Finally got the Elan back

Finally got the Elan back and it does look good :-) It has had a few upgrades as you can see in the photo it has new wheels, roll hoops and a new registration.

Under the covers it has new front brakes with 4 pot Wilwoods, new rear disks, hubs and bearings and a new brake master cylinder. So it now stops really really well!!! Also took the doors to bits and replaced the external seals on the top of the doors, new triangular corner pieces and new carpet on the doors.

However, a group of us were helping a friend with a charity day for Help for Heroes down at Bovington Tank training facility. The elan disgraced itself - when after lunch and the first lap of the afternoon it dropped all it's PAS fluid in the carpark! So no more laps............ A friend had a big jack and took off the PAS pump belt so I could drive it home. When I got it home I noticed that one of the new rear shocks was leaking! I got a replacement from Avo (free of charge) and fitted it myself. The shaft in the leaking one had "corrosion" and marks on it - which caused it to puncture it's seals. Then I noticed I had an oil leak at the front and upon investigation it turns out to be slightly weeping Dowty seals on the oil cooler..............................I am waiting for new ones which I will fit when they arrive.

I am afraid the Dowty seals did not cure the problem and a new oil cooler was required, had to drive down to Castle Coombe to pick one up. Now fitted and running well - fitted a replacement drop link I got off the LEC forum, I have kept the old one to send to Steve at SJSportscars.

Elan rebuild May 09

Carrying on from where I left off in the last post. The Elan is coming together bit by bit and is now ready to be masked up ready for the first coat.

Here it is - still with the old registration and the roll hoops not fitted.

Masking a car for painting in a booth is a laborious pain in the butt job. I think you would need to have the patience of Job to do this on a regular basis.

Here it is fully masked and being painted by Kieth who is originally from Louth - near Cadwell Park - one of my favourite tracks.

Next thing is for all those awkward items to be sprayed hanging up in the booth - Spoiler, bumper and bonnet.

This is a frustrating time for me as the car comes together slowly.

Update August 2009

Have not posted in quite a while as life has not been very good - cancer in the family :-( deaths, suicides, acid accident near blindness, more motoring woes and the Belgium accident is still ongoing.


On the Audi front the young lad has now changed his story saying I hit him trying to avoid the "phantom" car!!!!!! So that is 10 months this has been going on for.

Bashed the Elan into a roundabout after hitting some diesel on a roundabout the day after my birthday in January.


Other motoring woes - my son borrowed my "daily" and a big Audi pulled out and side swiped the car. To cut a long story short - it got repaired - lovely but the repairers damaged the other side!!!! WTF. After much gnashing of teeth and complaining to the Insurance company they repaired that also.


Finally found out what the "rattling" noise in the Audi was - some internal brake caliper part was fractured and this was causing the noise. You cannot buy this part separately from a whole caliper! So new caliper fitted and noise cured.


The green Excel has had a few issues - the new exhaust has been banging on the bodywork over deep potholes. Lots of adjusting and tensioning has sorted the problem, but while under the car I noticed both shockers on the back were leaking! Someone had removed them at some point using Mole grips and left marks on the shafts which punctured the seals.


Sent them back to Avo with the assistance of Lotusbits - thanks Mike for lending me the temporary ones while Avo refurbished the damaged ones. New shafts and seals and as good as new.


I got a pair of 4pot Wilwood calipers at a good price and thought I will fit them to one of the Excels. However, costs were mounting and so was the complication and time involved so I was going to shelf the idea until a friend (Uwe) who is a CAD/CAM engineer stepped in.

I went over to his place and he measured and measured and mocked up a bracket to fit the Wilwoods.

He then found a chap at Brands Hatch who could manufacture them in Aircraft Aluminium at a good price, excellent news.