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Parts???

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Well, I've got it home and doing careful assessment of my purchase and feeling buyers remorse! Car has been rode hard and put up wet! The only good part of the purchase I'm feeling is that it is a S1 which I am partial to the looks of and are hard to come by.
Car was sidelined with a broken trans input shaft spigot in 1980 but was thoroughly thrashed before that. Mileage unknown and speedo and tach missing. Other items missing as well that I though were in the big box of parts. Hope the PO can find them. Serial is 3754 and I am the third owner. Seats are near perfect and timing chain adjustment has a lot left on it. Hope thats good for something. Engine is stuck though so tear down is required. Not much to see in a pic but will try to figure out how to load one later. Waiting on parts catalogs and I'm sure some things are impossible to find--like speedo and tach.

Kurt.
 
The trans input shaft? Or the bushing?

My experience with machine shops doing work on commercial TRUCKS has been better than going to "speed shop" places. I'd be looking for one of those outfits and asking a lot of questions of the machinists. Bushing and grinding the shaft to spec come to mind. Did that with the +2 shaft.
 
Just the sleeve the throwout bearing runs on, Doc. I was told the early trans had trouble with that and replacing it with a later one was the cure. Stuck engine is more of a concern. I've unstuck just lightly stuck ones and tryed to run them without success so I will have to tear that down.

Kurt.
 
Kurt - do not despair! You'll find out what yo ucan get and where. Speedo and Tach, for example, are still made new by the successor company to Smith's, see here. They have US agents - Nisonger and Gaugeguys for example.
 
Thanks much, Roger! I should have thought about a query to Nisonger!
My wife won't let me retire so am busy right now. Remind me how to post a pic and I'll get one up when it rains here in a day or two. The serious restoration work will have to wait till I clear some other projects and actually do something that makes money. Going to pour about a cup of diesel fuel in each cylinder and put the carbs in a bucket of the same till I can get at them and thats about it. Body off first and maybe a rotissery to work with it on. Thought it had never been damaged but found some cracked filler in the front. Will have to repair the bridge work around the doors and along the bottom of the body. That will be a bear!

Kurt.
 
We've used Nisonger's repair service for decades. Now that they're signed with Caerbont (happened within the last decade, IIRC) we've got "direct access" to all gauges.

Roger said it: Don't despair! We're on this forum as a resource as well as for finding info so, ask what you need to find or find out. I don't know Roger personally but suspect he's got similar experience to LotusPosition and self. LP and I have known each other for, ummm, over thirty-five years, founding members of what Bean's crew dubbed: "The Western Pennsylvania Lotus Mafia". At one point back-when, there were five Elans and a Europa within a ten mile radius, same zip code. I drove mine as a daily transport for well over a decade. Roger's .sig file implies similar familiarity.
You're among the BTDT Elan crowd. :wink: :thumbsup:


EDIT: FOUND THIS

THAT could be ~one~ answer to the engine issue :laugh: :jester:
 
Thanks for the words of encouragement, Doc. As for the engine, thats twice what I've got in the car! Didn't realize that kind of power could be had with that engine, and with a 2 valve head. Why are the fast 4 cylinders now all running 4 and 5 valve heads!?

Kurt.
 
Somewhere in my S1's sordid history the dash was lost along with all the guages!

Wonder if any readers MIGHT have a elan s1 tach and speedo laying around that they don't need. Dual guage would be nice as well.

If my parts list needed doesn't work out the car may become a Rat Rod!

Kurt.
 
I've got a "blank" dash here, not an accurate Genuine Lotus one but a "homebrew" cut out by a local woodworker. It has the holes cut out for the gauges and mounting screws but the switches, radio and ash-tray holes are un-cut.
...and I don't plan to use it for any of my cars... :wink:

The dual temp/OP gauge is common to MANY of the Brit cars, so someone may have a second lyin' about.
I have a NOS one in the box, but THAT is earmarked for <span style="font-style: italic"><span style="font-weight: bold">me</span></span>. :devilgrin:

Please, no RatRod!!! :cry: :nonono: :eeek: :sick:
 
Well I mentioned it before but thought I'd mention it again. Appreciate the offer much, Doc, but the one thing I've got is a dash needing reveneer that the seller had lying around. I've found guages but price is a bit prohibitive. 140 mph speedo's with a single indicator light are hard to come by and so are the tach's with gen and brite light's. Course its the early tach which are known to not work to well with electronic ign. Thought perhaps someone was out there making up guage faces so that I could build something from there but apparently not. The dual guage isn't that big a deal cept the ones I have have male thereads on the bulb and I need female.

Again thanks,

Kurt.
 
Keep in mind that your S1 may have not have had a full width dash. The early ones had a 2/3 width dash with a cubby hole instead of a glove box.
 
LotusPosition said:
Keep in mind that your S1 may have not have had a full width dash. The early ones had a 2/3 width dash with a cubby hole instead of a glove box.
Click to expand...

3754 serial no? I have both dash'es early and full but no cubby. Former owner led me to believe this should have the split dash. Is that right or should I just fit the later one. I personally like the early the best if I can find the rest of it or details on how to make it. On that subject, are there any good sources for original construction details or just good photos of correct cars.

BTW if I decide to just "rat rod" it I wouldn't do anything that couldn't be easily reversed but say for the guages alone I could fit a full set of SW guages for the price of a reconditioned tach!! Could just put it together and wait for the right parts or the right car!

Kurt
 
Kurt, I'm going to give the same advice on both the forums where you have asked about gauges.
1. Don't be in too much of a hurry to get them. You have a bunch of work to do and gauges get fitted toward the end of the process. Let time find 'em for you.

2. There's nothing special about Lotus gauges - they were made by Smiths Instruments and I'm pretty sure came straight out of someone's parts bin. I cannot offhand remember where the tach and speedo originate (Triumph perhaps?), but if you keep looking on eBay you'll see dozens of Smiths gauges. For example, a 4-cylinder electronic tach is pretty generic, find the latest one you can of the right size, preferably one that's been converted to modern technology.

3. Unless you strive for originality, get the later electric dual gauge and senders. The earlier mechanical types with their oil pipes and tubes are more fragile and can leak.
 
Probably right, Roger, I guess I'm trying to decide how to move forward on it but as you mention, interior is last. Good point as well on the dual guage. I didn't know that you could get one that was electric on the oil. I can't worry to much about originality with this car but I like the looks of the early interior and getting close would be nice. Main problem with the tach and speedo are the indicator lights. Dave Bean can get them for me but with tach converted for electronic ign theyre talking a grand for the pair.

First move will have to be body off! Spridget stuff to finish to make room actually.

Kurt.
 
Nomad,
Good luck with the S1! I've owned 2 Elans, a very late S2, and now an early S2 which is all S1 except the full width dash. Mine was also missing the original dash, all the original dash knobs, but still had the original gauges and switchs. Gauges aren't as much of an issue as the windshield washer/wiper switch, choke, heater pull, cigar lighter, vacuum headlight switch, and hood pulls. Switches are easy and can be fould anywhere. Since my dash was missing everything except the gauges I've decided to make my own dash which is almost complete.

My suggestion is to buy new gauges which will need to have black bessels for the S1, find new or old switchs off of eBay, and forget about finding the other dash stuff until it's reproduced because no matter how much eBay searching you do you won't find them unless you're the luckiest parts finder ever. Another item you won't find is the dash pad. If you have one in good shape your very lucky. If your vacuum pods are history and you don't have a vacuum switch you might want to concider Miata headlight motors instead. I hate to be all doom and gloom but alot of the S1 parts are not going to be easy to find or will be very expensive even if some of them are Triumph, many more are unique tot he early Elans.

Have you checked out these sites yet?
https://www.elanregistry.org/
https://www.type26register.com/
 
64Elan:
I think you just made up my mind! I haven't even tryed to source that stuff yet and most of what you mentioned is gone. have the windscreen wiper washer and any switch that could be pushed out of the dash. The car has Texas plates and I'm betting when he moved up to this northern country he drained the eng and rad but water always stays in the heater core. Dash was removed to get at it and his method was to leave all of the switches hooked up to the wires and just push them out of the dash. Of course any knobs had to come off and all of the cables were removed by simply pulling the cable part out and leaving the housing. Soooo, it looks like I'll be going down a path similiar to yours. Yes, already planning on miata pod movers since my vacuum cylinders are toast and new are $500. Switch gone as well. Dash is there but covered in heavy naugahyde. Hate to think whats underneath. Thanks.

Kurt.
 
Kurt,

The dash pad I had still had the foam but all the original covering had been removed and it was covered in a very thin black cloth. Since new pads aren't available I was told by several local car interior people to go to "Just Dashes". I contacted them and they needed the car on site and wanted $1500. After looking around I found a guy a couple miles from me that said he could cover it in vinyl for $150 including material. He told me up front it wouldn't be perfect and it wasn't, but given what I gave him to start with, I was very pleased.As far as the dash goes, my car has hood pins installed very early in it's life. So I've eliminated the hood pulls from the dash. I also eliminated the cigar lighter, choke (Webers don't need one anyway), vacuum switch replaced with Lucas switch and Miata motors,heater cable replaced with valve under dash (never use heater anyway), windshield washer switch removed and replaced with another Lucas switch. I had the Fuel, Tach, and Speedo rebuilt by Nosinger and had the Tach built as negitive ground with electronic ignition.I found vintage mechanical 270 degree sweep water and oil pressure gauges to replace the dual gauge which I kept and put away. I also found a 60's NOS Smith's volt gauge and I'm adding anew Smith's clock. So the dash will have 5 gauges, 7 Lucas toogle switches, and an ignition switch when done. I think it will look cleaner and purposeful when done without alot of cluter. If I'm ever lucky enough to find everything to make the dash complete and stock someday it won't be alot of work to make the switch.

I know you're a ways from enjoying the Elan, but take it from someone who has owned and driven 2 early Elans and also owned and driven Alpines, Tigers, Bugeyes, Miatas, and an Alfa Duetto. The Elan is a very special car. The only car I liked almost as much was the Alfa. The Miatas are incredible but lack the sensory experience of a Vintage sports car. In other words you won't be disappointed at all, so enjoy.

Any pictures you can share at this point?

,Russ
 
Thanks for the comeback, Russ.
I've got a very poor internet connection and am blaming some of that on not being able, at this time, to load pictures. That and the fact that my computer skills amount mainly to being able to turn it on and type! The only kid I have around to help has technophobia!! Wants to drop out and live off the land! I have a miata and spridgets (wife claims the miata for creature comforts). Miata, while a great car, seems heavy and without much road feel compared to spridgets so I am looking forward to driving the Elan.
Will try to get pics up.

Kurt.
 
As a minor point of interest, Kurt, the Elan was referred to as a "Super Sprite" in some circles back-in-the-day.
 
Sue Miller in England lists S3 and 4 dash pads in fibreglass at 130GBP, but price TBA for S1.

I went to see Sue when I was over there last month - great lady and a wonderful Elan resource. Mick Miller Classic Lotus
 
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