Front seats and Vacum Pods

[handi_andi]

Yes I know this is an odd combintation to be asking about at the same time but they are related in the normal way that Lotus Elan Plus 2 problems only ever seem to come in pairs.

Having finally freed off the clutch this afternoon, thanks to some thermo-cycling as suggested in another thread on the forum, I thought I would take the old girl for a quick spin to clean up the brakes, blow out the cob webs from the engine and to see how badly I had tuned her.

Well things were looking promising when the driver's seat broke under acceleration but then I tried to pull out onto the A98 in a suitably large gap, however, Loti decided it wasn't big enough and stalled on the way up the slope and I ended up half pulled off onto the verge praying that the traffic coming towards me at 60 would miss, which luckily it did. Hence my conclusion is that my attempt at engine tuning hasn't worked too well. Especially when Loti repeated the performance turning back onto the A98 to try and get back home.

So then I attemped to pull the offside vacum pod which I had diagnosed as leaking thanks to my nose cone mounted vacum gauge. I got the spring off fine, got the leakage disconencted and the stay, however, the main mounting stud decided to shear off at the base of the pod. Did find the leak though, I have seen less holes in a teabag than there are in the bottom of my corroded pod.

Hence I have two questions, where is the best place to get a replacement pod from in the UK and secondly what seats with headrests will fit the Elan Plus 2, the spitfire ones spring to mind especially as they are in vinyl but am sure that there are other options.

Thanks

Andy

[1964 S1]

Check out the salvage yard scene for some "later" model Honda or Toyota sports seats. (1990 on up) Lightweight, comfortable, basically non breakable and easily adaptable.

[handi_andi]

Looks like I will have to take a trip to the nearest scrapyard then, thanks.

Vacum pod is no longer a problem thanks to an M6 bolt and some glassfibre. One word of caution though for anyone else repairing a vacum pod, leave enough time for the glassfibre resin to cure before breathing in through the pipe to check the repair!

[Tintin]

Hence I have two questions, where is the best place to get a replacement pod from in the UK and secondly what seats with headrests will fit the Elan Plus 2, the spitfire ones spring to mind especially as they are in vinyl but am sure that there are other options.

I'm either getting a pair of MX5 seats reupholstered in leather or these which are available in either leather, vinyl or cord-mix:

http://www.gts-classics.com/montecarlo.html

However appearentyl not all MX-5 seats fold, a friend of mine who has one said these seats might be an option as being a two-seater you only need them to access a small storage space.

A key point for me is the height of the seat which is specified as 14cm for the BF seats, the rails will add another three-four cm probably.




Tim