1970 Lotus Elan S4 SE Project, Cheshire UK

[Mark B]

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After a long absence from this forum I took on a project elan again after I had to sell my previous spyder zetec when I got divorced. Things have changed for me work and family wise and unfortunately I'm now selling this project!

This is my 1970 Lotus Elan S4 SE Fixed head Coupe restoration project.
I would estimate that parts wise the car is over 95% complete, with only a handful of readily available parts needed to complete the restoration-
1)Front screen & rubber (approx. ?120)
2)Rear screen rubber (approx. ?20/30)
3)A pair of doorlocks (approx. ?45)
4)A drivers side interior door panel (approx. ?45/50)
5)A set of driveshaft rubber doughnuts or driveshaft conversion (approx. ?320-?500)
6)A couple of metres of black carpet for the floor (approx. ?30)
7)Seatbelts or harnesses (?50-100?)
8 )Exhaust centre pipe (?63)
I bought the car from a friend who started work on it but then fell ill. He had the chassis, rear diff, steering rack, brakes and a few other bits refurbished before I bought it in August 2016.
I have decided to sell it as I don?t have as much spare time to work on it & have other cars & projects that I want to concentrate on.
The chassis/ subframe is a Spyder/Lotus refurbished item. This comprises of the much better Spyder front section with towing eye, tubular vacuum section and improved turrets, detachable brace etc so you can gain access to the sump etc without needing to remove the engine. The back end is stock lotus, the chassis was refurbished by Spyder but then not used. You can see the lack of holes drilled in the front section confirm this. It was then put in storage but has since been blasted and repainted lotus grey by the previous owner.
I have had the engine and gearbox fully rebuilt and built the full rolling chassis as you see in the pictures. It has adjustable dampers front & rear, adjustable rear wishbones (for toe adjustment), uprated brake pads and adjustable handbrake rods, otherwise it?s all standard elan stuff. The wheels are new Dunlop style with new Uniroyal rainsport- 3 155 width tyres. It has been built to a high standard by an engineer (me!) as I am very picky and like things to be right.
The engine has had new Qed pistons, bearings, gaskets, valves, new waterpump, oil pump, timing chain & guide, gasket faces skimmed, crank reground etc. The full spec is available on request. The gearbox has had new bearings, gaskets, various syncros and other work/parts replaced.
Many of the parts are new or fully refurbished, and apart from the body only a handful of things need work, eg the petrol tank which needs cleaning internally. Some parts you may wish to replace ie to fit an alternator instead of the generator and a locking fuel cap instead of the non locking standard item. The identity plate is present and correct but the logbook will have to be applied for, this is a relatively straightforward process & costs approx ?55. Details of this are included in all the paperwork.
The bodyshell is very good and needs only a minor amount of fibreglass work doing, unlike many which have had major accident damage. It?s currently in sprint colours, the main colour being bahama yellow which is the cars original colour from new. The all important door frames are present and in good condition. The headlamp pods are present along with a pair of new 26R headlamp covers to suit the preference of the buyer. I was going to paint the car green with 26R headlamps and a yellow stripe as per many of the race cars. There is also a pair of new lexan side windows which I was going to use with sliders instead of the problematic (awful!) electric window mechanisms.
The interior comes with a new dashboard, freshly trimmed seats, rear quarter light panels, new door trim covers, new headlining, new dashtop, new centre console, new underdash trims and new carpet overmats. The clocks and gauges are all present along with interior lights, ignition switch, ashtray, steering wheel, indicator stalks, covers, correct airvents, windscreen trims and other interior panels, steering column etc. A new wiring loom is also supplied with the car
Elans are in short supply generally, projects moreso especially at reasonable prices. Basket cases which need everything doing fetch over 10k. I am asking ?13,495 ono which I consider to be very reasonable in todays market for a project where the full rolling chassis, engine, gearbox, diff etc has been completed to a high standard. What is required now is for the body to be stripped and painted and then the car can be put back together. As a reasonable estimate if you spent 5k on paint and parts you will have a ?30k car for less than ?19k. If you did the work yourself you could probably do it for about ?15k.
I'm just outside Sandbach in cheshire, 5 mins from Junction 17 M6.

[french blue]

nice project, I could be interested, may I know your phone ?
Thanks,
Pierre

[Mark B]

Sorry Pierre now sold
Thanks
Mark

[tedtaylor]

wow, that was fast!

[nmauduit]

wow, that was fast!

when the price is right...

[Rob P]

Lets hope we see it soon, looked like a good opportunity for someone

[philbirch]

Let?s just Hope it went to one of members and not a dealer, the dealers seem to inflating the price of every elan that?s for sale, surely every elan can?t be worth ?44,000
Phil

[Concrete-crusher]

When I first saw this post I thought what a great opportunity but then i wondered if the car would be considered as re created rather than restored ?

Pre sale is maybe not the time to ask such a question but as it's now sold , how would dvla class it. Would it have a Q plate or an age related plate based on the newest components like the chassis?

Or an original S4 related registration , or did I miss something and there is already a registration ?

[Grizzly]

When I first saw this post I thought what a great opportunity but then i wondered if the car would be considered as re created rather than restored ?

Pre sale is maybe not the time to ask such a question but as it's now sold , how would dvla class it. Would it have a Q plate or an age related plate based on the newest components like the chassis?

Or an original S4 related registration , or did I miss something and there is already a registration ?

Wouldn't be a problem as long as the chassis was the original item repaired (if the owner had the receipt for the work, even better as technically it's still the original chassis even if a good portion has been replaced). It's unlikely it will be checked anyway but some one that knows a bit about Elans may pull you up on things like the round front cross member (which is where the receipt comes in handy) that would stop having to scrape the paint off the chassis to show them the number......

If it was me i'd find the chassis number while it's apart and highlight it (draw a rectangle round it with a sharpie) just in case some one does ask to see it and you don't have to go digging for it.

Even if the chassis has been replaced usually it's down to you to tick a box, so just plead ignorance just as long as it's not blatantly obvious of course.

[jono]

...is the body on an Elan not regarded as the chassis unit?

[john.p.clegg]

Yes,the body has the number,everything else is replaceable..

John

[Bits]

Isn't the VIN plate the car?

Everything else is a component? ie, body, chassis, engine etc can all be replaced.

BTW, I bought the car from Mark B. It was only two miles away from home.

[mark030358]

The car needs to carry a certain percentage of original parts to not have a Q plate.

cheers

[Bits]

Thanks Mark,

I hope to convince the DVLA that it has the required percentage of parts to get a normal reg.

[elanfan1]

What are the relevant details pertaining to the registration of the car that were sold with the car? If you have the actual registration number surely you just apply for a V5C if it?s on their database. If the shell and doors are original you might have matching unit numbers on the bulkhead, inside doors, roof and glovebox.

If you have that number it?s possible that there might be something on Colonel Tim?s records so post it up.

There was a time you needed an MOT to get an unregistered car registered but now that there is no MOT requirement I?m not sure of the process. I suspect an inspection somewhere will be required.