1969 Plus 2 Rebuild

[Darek Brewin]

Hello Everyone, My name is Darek Brewin and I have been working on my Plus 2 for a little over 2 years now. I like to tell people that I bought a car that came in a dozen totes. I actually have never seen a complete Elan and have never sat in one beyond sitting on the floor of the shell. I stumbled upon this project on our local classified site and was brave/naive enough to take it on. User Dave240 is who I purchased this car from. I browse through this site very frequently and am impressed with everyone's willingness to share and collaborate.

In the first year I continued with disassembly and
sand blasted, powder coated and replaced the bushings in all control arms.
blasted, painted and rebuilt the brakes.
repaired my original frame and added reinforcements.
blasted and repainted the differential. Replaced the seals.
Upgraded the rear suspension to adjustable perches
blasted and painted the transmission, replaced all seals and gaskets.

In the second year, I assembled the chassis with all of the refurbished parts above.
Spent the whole summer removing all of the paint off of the body. This took months. The car was blue, green, yellow and green again over its life.
The body is in good shape with very little mechanical damage. I would say though that the fiberglass has dried out on the roof and hood. Both are in terrible condition with cracks everywhere. If I were in Europe, i would be looking for a new hood. One of the previous owners was a bondo sculptor. There was at least half an inch on the hood to make it flat again. The drivers front wheel arch was also filled in completely with Bondo. You can see this in the first pictures of the body when I picked it up.
I am glad to be done with the paint removal. As it is below zero C out, I cant do any more body work this year, but am looking forward to getting on with FG repairs and paint.

I am not sure as to how this portion of the front body should look. Any pointers on what is needed here would be greatly appreciated.

This winter I will be fabricating a new dashboard, testing all of the electrical components from the car and hopefully rebuild the pedal box.

Thanks, Darek Brewin
50/1462
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

[EPC 394J]

Looks like you’re doing a great job Darek. Very thorough!

My Plus 2 S is also 1969. Since it’s 50/1917, first registered in the October, it got me thinking that’s quite a lot of cars! I was reminded of this thread. You may already have seen it?

https://lotuselan.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=51&t=29832

Looking forward to seeing you driving yours.

Andy

[h20hamelan]

Yes, welcome.
There are some good points here on reinforcing floors, while you are there. I did, as it scared me how thin the floor actually is.

viewtopic.php?f=36&t=34021&p=230751#p230751

Also, some structural

viewtopic.php?f=51&t=35574&p=242966#p242966

See you on the near future, if your in the Kootenays ever. I dont make your area often anymore.
I am a early +2 as well.
Have you contacted Stu Gilmore yet? He would be very helpful.

[Bill]

If any of you gents need a rear windscreen, i have one available - it is heated and in good condition.

Bill

[stugilmour]

Excellent work Darek.

I am located in south Calgary and have a restored Federal Plus 2. Shoot me a PM at some point and we can swap contact information. Dave came down a couple of times and we swapped yarns. You are more than welcome to take a look at my car to check out details, but note I have a few non-stock elements at this point.

I became pretty expert on the Plus 2 wiring, and would be happy to offer assistance over the winter. Another local forum member just completed major retiring of his Plus 2 as well. Anyway, first step is to check out your exact year / model details. Note it is quite common for Canadian cars to be different versions and the registration & model/build dates to be a bit confused; eg my car is registered ‘71 but is actually a ‘69 Federal model for any wiring enquiries.

Consider joining the Lotus Car Club of BC. We now have several prairie members and have got together the odd time in Calgary. The club is presently doing their meetings on Zoom, which have been very well done and a lot of fun. Really a great group even if you are not normally a joiner type.

http://www.lccbc.ca/

Cheers!

Stu & Lynn