Hello all,
After six years of reading this forum I would now build something quite different, but after taking early retirement from Mercedes advanced design studio in Carlsbad California as a clay sculpture turned digital modeler, too long a quarantine and not being well educated about the wonders of original unmodified Elans this is what I did to a very rough federal 69 S4. I hope that purists will forgive my irreverent approach to bringing this car back to life.
Thanks to help of Ken at Dave Bean engineering, Ray at RD and all of you who post valuable insights on this forum, I am now enjoying what I hope will be many years of great drives.
Winston
It’s obviously a very thorough job! I tend to like the stock lines of the Elan body but the flares on your car are a nice complement to the hood bulge and give it a unified look. Also, if you had anything to do with the ‘ponton’ accents on my 2013 S212, well…
Did the 26R mods to the original frame and then some. Removable Monte Carlo bar between front uprights,Removable crossbar under oil pan, reinforced motor mounts, steering box mounts, front jack point, tow hook, rear a arm piovots double thick, tunnel upper lower corners and under side triangulated, upper rear strut mount gusseted. Also added front and rear adjustable ride height and rear adjustable camber and tow in from Barry Spencer at Spencer Motorsports. Billet axels and replaced donuts with CVs. Had 4 speed, driveshaft, differential rebuilt and added limited slip. Ken at Dave Bean rebuilt brake calipers, steering box and rear suspension uprights. Engine was built by Paradise Motorsports. Bored + .040 with JE forged pistons. Purchased a Weber head with 1.625 intake valves and a Norris 407 lift 280 duration cam from Chis at Elans and Sevens. New dcoe 40 151 carburetors. Removable Dave Bean cassette water pump. Pertronix 2 distributor, 40 amp Denso mini alternator, gear reduction clockable starter, aluminum flywheel for street 8.5” clutch. A 26R style wide radiator and swirlpot and aluminum gas tank from RD. Electric cooling fan with shroud. Complete new British Wire harness. Replaced headlights with 26R
Style and LEDs to allow front wheel tub modifications to fit wider 15” billet aluminum wheels made by Image wheels in the UK. I built the fender flares using the original wheel openings tilted out 30 mm at the top.
With increased weight, chassis stiffness and tire contact size it handles very predictably and is super stable. Sticks to the road in corners. Not as nimble and easy to break loose as originally but for a 67 year old that doesn’t want any drama it feels pretty good.
Winston.
A few more obsessions are acces panels to upper rear suspension. Cut corner of fiberglass footwell so heater valve can be replaced. Added catch can for crank case and valve cover vents instead of going to airbox. True CV joint on front of steering column. Fit rear lower door corners.
I love the Wedgewood Blue! Well thought out and interesting modifications. By chance have you had an opportunity to weigh her? I’m curious how much weight was added over a traditional Elan.
Lotex,
Not sure about the accuracy of the truck scale used or my memory as it was a couple of years ago but I believe she was 1640 lbs. This was before I put in the wooden floor in the trunk (boot)and the Caterham headrests. It did include the 16 gauge steel bulkhead added below the stiffener connecting the rear uprights as seen behind the sound deadening at the front of the trunk (boot).
Also includes aluminum trim panels replacing all of the cardboard or Masonite interior panels. Probably most of the additional weight is in the frame stiffening modifications and larger wheels and tires. Some additional glass fiber in fender flares and reinforcement of floors.
Winston
Wow, love it! Especially the method for adding camber and toe at the rear. I can adjust toe but not camber, it is a mod I have earmarked for the future if uneven tyre wear becomes an issue on the drag strip. With regard to stiffness at the front, I have made solid engine mounts so it is part of the structure. Doors appear to fit pretty well, did they need much fettling?
Steve,
Lots of glass fiber work to get the doors to fit and body work to tighten up the shut gaps everywhere. I thought I put a lot of work into this car until I see what you have done with yours. The castor-camber adjustment on rear suspension seems to work well, especially with the wider tires. I subscribed to your YouTube channel and look forward to future episodes. Gunna be a sweet ride!!
Winston
Great car and workmanship. I am currently building an Elan exactly as I want it, so yes it’s modified, probably will have its fair share of detractors but ultimately you own the car so why not build it how you want.
That is a nice fit. Yes, it takes a bit of fettling to get a decent fit. The Youtube channel started by accident. I couldn’t upload videos directly to Retrorides so I had to load them on to Youtube and then copy and paste the URL. However, the guys following my thread on RR don’t seem to like videos much so I won’t be doing so many but they are fun to make, even if not very professional
No great advice or tricks. Lots of grinding, glassing and sanding. Not much fun. Mods to bottom corner were done with window frames out and I had to remove material from inside the door after moving outer skin in to fit frames back in. Splining and gapping of shuts was done with frames, latches and rubber seals installed. Unfortunately after painting and final assembly with new rubber seals that weren’t as compressed, the door stuck out a bit. Luckily I was able to adjust the striker by moving it inboard and rotating it to pull the bottom of the door back into line.
Because I was already doing so much glass fiber repair and modification it wasn’t so much more to tackle the door issue, but with a decent original car it might not be worth the effort and may detract from what is considered to be a factory original feature of hand built Elans.
Pretty much how I did it, although I was working with carbon fibre doors made using the original (twisted) doors as donors. What did you build the doors up with? I used P40.
I set the gap using cardboard stuck to the door frame then sanded to my satisfaction, how did you do it?
