New Front Body Alignment

Hello All,

I intend to cut off my poorly DPO repaired front end and replace it with a very good second hand mid front that I have. Any tips on getting alignments correct would be appreciated. i.e. bonnet gaps, where to take crucial measurements etc. Also the body is currently off of my new Spyder chassis so would I be better off doing the job with main body bolted back to the chassis or to do it off chassis? The “new” front has been cut at mid-arch position.
Incidentaly, the “new” front has metric threaded bobbins for the headlamp pods so I have my doubts that it is from a genuine Lotus made body. Slightly worrying?

Regards

Mike

Mike -

Last time I did this I used the bonet as part of the jig. with the bonnet in place, pad/shim the bonnet with aluminum strips in the 12,3,6,9 oclock positions. ( pop rivet the shim pac(s) to the bonnet. I recall taking careful measurements with the head light pod removed, of the back edge of the opening to a set of distances back toward the rear of the car. I did not have as large a section as yours

my inner structures were all in good shape and I decided to keep them ( also eliminates the worry about bobbin/frame alignment). I then cut the the outer skin off the old car. between the bonnet and the old under structure it was easy to position the nose on the car and the repairs are not too obvious in the end.

I hope this makes sense and is helpful -

George

Mike,

Is your front aligned correctly at the moment?
I appreciate it’s “poorly repaired” but if the alignment is correct then you can make a template before cutting.

I put a front on my Sprint but I still had one un-damaged engine bay edge to take a template off.
Used a piece of thick card on the inside edge of the engine bay, drew along it and then cut it out.
By cutting along the line I could use it for both sides of the engine bay when I needed to line up the new front.

Couldn’t butt the template right up into the corner of the engine bay because it’s rounded so made a reference point from the back edge of the bay.

This worked really well and I even lent the template to a mate who was repairing a bodged up front on another Elan.

Ralph.

Mike, I think that’s a great idea of Ralphs. If you’re uncertain about how alligned your car is, you can always pop over and take some measurements / templates from my S4. Best to spend a bit of time up front to get it right!!

Mark

Mark, thanks for the offer but I think my bonnet aperture is OK to make a template as per Ralph’s excellent idea.

I was actually more worried about getting the nose too high or too low which would affect the wing profile. My idea is to clamp some wood battens to the dash top, out through the screen aperture and along the wing tops. I could then take some vertical measurements from the batten to various points on the wings before I cut off the old front. Any reason why this wouldn’t work, or is it just a bit OTT for a front end replacement?

Mike

Mike,

I guess you can’t have too many measurements but I suspect that you’ll find a lot won’t seem to work when you come to use them.

i.e. " if this is X mm. then this should be Y mm. but it’s not so what’s going on".

Apart from the template my most useful tool was a piece of flexible flat steel, ( about 20mm by 3mm ), that I put through the windscreen aperture and down to the nose. This was the centre-line.

A lot of eye-balling goes on with flexible, umpteenth generation fibreglass moulds.

Ralph.

When I replaced the complete rear end on my +2 (outer skin from the doors backwards) I left the body on the chasis and carfully leveled it up (with nmost of the weight taken by the wheels place a jack under the body or chassis at each corner and use this to level the vehicle side to side and ensure it does not move on the suspension.
I then re set the doors so they fitted well at the front and bottom using shims, I then aligned the new panel evenly with the rear edge of the door, at the rear I aligned it with the inner panels and then made sure it was level side to side. before bonding it all together. the only problem i had was that the bootlid I ahd bought turned out to be warped and had to be re-worked (or were they all like that and I had made my car to true…)

In your case I would carry out the same checks for side to side level and use the bonnet lid as I did the doors, the only other problem you will have is ensuring the front does not droop, if your old panel has some good areas I would try to use these to take some referance points to the ground and then set your new panel the same.(you could even screw some fixtures into the floor).
If your old panel is too bad then it is probably a case of setting it up until it looks right, in which case it may be worth initially fitting it with a series of 2 inch squares of matting until you are sure it is Ok, these can be easily cut and re-worked.

Good luck Kevin

Mike
If you need a local Elan owner or 2nd opinion you know where I live.

Clive