Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Hi There

While I have been playing with my +2 pods, and in fact have one out, I am wondering if there is some way that I can correct the concave upper surface that this one has. It must have been made this way. It is like the surface has drooped and made a shallow dish. Is it possible to heat it from the inside and push it up and flat without damaging the paint on the other side? How hot would it have to get or is it just not possible?

Also the pivot hole is a few millimeters off so I am going to drill it out (not completely) and patch with liquid metal and re-dril.

Berni

Bernie,
Many years ago (more than I care to remember really) I had an S3 Esprit in pretty poor condition body wise.
I bought an "after market" new bonnet. When I received it, and tried to align it, it was so far out it was unbelieveable.
So I had a cunning plan, I hired a space heater, fired the heat at it, then clamped it into position. Hair driers or anything like that for something so big was out of the question.
I'll say that the bonnet settled rather nicely. The heat obviously softened it enough to do what I wanted it to do.
It really was a case of trial and error, (how much heat to apply) in this case I felt I had not much to lose due to the state of the bonnet.
So try something like a hair drier to start with and go from there, I would be confident you could get it to move. When it comes to something like this imagination is free.
Hope this helps,
Doug

By the way forgot to add that this was before the car was painted.

Hi Doug

I like the sound of that. If you managed to do it then it's worth a try. I am going to use a hot air gun because I do not think that a hairdryer will be up to it. I have stripped part of a plus 2 body with one so I have a bit of a feel for it. Gently will be the way to go I think.

Wish me luck!

Berni

A hair dryer ought to be sufficient as polyester will start to flow at about 70-80 deg C

Hi

In fact I did use a hairdryer. A 1400 watt pro one which on full heat gets pretty hot. I also stood a 10kg chrome dumbell in a pan of boiling water for 30 minutes, and used that to "iron" the pod flat from the inside. The paint on the face of the pod got very hot, but no damage seems to have been done. Overall it was well worth doing, so many thanks for the advice.

Berni

Nice one Bernie, did you take any photo's ?

Doug