Lotus Elan +2 + mk2 Swidget

Not the best of news on the suspension uprights.
A mate has milled off the corrosion down to the bottom of the circlip groove on one and that's looking good, the other upright is slightly worse for wear though, It's been the recipient of some gorilla mechanic in the past who has bludgeoned it in what looks like an attempt to remove the damper tube.



This has left it misshapen and I'd hoped didn't distort things too much. When we got the crumbling ally out of the way the interference fit wheel bearing, now cleaned of picture just dropped in, the recess is actually 0.5mm too wide, worse still was that the bearing shoulder which it sits against had been put out of shape so the bearing wobbled side to side. All in we've decided it's not salvageable without major surgery and even then it would still have the worrying deformation and possible cracks.
Just stumped up for a pair of second hand ones.

Proper mucky, but got them all stripped and now soaking prior to cleaning. All 8 pistons were seized, but typically the last one was an absolute pig and I had to resort to plan z (last resort)








The plan is to get one set of calipers painted which i'll keep and have the others zinc plated along with all of the various pins and springs for the factory fresh look. Fit new pistons and seals to both and then one set should go a fair way to paying towards something like driveshafts or a water pump conversion

It feels like a long time since i've made any meaningful progress and it been a frustrating 6 weeks or so.
To recap, the rear suspension was stripped and partially knackered, fuel tank was a bit rotten and the diff mounts had disintegrated.
I managed to save one suspension leg for peanuts and brought a second hand one from eBay, this turned out to be more knackered than the one I was binning, so that went back and fed up with worn out rubbish I stumped up £320 for a brand new one made in steel. This got lost for 2 weeks by dpd and when it did turn up I reckon half its weight was swarf trapped in the cavities.
Anyway, the legs are rebuilt and waiting to go in



New shocks, springs and adjustable spring perches.

Lots of small jobs been done recently, not enough to merit posting, plus i did get a little sidetracked by this



Should be fun puttering about in the summer. 1933 vintage too and surprisingly not that expensive for what it is.
Back on the car and i've had a very exciting day, after quite a while i've picked up the various engine components from the machine shop and it appears they've done an exceptional job.
Crank regrind on mains and big ends, block honed and decked, head has new guides, new seats which have been cut to give perfect cam clearances, converted to 'big valve spec' faced and finally its been ported and the combustion chambers smoothed and polished by someone who really knows their onions. I've also been supplied with new valves, shell bearings and pistons rings, all top spec.
Obviously this hasn't been cheap, but aside from the porting it was all required as the engine was well worn out, plus being a fairly iconic engine it deserves the best. Its not as eyewateringly expensive as i was originally thinking. My theory is to build the important things as best as possible, i can go without carpets and trinkets for quite a while. Plus I'm saving a ton of cash by doing everything else myself. (Except recovering the seats, which should start this weekend)
On the way home i dropped the crank, flywheel, pistons and rods with an excellent engine balancer near Lutterworth.
Enough of me chatting

I quess its not the best season assuming your workshop is a bit cold. It really makes a lot of difference with these screen rubbers when temps are low. 
The dashboard looks very nice and you made the best decision to get the engine rebuild properly and waiting with carpets ect.
Keep up the good work
Peter

Again, along the £9 theme, i scored this stainless backbox months ago from ebay (with free postage!). Its cracked where the pipe enters the backbox, but it looked like a stress fracture rather than rust failure.



Turns out it was and i welded it up and gave it a quick clean tonight. Not perfect, but i can't grumble for that money and 45mins of my time



Thats the one good thing about doing a longer project, i generally do a bike in 3 months and the chances of nuggets like this appearing for sale are slim, so i end up paying over the odds or buying new. With a longer project, i've learnt to e a bit more patient and sooner or later the right part will turn up for the right price.
I don't think i mentioned i also got hold of a set of CV driveshafts, brought by someone but never fitted courtesy of a facebook group. £200 cheaper than list, so they cost me about the same as renewing the 4 crappy rubber doughnuts

Excellent work, and I admire both your patience, thriftiness and organized approach to the project. It's interesting to see how these were made and the challenges tthey throw back at you now. I wonder if the owner who commissioned the chassis swap ran out of shekels and couldn't afford to do all the other stuff it would have been sensible to do while it was all apart....suspension, etc? I'm also impressed you were able to get all of that gunge out of the block. As for the obligatory story, no my Dad didn't have one (he had a vile J-reg Maxi), but my friend's Dad had a JPS-liveried +2S I got to ride in as a 7-8'year old in Bristol. Thanks for documenting it. John, Connecticut/USA

Thought i'd have a quick inspection of the gearbox today. The input shaft has a bit of a wobble and grumbles a bit when turning.
Whipped the bellhousing and inspection cover off, no obvious nasties, so i took off the front seal / bearing cover





😣

So thats the input bearing cage disintegrated. Now, common sense says that the gearbox will need a rebuild as i don't know how long its been like that and what consequential damage has occured. On the other hand, there is no budget to pay someone to do it and gearboxes seem to be a bit of a dark art. So i'm trying to decide if i can just get away with replacing the bearing.
I've tried to remove the bearing and while its free from the housing it seems to be stuck on the shaft, anyone have any experience or wisdom please?

Gearbox back together, replacement tailshaft housing fitted  (old one was crackedc) new bearings, seals, gaskets and 1 x selector fork. That lot was about £150 of unexpected expenditure, but the last thing i want when the car is finally on the road is to take the box out. The gearbox wasn't as much of a mission as i thought it would be, i suppose being a 50 year old design makes it relatively simple and actually getting stuck into it taught me alot. Don't fear the unknown!