New(ish) member

[Sploder90]

Hi all
First post but have been lurking a while reading the various topics with interest.

Recently scratched a 30 year itch and acquired a 1968 SE DHC via the bay of E..

Couple of quick trips around the block and then got the jack, stands, spanners and more importantly...
the credit card out.

Hopefully it will shortly be back to rolling resto status

Regards
Mel

[The Veg]

Welcome Mel!

[JonB]

Nice one Mel.

I saw that car last week and thought it looked pretty good. End price looks to be a bargain in today's market.

[Mazzini]

Welcome!

[Sploder90]

Thanks for the welcome & look forward to picking your collective brains.

I think I did the right thing in going for a look at PJS before bidding on it. Paul and team were really accommodating on this and a also assisted in getting the car home.
If anyone is considering bidding on their ads, in my experience they are accurate representations.
(no affiliation)

It has quite a bit of service history with it but it had been laid up for some time so I knew it needed recommisioning.

Fortunately I have had a few eclectic classics and kits over the years..
I seem to have swapped series 2 (landy) for series 3 DHC so some kind of progress!
& although I now drive a desk for a living i started out & had many years on the spanners.

Noticed a red coupe on Spyder chassis that sold on the auction site early this week, think someone got a bargain at 15k..given what is out there at the moment.
Wonder if they are on here or will be shortly?

The body and interior are pretty reasonable, the underside & grubby bits in particularly at the rear, a bit less so...
my guess is the nearside rear inner wishbone mounting point was not intended to be oval for instance!
Replacing the slightly bent wishbones became a bit more involved than originally intended..
This also gave the impetus to diagnose the diff pinion leak...again my guess is the nut was supposed to be slightly more than finger tight...

Currently looking at finding some fresher looking bearing carriers as circlip slots, errhh, aren't... plus there is an interesting historical "mod" to retain the N/S damper.
( tube cut down and damper located with a spot weld)

Anyone know if The plus 2 carriers fit The 2 seater?

The joys of rotoflex to come shortly (been here before, first car was an imp sport) but the main thing is I go in the garage and it makes me smile

Mel

[MarkDa]

Welcome Mel!
It's always good to feel uplifted entering the garage - long may it continue.
New replacement rear bearing carriers are available - but at a price!

[Sploder90]

Cheers Mark

Have seen they are available from the usual sources (TTR, Kelvedon, PM etc)
Already on first name terms with the parts guy at Matty's... is luckily on route for several work related trips.

Have a lead (via a mate of a mate) on some from a +2 that allegedly are in reasonable condition, believe they are left overs from a Spyder rear hub conversion.

Back in the garage this afternoon
& with any luck still smiling.... Credit card statements are 3 monthly now.....

[TeeJay]

Welcome Mel.
Having a 3 monthly Credit card statement, means the shock of what you have spent is less frequent.

But seriously, most of Lotus parts are available and not too costly in comparison to some other classic car parts.

Keep smiling; they are great cars to work on and even better to drive.

Finally got mine back on the road this time last year, after a 7 year total restoration and it spending some 34 years in my garage.
Lots off big smiles on that occasion.

[William2]

Welcome to the friendly group of Elan owners, Mel.
The car looks very nice in the photo and looks very like a previous Elan of mine that was british racing green with silver bumpers.
Do you intend to bite the bullet and replace the doughnuts with CV drive shafts?
Have you any more pics you can put on this thread? Regards, Will

[Sploder90]

Hi Will

Having read a lot on here both pro & con CV & UJ conversions at the moment I am sticking with the rotoflex couplings for now.
Not to say that this will be the end of the story though...

The extras that seem to be key to the conversion including reduced travel dampers have had me thinking and looking at the various options or solutions & at present looking to get back to rolling resto status asap with chances that a chassis swap will be somewhere in its future. Then all things are possible..

The elantrickbits system seems to offer a good solution but at additional import duty...
Oddly having dabbled in the very distant past with off road vehicles, Porsche (am I allowed to say that in here? )
930 CV are used in a variety of fairly narrow track buggies & seem to cope with a lot of travel and angle changes and seem to be very effective.
have been pondering if that may be a possible route but have not come across anyone who has gone there.

Then again developing something else when there are existing capable options does seem a bit daft and likely much more expensive.

more Pics may follow, but once I am engrossed with the oily bits I tend to overlook keeping a photo record unfortunately.
Loading pictures may also be limited by my Luddite ancestry and a slight aversion to IT. Although as I am typing this into the tablet with my sausage fingers and fuming at the auto correcting text I realise I am slightly contradicting myself...
Thanks all for the welcome and encouragement

Mel

[JonB]

Couple of points, Mel:

• You can get CV joint conversions from Sue Miller. Not that much more expensive than a full set of doughnuts.
• You don't need to change suspension; you can add a strap or wire to limit droop.

Regarding the second point, I read this on another thread ages ago. My car is a Plus 2 so didn't need droop limiters, and I have fitted the Miller CV joint conversion. I'm very happy with it.

As long as your rotos are healthy (look for cracks and evidence of delamination, plus different texture on the rubber surface around the bolt holes) you should be OK.

[MarkDa]

Personally I rather like the Spyder combination of outer cvs and inner rubber.
Either best or worst of both worlds!?
It worked for me as I had a couple of good rotoflex couplings.

[Sploder90]

Cheers for the that Jon / Mark

Already have a new set of roto + new bolts and nuts on the shelf along with jubilee clips plus some old discs to line thing up ahead of time.
Have seen the Spyder version as well but if / when I go that route I think it will probably be a full CV set up.
My understanding was that Sue's version is now the same as Kelsport?

Mel

[ericbushby]

Hi Mel and welcome.
Depending where you are in Yorkshire, I may not be too far away from you.
I have a fairly decent S3 in running order. If you have anything you wish to check, measure or compare you would be welcome to come over and check it out or call in when passing.
Eric in Burnley
1967 S3 DHC

[Sploder90]

Thank Eric that's very kind of you, may take you up on that at some point or make the run over once RMP is more mobile..there are some nice roads over the big hill.
Used to go to a certain place in Padiham for parts when I was a youth..

Not that far away as I am near Huddersfield & quite close to Chris Foulds place handily...

Regards

Mel