Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Hello Gentlemen,
My name is Brian Buckland the Author of the book, The Rebuilding of a Lotus Elan. I have been asked to comment on the Wheeler Dealer program which showed a Lotus Elan being repaired / restored. The program was shown on TV last night and I believe it has been shown before. Has anyone got a DVD copy of the program that I could study. I guarantee to return the DVD within a week together with a free copy of my book to compensate for your trouble.

I have had many many e mails wishing me well after my heart bypass operation recently. May I thank everyone for their good wishes. I am recovering well and cannot think of any better Christmas present than that. I am looking forward to 2011, spring sunshine and driving my Elans.

A super Christmas to all Elan owners and their Elans, the finest car in the world.

Brian Buckland

There you go.

http://www.streetfire.net/video/wheeler ... 085625.htm

Brian,

So glad you are recovering nicely. That is, indeed, the best Christmas present.

I have a Christmas moment each time I open your book for yet another helpful hint on how to restore my own Elan. So many nuggets of information, so little time. Many thanks.

Best wishes for a great holiday season and a healthy and safe new year.

Is that the S3, badged as S4 with Sprint paint job?

Speedy and full recovery Brian!!

Brian ,just heard about your ticker ,all the best and a speedy recovery, thanks for your help in the past.

I very much enjoyed watching the clip but it is very naughty (IMO). It will inspire people though. Half decent cars can be out there to "drop on", and people do. Also folk pass on cars with problems with little concern. Generally I think the program is very wrong with the implication of the quick large profit on an Elan. The circumstances could occur but generally don't. This could mislead the inexperienced.

Paint prep' ???????
Did you see the finish when he was fitting the front indictors? Holes and lumps.
S3 to S4 was an issue. I heard nothing mentioned about it's model series (could have missed it). Just as well.
How about the rust on the rear disc, was the disc removed and cleaned so it sat right?
I would have been concerned with disturbing and then trapping crud and disc run out.
All a bit scary, taking bits off and fitting with out fresh rubbers or hardware etc. See head lamp screws and split rubbers (pennies worth). Attitude to work looked blinkered to me and Ok for some old heap of a road going car, not an Elan. I hate that fix one bit and get back out as quick as possible. That my opinion.

Nice to see Sue getting some air time!

Merry Xmas

Mike

I felt similar reservations about everything from the apparent state of the car to the final "restoration" and sale. Did he really drive it so hard with those worn out parts ? it must have been obviously wrong from the first bump/corner. To me the completed car just didn't look right; I know some late S3s came with varying specs and mine came with the stromberg bonnet, but that one looked like someone really wanted an S4 but only had an S3.

But it's only television after all, so maybe we shouldn't take it so seriously and after all I do have a chuckle at his enthusiasm and some of the antics. On the plus side it finally pushed me into getting the Sue Miller CV driveshaft conversion, so some good did come out of it after all !

Sand and fill(er) Gel cracks
Naughty naughty.....

What a cracking car though

Great to see Susan Miller on the small screen too!

I'm one of the 700 Mick Miller CV users and delighted to be.

peterako wrote:Great to see Susan Miller on the small screen too!

I'm one of the 700 Mick Miller CV users and delighted to be.

She's the best thing about the programme

Ditto on the shafts

Hi

Seasonal greetings

What really surprised me was the state of the top balljoints- do they really wear as quickly as that between MoT appointments?

I'd have thought such an obvious fault would have been picked up a lot earlier- unless the car hadn't been on the raod for ages- but even then surely such a degree of wear would be noticed. Eye test for the examiner maybe!

John

I might be sounding a bit cynical but....

My thoughts on the balljoint(s)....

Like mentioned above, if the balljoint was THAT bad it would have been noticed by a seasoned dealer pretty early on. Not to mention being a very audible clunk!

So....maybe it was a 'fix' so that they could show their 'expertise' in car handling by fixing a vague steering problem with a quick and cheap repair.

As to the other fixes.... the only one with any credibility was the Sue Miller stuff (as mentioned above).

Having said all that it was a joy to see a whole 40+ minutes of Elan on TV!

Peter

Well.... it was a gee whizz televison program after all.

I know this is years late but this car had a clean MoT in November 2009.
With a car the original owner said he didn't drive there's no way the ball joint would have got that bad.
Same goes for the rotoflex - they all looked good and the 'bad' one was looked ok before they took it off.
So the usual tart up job!!