Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Hi,
I have just bought a unfinished restoration project, its a 1973 2S 130/5 JPS elan with a new galvanised chassis.
I have recieved it with the body thrown on to new chassis with no work done on installing the parts to the chassis such as brake pipes fuel lines .etc
The car has come with lots of spares that the previous owner collected up over the years (it has been off the road and sorn since 1981) it hasn't had much work done to it except removing the old chassis and putting the body on top of the new chassis with engine, gearbox, diff and suspension in place so it could be rolled onto a trailer.

I have spent the past couple of days since i bought it reading the workshop manual and trawling through this forum for information, is a parts manual a recomended purchase? I've got all the tools and equipment i need as my dad has restored a couple cars (a rather useful bank of knowledge), this is my first car and first restoration project !

Today i started marking up the chassis where it needs to be taped and drilled from within the body through the bobbins, all was good until i came to the front suspension upright mountings and found the body was sitting too low (by about 1 cm) so the correct postion couldnt be marked, as the body was sitting lower than the reinforced mounting points, i then realised there is nothing between the body and the chassis apart from the felt "saddle" should there be bushes or foam ring "frustacones" between the body and the chassis at the mounting points?
(I think the body was quite litterally dumped on top of the new chassis and no other work has happened)

Would this make the body sit higher, in the correct position?
I realise now that the other markings will all be wrong if i need to put bushes in at each mounting point!

Also any reccomendation of things that should be changed on a car thats been garaged for 28 years would be usefull thanks!

Innes

Hi Innes

is a parts manual a recomended purchase?

It is a useful book but is expensive, check the link below to download it for free

http://www.type50.com/plus2/Technical.html

Jason

yes Highly Recommended.
when all else fails , read the instruction manual ...

Thanks for the Parts Manual Any light on if there are rubber spacers between the body and the chassis? Or is my body just a bit wonky and distorted after sitting in a garage for 28 years without being bolted to the chassis?

Hi

Yes, the Club Lotus guidance sheet says pack it out, see extract. If you PM me your email I will happily email you the scanned sheet.

Jason

The best book you can buy is Brian Buckland's "The rebuiding of the Lotus Elan".
He calls the book a supplement to the workshop manual but to be fair it covers every aspect of the job, using many years of first hand experience.
I wish it had been around when I did my rebuild.
The book describes the Elan not the +2 but don't let that put you off; it will answer practically any quuestion you may have.
Invaluable!
The Book is available either directly from Brian or from Club Lotus. 50 GBP +P&P
I'm surprised that your car's body doesn't sit down on the "main" mounting points, my S4 did after the oversized welded on bosses at the scuttle area were ground away to provide the necessary body chassis clearance (Spyder Spaceframe).
The body just rocked on them prior to the excess metal removal.
Spacers are always needed along the backbone section, beetween where the flat sheet steel is bolted up to the body.
The spacers stop the flat steel from buckling.
I've not read anything on this forum where rebuilds have required body / chassis spacers at the main mounting points so I would think that you will be needing to finding some area that is causing the fouling.
Oh & fit the matting on the backbone first, that may be your problem.

Cheers
John

Thanks for that Jason, i called up christopher neil (bought over by oakmere motor group a while back apparalently) yesterday (the place where the previous owner got the new chassis from) and spoke to a guy called paul who seemed to know everything about elans, he said its normally the other way around so the bobbins in the engine bay sit higher than the reinforced area of the upper suspension mount, opposite to my problem and he also suggested packing it out by placing spacers at the very front nose mounting point to lift the front of the body up a tad.

Innes

Hi Innes,

In my opinion, i think you are jumping the gun a little in securing the body to the chassis. Unless you know that the work already carried out on the chassis is 100%, ie parts already fitted, ie engine, gearbox, diff etc., take the opportunity to remove the body at this stage, as its so much easier to work on chassis components with the body off. It will save you time and frustration in the future to have to go over something again when you thought it was a job already done.

Good luck with it,

Leslie

Hi,
Sorry to confuse if i do, im not actually mounting the body properly just yet i just wanted to mark the chassis for where it needs to be drilled in the future and wanted to solve the problem of why it didnt fit just now, currently i have the chassis out and im fixing/replacing/cleaning up most of the parts along with probably an engine rebuild.

Thanks very much though!

Innes

Newbie,
When i took my body off the chassis, there was a thick felt type underlay between the GRP and the backbone. This will make up the difference. This was told to me by a lotus parts man and he has had several.
Good luck

Hi. I have the same model +2 as yours, and also bought it in boxes as an unfinished restoration. It's taken me a few years, mainly due to lack of concentrated effort, but it's nearing completion now.

On the book front Brian's book is good for mechanical stuff, but it has nothing on the +2 body and fittings. I would have benefitted from a stack of pictures of how every part of the car is put together. I've generally been able to get that infor through this forum, which has been invaluable to me.

So, personally I'd recommend using the forum as much as you can. There are so many small differences between the books and the cars themselves, that it's worth getting more than one opinion, and the people on here will often follow up a question with a set of freshly taken digital pics. Any excuse to go and hug the car...

Other books that I've got include one by Robinshaw and Ross, which gives a good history of the elan and +2, and detailed analysis of the differences between the two cars. It's usually available on ebay.

On the twinc there's a book dedicated to it by Miles Wilkins. It runs through the history, common problems, stripping the engine in particular what to watch for and avoid damaging as you do it, reassembling it again, and mods. I found it very interesting, but having stripped the engine and read the book I decided not to attempt the rebuild myself. If you have it done proffessionally you should be aware that it will cost around ?3500 from one of the reputable firms.

For general info regarding the plus two I have a video 'The Classic Lotus Elan +2', that features Paul Matty from Matty Sports Cars, and Mr Sneddon from QED (can't quite remember his first name). I have it recorded on the hdd if you can't get a copy - mine was on VHS so it may be no longer available - having said that I can't find it now - I definately have it on a DVD.

A bit of advice - standard restoration stuff that I'm sure you're aware of - leave things like the brake servo and engine rebuild until you are sure you know when the car will be on the road.

On the body not lining up, mine took lots of fettling and fiddling to get into place. From your description I'm guessing it's not mint condition, and is probably quite 'floppy'. I would advise fitting new sills to the body before any bodywork is repaired, as without good sills the side walls of the body have very little strength. Also check the stiffness of the boot. Mine had cracked in the floor of the boot where the floor bulges up over the rear silencer. As I gently lifted and pushed down the rear of the boot, I could see the crack opening and closing over itself. So when going down the road the whole boot would have bounced up and down, and rested slighly too low. I re-glassed mine and the difference in 'stiffness' of the boot before and after was ridiculous. Also, bear in mind that plus two noses have been known to fall off. Over the years the box sections round the engine bay separate at the seams, and crazing appears over the front wheels on the top of the wings 'cause the wings are taking the strain, not the inner wings. Eventually, crack. I saw one that had just broken at Donnington one year. The test is the same as for the boot - grap the front bumper and gently lift and push down, and look for cracks etc. There's no movement to speak of at all in my car now - that'll probably change after the first ten miles though...

It is worth it though, when you start the engine for the first time and blip the throttle, wow.

Hope that's helpful.

Sean.