My 1972 +2S has home-made replacement carpet boards for the shelf over the spare in the boot. These sag, although the brackets appear sound. The parts book shows the shape of the left & right 1/2s from the top but gives no indication of underside reinforcement. Should there be a reinforcing (steel) strip running fore & aft on the underside of each ? shelf that connects to the holes in the main support brackets front & back?
I would want to support my luggage in style should I ever leave the garage.
Cheers from rainy Virginia, John
Hi John , my '68 +2 has two wooden strips screwed&glued to the underside of each half shelf running fore & aft . From memory they are probably 3/4 inch square in section.
Brian.
John
The original floor isn’t really that good, this is my '73 Plus 2 130/5
The floor is 5.5mm thick, the stiffner to the left is 22mm square and the one down the centre is 31mm x 18mm. The light pieces of wood are what I’ve added so the floor clears the spare wheel
Hope this helps
Andy
Sorry John but I got my left and right mixed up. The 22mm square stiffner is, of course, on the right
Andy
Thanks Brian & Andy.
I had expected something more complicated from Lotus. This should be an easy fix.
Aren’t left & right switched between US & UK? Or is that front & back?
Cheers, John (in US but born in Lincolnshire)
I found that the original boot flooring touched the battery terminals. Being plywood there was no electrical short, but I did not like the idea of a permanent mechanical load on the terminals. I added a wooden perimeter frame to the underside of both panels to raise them about 1/2 inch above the original location. Mine did not have the relief I see cut into Andy’s panel. This relief is right above the battery.
The cut out around the battery was standard on the later cars at least I believe. With the battery being just covered by the boot carpet. The carpet in mine is full of holes in that area from the battery fumes over the years !
cheers
Rohan
Does anybody has the templates to make these panels?
If you know the basic dimensions you could take Andy’s picture above and map it out to a close template. Then refine it. My brother had good results that way with my dash.
I am going to try… but I think I would not know how to do that with that picture.
Carlos
You could print out the picture and then scale it up, however, the originals don’t fit very well anyway, so you would probably be better getting some card and making templates to suit your own car. Just dont make them such a good fit that you can’t get them in and out.
Andy
I copied this of this site, sorry I can’t credit whoever drew it because I didn’t make a note of the name.
Hope it helps
Mike
Thanks Mike. Is that the floor of a Plus 2 trunk, right?
correct…
and thats my drawing… 
posted it on the site about…ooo…5 years ago…
Elan Man: Thank you man! You are indeed the Elan man!
Should not your name be there?
Thanks again.
Carlos
Thanks to all for helpful previous posts. A last pair (perhaps) of questions. Should the 2 boot flooring boards have attached carpet or a loose single carpet piece on top of them?
Should there be a carpeted vertical board covering petrol tank etc?
Thanks, John in Virginia
Yes there is a single piece of carpet with bound edging that loosely covers the two piece boot floor, I believe this should be held in place with similar clips to those that should retain the footwell floor carpets.
A suitably shaped piece of fibreboard (I’ve used thin marine ply) with carpet glued to it hides the fuel tank. A boot illumination lamp should also be attached to this board with the switch being attached to the boot stay mechanism. If I recall correctly the boot carpeting is always black regardless of the colour of the interior.
C
John:
I have attached a photo for reference of the aftermarket Plus 2 boot carpet set I purchased on eBay. Shows the pieces needed to restore the boot to give you an idea of the configuration. I assume these are the same for the Plus 2 S as my 1971 Federal.
I bought them from “euroclassictrim”, an eBay store on ebay.com. The supplier is Bernard, and he is located in Florida. Here is a link:
stores.ebay.com/EUROCLASSICTRIM_ … QpZ2QQtZkm
I checked his store today and he does not have the Plus 2 carpets listed right now, but I am sure if you contacted him he would make up a set. I also purchased the interior set from him as well; not so sure of the fitment of these.
I had no problem with the transaction as I was not in a rush for the carpets, but would have to say in all fairness he was pretty slow to supply. I figure anyone willing to make up carpet sets for older British stuff on our side of the pond can be cut slack on the timing. Sounds like he tries to make them up in batches in a small upholstery shop, hence the delay.
Not sure if this would be an issue for you, but the carpeting material used is not the stock stuff, but it is of acceptable quality. The piece for the boot floor is all edge trimmed to fit loose on the floor boards; the pieces for the sides and back of the boot are cut to size and just need gluing to the felt sound proofing, probably with minor trimming. I have not installed mine yet as I am at the same stage you are, making up the floor boards from the stock ones I had as templates.
Certainly cheaper to make up your own from a large piece of carpet material of your choice. However, if you do not have the stock pieces to use as a pattern, these might be an option for you.
HTH
