1968 Lotus Elan - 10 Gallon Restoration

Last summer dear old dad and I traded his MG TF project for an Elan project.  A friend of ours had found the car, sold it, bought it back, and now we have it.  The car had been a hillclimb car for a previous owner and he had converted all the suspension to heim joints, warmed up the Twin Cam & dry sumped it, then decided to paint it.  At which point the project stalled and from what I've been told the owner passed away.  Our friend ended up buying it then selling it.  The new owner was going to do a restoration with his son.  They decided to take the motor apart, then the son decided he wasn't up for it, so the car was sold back to our friend.  He then started on restoring the chassis, or rather swapping the chassis out for another as the original frame had been modified to accept all the heim jointed suspension pieces.  He got as far as making it nearly a roller, then we picked it up. 

It arrived looking like this, and still looks like this:

The motor on the other hand was in pieces and this past weekend we embarked on doing a quicky rebuild, or in other words just a new set of rings and skim of the head. The block was cleaned and put on the stand: 

Rotating parts were laid out and given a quick inspection:

The crank was installed and main bearing clearances were plastigaged (.015" clearance, so bang on):

Next up rings were installed an pistons were shoved back in their holes, unfortunately no pictures were taken.  Following that, the block was treated to a fresh lick of paint.  

This weekend should hopefully see the rest of the motor assembled.  First on the list is rebuilding the water pump, then onto fitting the oil pump (wet sump this time around), and fitting the cylinder head.  The head had been freshly ported and polished and new valves installed, but for some reason hadn't been skimmed.  It was sent out and found that it needed 0.015" taken off it to make it flat again:

I'll post more rebuild pics following the weekend.  And, I'll update the Europa thread later next week, it's getting treated to a set of new tires.  

Almost forgot, the 10 gallon resto isn't really a resto, more of a paint everything as most of the car is in really good shape.  

And no mention of the Europa?

Outstanding! I love RoddyMac Lotus stuff!

In reply to Stampie :

He mentions it, but, well, a running Europa is just kinda boring

Do you mean 0.0015" for the bearings, or are they just that loose from the factory?

I love Elans.

And Europas.

And Sevens.

SkinnyG,

You're right,  0.0015.  I really should proof read before hitting post. 

Wish we were neighbors!

As promised, more work was accomplished on the Elan motor this weekend.  The first task was replacing or rather building the waterpump.  I wish I had taken photo's while pressing the thing together, but only took a few once it was completed:

For those that don't know about the dreaded twincam water pump, it's an integral part of the front cover.  When you purchase a waterpump kit you get a bearing with shaft, flange for the pulley, a two piece seal arrangement with one being sping loaded, an impeller, an aluminium ring, a wire keeper, and two o-rings.  To start the assembly you press the bearing into the front cover, install the wire keeper (there's matching grooves on the cover and bearing), then press the pulley flange on, install the spring loaded portion of the seal into the backside of the cover, then the second part of the seal goes on, followed by installing the o-rings on the aluminium ring, slide the o-ring shod ring into the cover, then press on the impeller so that there's a 0.025" to 0.030" gap between the aluminium ring and the impeller vanes.  Once this is done you can proceed to finishing the motor rebuild.  If the water pump decides to not seal or not work, the head has to come off, then you can gain access to the cover & pump and do the whole procedure again.  Hopefully, all fingers and toes crossed, the pump will work without any issues.  And, incase anyone is wondering, you can purchase a modified/new front cover that takes a cassette pump, which makes life a whole lot easier.

Anyways, next on the agenda was intalling the timing cover backplate and the jackshaft gear:

Followed by the oil pump for a spin on filter(and yes I need to head off to the hardware store to grab some more bolts for the end cover):

The front cover & w/pump went on next along with the timing chain:

After that, I discovered that I couldn't find the front pulley in all the boxes, nor could I find the timing chain tensioner.  The pulley can be added later, but the tensioner has to be installed before the head goes on.  So, things ground to a halt, though I did drop the head on just for fun:

If I can find the tensioner next weekend, I should be able to button up the top end,

And, in regards to the Europa, other than hopefully getting the tires swapped this week and the battery not wanting to spin the motor over on the weekend, there isn't much to post.  But I will update the build thread soon ( Europa thread ).

Rod

I finally got back to work on the Elan over the past couple of weekends.  The gearbox was inspected and was found to be in good shape. So other than seals and gaskets, it didn't require much work.  It was lumped back onto the motor on Saturday, and by Saturday afternoon both the motor and gearbox were back in the chassis:  

Unfortunately I do need to order a pair of engine mounts.  Two of the four that were in the boxes of bits that came with the car looked decent, but once installed it turned out one had the rubber pull away from the outer housing, and the other looked like it was about to as well.   Next up is finding time to make it run.

Oh the fun of putting a car back together from a box. 

Type E Rocket gear box or did these run something else?

Are Elans worth enough to leave stock or does upgrading to a Type 9 5 speed not hurt value?

RossD,

It uses a 2000E gearbox, so yes in the rocket box family.  Some people upgrade to 5 speed 'boxes, and i don't think it hurts values at all.  Most Elans have some sort of modification from stock from something as simple as a warmed up motor, to Spyder chassis changes.

Time to revive this thread, I took another week off work this past week and started on the bodywork portion of the Elan project.  First step was fitting the headlamp pods which didn't quite go as planned.  The LH pod went in with no problem other than the gaps were off: 

The RH pod required some repositioning of the outer bobbin (no pics unfortunately).  Once that was completed the RH pod went in, again the gaps were all over the place:

The reason for the headlamp pod excersise was to fit the Spydercars electric lift system.  It took a bit of adjusting/swearing/head scracthing, but eventually everything went together and worked very well:

I believe the motor is ex-Miata, and comes with a control box that requires just a constant feed, ground, and a switched feed to actuate it.  

Stripping the body was the next task, and I thought it was going to be a lot bigger job than it turned out to be.  It appears the last time the car was painted, the body was stripped back to gel coat then filled, primed, and painted.  So, a total strip again isn't really required other than in the areas that had some micro blistering:

Eventually by the end of the week the doors, trunk lid (new), bonnet (new), front bumper (new) and rear bumper were fitted, and some minor filling was done.  The bonnet might need a bit more work, but I can't really do much on it until the body is bolted to the chassis as I can't properly adjust the hood "hinge" area:

The goal for the next weekend is getting some high build primer on the body, mainly just to get it back to one colour, then guide coat and start blocking.  The tentative goal is to have it ready for paint by late November, so that re-assembly can begin over Christmas and into the new year.

Looks great!  I'd love to see some pictures of it as a hill climb car.

I presume you've looked through the Classic Motorsports side where they rebuilt that Elan?  That's probably one of my favorite builds.

Thank you for the update on your build.  My point of reference was a 1964 Series One that I enjoyed for a number of years, sold it on and still have many fond memories of that car.  On your build, will you be keeping it on the stock half shafts and rubber glibo joints or going with u-joints or a cv system?

One other question, as a '68 is it a Series Three car? Having a Weber head is a bonus.

David 

BA5,

Yes, I followed the rebuild/resurrection of the Classic Motorsports Elan.  It's amazing how you can start with almost nothing of an Elan and put it all back together.

I've yet to see any photo's of the car in it's previous life, but I'll ask around the local Lotus club to see if anyone remembers it.

jr02518,

At the moment the car will be using the rotoflex couplings, but eventually it will get the CV axles.  The car is a '68 S4, built in early October of that year, so does share some minor trim pieces with the S3 but is definitely an S4 body.  And being an early S4, it is a Weber headed car.  I'm looking forward to getting this one back on the road, I haven't driven an Elan before but have always wanted to.  

Rod

I love, love, love Elans!

Fortunately, they have always been just rare or expensive enough to prevent me from owning one. I was very close at one point, but the 1966 Elan Coupe came along when I was on the hunt for a 911, and I bought the Porsche instead. No regrets. 
 

But... as nifty as the Lotus Twin Cam is, they hardly seem to be worth the trouble unless you are building a car for concours judging.
 

I've always wondered how difficult it would be to fit a Miata engine and transmission to a Spyder chassis. I'm sure it's been done, as it seems like a natural choice. 

In reply to RoddyMac17 :

Oh... and I'm really enjoying this thread!

I can't believe it's been over a year since I've updated this build log.  Since updating it, not a lot has happened other than countless hours of sanding, filling, spraying highbuild, etc.  Though back in July of 2023, the body was sent off for paint.  After 5ish months of it sitting at the bodyshop, they finally found some time to get it final prepped and painted:  

It's hopefully getting picked up on Saturday and will be tucked away in the garage for at least a week before I can start on prepping the engine bay for a coat of satin black.  Then it's full steam ahead on putting the body back on the chassis, wiring it up, getting it running, and getting it finished.  

Wow. I love that shade of blue.

May I please have the heim jointed chassis from the beginning of the story?

Slow_M,

Unfortunately we never did get the heim jointed chassis.  The previous owner traded it for a stock chassis with a mutual friend of ours.  Sadly, the mutual friend suffered a stroke and isn't doing well, in fact I haven't heard from him or about him in quite a while.  I have no idea if his stash of cars/parts was sold off or if his partner still has it all.  

that blue is GORGEOUS! 

I've been slowly working on the Elan over the last two months, though things aren't moving as fast as I had wanted.  I've painted the engine bay:

And added a few things to the body:

Unfortunately, it seems every time I go to do something, there's a part missing.  I wish we had received the car in one piece rather than in boxes.  I have no idea what's missing, and figuring out where things go is driving me nuts.

In reply to RoddyMac17 :

Be glad an Elan has so few parts!