Body-off procedure

["Jang, Raymond (JAN]

Greetings Listers:

Motivated by the need for a replacement chassis, this weekend I helped
Charley Terhune, the owner, remove the body from his Elan. The used
factory frame was very sound so I bought it. I noticed that '72 Elans had
not only the red oxide primer, but also a coat of creosote-like material.
Both protected the steel very well. Charley will install a Spyder frame in
due course. (BTW he has 3 Elan engines --2 with Stromberg heads -- and two
disassembled Plus 2s, and a Cortina body with roll cage, if anyone is
interested...the usual disclaimer of no financial interest applies, contact
him at <[email protected]>).

We compiled most of the following procedural steps to help us move in an
organized manner. Possibly it may be helpful to others, so FWIW as a
procedure that successfully reached its goal without damaging anything, I
thought I'd send it on. Although one can pull the body with engine in
place, we opted to remove the engine and tranny first.

Place car on jack stands to allow access to underside
Drain radiator, engine, transmission

Remove bonnet
Disconnect hoses, remove radiator
Disconnect water temp sensor and heater control valve on head

Under the car/
Unfasten and remove tailpipe/muffler
Disconnect speedo cable, parking brake cable
Disconnect clutch slave cylinder, remove slave cylinder
Disconnect battery cable, ignition switch wire from starter, remove starter
Loosen but leave in place transmission mount

Disconnect brake lines from tandem master cylinder
Remove exhaust manifold nuts
Remove airbox, Remove carburetors (Strombergs in this case)
Disconnect oil pressure line from block
Disconnect primary ignition and high tension wires to distributor from coil
Disconnect fuel line from fuel pump

Remove transmission shift lever, plug tranny opening with wadded paper towel
Depending upon lift possible with your engine hoist, may want to put car on
the floor now
Loosen engine mount bolts on the chassis
Connect engine hoist and sling
Remove engine mount bolts
Disconnect transmission mount cross member (just reach in from either side)
Hoist/manuever engine to gain clearance to remove exhaust manifold/down
pipe, remove same
Remove engine and tranny from engine bay

Remove horns mounted on front body/chassis through bolts
Remove 12 UNC body chassis bolts from underneath
Behind dash at the tunnel top, remove two UNF bolts on each side
Behind carpet panel below the convertible top storage area remove the two
UNF body/rear strut bolts
Nearby on the outboard sides remove the bolts and clevis holding the seat
belt at shoulder height...trust us, we KNOW these will successfully resist
all efforts to lift the body off. NOTE unlike the early series cars, there
are 20, not just 16, bolts holding the body onto the chassis

To lighten the body for lift off: Remove fuel tank, Remove seats (could
also remove doors, we didn't).

With four strong backs or an engine hoist or wooden blocks, jack and
saw-horses remove the body from the chassis.

Break out the 6-pack (we didn't, we went home for dinner, it had been a busy
day).

We will award a "very erudite and distinguished Lotus person" title to the
one who can guess which two of the above steps we discovered only when the
body was about a foot above the chassis!

HTH someone. Best regards, Ray.

["Paul Lane, Jr."]

Ray,

Reassembly is the reverse of removal, right?

Paul

"Jang, Raymond (JANGR)" wrote:

[BrianMartley]

Ray,

Speedo cable, Oil Pressure line ?

(only because the oil line was what was stopping my Europa body from parting
from the chassis. Aren't they strong ? )

Brian

["Jang, Raymond (JANG]

Hi Paul:

Absolutely right, replacement is "just" the reverse. Actually, Charley
reminded me that I left out two steps:

(1) First, dip car in WD40 vat up to window frames.
(2) Second, more seriously, when after 27 years, the rear A-arm bolts freeze
to the bushing sleeves and won't budge without deforming the frame, use a
thin-bladed cutoff in the air-grinder to cut through the bolts just inside
the frame tabs. But be careful, I ruined a perfectly good A-arm on my first
cut.

Also, on the 27 year old brake fittings be sure to use a proper 7/16" flare
wrench to break them loose that first 1/2 turn.

I'm off at my lunch break to take the stripped chassis to be dipped/stripped
of grease, rust and primer/creosote. Can you believe after two years
they're still charging the same price as last time and it includes a powder
coating?

Regards, Ray.

["Jang, Raymond (JANG]

Hi Brian:
Two forgotten disconnections held up our recent separation of body from
frame. Brian surmised that the speedo cable and oil pressure line were the
culprits as he had found how tough the oil line on his Europa can be (is it
the little bitty nylon tubing like on an Elan?).

Sorry Brian, you do get honorable mention, but those weren't the two.
However, I am relieved that somebody else missed something. So you've been
there and done it too! Easy to overlook something, what with the time and
energy taken in freeing up rusted fasteners and the other concerns in taking
a car apart without destroying valuable parts. Plus we don't do body-offs
with routine maintenance frequency.

In our case we did not undo the hand-brake cable. Much of my work on Elans
recently has been only on the track car which doesn't have a hand-brake so
it never even entered my mind that it would need detachment from the rear
pivot lever. And, the other hangup was the two feeder brake lines from the
tandem MC (don't know how we didn't see them). Either alone would have been
enough to prevent the separation, but the two together stopped us quite
short.

Appreciate your response. Trust you are enjoying your Europa.

Regards, Ray.

[SpeedModel]

Ray,

You may want to consider adding 26R gussets / reinforcement to your chassis
before you have it powder coated. It should improve rigidity and also help
it with the stresses of racing.

Eric
[email protected]

["Paul Lane, Jr."]

Comments on shimming when chassis and body are attached. Some guys do
and some don't. If done, what is the best way to measure the thickness needed?

Paul

["Mike Farmer" &]

Hi Paul

Mike farmer here from central England (UK).

Are you talking about shimming the steering rack to elliminate BUMP STEER?

If so I have some expeiences to relate regarding my own Elan Sprint and the
Rack Mounting Blocks that I machined from Solid Aluminum.

Mike Farmer

["Jang, Raymond (JANG]

Hi Eric:

We are thinking alike on reinforcing the stock Elan chassis with 26R gussets
before powder coating. I have an arrangement that the dip/strip shop calls
me when the frame is bare, I pick it up, weld reinforcement onto the frame
and then take it back for the final step. The last chassis turned out very
well for solidity if not prettiness of weld beads.

Regards, Ray.

["Paul Lane, Jr."]

Mike,

No, shimming the chassis/body attachment points.

Paul

Mike Farmer wrote:

[gobw2]

Mine came with only one shim between body and Chassis- 2 galvanized
strips across the rearmost frame mounts. years ago, i noted that the
frame flange was under stress at some attachment points (deflection
inwards of flange in vicinity), and shimmed to eliminate deflection. I
also removed one of the rear shim strips, and noted that the gap between
the tops of the doors and the top rear part of the body increased
slightly - which for this car, made the gap more uniform. When I
reassemble intend to shim any gaps. My feeling - no sense putting high,
localized static stress on frame - just get more stress cracks faster.
Tightening mounts with a big gap might possibly cause it to twist or
pull it out of proper alignment. This could get interesting - shimming
the flange attachments may cause other areas such as the inboard seat
belt attachment points to be in a different alignment with the body -
guess that is what drills are for . George 45/6078

On Thu, 09 Dec 1999 19:17:55 -0500 "Paul Lane, Jr."
<[email protected]> writes:

[khamai]

Ray & all,
I concur with Ray. There are weakness in the stock chassis that can be
re-inforced to reduce or eliminate the chances of failure. I've even done
these to my street cars. I thought I had posted an article on the GGLC web
site, but I couldn't find it. I believe I have it at home on a floppy. I'll
have to check. I'll look and post it.

Basically, the weak spots are the base of the shock towers (front & rear),
the shock "ears" at the top of the rear towers, the engine mounts, the
mounting of the torque rods for the diff & gearbox mount. Before doing any
welding on or around the shock towers build a fixture to hold the towers in
place. Any heat on the chassis sheet metal will cause localized shrinkage
which will lead to displacement.

Kiyoshi

[SpeedModel]

Holiday greetings to all,

I spoke with Tony Thompson earlier this week and mentioned that he had been a
topic of recent discussion of the lotuselan.net forum. For recollection,
Tony is a UK based purveyor of high quality Lotus Elan components, with a
particular emphasis on performance and racing. He asked me to relay that he
is in the process of getting online and should have a website established
early in the new year. In the meantime, he says he is very much open for
business and asked that I post his fax number. Additionally, he said that he
was excited to learn of lotuselan.net and is looking forward to joining the
group.




Eric Jeffries

["Jang, Raymond (JANG]

Hi Mike:

Good day to you. Gave your shop a call but think it may be lunchtime out
your way. What an incredibly informative list of chassis strengthening
ideas you sent me. May I suggest that you also forward it to the lotuselan
group? Or, I would be happy to do so if you have no objections.

Your descriptions are clear, the only one I have a question on is the
following.

"the bottom of the Y gets a 1/8 inch thick by one inch right angle piece
from the front shock tower back to the intersection of the central box
member".

Am I right to rephrase this as, "There is a length of 1" angle iron which is
welded along the bottom of each front chassis leg from the front tower back
to the rectangular box section (where the transmission inserts). Now, is
that welded outboard on the flange (so the body rides on it) or inboard
under the flange? (as I ask it, it seems this location makes more sense)".

Nifty, your idea of cutting back the forward top flange after reinforcing
also has the advantage of making more clearance for the exhaust headers
install/remove, which is further helped by shortening the exhaust manifold
studs.

About the only thing I'd add to your ideas is, for track events especially,
a towing eye to the 3/16 plate under the vacuum box between the two front
struts (Spyder frames have this).

Thanks a bunch Mike. Hope you have recovered from your 13 story fall
Disneyland adventure! BTW I thought about you and your love of chocolate
when I received a box of Lindt candies from friends who brought them from
France this weekend.

Regards, Ray.

Regards, Ray.

["Jang, Raymond (JANG]

Hi Kiyoshi:

Thanks for your comments on welding gussets onto the OEM frame. I did this
reinforcing on my recently wrecked Elan, and it seemed to come out OK, that
is the car handled well on the track as far as I could tell. But I only got
two racing weekends in before it crashed, and I don't know exactly what the
chassis geometry was. I had intended to get the alignment checked.

When you say to place the chassis in a jig before welding the front or rear
towers, in what plane(s) and in what manner would one fasten to keep the
geometry in spec? I know the early Elan manual details the length and
angles of the frame members. Can you elaborate a bit on this?

Kind regards, Ray.