Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Hi all
Are galvanised chassis currently available for the Plus 2?
Thanks!
James

There's one for sale in Greece on Ebay.
Delivery may be an issue

what i did for a friend a few years ago was put a wanted Advert in the Club Lotus Mag. For second hand or new galvanised Chassis and found one. I know it's all been said about galvanising distorting a Chassis BUT are the non galvanised that straight. All the adjustable "A" Frames are not just for cars with galvanised Chassis,
many are for cars with NON galvanised Chassis
Try a wanted Advert, it's free to Club Members and can save a lot of money to buy others things.
e.g. adjustable "A" Frames
Alan

Now I don't know if it is still an issue, but I bought a galvanized frame for my Elan Sprint back in 1990 or so. It did warp, twisting it in the back. I had to put on adjustable spring perches to fix the ride height. I do not know if this is still an issue with galvanized frames. Going forward I do not know if I would buy a galvanized frame again.

Miles Wilkins fitted a Lotus Galvanise Chassis on my Sprint in 1985 and he didn't say it was warped. Also he didn't fit adjustable perches.
How accurate are NON galvanised Chassis, has anybody measure one.
Surely if a bare Chassis is warped it could be tweaked back into shape. or enough for adjustable "A" Frames to be fitted for the final tuning
Alan

My chassis was fine for about 5 years. Then I started to notice that the distance between the bottom of the rear wheel well arch to the top of the tire was different from side to side. First it was one finger difference, then two, then 3. It was gradual. I did not know what was happening. It was years later after I sold the car that someone mentioned that this was a problem with galvanized chassis cars. I realized then that my car had the issue. Like i said, I fixed it with adjustable spring perches.

Are you sure it was the Chassis moving and not the Body because it was not Shimmed correct to Chassis.
Difficult to prove unless Car set up on checking Jig. Chassis checked with reference points and then the Body to see if it is square on Chassis.
I know on TVR Cars the Body can be different each side and i think Lotus can have the same problem.
Alan

Nothing is for certain. All I can tell you is that it always looked like the body was square on the chassis.
I no longer have the car so I cannot check.

I rejected two new chassis's in about 2001 since they were both wider between the left turrets than the right. By around 1/2 inch. Feedback was not appreciated. That being an understatement. For that car i had to use a Spyder chassis. The galvanised process had nothing to do with this. The jig was the culprit. Apparently a known fault as Spyder told me before I even opened my mouth. Not a happy bunny at the time. Since then i have experienced about 3 NOS ones from the late 80's and the 90's that were good on the tape.

The problem could be one of the rear springs sagging .
Alan

It would be interesting to get a cost of having a new chassis shot blasted and Hot zinc wire sprayed - a common enough practise in shotblasting businesses. I’d anticipate a few hundred quid but could be spectacularly out. Effectively galvanising without the heat from dipping.

Thank sounds good.
I am ćonvinced the best is galvanised.
When i look at the galvanised Watering Can that's been kicking around in my garden for 40 years and is still perfect. Plus galvanised Chassis fitted to my Sprint in 1985 still perfect.
I also think to paint over galvanised is a total waste of time and it will only peel off.
Alan

Ok..So just supposing I was in the market for a new chassis at £2k+ for a bare untreated chassis. On collection I then measure it and decide it is within acceptable tolerances. Would I really want to risk then having it galvanised in which the heating process involved in galvansing could potentially ruin it? Personally I don't think I would want to take that risk!
With the annual mileage that most Elans and +2's now do and potentially will do in the future a painted chassis is going to last 25+years anyway so I don't see the point of taking the risk of having a chassis galvanised.
None of the curent suppliers it seems now recommend having a chassis galvanised because of the risk of distortion.

Alan.

alan.barker wrote:I also think to paint over galvanised is a total waste of time and it will only peel off.

I respectfully disagree on this one: the ways to succesfully paint galvanized steel was discussed here before, from memory one needs to take in account the resting time since the galvanization process.

I prefer to paint a galvanized chassis for a more original aspect.

Hi alanr,
as you like it's a personal choice.
It's a bit like when i talk about comparing TVR and Lotus. Many Lotus owners consider TVR as no good or visa versa.
I must say it's nice to know of the different possabilites .
Alan