct 22, 2012 9:16 pm

Not a lot accomplished in the last couple weeks! I am still not spending money so I need to think hard about what can be done without doing the job twice and screwing up. There are enough issues with the 9 year old paint that I don't want to make it worse than it is. Anyway the fuel tank was sitting in the living room for the last 10 days and I figured it could just as easily sit in the boot. I found some of the sender pig tail wires and plugged them in and set the tank in the boot. No nuts on the bottom studs yet but what it did was make it possible to put the boot lid on, so I found a decent pair of hinges and installed them on the body and then attached the boot lid. I located a boot lock and tossed that on for grins. I thought about putting the tennex studs in but I figured that it could wait a while longer. I still need to do something about the filler neck as it's pretty well shot. I'll probably just weld up the holes some time when I get a access to a mig welder.

I looked at "my user stats" for this topic and this is the 96th post, looked at the "attachment management" and that said this is the 602nd photo. I have enjoyed showing people what you can do with some time, a few favors, a wrecked and abandoned Elan and a bunch of bits that Tingles body is made up from now. I'll probably build up an engine for it as it has come out better than I expected, the paint is nothing special but from 20 feet looks presentable. I have no idea of what I have spent but I know I went though 10 gallons of acetone and a couple gallons of lacquer thinner. I would guess that I am still at or under $3000 not including diesel and gasoline, If I do an engine I would think that number will double at a minimum and probably be closer to triple that and I have a completed twin cam head with cams waiting.

Anyway, I hope that this topic has give some people a clue or two and just maybe inspired some folks that have been saying someday I get to that old Elan that has bee sitting for the last xx years, if not well you all had a good laugh...

Post by: **Chancer** » Tue Oct 23, 2012 9:57 am

You have certainly inspired me Gary.

It will be a long time yet before I will have the time to taclke mine, I know I will be short of money and had planned on restoring it on a shoestring like I used to and exactly how your photos show, before that I was getting very down when reading count on minimum of 5 grand for an engine rebuild, 6 grand for a respray, and seeing discussions on the value of project cars were they were being massively undervalued due to cheque book restoration economics being applied.

This thread is a breath of fresh air to me

I did several cars in air dried enamel and even tractor paint in the past because I was broke and with good preparation the results were excellent, I can see that yours is far better than your modesty allows you to admit.

Post by: **rodlittle** » Tue Oct 23, 2012 11:17 am

Hi Gary
You've certainly shown what can be done from a box of bits I always check your posts first to see how far you've got. Keep it up, every time Ive asked a question you're the man who has answered it
best wishes
rod

Post by: **nomad** » Wed Oct 24, 2012 12:56 am

Gary, your last post makes me think you are thinking of ending this thread. I hope not since its the first thing I look for when getting on Elan net. Its sort of a shame that Elan's have picked up the " collector " car moniker because I think most think that only the most expensive route suits the car. I really appreciate your hands on keep it sensible route along with our obvious skill.

Thanks for "sows ear" and more,

Kurt

Post by: **garyeanderson** » Wed Oct 24, 2012 11:20 am

Chancer wrote:You have certainly inspired me Gary.

It will be a long time yet before I will have the time to taclke mine, I know I will be short of money and had planned on restoring it on a shoestring like I used to and exactly how your photos show, before that I was getting very down when reading count on minimum of 5 grand for an engine rebuild, 6 grand for a respray, and seeing discussions on the value of project cars were they were being massively undervalued due to cheque book restoration economics being applied.

This thread is a breath of fresh air to me

I did several cars in air dried enamel and even tractor paint in the past because I was broke and with good preparation the results were excellent, I can see that yours is far better than your modesty allows you to admit.

You need to make the time, if it's really something you want - then do it now and enjoy it. Set aside a couple hours a week and stick with it, thats how things get done. Money, time and space are but three factors that I deal with, others have a forth factor that they call their wife. That has to be taken into account too but if it puts a big grin on your face then it ought to make her happy too.

rodlittle wrote:Hi Gary
You've certainly shown what can be done from a box of bits I always check your posts first to see how far you've got. Keep it up, every time Ive asked a question you're the man who has answered it
best wishes
rod

Hi Rod

The box of bits is my house, the house needs work after nearly 30 years and it's nearly impossible to do the work with nearly every room filled with shit from disassembled cars. They either have to be put together or packed in tip and scrapped. I guess the question is how many need to be reunited before the house work can be started. I am not much on putting them back as delivered, the interiors will be sparse but the Elans should be able to function and add the smile to my face.

nomad wrote:Gary, your last post makes me think you are thinking of ending this thread. I hope not since its the first thing I look for when getting on Elan net. Its sort of a shame that Elan's have picked up the " collector " car moniker because I think most think that only the most expensive route suits the car. I really appreciate your hands on keep it sensible route along with our obvious skill.

Thanks for "sows ear" and more,

Kurt

Hi Kurt

Not sure its ending but as the weather changes and gets colder things will slow down. Money needs to be spent and going into winter is not the time to spend it. I still have a chassis in the living room waiting for money, I mean struts and front shocks but it's there for the winter. It's the original to the Elan that is currently my driver and it is going back under it when the green "sows ear" becomes a driver. I still have another pair of Elans to do next year and I am not sure that they wouldn't just be another re-run of the "Simpson's"

Yesterday I wanted to get something done. I went in the "parts room" and scanned the shelves and floor and saw what I was looking for. I had some filler necks for the later cars and although they looked fairly pitted and tired, one of them looked to be better than the open hole in the body by the one absent in the green Elan. I knocked some of the oxidation off with some bronze wool and installed it. I guess it looks ok, certainly in the spirit of the "build". With that done I found some tennex studs that were pulled out of the S2's in the past and picked out the best 10 for the top to fasten to. By early afternoon it was warm enough to spread some polyester putty on the front bumper that I have been half-heartily working on (mostly off) for the last month or two. Spread a bit and set it in the sun to harden while I went in an got a few saltine crackers for Beau and myself. when those were gone I got out the 400 grit wet/dry sandpaper (didn't have any 220) and spent the next 20 minutes taking off most of it. Time to buy primer so I guess I am done with it till then

.