Sows Ear Chassis

Post by: **rodlittle** » Fri May 11, 2012 9:17 am

Heck Gary its taken me nearly 30 years to get around to reassembling my pile of parts
rod

Post by: **garyeanderson** » Fri May 11, 2012 11:34 am

Hi Rod

I don't think I have 30 more so I need to get on with it. I got up and did just that, Beau was driving and I was pushing the two bit whore out the door...

Need to repaint some holidays on the chassis I missed, I'll put her out in the sun and go mix a bit of primer red and I.H. red and get it unloaded later...

Gary

Post by: **lotocone** » Fri May 11, 2012 12:23 pm

Gary,

Nice work, keep it up.

I get a chuckle seeing an Elan being restored in a living room, or whatever that nice looking room is. My family would never understand, but I'd do it too if I had the space and I could get it through the turns at the doorways.

Post by: **garyeanderson** » Fri May 11, 2012 8:00 pm

Hi Bob

Thanks for the support, Sometimes it's just good to get things done even if you don't think there a chance in hell of doing it. I started this morning at about 5:30, the first timestamps on the previous pictures was 6:11 so I was doing a lot of looking and thinking on how it was going to work (or not). The Chassis is loaded and ready to move at about 7:15, I got the holidays taken care of when it was still in the back of the truck, It was about at the right height and once it was out it would be too low to get where I wanted.

10:09

11:12
A lot more thinking on how to get it down with out hurting myself or dropping the two bit whore. I also had to move the entry porch to get the pickup backed up to the door. When I did I found a bit of rot so I played around with that for a while too and put it back in place.

Once it was on the ground I figured I'd keep at it and started to lift up the body. I figured that I would slide out the chassis from the side and I had the rear up high enough.
11:38

About that time my good friend Doug pulled in to see what the hell was going on. He was holding his back and I laughed and told him he ought to leave right now, but he didn't so in less than 10 minutes we had the 26/4020 mounted on the two bit whore.
11:48

I went and got the body bolts I had cleaned and the back seemed to line up pretty good on one side but the other was high, Doug said the frustacones looked to be jamming so I got the milk case and lifted it up and slide it under and got out the grinder and tidied up the frustacone holes and got both of the rear cockpit bolts started.

The middle scuttle bolts were very close and one went right in and the other I chased with a 3/8 unf tap and it was in.

I screwed up and the front wouldn't come down, after a bit of looking I noticed that the fuel line that I had moved to do the repaint was in the way so I took out the 4 bolts that had already started and I lifted the front and Doug pulled out the fuel line out of the way.

Another friend Karl shows up at about this time and we start to talk and he started to laugh when he sees what was going on. I take a break and we start talking and I showed him the 2 damaged Lotus Differential cases and he says to clean them up and get them down to his house and he will TIG weld them so it was a bonus day. I ended up have to drill over size (7/16) the left front hole to the front turret but I figured that was easy.

The body will come off again as there were 4 holes in the sheet steel that didn't line up so I will mark them and lift the body and drill them. That will give me a chance to change out the lotocones. They were used but I thought I would try and reuse them, but with some weight on them I could see that they are NFG. I took a chance and lost, oh well, so it goes...

Post by: **nhhiker** » Fri May 11, 2012 8:12 pm

Gary,
Sorry to of missed this step. Looks good from here!
I will try and get down there soon and see it in person.

Bill

Post by: **collins_dan** » Fri May 11, 2012 8:26 pm

Note to self: Don't just drop in on Gary for a social visit, unless you want to work :shock:

Looks great. I will try to stop by this summer and check out the progress in person.

Dan

Post by: **memini55** » Fri May 11, 2012 9:42 pm

Congrats old man!! Looks like a great days progress and really a bonus to have freinds drop in to help without asking.
Sometimes humans can be good!

Looks like you had plenty of mental power today with all the challenges gettting it out and under the shell.
You might have to sleep in tomorrow?

Looks great
Mark

Post by: **elanski** » Sat May 12, 2012 7:42 am

Only just picked up on this thread and just wanted to thanks for all the updates and photos. As a relative newbie the photos were really helpful in seeing whats hidden under all the muck and grime of my car. Looking forwards to seeing the finished product

Post by: **elj221c** » Sat May 12, 2012 8:43 am

piss-ant wrote:The body will come off again as there were 4 holes in the sheet steel that didn't line up so I will mark them and lift the body and drill them. That will give me a chance to change out the lotocones.

Probably teaching granny to suck eggs, Gary, but when it's off you could also blacken up the engine bay. Save getting the red splashed!

Of course, you may just leave it as it is!

Going well!

Oh, and I showed the boss the pictures of the two frames in the room. It reminded her of the time I had the spaceframe in the bedroom! We did live in an upside-down house in '82. Sadly no pictures of it in there.....

Post by: **garyeanderson** » Sat May 12, 2012 9:12 am

elj221c wrote:
piss-ant wrote:The body will come off again as there were 4 holes in the sheet steel that didn't line up so I will mark them and lift the body and drill them. That will give me a chance to change out the lotocones.

Probably teaching granny to suck eggs, Gary, but when it's off you could also blacken up the engine bay. Save getting the red splashed!

Of course, you may just leave it as it is!

Going well!

Oh, and I showed the boss the pictures of the two frames in the room. It reminded her of the time I had the spaceframe in the bedroom! We did live in an upside-down house in '82. Sadly no pictures of it in there.....

Hi Roy
I was looking at the pictures on the screen last night while my back was throbbing and the engine bay pictures really jump out at you in how much it needs to be blackened. I thought the same and I will get a couple rolls of masking tap and a roll of paper to cover the green. Every thing that you don't want black gets covered when blacking out. The body was the last paint job that my friend next to me did in the old shop before the the building we were renting in was torn down to become a parking lot. It was a rush job and there are other short comings too but it is all one color and its not gray primer.

elan-photos-f18/early-4020-t12947.html

I started to clean up the chassis that 26/4020 was being stored on yesterday afternoon, this is the next project and will take up residence in the living room when I get it sand blasted and painted. I plan to get another 300 lbs of black beauty on Wednesday and get the nasty work of blasting the chassis done before the weather turns HOT.

Gary

Post by: **jk952** » Mon May 14, 2012 12:38 am

Hi Gary, inspiring work...
So if you fit a used chassis to a different body, what is the probability of the bobins lining up with the threaded holes in the chassis, ie. close enough to work?
And what is that sitting over your Elite a few pictures up....?

Jack

Post by: **garyeanderson** » Mon May 14, 2012 9:07 am

jk952 wrote:Hi Gary, inspiring work...
So if you fit a used chassis to a different body, what is the probability of the bobbins lining up with the threaded holes in the chassis, ie. close enough to work?
And what is that sitting over your Elite a few pictures up....?

Jack

Hi Jack
I don't know how close the manufacturing tolerances were but this chassis was from an S4 and the body is an early S2 (some call them S1 1/2 ) and 9 (the 5 that went straight in and 4 more into the flat 16/18 gauge steel. One bobbin enlarged on the left front turret. The boot bobbins missed as did the ones in the foot wells and I think the two by the seat belt mounts missed as well. The Elite shares the shed with a Mk1 Cortina GT roller (V8 swap?). The Elan and Cortina are partners and I have always thought that they just are a natural to have if you own the Elan as they share quite a few parts.

This is the easy part and looks to get a lot done in a short amout of time.
Saturday 6:00 am

Saturday 9:15
Its pretty well stripped clean at this point, The two front lower back arms halves are still on as are the fuel line clips but pretty much ready for sandblasting. I will burn off the re rubber in the metalastic bushes before I sandblast the chassis

Sunday 2:30 pm
I started cleaning the front uprights to get off the heavy accumulation of crud before they are disassembled to be blasted, the differential is cleaned as are the brake lines. This one I feel will be a quickie, the Calipers had new pads just before it was parked and the pistons are fully retracted so caliper kits may be all that is needed.

I also pulled apart the two damaged diffs that need to be welded and machined. Kark said to get them clean so I tried to do just that, I used some kerosene and Gunk, the stuff was well used so when Dale stopped by he recommended that I use Brakleen and the blow gun to force it through the crack. I used up nearly a can of it (thank you Bill) before there was no color coming out of the crack. Dale went off with a can of it to do another job that he had (something about fiberglass repair on a sailboat rudder packing box that needed to get done on a Sunday). have to see how it works out but the cost of replacement is nothing I want to think about.

Monday May 14, 2012 8:30 am

I rounded up some tools before the rain started and had at the seized metalastic bushes on the rear lower fulcrum pins. Once I had all of the tools it took about 10 minutes total to get both off. I wrote this up once but the computer seems to have lost that so this is a short version. Heat metalastic till the the bush fails and is easy to pivot and pry away with a suitable screwdriver. next, grind a furrow into the inner sleeve about half way, I just wanted a thin area to apply the heat to and it also gave the stillson a flat to bite on so I could give it some torque with out it spinning. Next re-light the burnz-o-matic torch and heat the inner sleeve along the thin furrow till the residual rubber stops smoking and apply suitable torque (about 30 ft/lbs was needed to get the sleeve to turn), wiggle up and down till it is loose and pull away from the tank and the sleeve came right off. here is the kit.

I finished disassembling the chassis yesterday. I had left the lotocones on Saturday as they had the original thin heads on the bolts and they needed some soaking in penetrating oil, well I didn't have any so I mixed up some acetone and ATF and dowsed the bolts liberally, they still didn't want to move with an open end 9/16 wrench so I got the Burnz-O-Matic out and gave it a good dose of heat and got about 8 turns before the head just wasn't going to turn any more. So I quit for a bit and thought about it. In the photo the top left is the bolt that was removed with the open end 9/16 wrench.

I wouldn't want to use any of them again They are just too long and I can not think of any reason that Lotus used them in the first place, they must have bought them right is all I can think of. Anyway I went out and got the cheap "made in Taiwan" 1/2 inch air impact wrench and the 9/16 socket that came with it and used the same Burnz-O-Matic torch to remove the other 3 and they may be usable but I still cant think of any reason to other than Lotus supplied them as OEM. I almost forgot, Lotus had used a 3/8 inch flat wsher in between the lotocone and chassis for some reason on this build, I have nott seen that before, it makes no sense at all as the lotocone had been collapsed except where the washers were, very odd I thought.

Post by: **Bud English** » Mon May 14, 2012 2:45 pm

Gary - There have been numerous warnings that have gone out on the welding and metalworking forums on the hazards of using brake cleaner on parts that are to be welded. Here's a link to one on practicalmachinist.com.

http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/fa ... ue-185470/

I've caught myself reaching for that can as it's quick, easy and through for removing those last traces of grease and oil.

You probably should at least mention it to your friend when you take the parts to be welded.

Post by: **garyeanderson** » Mon May 14, 2012 5:45 pm

Bud English wrote:Gary - There have been numerous warnings that have gone out on the welding and metalworking forums on the hazards of using brake cleaner on parts that are to be welded. Here's a link to one on practicalmachinist.com.

http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/fa ... ue-185470/

I've caught myself reaching for that can as it's quick, easy and through for removing those last traces of grease and oil.

You probably should at least mention it to your friend when you take the parts to be welded.

Hi Bud
Good articles at the link you provided, I will tell both of my friends about the Brakleen issue.

Thanks Gary

Wednesday May 16th 6:00am

Yesterday I wasn't going to do a lot but the weather improved and the rain held off so I felt obliged to get something done. I hadn't touched the TBW-26/4020 combo since Friday and I didn't really feal like lifting off the body so I center punched the mounting holes that missed entirely and got the drill and bits out. 6 out of 16 were already done so I did the easy ones. There were 4 that missed so those were center punched and drilled through the bobbins with an 1/8 inch bit and then a 1/4, I also did the two inboard rear seat slide brackets at that point as they were next to the rear cockpit floor body mounts. I had to get the combo up in the air some so I rolled it up the shit-bum 4x6 ramps that I use for changing the oil. These are just a 6 foot long 4x6 cut at an angle so there are (2) 4 foot ramps with 2 foot of slope and 2 foot parallel. I got the rear up and with the wheels chalked so it wouldn't roll I drilled the two rear cockpit 1/4 inch holes with a 7/16 bit. This bit stops instantly as soon as it gets through the steel spine and bites into the bobbin doing minimal damage to the bobbin threads. After that I did on of the rear most mounts and the other was about halfway lined up so I used a chainsaw file to bastardize the hole in the chassis so that the bolt was close and finished with a 3/8 unc tap to insure that the bolts went in easy. with the rear up the 5 and 1/2 inches that the 4x6 gives you, I got a few more short sections of 4x6 and rolled it off the ramps and onto the extra 4x6 pieces and moved the ramps to the front. I had (4) 2 foot sections of 4x6 and pushed the front up onto the ramps and chalked the wheels again. Finished up the last mounting holes in the front and rolled it back off of the raps and put it away just as it started to sprinkle. About an hour and a bit to do the 6 or 7 holes that either didn't line up at all or were just close and all 16 body bolts would now go in easily.

I was going to leave the out placed chassis outside but the weather was supposed to be shitty for 3 days so Late Sunday as the drops started, I picked up princess perfect and carried her in and placed her in her new home where the TBW had been resting, cleaned up some of the crud that had accumulated and removed the lotocones.

elan-f15/clean-out-your-front-turrets-and-rusted-metalastic-bushes-t25235.html

I don't see anything that looks too bad, I hope to sandblast and paint her up over the next week. From what I see it looks like there will be no hidden surprises.

Post by: **garyeanderson** » Thu May 17, 2012 2:47 pm

Started about 6:00am this morning.

I picked up 400 lbs of Black Beauty (another $hundred gone) yesterday so I have plenty at the moment to sand blast the chassis and the rest of the parts of Princess Perfect. Not so perfect but still a nice original chassis that is more than 46 years old. This Chassis has a couple of stampings on it, one is the Chassis Number and the other I believe is the sequence number that is nice to see. I gives on an Idea of "how Many" were built to that point in the Elan production. This does not account for any of the chassis that were sold to replace damaged or rotted but I would guess that it is not to far off this early in the production of the type 26 Elan.

I did a lot of scraping on Saturday when I disassembled the chassis, then some more Sunday, and a bit more on Monday. anywhere there was oil and dirt, I tried to scrape off as much as I could. This morning I did a bit more and got out some rags and the lacquer thiner and wiped it down good. I then got out the DA sander and the 80 grit paper and had at it. About 2 hours plus a bit to get it to this point at 9:30 before I decided to have coffee and post this. I will still take the rest of today to get the sandblasting done with my lame (but free) siphon sand blaster. I have to see how far I get today as there is supposed to be 4 good days and I am not in a real rush to get it done but like everything else, it would be nice...

I wasn't going to finish today anyway so I quit early (3:30pm) and put the chassis away for the evening. I could have left it out but I just don't like leaving stuff out after it's been blasted and have condensation make more work. I didn't swear much bringing it back in so I must be getting better at moving it around.

I inspected the front turrets and they look good but need a bit more sandblasting. Its tough to know when you are blasting them as I didn't have a mirror in my pocket to inspect and you just can't see the bottoms. It's hard to even get in to blast so it is just blind blasting.