You got to rummage thru a garage with Lotus Elan parts? Can I come over?
Seriously, your making good progress Tim. Great to watch someone else go through the rebuilding of an Elan. Looking forward to your next steps.
Update by Tim Suddard to the
Lotus Elan project car
Feb 9, 2016
Steve Sanguinetti of Blast Masters shows us what we have underneath that cracked old paint.
Then left half of this hood has been soda blasted and the right side has yet to be done.
With our Lotus disassembled, its was time to make the trek to Riviera Beach, Florida where we would entrust the media blasting once again to Blast Masters. Owners Steve and Debbie did a great job on both our Mini Cooper S and Tornado Typhoon projects and we knew they would treat us right on the Elan as well.
The fact that Steve races an early Elan made this one even more personal, and they were excited to be part of this crazy project.
We chose soda blasting for this project, as it would clean the old paint off while not damaging the original fiberglass.
After a quick test, Steve suggested we scrape the thick layers of non-original peeling paint and then continue with the soda blasting. Blasting the built up areas well enough to remove everything was allowing too much soda to hit the nearby bare areas. They key here is to go to somebody who knows what they’re doing, otherwise you can quickly ruin your project.
While visiting we would rummage through their garage. They had some extra Elan parts we needed, including an original wood dashboard and some smaller trim pieces that we were missing.
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You got to rummage thru a garage with Lotus Elan parts? Can I come over?
Seriously, your making good progress Tim. Great to watch someone else go through the rebuilding of an Elan. Looking forward to your next steps.
We are assembling the engine in a couple of weeks. From there, I will start gluing the body back together and then tackle the frame and suspension. It really is going better than I thought, so far. But, we are far from the finish line on this one.
Tim, do you expect to have the Elan done by August 2016?
Bring it to the Lotus Owners Gathering (LOG36) in Princeton NJ August 5 to 7, 2016. You will be surrounded by everything Lotus and a fair number of Elan owners who will take great interest in your restoration project. This is an event not to be missed! www.log36.com
I Doubt the car will be done in time for LOG 36, but I was thinking of coming anyway.
Bring it in the state you have it. I have been to a couple of LOG's where cars were pushed off the trailer and onto the lot. It will still be the conversation piece!
Never the less, it would be great for you to join us at LOG36 sans car. I'm sure we can hook you up with someone that has a road going Lotus ;-)
In reply to CertifiedLotus:
Holy crap! This is happening right across from where I used to work and about two miles from my ex's house (and about 30 miles from mine). It's technically Plainsboro, but Princeton is often the mailing address. The actual town of Princeton is a few miles away. On the plus side, there are many hotels in the area. I've eaten at the onsite restaurant and it's decent.
Hopefully I can make it, but that would be a haul from Daytona for a car show with an incomplete car.
I am not sure I will actually try to bring the car this year. Depends how far along I am.
Tim, hope you can make it to the LOG with or without the car. They are always a good time. I am hoping to bring both my elans this year. A 66' that's going to be a vintage racer, and a 68' Super Safety that's getting a rolling restoration.
Good luck
Paul
In reply to paulmpetrun:
We're going to need some photos of those two cars ASAP...
Tim, When the Elan project is complete, we have to get together and get a picture both your car and Steve's car. Great excuse to see you guys again!
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