Lotus Elan +2 + mk2 Swidget

It looks pretty grim to me!


It probably would be possible to do something with sleeves and overbored bearings but as you say parts aren't difficult to come by.

I got lucky on mine a few yesrs ago and picked up secondhand +2 rack of a guernsey car which had only done a few thousand miles and was being re-built as a spyder.

At a loose end so i got one of the roundtuit jobs done.
This was the state the boot has been in for the last year (albeit with the wiring / pipes neatly tied up), it was out of sight, out of mind and definately down the priority list



Should have a false floor, so i got some 11mm ply and made one, also aware that anything floating around in there could smack the inner of the single skin rear wings, i added some side impact protection.

Good idea on the side boards, mine has a large star crack where something has hit it from the inside.

On mine I have a seperate part over the battery so you don't have to take the whole lot out to connect / disconnect charge etc.

Not really got anything major left to do on the elan, so this has left a major hole in my spare time.
The devil makes work for idle hands as they say, so a plan has been forming.
Today I picked up this


And this


Engine is from a 1.3 swift GTi. Ally block twin cam with factory forged crank and rods, the gearbox is from an sj413 which will convert it to rwd.

The plan is that currently I don't have space or money for another car until I've sold a motorbike or 2, so this gives me something to do until that problem is sorted. As you can see they both need a good clean and the engine will get at least a strip and check.

I've fancied doing an engine swap for a while and seriously considering  putting them in a midget or sprite, it's been done before
www.ado13.com/dohczuke/dohc.htm
Should be some nice lightweight summertime fun

I had the old manifold plated at the start of the build. Asked my mate for nickel, but his boss understandably wouldn't let a used exhaust contaminate the solution, so I got zinc instead.
This looked great at first but quickly burnt off and turned into a white powdery residue.
Decided to sort it this year, so I had a stainless one delivered yesterday. Gave it a polish and fitted today, also got the carbs and airbox back on and most of the water pipes - just waiting for some more jubilee clips



the 15 year old daily passed it's MOT too, so it's been a fairly productive day

Was that sweet little Suzi engine in good shape internally? Did you have to do bearings? John

In the last 3 weeks I've been to see 3 midgets and a sprite, ranging from very cheap to about £5.5k
The very cheap one was once a race car apparently, was fairly solid, but the weight of the patches was probably more than the original shell. Stripped to bits and no v5
The expensive one was at a dealer, typical dealer car really, had a blowover on the sills at least (there was still masking tape behind the jacking covers), A posts were rotten inside, chequered MOT history.
Just got back from another viewing, rubber bumper conversion, £3k, but the advert jumped to £3.5k after I'd expressed an interest! Described as needing paintwork, but in reality needed inner and outer sills, boot floor corners, front chassis legs were like flakey pastry. Required bare metal strip and repaint due to shrinkage and moisture contamination.
The sprite was about the best, but not pretty, poor bodywork for a 5k car, for example, had the front 5" of bonnet replaced and the welded join was obvious from about 10m
Of the 4 I've not even been tempted to make an insulting offer.
The only slightly redeeming thing is that I've not driven for more that an hour each way to see a car yet. I have to say though if I'd done 2 or 3 hours based on the sellers descriptions to see any of the above, I'd be pretty miffed.

That's all, just wanted to vent..

This could be the ideal transplant for a Reliant Kitten.?

Woohoo
Winner winner chicken dinner.
Pics to follow when I've picked it up.
In short it's a MK2 midget, wire wheels, hard and soft top, period bucket seats with 4 point harness, Ivor Searle 1275 engine.