Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Looking for suggestions on replacing my springs, dampers/shocks, brakes (pad and rotors). This is for my S1 rebuild that is a stock rebuild except for alternator and CVs. The car will simply be for tooling around on the street/back roads, no track.

Also, considering the car sat for 30 years before I tackled it, along with replacing my pads/rotors and all lines etc, how do we feel about cleaning up the calipers rather than buying new ones?

I'd stick with the stock set-up.

Calipers - check everything for condition (the pistons rust)- seal kits aren't expensive might be all you need. If they need more work
Rebuild the rears yourself - I don't think there is such a thing as 'new ones' and the referb is expensive.
Fronts - In the UK we have classicar automotive who refurb them and it is just not worth doing yourself.

If you have the original type 12 calipers on your S1 and you're getting new/reconditioned you might want to consider upgrading to type 14 as fitted to S2 onwards which make quite a difference. You don't need to change the discs.

Paddy

For brakes I'm most likely planning to just use my original stock and replace the seals and pistons. I ordered new seals, pistons, pads and rotors for the rear yesterday. Fronts will be dealt with when I get to working on that part!