Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Cannot get gaps even on sides,also boot stay is fouling undersides ,are boot lids all made to fit individually?

Not sure about the individual fit... I wouldn't think so. A picture might help. I've yet to final fit mine... Could be that cross brace under the hinges is not mounted correctly?

we must keep in mind: our cars are hand built; exactly like welted hand made shoes!! sandy PS: tolerances +/- mm!

pictures !
if you are sure it is the original bootlid there will be no problem.. likely to be previous poor accident repair or brace not fitted right . There is so little strength ( and so little support )in the fibreglass that is aft of the chassis that the lid aperture can come out of shape very easily ...

I?ve almost final fitted mine, gaps are pretty even at the sides, if not I suggest it?s the brace bar that?s forcing it to one side as the left side hinge is only mounted on thin fibreglass so has plenty of scope for adjustment.
Not sure why the stay is fouling on the lid, again is it the brace bent or something along those lines, I can send pictures of mine if it will help.
My problem is that with 30 years of standing without bonnet bootlid or doors, the rear panel seems to have bowed out a bit in the middle and needs a good shove in to engage the early type manual boot catch. I?m hoping that it may go back a bit over time with the lid on and shut.

Thanks for replies,I think cross brace is problem,will take it off and see,mine is square type saw a photo of round section one ,are they available ?

My square one (68 +2) doesn't fit up against the rear "deck" .. there's some packing.. it was like this when I got it and I assume original. This may place the stay bracket a little lower.. Although I don't for sure know it all fits correctly since rebuild

Fitted and painted over a year ago so memory is a little fuzzy, but I believe judicious use of body filler was required to achieve a truly even gap all around, and also to level boot lid with rear wings on either side. If you are doing bodywork, all things are possible. If the panels are already painted, then you takes what you gets, I suppose

Big baldy:

Bigbaldybloke wrote:.. . My problem is that with 30 years of standing without bonnet bootlid or doors, the rear panel seems to have bowed out a bit in the middle and needs a good shove in to engage the early type manual boot catch. I?m hoping that it may go back a bit over time with the lid on and shut.

I believe most Plus 2s have a rear panel that bows out too much. Almost every pic I see of the rear of a Plus 2 shows this. I am assuming the ones which don't have been fixed! I used the metal angle iron brace which runs across the back of my February 1970 Plus 2S (remote boot latch release) to pull the panel in flush with the lower edge of the boot lid (new holes for the rivets, etc. ) This has worked beautifully. I don't believe "time" will change the bad fit; only some mechanical leverage

Randy

I believe when they built the body, it pulled up,and when they assembled the boot lid from the upper and lower pieces, it pulled down, causing the gap.

When I did body work on mine, I added just a touch of filler to the corners of the lid so that it could be pulled down to close the gap for a neater look.

This kind of thread is in need of pictures, I have almost no idea what the OP is talking about

I will take photos this week,just hope I manage to post them ok,bit of a Luddite being a seventy year old

yes the metal brace which supports the rear panel is essential..so easily bent out of shape.
That's the reason some +2s don't have a good fitting bootlid .

Oh! and one other thing ... if you've had bootfloor damage from halfshaft incursion in the past then you may well have a saggy rear end. I remember this was the first thing i sorted out years ago on mine ...
a tip:-
to test if you have a saggy rear end stand behind the rear bumper in the middle & try with both hands under the boot floor lifting it an inch or two .
if you have the bootlid open and the boards out check to see if the car raises 'as one' . I remember when i did this the boot flexed along the poor repairs on the boot floor .i.e. the whole boot area had sagged a couple of inches... the bolts attaching the chassis to the bootfloor remained still whilst the whole of rear end lifted with me ....
the remedy was to repair the glassfibre bootfloor splits properly

Are your hinge platforms intact?

I'd not realised at the time but the hinges 'land' on a level platform moulded into the fibreglass of the bootlid - my bodyshop had 'lost' them and there was no way the boot would fit.

I struggled for ages before having some tapered aluminium wafers machined to go between the hinges and gasket - this cured the issue.

A couple of pictures of my boot and boot lid prop, I reckon the gaps aren?t too bad, it?s just the rear panel is bowed out, but it doesn?t have any of the boot interior panels and supports in at present so these may help a bit. My boot lid doesn?t have the raised pads for the hinges that are mentioned above, and seems to fit pretty well all round and level with the wings etc.