Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Having failed to find any fault with my lazy RH headlamp pod after removing it I discovered that the drooping was due to the pipe exiting the reservoir's T-piece being slightly loose. The T-piece's tube was split too (it isn't the type with valve which wasn't available when the original failed).

In the short term I reconnected them with Instant Gasket and over-wound them with wire, the lamps now taking an hour to drop to half height after engine switch off.

So a fifteen year problem was fixed in a few minutes!

Not actually today but Friday last week (no time to post until now due to guests visiting): after seven years of ownership, I finally gave Mrs. Veg a ride in Yelotus! The wait wasn't for lack of desire, just for lack of having both seats installed due to so much needing to be done that necessitated having so much of the interiour out for so long and inoperability during so much work. But I've finally got things to the point that the car can be mostly together and truly enter the 'rolling restoration' phase, being now basically operable.

Mrs. Veg thought it was enough of a happening to snap a few pics to remember the occasion!

Nice one!

The roof gutters from my +2 were fitted by a gorilla, with one being badly scratched. Mopped all the anodising off, polished the scratches out and painted with clear coat. It looks good. Unfortunately the gorilla also kinked it by one of the screw holes, which I can’t polish out so it will have to do till I find a replacement.

Pressure tested cylinders for leaks and combustion chambers for cracks.
Fitted head to bare block, blanked off all water ports, filled with water, pressurized with radiator tester, held 1.6bar (23lbs) overnight with no sign of leaks into cylinders or combustion chambers (viewed from bottom)

Hmmm, nice Myford Super 7

I prefered the "Colchester Student" when i was a HM Dockyard apprentice.
Alan

Lathes should be green.
Eric in Burnley
Boxford STS
S3SE DHC

I needed to fill the fuel tank. It was a mizzley day. The lanes were wet, muddy and full of leaf mulch.

Oddly enough, I found I had done some 30 odd miles by the time I got home ...

So I had to give the old girl a clean. Hosed down the underside too. I sprayed some Lanoguard around underneath a few weeks ago. So far, so good; I'm impressed.

Then down to work to replace the broken drivers window cable. I decided to tackle this in a slow and steady way. Out came the offending article.

I ran out of time to carry out the repair, but did clean up my original window motor, having first removed the plastic bag (anyone got a NOS one available?!). Note the construction date, some five weeks before my Sprint was invoiced.

I also found my Unit No scribed upside down on the inner part of the door.

Tim

Started to repair the cill lattices on my '65 S2.
I think it needed repair, no triangulation rods were attached to the bottom langerons and one of the seat belt mounts came away in my hand when I applied a gentle torque to the bolt.
A stitch in time ....

Barney wrote:Started to repair the cill lattices on my '65 S2.
.... one of the seat belt mounts came away in my hand when I applied a gentle torque to the bolt.

Big job, Barney. I replaced both sides 30 years ago after a seat belt MoT failure and took the dashboard out for access to the pedals and renovated that too. I confess I haven't inspected them since!

Miles Wilkins used to cut the tail pieces out through the top of the body work but I cut mine off (one had rusted through the wheel arch underneath anyway) and rewelded them on with lots of wet rags around the frames.

Gary Anderson used to make his own frames from rod and probably took them out and in through the front wheel arch.

Best of luck!

Good time to do some reinforcements

Quart Meg Miles wrote:

Barney wrote:Started to repair the cill lattices on my '65 S2.
.... one of the seat belt mounts came away in my hand when I applied a gentle torque to the bolt.

Big job, Barney. I replaced both sides 30 years ago after a seat belt MoT failure and took the dashboard out for access to the pedals and renovated that too. I confess I haven't inspected them since!

Miles Wilkins used to cut the tail pieces out through the top of the body work but I cut mine off (one had rusted through the wheel arch underneath anyway) and rewelded them on with lots of wet rags around the frames.

Gary Anderson used to make his own frames from rod and probably took them out and in through the front wheel arch.

Best of luck!

Thanks,
I got one out quite quickly and was halfway through getting the other out when my oscillating tool stopped cutting, Turns out that the teeth of the metal cutting blade had decided to disappear, so had to go to my local B&Q this morning for a new blade.
I've followed Gary's method. I was able to remove the first by using the seatbelt to pull it upwards and forwards, something I can't use for the second one I will cut windows into the wheel arches to allow welding of the longerons in situ from both sides.
The elephant in the room is that the offside thicker lattice re-bar extension over the wheelarch has blown upwards through the exterior bodywork. This will need attention that I'm not skilled enough in tackling, so I will put that on the back burner for the time being.

After all, it's a preservation, not a restoration that I'm conducting.

h20hamelan wrote:Good time to do some reinforcements

Indeed, I have thoughts along those lines that'll also lift the belt attachment point off the floor by 2" or so by using offcuts from the steel round bar and some handy pieces of 8mm flat bar that I have lying around

Further to my post above about rewinding a new cable onto the window pulley, today I successfully carried out the wind up! Thank you Ron for your clear photo.

Testing was good, first without the pane, then with it. So I spent a couple of hours after lunch trying to beat the light fading as I worked outside on my driveway to refit the window. The bugger was re-attaching the lock rods. What a fiddly wee job that is! Patience won the day and then refitting the window, doing a check raise and lower a couple of times and then refitting the trim all went to plan, I am pleased to say.

Tim

Put Gearbox back in "Little Lo" after a refresh bearings ++
Alan