Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

661 wrote:Welded in the seat mounting brackets
Cut some holes
Starting to look like a car

nice !

I still have a hard time to make up my mind about the full version cage vs. a lighter one tough... esp. since my period body (...) is not going to be light.

Today we fettled the body on the 26R to make the light pods fit. We also fitted the original badge.
Best regards, P

Elan Peter wrote:Today we fettled the body on the 26R to make the light pods fit. We also fitted the original badge.
Best regards, P

Hi Peter

Love the rebuild its looking great i always love to see a well developed Elan

You really should refer to your build consistently as a "26R replica" not as a "26R". There is at tendency for "rebuilds" to turn into "26R replicas" and then into "26R" and then into "Genuine 26R" as the car passes through the years and multiple owners. This why there are at least 3 times as many genuine 26R's out there than Lotus originally built

cheers
Rohan

I am very sorry if I caused any confusion. I used inverted commas to symbolise it's replica-ness. It is however a genuine s2 and was bought by us from Peter Shaw (Elan racing driver) shortly after he died. I do not want anybody to think I am trying to pass the car off as a genuine 26R and I know that most people call them a GTS but this car will be identical in every way to an original early 26R including an original interior that we have replicated!
I hope that's cleared it up. I will refer to the car as the Elan from now on.
Best regards, P

I guess having light pods rather than faired-in fixed lights would be a bit of a dead giveaway to the untrained eye (like mine)? Whatever, I'm sure it'll look fine however you care to describe it. I think what you call it only really matters if you are attempting to sell it as a "26R" (which would be a bit naughty, not that I am suggesting you're guilty of this!)

JonB wrote:I guess having light pods rather than faired-in fixed lights would be a bit of a dead giveaway to the untrained eye

not totally dead, as some S1 had pop up lights I believe...

Yes, all of the the first 50 or so had pop-ups rather than fixed ones.
And don't worry, by the way, I never want to sell it . I love it much more than the s3 we had and that one wasn't in bits!
Best regards, P

Been getting her ready to drive her out of "towing home" distance. I've owned this car since 2015, and this is the first time I'm going to drive it more than 20-30 miles from home. We're heading to an all-British car show in Carthage, Missouri, about 150 miles from Tulsa, OK.

The first 4 years of ownership were devoted to getting the power train sorted. Now that that's done, I've spent the last couple of weeks working on weather-proofing the car. Including:

- Installing the snaps that the top requires at the top/outside of the windshield posts. First I had to stuff epoxied toothpicks into the holes that were where the snaps were supposed to be.

- Removing the snaps that the PO had put at the top/inside of the windshield posts and installing the correct nylon buttons for the cantrail connections.

- Replacing the cable on the driver's door window that had come off the tracks and snarled. This effort made much easier by searching the archives and finding out about Alex Black's really cool cable/window clamps. Thank you, Alex!

- Adding a window lift motor bracket to stop the motor from vibrating when closing the door. Another great idea learned from searching archives.

- Adjusting both doors so that they latch/unlatch smoothly, without having to lift them or push them down to line up the latch and strikers. Happiness is smoothly working door latches.

Next up is to solve the "hard to start when hot" issue I've got. The car starts instantly when cold, with no choke or just a tad. But after driving a few miles, it doesn't want to start easily. Takes many attempts before it fires weakly. A gas smell causes me to think it's flooding somehow. Once it's running, it runs great. Very odd. I've found threads on this topic, but no obvious solution. For now I'll just avoid shutting it down if I may need to start it right back up.

My son and I dropped the shell back on the chassis today. I've removed all of the TTR fast road components and the Voigt 5 speed and I've gone back to standard, right down to the Rotoflex couplings and the 3.9 diff.

the parts you removed are these for sale ? TTR parts ? 5 speed transm; ?

All gone apart from the fast road suspension (front and rear dampers and springs), used for about 400 mile and mint. I also have a set of new Sue Miller front wisbones and bushes (unused).

Finished painting my gearbox housing, extension and bellhousing - all Ford Green POR. Also got my mainshaft bits laid out for reassembly, hopefully next weekend if not one evening this week.

I found a website that might be useful to others, too - kapwing.com. This website allows you to enter a youtube address and watch a video in reverse. I used it to watch the last 2 of my gearbox dissassembly videos in reverse order to get the sequencing of reassembly.

Finally had an hour free in the shop. Got the rear suspension removed
Port S4 required please

I've finished swapping out the fuel tank and sorting the instruments and pieced the Plus 2 back together yesterday, sorting the last few wiring problems (so I thought) and then charged the battery up overnight and went for a local shake down run this morning. Dropped into my mate Dave to see how his TC rebuild was coming along and took a photo opportunity to compare the +2's rear bumper with Dave's Riley Elf:


And then back home the long way, adjust the fan belt and give her a clean to make up for the months spent in the tent and let the sun dry her off....



No major problems over 10 or so miles, so hopefully will start using her now - but of course the new voltmeter isn't working now I've installed it and put all the trim back...doh.... Lotus Electrics =