UniBrain Trust

The Lotus Elan internet mailing list and forum has been aching for a place to keep historical information on the Elan. Several years ago lotuselan.net pulled the registry because the email addresses were being harvested and no one stepped up to replace it. Well, last week in a conversation on the mailing list I decided to put together a registry.

There is lots left to do, but at least it is functional.

It seems the interior is taking forever and the more progress I make, the more I have to undo. Today I worked “finished” the under carpet padding and started to assemble the package shelf.

In putting things together and thinking ahead to the carpet installation, it made sense to unbolt the roll-bar. After realizing installation of the carpet and other things would be easier without the roll-bar, it still took me a couple of hours to commit to the removal. Getting the last couple of bolts in was a major effort that I’m not looking forward to doing again.

I’m finding the work from here forward is going to be rather order dependent. Today I think the order needs to be

1. Carpet Pad
2. Package Shelf
3. Carpet
4. Headliner
5. Sail Panels
6. Door Gaskets
7. A-Pillar Trim
8. Roll-bar
9. Front and Rear Windows
10. Center Console
11. Under dash Trim
12. Doors

I’m sure I’m missing something or have something out of order and I’ll figure that out one step too late.

I finished recovering the door panels with new vinyl. If I don’t say so myself, it looks very
good, even better than the original.

A couple of lessons learned during the process.

• Back the vinyl with some thin, and I mean very thin, foam rubber.
  This smoothes the surface of the fiberglass and gives a luxurious look.
• Use four hands. Having someone to help apply clamps while you pull
  the vinyl into place makes the job almost easy
• Use the high strength paint on contact adhesive. The normal
  strength doesn’t bond as quickly and spray is hard to control
• Use plenty of clamps. I used binder clips because they were the right size and cheap
• You need a little heat and a lot of patience when stretching the vinyl for the center cutout. I stretched the vinyl into place and let it sit overnight before releasing it long enough to let the contact cement set.