Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Hi There

I have two plus 2's that I am currently putting back together. The first has a dashboard that I have refinished in a 3M Di-Noc gloss wood wrap having removed all the cruddy veneer. That one lays pretty much dead flat, so not problems there as far as I can tell.

The other one though is rather warped into a curve. You can see this from the picture. This warping has caused some deamination. Has anyone here dealt with this sort of thing before? If it will just follow the curve of the crashpad then I can live with that, but if it really needs to be junked, then I will start to look for an alternative. I think the glovebox lid will never be right, so that would have to be junked in favour of a cubby hole. I do not mind that at all.

Thoughts please!

Many thanks

Berni

With all the work you will have done on the rebuild i suspect you will never be happy with this dash whatever you manage to do to it. If you are up for some wood work I’d be tempted to use it as a template and start again with a new sheet of ply. I went for a new replacement dash as mine was in a bad state and I didn’t think I had the skill to re-veneer and polish my original one and the ply was starting to delaminate around the edges but it was still flat.

Bigbaldybloke wrote:With all the work you will have done on the rebuild i suspect you will never be happy with this dash whatever you manage to do to it. If you are up for some wood work I’d be tempted to use it as a template and start again with a new sheet of ply. I went for a new replacement dash as mine was in a bad state and I didn’t think I had the skill to re-veneer and polish my original one and the ply was starting to delaminate around the edges but it was still flat.

Hi

I hadn't quite thought of it that way but now I have I can see what you say makes good sense. Template or new, that is the question......

Many thanks!

Berni

..............copy your good one, use "naval" (= high quality plywood 8mm), gets some verneer (2mm, if u can) of your choice or real carbon as i did. cfrp has the advantage: it's already polished! good luck sandy

I'm sure you can flatten it. It needs to get humid first, then clamped between flat sheets for a while. Weeks. It it's not then straight, then a repeat with a little opposite lock on should do it. To do that, take the sandwich and clamp it to a joist, a wall, a pole, something really stout, and insert a couple battens under to force the sandwich into the opposite curve.

On the 3M, that's how my dad redid his Plus 2 dash. It was the same pattern that came on our Dodge wagon. He finished it off with white lettering from a drafting store.

John

el-saturn wrote:..............copy your good one, use "naval" (= high quality plywood 8mm), gets some verneer (2mm, if u can) of your choice or real carbon as i did. cfrp has the advantage: it's already polished! good luck sandy

Hi

For a copy dash yes marine ply would be the way to go for sure. Do you have a picture of the dash done in CF? I would love to see that.

Thanks

Berni

baileyman wrote:I'm sure you can flatten it. It needs to get humid first, then clamped between flat sheets for a while. Weeks. It it's not then straight, then a repeat with a little opposite lock on should do it. To do that, take the sandwich and clamp it to a joist, a wall, a pole, something really stout, and insert a couple battens under to force the sandwich into the opposite curve.

On the 3M, that's how my dad redid his Plus 2 dash. It was the same pattern that came on our Dodge wagon. He finished it off with white lettering from a drafting store.

John

Hi John

I am not sure that it would be worth the effort of flattening it. But it's good to know its possible. Its great to hear I am not the only heathen out there doing things like wrapping the dash! Did he clear coat it after the lettering? That is my plan. I have done the glovebox door already and it came up with a good shine.

I would really like to see a picture of the dashboard. Does he have any?

All the best

Berni