Plus 2 Engine Fire

[rgh0]

Yes Shannons. I was talking to a guy the other day who works in marketing and he said that Shannons have the best customer satisfaction and loyalty rating of any company in Australia. i would certainly agree,

cheers
Rohan

[rgh0]

Continue to strip parts out of the engine bar for a couple of hours today. Pull off the headlight vacuum system solenoid valve without thinking ----- a big hiss and the headlights came up and hit me

The vacuum had stayed there happily for the last 11 months since the engine last ran on the day of the fire holding the failsafe headlights down. Good to know that's one thing I will not need to fix

cheers
Rohan

[Rozzer]

So glad to hear that it is starting to get the love it needs Rohan - standing on the pit wall it looked frightening, and, as you say, watching fuel dripping out was more than slightly concerning in the paddock But all is well that ends (or starts to end) well!
I am taking a load of your learnings regarding the fuel and clutch lines - I had wondered a number of times about the clutch line particularly, as it gets a good workout, and also catches occasional oil drips if (when?) there is a bit of seapage, so I think a piece of braided stainless hose has to be preferable. And replacemnet fuel lines were already on my to do list, and even more so now!
Good luck with the rebuild - and glad you were with Shannons - I have no financial interest, but have been insured with them since I arrived here ten years ago, and they have seen me right through two accidents (one is unlucky, two is downright careless!), numerous new windscreens, and the recent theft of my road bike, so I am happy to hear they are treating you well!

[rgh0]

Between moving house and setting up a new garage and workshop area and continuing to race my Elan I have been steadily working on the Plus 2 and finally finished stripping the body shell of the Plus 2 a couple of days ago and its off at my painter now. The guy I use painted my Elan in 1980 when I restored it and he is still in business in the same location. His business does great work and the paint job he did 34 years ago on the Elan has stood up very well, though it obviously has a nice racing patina by now and is not short of stone chips on the nose!

Pulling everything off the body shell was relatively easy but time consuming, especially dismantling the door interiors. I could not get the hinges out of the doors as the large screws that secure the hinge rod in a bobbin in the bottom of the door were stuck fast and failed to move and I was afraid I would damage the fibreglass if I tried to turn them any harder than I did - and you cant really use heat to free them up. The painter can mask off the hinges when doing the doors OK so in the end I left them in place.

I took the opportunity to have a look at the sills as they had been replace by new galvanised ones back in the early 80's before I bought the car according to the previous owner as the car spent the first 7 years of its life in the UK before coming to Australia in 1980 and they had rusted out totally in that time. These replacement ones are now still in perfect condition no doubt aided by the galvanising and drier Australian climate. They had a little surface rust where dirt and mud had got in the last 20mm of the ends at the rear past the closing plates in the wheel wells and I will clean up this up and paint it with zinc primer and they should be good for another 30 plus years

I have sourced or will order shortly all the bits I need to replace the fire damaged components in the engine bay (essentially anything rubber or plastic in the engine bay) so I can start reassembly when the car comes back from the painter. I will drop the chassis off the body prior to reassembly to clean it up and to touch up the paint on it, where it was blackened by the fire. As you will see from other posts the last item I am working on to find and replace is the Brake fluid level SOVY switch unit.

Now back to my Elan for a couple of weeks for a check over before my next race meeting at Sandown in November

cheers
Rohan

[oldchieft]

Great to see the progress, with your abilities a lot of pictures of the rebuild would become the standard work on how to do things.

It would be a big boost to anyone else who suffers disasters and need to bring damaged loved one back from the dead.

Jon the Chief

[DavidLB]

Ref the comments about the fuel cut off. I was a Lotus Dealer back then and we had a number of cars that if parked on a hill facing down the fuel leaked past the carb needle valves and filled the sump, I can remember this happening on a couple of cars before the cutoff valves were fitted.

David

[rgh0]

The Plus 2 repaint is almost finished - just came out spray booth . Just needs the satin black in the engine bay and nose and black for the wheel arches. I will drop the chassis off next and touch up the chassis paint. The engine and gear box are ready to go back in and the rest will follow.

cheers
Rohan

[Harvey]

Rohan,

Seeing how nice your car looks in yellow makes me think of returning mine to its original LO7 paint code. My mother used to say "It's an ill wind that blows no good." What started as a life and Lotus threatening event has resulted in a beautiful refurbished car paid for by your excellent insurance coverage. I know you would rather not have had the fire but you learned a lot from it and now your +2 will be safer and more handsome for it.

And thanks again for all the help you have provided me and others during your years of posting on the website.

Lee

[rgh0]

The fresh L07 Yellow looks great - you don't realize how much the old paint fades over the years. The new paint looks a deep rich yellow in comparison with before. I am looking forward to getting it back on the road but still a lot of work and having started a new job, not as much time to work on cars. I just need to try to bolt it back together and resist the temptation to do to many "improvements". The long planned new1700cc 170hp road twin cam for the Plus 2 I have all the bits for will just have to wait I think.

Pulling it apart certainly gave me a good insight into all the body and trim parts of a Plus 2 I had never fully dismantled before - I will know it even better once I figure out how to assemble it

cheers
Rohan

[rgh0]

The Plus 2 was on the hoist ready to have its chassis dropped off for a check over and paint touch up before the reassembly started. Unfortunately tomorrow the Elan has to go on the hoist to pull its diff out so the Plus 2 will have to wait

I was racing at the Winton Historic meeting today and stripped the crown wheel and pinion. On reflection I have had a couple of "bangs" from the rear end in the last couple of meetings. I put this down to stones coming off the tyres and hitting the body and suspension as nothing else happened but now I think it was bits of diff teeth failing. I had one last bang today and then no drive !

I cant really complain the crown wheel and pinon were the original in the car from new and have done 80 thousand miles in total and over 40 thousand race miles and very many drop the clutch starts at every race meeting and hill climb for 35 years.

I hope the new ones are as good as the old ones- mental note - schedule a diff gear replacement in 30 thousand more race miles

cheers
Rohan

[Certified Lotus]

Rohan, just read through your entire post. As you mentioned, very lucky it all happened at the track. Glad you were able to walk away (cars are replaceable).

One of the things I am doing during my S1 rebuild is replacing the fuel line from the tank to the carbs with steel braided with all the proper fittings. Same with brake and clutch lines. Even though my brake lines are intact, I ripped everything out and replacing with new.

I have seen too many Lotus cars go up in flames at the track. It's amazing to me how fast they burn. Everyone of my cars had the fuel, clutch, brake lines replaced with more durable materials. Fire scares me more than anything else.

By the way, one of my friends had his Lotus Exige burn due to a fuel leak and he had a full suppression system installed. It didn't help. He was amazed when he pulled the pin and watched the flames start to disapate then the Haylon ran out and the fire came right back and burned the car completely.

We had just talked about why I had changed out all my lines to steel braided and the cost of labor and materials to do it. Soon afterwards all my Lotus track friends changed out their fuel lines from the tank to the fuel rail.

Your yellow car is coming along nicely. Looks great! I am amazed at how many track miles you have on your track car

[CBUEB1771]

I hope the new ones are as good as the old ones[/attachment]

Rohan - I recently spoke to the folks at TTR about the new CWP sets being made by Quaife/Tran-X. They seem happy with these gear sets but set they are a bit more noisy than original sets until fully bedded. TTR also says that applying the REM isotropic finishing process alleviates the initial noise issue. Russ