Newbie Elan Restoration

[cwoll]

Hi all,

First off, thanks for having and participating in this forum!! I have a 69 Elan DHC which has been in the family since before I was born. It has fallen upon me to get this little piece of magic back on the road and I couldn't have even gotten started without the users of this forum and their posts covering more than I could ever hope to read or understand in a decade. My dad started the restoration of the Elan many years ago and life derailed the project even with me constantly prodding him to go work on it together. Now it is solely my project and I spent countless hours combing through these forums pulling bits and pieces of information together to help guide my restoration. The project is in full swing and the plan is ever evolving but I am confident one of these days I will actually drive this car instead of sitting behind the wheel pretending. Keep posting and I'll keep reading.

Many thanks,
Chris W

[tedtaylor]

How about YOU posting a picture or two??

[SENC]

Yes, please post pics now and of your progress!

[cwoll]

Here a few pics I have readily available:

[S3FHC]

Hi Chris,

what a great project!
(and that is one BIG workshop!)

best of luck, keep us posted?

Mark

[Certified Lotus]

Great project and it looks like your ready to dive in with the chassis removed from the body. If your going to send the body out for painting, strip everything off and send it out. That way you will have months to work on the mechanical systems while the body shop takes it's good old time.

Keep us updated. Great group on this forum and they solved every problem I ran across for both of my Elan rebuilds.

[The Veg]

Welcome Chris!
Can't wait to see your progress!

And yes, what a great workspace- no doubt you'll make many of us jealous!

I'm actually jealous that you get to restore your dad's car. My dad was into Sunbeams and he whittled the fleet down to one solid car and enough bits to do a FABULOUS resto...and then he sold the whole lot while I was away in the army! Only thing for which I never forgave him, and I sure would love to have had that project.

Oh well; the upside is that if I'd inherited the Sunbeam I probably would never have got around to getting into Lotus!

Anyway, welcome and keep us posted!

[cwoll]

It's been over two years since I have posted. Shame on me. Progress has been slow up to now. My original plan was to do all but the body work myself but life happened. I found a shop that would allow me to use some of the space and use some of their equipment (lifts and hoists) but the wife grew impatient and convinced me to hire the shop to restore the Elan. So I did. Took a lot of the fun and challenges away but the mechanic shares my name and passion for the vehicle so there's that and along with his meticulous nature, makes it a compromise I'm willing to take.
The Elan was assembled and disassembled to make a parts list. The chassis was sent off for a respray while parts trickled in. With the chassis back from paint, the suspension bits, brakes, hard lines etc were installed. The body shop requested the body mounted on a rolling chassis so off it all went to the body shop. In the meantime, the engine was shipped off to Twin Cam and the tranny rebuilt in house.
Now the body shop was difficult. After a 9 month wait they called with a quote.... for $45,000.... I thought the project was dead or at least I would be driving around a very well running car but it would look awful. Patina I guess. Anyways, I found a much more reasonable shop that knocked out the work and returned a great looking body much more in line with my budget and expectations. The color is now Lotus Racing Green instead of red. I'm not a purist, don't hate me, I figured I have had to make some compromises mechanically so why not paint as well. I have stayed in the Lotus family outside of the vinyl, which is now tobacco, from Mercedes. It is very close to the original black vinyl texture. I think it looks sharp against the black and LRG.
Now that the vehicle is back in the shop, it's all going back together really quickly. The boot is 90% complete, window motors are in and the door cards in place. The original wiring loom is in good shape and so far everything wired up is working. Headlamps and front turn signals are next which will allow for the radiator to go back in.
Waiting on a few bits and pieces like the dash to be refinished and a windscreen but hopefully could be back on the road in February.
Here are some pics:

[steve lyle]

Nice! I like it. You'll be on the road again soon.

$45k = we really don't know what we're doing, you should go somewhere else but we don't want to tell you that directly

[The Veg]

?WOW!

Looks good!