Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

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Bill

mbell wrote:On a side note out of interest, do any of the US suppliers offer replacement chassis?
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Dave Bean lists the Spyder chassis and Lotus OE chassis in his catalog, but you have to phone to check price and availability.

After checking with Dave Bean, I ended up getting a Spyder space frame shipped from the UK in a steel box. There was quite a bit of room in the box that I had stuffed with other parts. Sue Miller was kind enough to send a couple of boxes of bulky sound proofing felts, head liner, etc. to Spyder for addition to the box. I posted a couple of pics of the box here:

lotus-chassis-f36/what-did-you-use-coat-your-chassis-t29577.html

I think Spyder charged several hundred dollars to fabricate the box in addition to the shipping charges. I think they use a heavy box like this to prevent twisting the chassis in shipment. Not a big issue if folks are going to pick up their chassis, but something to consider if you need to ship it commercially.

A thought regarding aggregating a bunch of stuff for shipping. Might need a shipping broker to navigate the customs requirements and getting the container out of the 'Long House'? In Canada none of the stuff I shipped attracted duty (parts for a vintage auto over 25 years old), but did have Federal tax payable. I found the whole process pretty confusing as I was not even familiar with the shipping and brokerage terminology. I didn't have the potential added complication of stuff for others in the box.

For sure the best strategy would be to get the container released by customs and shipped or placed somewhere to break it up and send the stuff on. Maybe the broker can provide this service? It was a bit tricky for me to get the timing of paper work and a crane equipped truck at the correct location; I recall a pretty thrilling drive across town with an envelope of documents and flagging down the truck driver at the gate.

HTH

Stu

elancoupe wrote:I have been told that Miles Wilkins is the source for all the frames, standard or 26R.

Check out Miles Wilkins as well. http://fibreglassservices.com/ He was a Lotus employee and says he has all the rights from Lotus to produce early Lotus parts. He's quirky and you can only reach him by snail mail or phone but he knows his stuff.

I received preliminary interest from 2-forum members, Glen and Chris, to place an order for a total of up to 4-chasses plus my light weight 26R body with doors, bonnet, boot, and windscreen frame. Numbers and participation are subject to change.

We've identified at least one recommended freight forwarder who has successfully shipped to the east coast. I've passed their contact details on to Paul at Kelvedon.

Let me know if anyone else has an interest in getting in on this one time purchase and shipment of LARGE items. We are looking at a 20 foot container which has internal measurements of 7'4" x7'4" x19'4" Inside. Thank you John C. for those dimensions. A body measures about 145 inches or 12.1 feet. A chassis is about 96 inches or 8 feet long. Careful packing may accommodate more than 6 chasses or their equivalent in volume.

Why purchase now? Prices are going up. We might get special one time group pricing. The dollar is strong relative to the GBP. At 6:46 EST today, the posted exchange rate was less than $1.52/GBP. The lowest it has been in the last 10 years was about $1.43/GBP in April 2010.

The plan would be to purchase the items as soon as possible and ship when all items are available. This strategy should cement a favorable exchange rate and allow time to put the order together. Items might me held in a bonded warehouse pending customs clearance and pickup.

Let me know if anyone else wants to get in.

I'm not in the resale business. I just want to minimize the costs to import a new 26R body.

Bill