what would be a fair price for a respray on my elan + 2.

[Hal]

I agree it's bent, but a hydraulic press would rectify it.

Out of interest, where ARE the correct jacking points on a +2?

[Hal]

Ah come on, Alex, Scotland's nae far from France by plane! Hop on a cheap flight to Limoges and I'll pick you up.We have spare rooms!
Funny, yesterday I had a Scottish buddy in the barn wrenching on a 'spares bike' I have decided to strip...a 1976 Honda GL1000. He loves tearing things to pieces...he's back later this morning.

Wrenching holidays in SW France....this may just catch on!

[alexblack13]

The rear is quite tricky. Some guys including myself use a beam right across the rear just in front of the diff with spacers to clear the exhaust and frame. Located on the rear body. The issues with jacking here are allowing the suspension to fully 'droop'. The drive shaft couplings do not like that and neither do the rubber a frame bushes. Most of us have made a small adapter from plywood or similar which fits onto and locates into the a frame just below the strut. Jacking from there keeps everything level and does not stress the couplings or bushes. If taking off the suspension or a frames etc then the body jacking points must be used. Lots of guys have there Fave' methods and they are all good.

Front is easier using a timber batten to spread the load under the main chassis x member. Same applies regarding the wishbone bushes. If not slackened off and free to rotate on the mounting pins full droop will damage them.

A batten right along the entire cill works well too and will lift both front and rear at same time. Tricky and time consuming to prevent damage to suspension and drive shaft components though.

You will devise your prefered method no doubt.

I might well take you up on that offer Hal' We are buying a new Camper van next year (springtime) and would easily enjoy a few weeks in France. I just love working on these cars.

Have fun and enjoy the car.

[niagra]

Looks like a nice project. wrt jacking at the rear, I've seen Vincent Haydon jack from the rear disk - not sure if that is an approved method or not, I didn't think to query it at the time!

If you get a moment, I'd be interested in seeing some close up shots of the primer coats, as it looks similar to my 72 Plus 2. Blue, followed by grey and then the glass/gel.

Cheers,
Dario

[Robbie693]

Can't see the pics, just a message from Flickr - is it a problem at my end?

And yes - the spot/fog lights were introduced with the +2 S, initially in pods with a backing piece and then later with the pods blended into the body. Can't see what you have on this one though for the above reason...

Robbie

[Hal]

I can see them on my pc but there was some sort of upload problem on FlickR last night, I'll need to reload them all, as they are not on my FlickR account now!

For the paint detail, I don't have any closeups but this shot does clearly show the layers. It's basically gelcoat, greeny colour, then a darkish grey-blue primer sealer, then a stock grey paint primer, white, followed by more grey primer and a second coat of white.Shown here...



I have no intention of trying to take all this down to primer, it's only 2 coats so it'll be simple preparation of the paint as normal, wide feathered edges followed by 2 pack primer-filler built up in several coats and fine flatted....after I've sorted all the gelcoat and substructure problems the usual way....tissue under filler in place of gelcoat, good CSM structural buildup from behind, and no "butt joints" where there are structural cracks like at 12 o'clock on the front wing.

What you must do with this is taper an inch of GRP either side of the crack, for its whole length, and then feather the edges so there is only a fine blade of original GRP either side of where the crack was. Then you build up new GRP so it's never transiting from new to old with a hard edge of any thickness. This way, the high frequency vibrations which travel around the GRP shell will not 'burrow' into the repair and form a new crack in the finished bodywork.

A butt joint will normally crack again even if tissued over and back filled with GRP.

[stugilmour]

Looks nice Hal, and if the interior bits are all there it would make a nice project. Reminds me of my car when it was white.

http://halerconcepts.com/1971_lotus_hal ... ts_ltd.htm

You clearly have the skills to do up the body nicely; I think she is calling you! One of my rear wishbones was bent as well; I opted for new ones from Spyder, which have the added benefit of being adjustable for toe.

[jono]

I'm just wondering of you have the Consul Capri windscreen rubber on there which is designed to take the broad chrome (stainless steel actually) cover trim

Is it a heavy, one piece, moulded rubber? - if so then it's the Consul type.

Jon

[Hal]

Jon,

I don't know! I haven't seen the car other than these photos.

I hope to go to examine it and collect it next week. It's be good if the rubber would accept a broad chrome strip, but I thought that the early cars used the H section stuff off a roll, like on the sidecar.

Don't the later cars have bonded-on windscreens?

[Hal]

Looks nice Hal, and if the interior bits are all there it would make a nice project. Reminds me of my car when it was white.

http://halerconcepts.com/1971_lotus_hal ... ts_ltd.htm

You clearly have the skills to do up the body nicely; I think she is calling you! One of my rear wishbones was bent as well; I opted for new ones from Spyder, which have the added benefit of being adjustable for toe.

Stu, Seems you have access to some bodywork skills too! When you say "undercoated inside and out..." after painting the colour and clear, what do you mean? Some sort of underseal for sound deadening?

That metal table with castor wheels is a very neat bit of kit, I'll have to make one the same. I'll be using the three point interior hitch and engine crane lifting method for the shell, I think, as I have a nice big barn with flat concrete floor to work in.

Your workshop looks even better....much better light!

By the way, you mentioned toe in with the Spyder arms...is there no adjustment for rear toe on the originals? That sounds mighty odd...I thought ALL Loti had adjustable rear toe?

Interesting Detroit iron in the background...is that a '57 Chevy?


Alex,

Thanks for the detail on jacking. It does sound a tad precarious, but then the Elise is a tricky little blighter to jack properly too.

Specially if the "Jack Here" stickers are AWOL.....but if you jack the Elise at the junction of the crossmember and the side rail, a bit rear of centre doorsill, both wheels rise happily off the ground, and the door shuts stay exactly as they were, so you can open and shut the doors perfectly. It's one incredibly stiff chassis.