Home at last

After a year's hard work by Max........

It's so good to drive.........

Took the car down to Fibreglass Services last week to have the flexing panel reinforced and the paint crack repaired. An eventful journey - Max was driving the Elan with me following... and suddenly petrol began to pour from the rear offside of the car. We stopped and investigated, and clearly the tank had sprung a leak - we had about 2 inches of petrol in the boot.

We decided to continue down to Arundel where we siphoned out the remaining petrol.

So, down to Arundel again today to collect the car. Miles and Ian have done a fantastic job - the paint crack has been repaired and the panel reinforced, a new tank has been fitted and a brake servo also installed, as we decided that there was just too much brake pedal pressure required for safe stopping.

Inspection of the old tank showed yet another older bodged repair had failed.

I drove the car back to Lakeside. Fantastic steering and ride, very comfortable and rather quick. I really enjoyed it.

No sign of problems due to wind-up of the Rotoflex couplings, which I remembered from our old +2. Lighter car, lower final drive.

Definitely need a drivers-side door mirror.

We noticed that the speedo seems to be a long way out so that will need to be addressed, if only by subtraction (don't go faster than indicated 20 in a 30, 30 in a 40 etc.) for now. Calibration so far by me driving at a constant speed, 30, 40 etc. indicating to Max, following in the Mini what speed I was doing and him noting the speed as shown on the Mini speedo. A new worm gear may be required, if one can be found with the correct ratio.

The even better news is that the car should be home next week. :-)

Only minor adjustments required now.

First impressions.

First, brief, trip in the car today with Max driving.

Really good performance and the suspension, grip, roadholding and balance are outstanding -  it was years ahead of the industry at the time it was built. 

Noisy and a few rattles, but I knew that would be the case. With a 4 speed gearbox and ratios chosen for acceleration  - above 65 in 4th is loud! 

Overall, really delighted. 

Still a few snags to be investigated and fixed.

I'm now a member of Club Lotus and have asked them to carry out an "agreed value" valuation for insurance purposes. The car in now rather more valuable than a year ago - I hope!

"The crack"

We have a MOT!

MOT passed yesterday with flying colours, great news.

Tax disc on it's way from DVLA.

There's a lengthy snag list, unfortunately including a paintwork crack on the rear vertical panel due to very thin glass fibre flexing just below the boot lid, so it may be a few weeks before the car is home.

Doors, screen, seats

Apologies for the lack of recent updates. I've been busy moving house.

Thanks to Max for continuing with the work, and for sending the pictures below.

We've made the decision to replace the dynamo with an alternator. This should help avoid the usual problems with having to switch everything off to keep the car running even if it's dark. :-)

Doors on, windscreen in!

Driver's seat, before and after.

Now all I need is enough garage space to put the car in when it's back on the road - hopefully in March.

Dashboard in