Scottish Elises

Didn't think this was photographery enough for gallery, nor mechanical enough for technical, so i've stuck it in general.

This is the story of a great friendship. It's only been a couple of years and they've been anything but boring!

I suppose it really started in 96 when I first saw photos of an Elise. I was 14 and I knew I had to have one one day. I had to wait 11 years for that day to come along, and it come sooner than I thought! I popped into a local garage to look at an old Fiat 124 convertible, and saw an Elise sitting there. It was silver, not my first choice, but it was an Elise...

The deal was done and it was mine. We had some good times, in the sun


Met some new people


Even a bit of off roading


Sometimes we were caught out in the rain


Others we pushed on hard in the dry

May you have a long and happy life together, truley touching story

P.S She's beautiful

mwmackenzie wrote:May you have a long and happy life together, truley touching story

There's more to come, I am leading somewhere with this

Chris

Great stuff Chris, that is what S_E is all about.

tut

It wasn't all rosy.

Gaskets were blown, big parts needed replacing, updating and some simply wore out.

Worst of all mistakes were made and Mr. Gaffer was brought in to hold everything together for a while.


Things weren't running too straight either. This lead to a toe link upgrade kit which was actually fairly straight forward to fit. I took it easy and had it done within a couple of days, then roughly set my geo with a couple of axle stands and a washing line.
After only 2 attempts, spread by a short shakedown run, the car was actually driving pretty straight and wasn't too unpredictable. There was no question a geo setup was needed though so I booked it in. (big thumbs up to CLCM in Edinburgh, Willie is a really great guy who was patient enough to answer my questions and explain things that i'm sure are second nature to him!)

It was time to access the damage, start weighing up costs and making lists of parts required.


Other friends were going to suffer as the lead project was about to change. The rusty little bugger was about to be put to one side, and just after fitting some tasty new callipers in my quest for fitting silly little wheels to it!


The Mini hasn't really moved from that spot in maybe 4 months now. It does have a grill now, but the clutch cylinder is seized so it doesn't go far!

I found another one of these:

- that's the broken one, I was thinking of maybe doing some funky pot planting or something Reckon it'll probably make its way to eBay soon enough.

The replacement was already primed (though about a year previous) and was from a later car. I found it in the midlands, which was handy as I was heading that way anyway, it just meant I was taking a hire van rather than a taped up Lotus. Best of all it hadn't been repaired at all, and was only 250 quid. The guy was glad to get rid of it as it took up space in his bodyshop/van and I was happy with the bargain (even if it was the later style clam).

For future reference, boot box clams fit early cars with only a few mods (thanks to those who told me it was possible).
These include (in no particular order):
Drilling out 3 alloy panels
Fitting 6 new rivnuts into chassis longerons
Sawing a bit off the exhaust heatshield (where it angles up towards the rear)
drilling out 6 old rivnuts that held the alloy uprights that you've removed
Relocating the ECU and figuring out a way to mount the other wiring within reach unless you want to separate the loom
I cut a hole in the boot box and run the parts in to save extending the loom for the rear lights section.
Also if you retain the original alloy boot lid, you'll need to cut the straight upright portion at the back of the boot box as the later fibreglass boot lid seemingly sits higher.

As for the boot box clam is heavier, having lifted both by myself, i'd say there isn't really much in it.

mwmackenzie wrote:P.S She's beautiful

She's actually pretty rough

Part 3 coming soon...

Chris

So, having fitted the clam, and now having a car that was 2/3s silver and 1/3 primer grey, with a couple of azure blue scratches coming through on the edge of the spoiler.

Didn't take any photos of the primer grey rear clam unfortunately so you'll have to imagine it. I actually really liked it, but it was a complete magnet for dirty and almost impossible to clean so something had to be done!

So I spent most of the 23rd of December taking bits off the car.
Removed all the lights, and accessories from the rear clam (if you do this, remove the clam before removing the bits that hold the tensioned parts of the soft top as the brackets fall into the depths of the engine and take a while to find!

Removed the doors and seats, headlamps and indicators, grill etc... Couldn't get the front clam off but we decided just to leave it on. This is how I left it prior to Christmas:


The car was prep'd by the time I saw it next. The bodyshop were just finishing stripping any adhesive from the final door, with all other panels sanded down and cataloyed where required. It was funny to see such a small car taking up so much space!


Work begun on the paint, the car started to morph into a strange balloon. It was almost like it was The Prisoner trying to escape from the village

It was a drastic decision, but that silver just had to go. I've never really liked silver cars, I think they are too popular and I think the Elise should stand out of the crowd (more so than it already does!) I wanted something different, something that i'd not seen too often and having seen photos of Alan and Jen's orange beauty, I knew it had to be bright.

My short list was drawn up, and at first included orange, but I wasn't convinced, especially in Dundee with any dark blues fans maybe taking a dislike to me if I painted it orange, plus I didn't want to ruin the uniqueness of the burnt orange special.

I'd been considering white too, but then the mule was recently white too, and I wasn't sure it was bright enough. The boss at the body shop was a bit reluctant with my choice, having already painted a similar car the colour I had chosen, but that car had quite a lot of black to it toning it down a bit. He was also a bit fan of white Elises as his son had a white s2 in the past.

Anyway, things are starting to come together, the replacement clam waiting in the spray booth with the edges and underside already having a coat for good measure.


and the same with the front clam, and the sills starting to look good...


and as it sits today (photos from yesterday) according to my mobile, i've decided to paint the car this colour:


but my 400D Canon has a slightly different interpretation of the colour, and i'm sure any DSLR users will know how good canon colours can be...




Now she's beautiful, or at least 1/3 of her


Will keep you all posted on the rest of the rebuild. Paint is completed, rear clam is nearly ready to go on, i've just got to drill and fit the new rivnuts for holding the clam from the boot box floor.

I'm waiting for some bits like repeater lenses and some window seals, and still have a couple of bits to order.
I reused old parts where I could to keep the costs down, using some fantastic weatherproof double sided tape by Wurth to refit the main door seals, but other bits simply need replaced.
I've also replaced the wiper arm with an s2 item and probably done the easiest 52mm throttle body fitments on an Elise as engine access with no rear clam is great!

Chris - happy but skint

Looks

What colour is it? Kawazaki green?

Stu

Tres

You're thinking in the right direction. Triumph roulette green - heavily inspired by cammy/gareths old 340r, whoever had the Street Triple on here (mckean / lazy / someone else?) and also the fact that it's been funded from my motorbike fund!

(no bike for me this year)

Chris

I'm currently doing the same, trying to decide on colour as we speak, Mrs Me is getting very tired of it all hahahaha


Looks well COOL

Corranga wrote:Triumph roulette green - heavily inspired by cammy/gareths old 340r, whoever had the Street Triple on here (mckean / lazy / someone else?) and also the fact that it's been funded from my motorbike fund!

(no bike for me this year)

Chris

It was VXJON who had the roulette green street triple, and what a beauty it was too. I bought ddtb's white one, but it didnt stay pristine white for very long

Cheers Mckeann, I knew someone had a green one, saw one up near my work when I was deciding between green/orange/white for the Lotus.
It's probably my favourite bike and seeing it there was enough to seal the deal. Green it was to be

Chris

Respect young man, ballsy colour choice

Looks wicked loving the colour ~need more pic's when its finished but thanks for the great write up

Corranga wrote:As for the boot box clam is heavier, having lifted both by myself, i'd say there isn't really much in it.
Chris

The two differant clam types I've weighed are 26'5kg for later fiberglass boot box and 19kg for the alloy boot box with out the boot floor or alloy bulkhead so perhaps 4 kg in it although that was just on a set of digital bathroom scales