Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Just about to remove the body from my S4. Would like to work on the bottom for some repairs. I don't have a roll over jig and am a bit reluctant to buy one and make up the brackets for a couple of weeks work. Could anyone give me any ideas how to support the body safely so as not to damage it.
Thank You

DHC or FHC ?

Bits of wood of appropriate dimensions and blankets or similar.

Sorry it’s a DHC

Closed cell foam will not hold the particulates, while open cell will.

Hang it from the ceiling?
Depends on what you have, but the fully stripped body is not heavy and a couple of well placed straps will hold it no problem.
David

This thread may give you some ideas:

viewtopic.php?f=36&t=47128&p=340125#p340125

Having now owned my S2 DHC elan for forty years, and during that time, I have undertaken two complete body off the chassis rebuild restorations... The first was done the hard way with the body sitting on the trestles, right way up, then upside down, then with some help, lifting the body off the trestles and carefully resting on its side against the workshop wall to do what ever work was required.
To be honest, doing it this way is a total pain.

About a decade ago, the second full body off rebuild was required (due to an off road excursion caused by snapped rear D/Side wheel axle stub), but this time around, before any work was undertaken, I spent a week building and fabricating a rotisserie, or body rotator... so that the S2 body could be mounted in the rotator... so, with out boring you to much, I will just share this, they are absolutely the perfect way to carry out all kinds of repair, F/glassing, and prep work on the elan body, and do it much much easier, and with out the frustrations of doing the repair work with out one.

Long story short, I would never attempt another body repair/refurbish with out mounting the body in the rotisserie.

For anyone out there wanting to learn a bit more about the workings of the body rotisserie, I have written an article on my blog and produced a four part video series (At end of blog article) to share and explain the how and why, please enjoy, and I hope there are some takeaways for you.

If you can weld and fabricate, use recycled steel, the build cost can be kept pretty low.

Over the past year or two, several elan owners have contacted us for the plans, but sadly there are none, the specs for the rotisserie were determined from the body and the chassis dimensions, eg Bobbin pickup points, plus the required front/rear/ ground or floor clearance to allow rolling of the body through the full circle, and also have the ability to lock and hold the body at any required angle within.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbQwaX3BbaA
Rotisserie Magic - For Lotus elan - (Quick View)

The longer explanation - text pictures and four part video series. (At bottom of blog article)
http://elantrikbits.com/lotus-elan-blog/build-a-rotisserie-to-mount-elan-bod/

Enjoy
Ceejay.

The rottiserie method is really worth it. I bought a new one on ebay for about £350, spent about £100 on bits to make it fit an Elan and sold it after I had finished to an Ealn.net member for about half the cost.

Absolutely, but you don't realize that until you use one.

Thank you for all your input, as always most helpful. After watching Ceejay's video's and reading all the comments I have to come to the conclusion that a rotisserie is the way forward, have bought one and picking it up tomorow.
Thank You

You wont regret it, they are worth their weight in gold, as the saying goes.

A rotisserie is very very worth the time and expense to buy or build. No more dripping resin on your head. By rotating the body for more convenient access means better quality repairs and saves your back. I built my own and it is light weight. I incorporated an old (rusty) Elan chassis for mounting purposes, this not only simplified the build of the rotisserie, but it also allows me to mock-up suspension, wheels/tires to verify fender alignment and tire clearance. Something else I'm able to do is roll the rotisserie over a small utility trailer (Harbor Freight) and rotate out the two ends of the rotisserie by my self (to transport the body to a location where I can make lots of noise and dust). I also made a "T" shaped bar that attaches to body bobbins and allows an engine hoist to be used to transfer the body (again by my self).

Well done, being able to rotate and lock the body at any angle makes all the difference to the final repair process, and makes the job more enjoyable.