Elan S3 Coup? 1967 Restoration

Hi all,
Just started rebuilding my other Elan over the xmas hols. Engine goes in tomorrow… :laughing:
Gino
S3 Elan Coup? 1965
Milano Italy

wish the underside of my car looked like that!

Gino, you are just teasing us with having two elans and all of that garage space.

Cheers and a happy new year of fun.

Sarto

Hi Sarto,
I wish I did have a garage like that !
My boss let me build the car inside the factory during company closure.
Engine going in in the morning.
I’ll post some more photos as I progress.

Ciao
Gino

Hi Gino,

I was told you have a mate there, a mechanic chief who practically rebuild your engine to incredible hight standards and maybe you also gained some useful BHP+.

This project of yours must have costed a lot of ??? :slight_smile:)

Cheers.

Brian

Yes Brian (prat)
How did you know ??

Gino,

Very nice. I noticed the tires look like they are on the fat side. What size are you using and if they are larger than stock, are you modifying the wheel arches? Thanks for the information and keep up the great work!

Hi Frank,

The wheels are off a plus two with some 175 Yokos on.
I will be adding on some S2 wheel arches I found on an original race shell to accomodate the extra wheel track.
I’ve put some adjustable Konis on the rear and some Leda adjustables on the front.
The CV shafts were made up by me using some Alfa bits and quite a bit of lathe work.
The engine has been completely rebuilt, ported, added some high lift cams and meticulously balanced by a very good friend of mine Maurizio who was an ex Novamotor F2 and 3 engine biulder back in the 70’s.
We’ve still to fire here up but the the photo looks very encouraging.
Keep you posted soon…
Gino

Hi Gino

Your chassis and drive train looks very nice

However your rear springs look very short and with limited travel especially once you get the body on and the car suspension down to normal ride height.

The lower spring seat normally ends up much closer to the top of the brake disc in most modified rear suspension setups for both road and competition cars.

I would be concerned you may have a rear suspension travel and coil bind problem. You may want to double check your rear suspension spring design calculations.

regards
Rohan

Hi Rohan,

These are springs I put on to roll the chassis around.
But I will be asking for some advice on the appropriate springs to fit at a later date.
The car will be set up mainly for track and hill use.
I would appreciate any suggestions you may have.
Cheers
Gino

Gino

If the car is mainly for track and hillclimb use and limited road use I would try around 150 - 160 lb/in fronts and 110 - 125 lb/in rears and a 22mm ( 7/8th inch) front roll bar, no rear roll bar. This is the same as the Dave Bean stage 3 road race suspension specification in his catalogue. I also space the rear Aeon rubber springs down about 25mm so they come into play earlier, this helps to control the Elans tail happy nature when on the limit a little. I have run this set up for a few years now and I am happy that it works well in wide range of circumstances.

The TTR recommended full race setup is around 250 lb/in front and 150 - 175 lb/in rear. I believe this is a little hard especially at the rear and makes the car more nervous and difficult to handle for an amateur driver like me especially on rough tracks which we have a lot of in Australia or in the wet. However its probably quicker than the softer DB setup on a perfectly smooth track with good grip and a good driver.

cheers
Rohan

Hi Guys,
During the summer hols, whilst you were all basking under the sun, i started taking the paint of my car, stitching some S1 wheel arches on the rear end, and filling holes !!!
Keep you posted.

Gino
Milano
Italy

New wheel arch stitched on

Down to the gel coat

Gino,

I especially like the black cam cover with the gold lettering. Why didn’t I think of that?

Hi Frank,

It’s the Italian touch…

Restoration proceeding well even though I expected less work on the shell removing the layers of underlying paint.

The last coat I found was white, therefore white its going to be with silver bumpers and a Gulf coloured orange stripe through it… wow…

However, I believe that unless you’ve personally been through taking ALL the paint off down to the bone, repairing the holes and crazing in the fibreglass inhaling the dust and getting your hands gued up with resin you cannot say you have restored your car.
Gino
Milano Italy

Looks excellant, I love seeing the cars like this and all new again… My spring set up for hills/sprints (+2 though) is 180 on the rear, 250 on the front, ARB is 25mm. Really happy with the balance, just fine tuning on the shocks now. (crossply tyres).

Cheers

Doug

Hi All,
Finally at the paint shop and the undercoat is on a rubbed down for the final colour which will be currus white hopefully by the end of this week…
Gino
Milano
Italy

Hi Gino

I think you have made a great choice with the Cirrus White & I think it will look fab. I am in the process of restoring an early S3 coupe like yours but although white would have been my favourite colour, my car is one of the 23 or so cars that came with a red interior & as it was originally red on the body, I think I will keep it that way. All the best photos of elans are in white because for some reason it seems to capture the essence of the car perfectly (in my humble opinion that is).

What chassis number is your car? they might be close together in the production run. My car was built in November 65 (cannot remember chassis number but something like 4951 'ish).

Please post more photos for a bit of inspiration as I’m a little way behind you in the restoration process.

All the best.

Adam

Hi Adam,
I have two early pre airflows one dates back to September 1965 36/5018 and the one i am restoring is September 1967 36/7214. the latter was probably purchased and then registered later… dunno.
The Elan I’m restoring is not going to be perfectly geniune as I will be fitting the perspex light covers and the bonnet with the bulge (I just love it!!)
Apart from these two minor “defects” it will be as near to original as one can expect.

It will be sprayed Cirrus White with Metallic Silver bumpers. As soon as I have more photos I will post.
Just in case the faint-hearted want to know what this preparation consists of; It has taken me around 220 man hours, resin, filler, blood and sweat to get this far.
I’ve just popped it into the spray shop for the final undercoat and colour.
It has been a different experience which I do not think I will repeat.

Gino