Tide's in and looking deep - Frank's S2 SE gets a new nose

[Famous Frank]

Here are today's results due to my Elan.net friends who have given me the fortitude to move forward. Thank you all. There is no turning back now ! Famous Frank

[gordont]

yikes - that is brave. well done and good luck!

[garyeanderson]

Hi Frank

You are right, no going back but I would guess there is not anything worth to go back to. Get your doors (both) prepped. Remove paint and filler so you can use them to align the new front to the old back. Is this the SE with the flat floor? Does the new front have the ribbed floor at the front of the foot box? If so, don't worry about it now. Get the rest of the right side door pocket trimmed away, you don't want to be seaming that back together or you will never get it sanded to the point where it will be right. Anyway its great to see someone working on there Elan and not just talking trash.
Oh Yea, speaking of trash, don't toss or cut that nose section any more. Find a place for it until the new nose is on and ALL of the holes are drilled and components mounted. Besides someone will come along and clone your S2 the body number is still on that half...

I cleaned out anywhere from 4 inches to 8 inches of compacted salt marsh hay out of my sacrificial S2 yesterday off the floors. There is still more in it but it was frozen and I need to wait for the temperature to rise, maybe in January when we get that thaw...

Gary

[gjz30075]

Hi Gary,
Frank won't be able to answer for a few days but yes, this is the SE with the flat floor and I believe the new nose has a flat floor (Ross can confirm). My concern is whether or not the new nose will fit over the existing lattice work. We purposely kept it in place, with the exception of the lh side which fell off because it was cut in three places by a PO. Could be tricky.

Greg Z

[cabc26b]

Hey Greg,

Let me know if you guys are going to do that this weekend, might be worth popping over with to see/help/provide libations etc.

George

[gjz30075]

Hi George,
Frank's out of town until Sunday night so we're 'on hold' until next week. Thanks for the offer! We'll let you know what's happening on this.

Greg Z

[Famous Frank]

George, Gary, Greg,

I am down in Tampa for the weekend for my 12 year old son's Lacrosse Tournament. Yes, we place Lacrosse in Atlanta, and we're pretty darn good. But I can't wait to get back to continue this project on Monday.

Thanks for your help and offers of assistance. George, I'll take you up on any ehlp and/or suggestions. The front clip is a flat floor clip. Ross, do you have any idea the history of that clip or where it came from? It appears to be made from one of the later S2 molds, especially because it has a flat floor. Don't worry Gary, I won' be getting rid of it for awhile. The new clip has no holes for anything and the old clip has a bunch of stuff I still need to be transfer over such as the aluminum tubes for the defroster hoses.

You may have seen previous pics I've posted showing some of the poor repairs to this body from an accident 76. Removing the front end ahs revealed more poor repairs which truly made the car unsafe to drive. When Greg and I removed the front clip, the left side forward part of the metal lattice work fell off because the previous body shop had cut the lattice entirely through in three locations making it unattached anywhree. All they did wa lay it back in place and glob on fiberglass to try to hold it together. Between that, the bent and rusted frame, and the 100 pound left door (due to 3 inch thick bondo throughout), it is a mess.

Come Monday, I'll start removing the fiberglass debris that is attached to the metal lattice work. Once that is done, I'll let my painter TIG weld the cut left side lattice work. My MIG won't work well on that 1/2 inch bar stock. It looks like the original lattice work was gas welded and coated with some sort of silver paint that almost looks like a zinc coating. Luckily, the right side lattice wok looks great. The left side looks good too except where the poor repairs were done. I can see there the pedal assemply was repaired (poorly) and I'll be looking for one or two pedal assmbly parts soon.

I imagine we'll bolt up the front and rear body work to the frame, bond it together and fit the doors to the ixisting opening. The body will have to fit up using the original bobbin bolts.

It will be awhile before I think about paint.

I'll be buying tires soom,. Has anyone ever heard of these?

http://www.bizrate.com/automotive-tires ... 73016.html

And I should probably make the frame/chassis a roller for the body shop. Most of the suspension pieces are already restored. Blasted, pwder coated and rebushed. One thinkg I'll have to make right away are some bearing spacers for the new TTR forged outer stub axles. The new axles have a slot for the circlip that supports the later wider bearings. As I'll be using the standard narrow bearings, I need to make some bearing spacers. I'll try to post a pic.

Talk to you all soon and continuing the progress.

[CBUEB1771]

Are you anywhere near Minot Beach?

My father proposed to my mother at Minot Beach. There are a bunch of us not too far away. Let us know when you are in the area.

[summerinmaine]

Are you anywhere near Minot Beach?

My father proposed to my mother at Minot Beach. There are a bunch of us not too far away. Let us know when you are in the area.

Thanks Russ, I will.

I know the area fairly well, from frequent visits back in the 80s and 90s. The plan was for me and my wife to move to NE by next summer, but it's beginning to look like events have overtaken me, and though SWMBO has moved to Cape Cod already, I probably will not.

But I'll keep all you folks in mind if I do plan a visit sometime in the not too distant future.

[summerinmaine]

I'll be buying tires soom,. Has anyone ever heard of these?

http://www.bizrate.com/automotive-tires ... 73016.html

Frank:

I probably am missing something, but I couldn't tell what the speed rating is for those tires. Because of the construction standards for the casings of different ratings, I try never to get any tire less than H rated. But that may just be me.

I'm currently running H rated Pirellis on the Elan and H rated Sumitomos on my Tii.

[Ross Robbins]

Frank wrote

Ross, do you have any idea the history of that clip or where it came from? It appears to be made from one of the later S2 molds, especially because it has a flat floor.

I bought the front from Sports Car World when Frank was still with us and he said it was Lotus OEM from a dealer's stock he acquired. I don't know any more than that and there is no way to verify the comment. It has a number of grease pencil type markings on it as I remember, doesn't it, that seem to indicate that it was a factory part. All I know is that I paid a lot for it, spent a bunch to get it from Texas to Colorado then sold it for about half that to Frank who had his son in law pick it up and deliver it to him. In other words it was a typical Lotus deal: 1. Pay too much for a part you end up not needing, 2: Get it from where it is to where it is now not needed at great expense, 3: Sell it at a loss and 4: Conscript relatives into servitude to get it where it is needed at great personal sacrifice. 5: Rinse and repeat!

And as for tires (tyres), I think we have beat this to death so my single comment is this: If they fit, (which is my only concern as 155/80 X 13 is the biggest I can get on my S2) even if they are made in Thailand as seems apparent, they are probably better than anything available at any price when the car was new so they should be fine. I am using $40 155/13 Korean all season radials that are predictable and have higher limits than I am willing to explore on the road plus they are comfortable smooth and quiet. How can you beat that for $40 a corner???

Happy 2011 to all! Frank, keep us updated on the progress with photos. Also I suggest a new thread as this is Gary's one about the storm surge. Gary, I trust all is calm and bright in Scituate?

[garyeanderson]

Hi Ross

The Tide has gone out and the snow has melted. I still haven?t been out much to see the other parts of town that have had their problems this time and countless times in the past. We all live here because of the good times and tend to forget the bad ones. Where I live now has a good chance of being flooded. Each and every new moon winter tide is a scary time and I worry each one that the 2 or 3 storm systems will align and give us the "storm of the century" that seem to happen every 20 to 30 years now. I can't figure out why I stay here but I guess its just too much work to move, if and when that happens I will need to shed a lot of Lotus baggage that has anchored me here for so long. It?s 58 degrees out today and most of the snow that turned to slush and froze has melted and we await the new moon this month and next. After that the storm season that I worry about ends for the most part and the days are long enough to start to enjoy living here again. I have yet to become an island and never had water in the garage or house, it will take some more cleanup and sorting to call an end to this tale. I am one of the lucky folks for sure and others that were not will need to decide to rebuild or sell what is left and we all move on. Folks that have been unemployed get jobs so a loss to someone is a gain to them. Lots of work is generated by these storms. As far as Frank?s S2 SE rebirth goes it can stay and I can rename the topic, folks that are interested will still look and those that aren?t are missing out on the lengths that folks go to fix their Elan?s. The great thing about Elan?s is that you can do much of the work yourself and the specialized work can be farmed out. These Elan?s have always been re-buildable by average folks, I think that?s a wonderful thing as it is something to be proud of when you done and as you make progress each day.

Gary

[Famous Frank]

Thanks Ross and Jim!

Ross thanks for the thoughts on the clip. Be happy it's going to a VERY DERSERVING GOOD HOME!!!!

As for the tires, I'll investigate the speed rating, the diameter, etc.

Ross you are corect, this is Gary's thread. Sorry Gary, I got carried away. Hope is all well on the coast. If you need our help, jsut give a yell! In the meantime, I'll start a couple of new threads, one for the body shell and one for tires which never seem to get discussed. Ha!

Happy New Year all! May it be healthy, Happy and Prosperous!

Frank

[summerinmaine]

Thanks Ross and Jim!

Ross thanks for the thoughts on the clip. Be happy it's going to a VERY DERSERVING GOOD HOME!!!!

As for the tires, I'll investigate the speed rating, the diameter, etc.

Ross you are corect, this is Gary's thread. Sorry Gary, I got carried away. Hope is all well on the coast. If you need our help, jsut give a yell! In the meantime, I'll start a couple of new threads, one for the body shell and one for tires which never seem to get discussed. Ha!

Happy New Year all! May it be healthy, Happy and Prosperous!

Frank

To you as well Frank. Ross makes a good point, and it probably trumps other considerations. But I had a few beers with a tire guru a while back, and he patiently explained all the intricacies of tire construction/tread and sidewall plies for the various speed ratings. Having once had a sidewall bubble out and fail on me during a spirited exercise, I swore to myself never again to buy less than H rated. That's undoubtedly just my personal quirk/experience-based comfort zone.

[summerinmaine]

Gary,

Based on your directions, I Google-Earthed your place, and could swear I saw at least one Elan body shell in your side yard. Is that the infamous hay-catcher?