Spyder sills fitment

[Dave240]

Thought it would be easiest to show my fitment issues with my new Spyder sills in a video. Watch it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoxR_nw_tJw

Basically the sills are sticking out past the body and the front and rear and sitting too high in the middle. It is like this on both sides. It's almost as if the sills are bowed... or for that matter, the body is bowed. I've loosened the bolts on the inside and tried to shift them around better with no luck. Has anyone had this problem before?

If I bend the fiberglass in the middle, I can get it so that I might be able to successfully drill a hole through the sill, but I have to bend the fiberglass quite a bit. I suppose I could get someone to help me and bend the fiberglass up before drilling each hole...

Any other advice?

[JJDraper]

It could be the body has sagged, especially if the old sills were dust. You could try gently jacking up the body from the middle, using a load spreader, like a wide plank or some such. If the fit improves, then the body may have developed a bow. Easy enough to do, and could give some insight into the problem. Better to do that first rather than start drilling & cutting. Also, is there any chance the fibreglass edges have been damaged smoothed off in the past? I had to rebuild mine to give a straight edge.

Jeremy

[Dave240]

Yeah that's actually now very obvious that the body is sagging. I had an extremely long day at work yesterday before heading out to the garage and wasn't thinking all that straight. In my mind yesterday, I was thinking that if the body was sagging in the middle, it would have the opposite effect. Obviously I'm wrong. Things make a lot more sense in the morning before a mind-numbing day at the office.

[Sea Ranch]

Egg-cellent. Glad we all agree. By the way, is the body still on the chassis? That's the best (perhaps only) way to install new sills on a Plus 2. Keeps the the body properly aligned.

Having said that, if the body is on the chassis and you've got this situation, your car's body is NOT aligned well. Trust the new sill member. Use it to help determine what line the car's fiberglass should take.

BTW, I expect you've met StuGilmour on this forum. He lives in Calgary and has completed a nut-and-bolt rebuild of a Plus 2. VERY knowledgable and friendly/helpful guy (when he's not crawling around his new toy - Espirit V8).

Randy
Surrey, BC
1970 Plus 2S

[Dave240]

Randy,

Thanks for the advice. The body is still in fact on the chassis. My goal is to have the chassis-ectomy done this weekend but only stumbling block was getting the sills installed first. Once that is completed, the body is coming off. I'm going to use a 2x4 and a jack to see if that will straighten it out.

And yes, I've met Stu, although not in person. I do have his Lotus Elan restoration guide that I have been flipping through very often recently. When I bought the car there was actually an old business card with Stu's name and phone number scribbled on it stashed away in the bottom of the car somewhere. I bought the car from Didsbury, near Calgary so that only makes sense.

Thanks again!
Dave

[Sea Ranch]

Lovely. That's great, Dave. One day, perhaps, our Plus 2s will meet. Funny about Stu's card in the car. He gets around, I guess.

Hoping the sills and chassis/body separation go well. When that's done, we all expect "piccys", as the Brits say (and I want to examine your lifting mechanism, for my future body-off work).

Best regards,

Randy

[gusplustwo]

I think you are making the assumption that the body was ever straight. My spyder sills were put in 28 years ago and look just the same.

black paint.

the body does move, my body is shimmed 3/8 at the first tunnel bolts to allow the rack mounts to be righ on my spyder chassis[ca 1994], Short of a sawzall you cannot fix it afaik. It is what it is.

[Dave240]

All done! Thanks everyone for all the help. I made a step-by-step guide on how I did it over at MyAutoProject.

You can read about it here:
http://www.myautoproject.com/2013/08/si ... us-elan-2/

[KevJ+2]

Dave, 1st rate write up. Just as well I read this as I am in the process of stripping the car ready for a body off restoration. Now I will do this job first, my drill is fully charged and ready to go! Kevin.

[Cymru]

Just bout to start this lovely job myself.

I was unable to get the below link to work.

http://www.myautoproject.com/2013/08/si ... us-elan-2/

Does anyone else have a link that works?


Many thanks,