Another early +2 bites the dust

[dusty]

Another early +2 bites the dust via eBay

[rong]

As my first posting I had better reassure you that at least one fairly early +2 is still very much alive! I have owned chassis 50/0775 for 23 years now and try to give it an airing once a week (but not too far!!) I'll post a photo when i can figure out how.

Ron

[Elanintheforest]

Welcome, Ron. Good to hear of another early car being appriciated...look forward to the photos.

There's an obvious upside to these cars getting scrapped...lot of spares for the rest of us!. I'd recommend anybody with an early Plus 2 to get some spare door bits and pieces (very hard to get) and dashboard switches. Oh, and the bootlid lock mechanism. Get 'em whilst you can!

Mark

[rong]

not sure if this will work but here goes....

[dusty]

Nice. Does she have the combined door handle and lock or the later separate type? I've not managed to find out when they changed over and am curious.

[Stuart+2]

Hello Dusty

I own 50/1035 (25 September, 1968 build date) and it has the combined handle/lock

Cheers

[gerrym]

Those early Plus 2s look good. Very clean and uncluttered without the foglights, small screen surround is neat, black steel wheels...

Gerry

[Jason1]

+2 on Ebay at the moment Item number: 270379668350

The description is a bit vague but looks like the engine is in place?

?2,000 buy-it-now

Nothing to do with me.

[Jason1]

I own 50/1035 (25 September, 1968 build date) and it has the combined handle/lock

That's interesting; I have 50/971 built 9 September 1968 and it has the separate lock and door handle. I looked in the parts manual and it says the change it at chassis number 50/929. I wonder if some export cars are different?

I too like the pre 50/929 cars but could not find one at the time I was looking.

Jason

[Elanintheforest]

Jason, on your specialist subject of interior lights for the early cars...I have a theory. The front light has the side switch, and the rear two have no switch, as per the Zephyr ones...what do you think? I've bought a couple of scrap shells with bits still in them, and they have both had this configuration. My restoration car, number 32, came in bits, and had one switched light and two standard ones in the boxes of bits.

Also, the plain non-switched Zephyr lens fits the switched Plus 2 base perfectly...it is the correct lens.

Mark

.

[Jason1]

Hi Mark

I think that is wishful thinking. But as you have such an early car it who's to say it would be the same as the ones after? For my car parts I look at Ford and Triumphs that were in production in 1968 and 9 times out of 10 you can find that Lotus borrowed from these.

When I bought my car it had the front and rear left light, the other rear was missing. Both of mine have the switch. I found a similar year car as mine which had all it's lights intact and they all had the switch; so I bought one from Ebay (think it was ?30).

I have yet to find what car the proper switch comes from. If I could not get the proper light I would have used the Cortina or the Zephyr ones as not many people would know the difference.

I have also bought some Cortina lights as they are the same apart from the switch comes out of the front so could be used for spares. Sadly the weak part of the light appears to be the lense which becomes brittle with age.

On a similar subject the coat hook was missing on one side of my car as well; this is the same as the Cortina.

I would love to see some pictures of car 32, how far are you from completion? Maybe you could start another thread with picture updates?

Jason

[Elanintheforest]

Just looked up in my early parts list....why didn't I do this before?! There are two part numbers listed....Lamp, interior, header rail (qty x 1) 50M 6027 and Lamp, interior, rear quarter (qty x 2) 50M 6025. Of course, we haven't a clue what the different part numbers are, but it shows that the front is different to the rear two. And thinking about it, you'd only want the front one to be switchable...likely as not you'd do your back in trying to turn around to switch the rears on....and you woukldn't want someone who is small enough to fit in the back to switch the light on and off when going along!!

It makes sense, and is certainly the case from the remnants of the lamps in my early car and two scrappers. Just need to find an early interior shot now in a road test or brochure.

And I'd just got 6 switchable lamps together!!

Mark

[RichC]

hi Folks ,
can i just chip in with my first posting?
i just bought a "barnfind " in yorkshire after an anonymous tipoff and it's 50/ 734 . Although registered august 1968 , it looks like it would have been built in the spring of '68
The first lotus i've owned but i'm no novice to the blood sweat and tears of restoration of british GRP cars & i have the additional bonus of the enthusiasm (& free slave labour) of my two teenage sons . Their first baptism of fire was an MG midget which was a heap of rubbish when we started a couple of summers ago and now is fine and dandy. i originally was looking at a nice early TVR to start them off with but the prices were too rich for my blood.
I restored several classics in my spare time before they were born, the best of which was clan crusader with rallye imp road racing engine--- you might say a poor man's lotus elan. I hadn't dreamed of being able to afford a LOTUS ... until now!
It's all there , more or less and has had lots of money spent on all the right things in the mid 90's before being laid up .... I'm sounding pretty positive at the moment eh?... I hope that doesn't change too much.
RichC

Jason , nice to see there's someone local....

[dusty]

Welcome along Rich, get some pictures up when you can

My car is 50/0478 and was signed off the production line on March 1st 1968.

[davidj]

I would put money on this car (270379668350 on ebay pointed out by jason1) is the same batch at mine. A Federal car converted back to early uk-ish spec by the factory. Note the clues:

Headlamps up, therefore US safety lamps which were fitted much later on uk cars
Stromberg carbs (now delorto's on my car)
No wheel spinners.

If this is the case, it would put it around number 2192. Very late for a early car, as the "S" starts from serial number 1500ish

I would love to know what the wing badges are; mine had them originally fitted but long since lost. I have emailed the seller but have not heard anything.

David