Lotus Restorations
Over the years we have carried out a number of major renovation and restoration projects to various models of classic Lotus. Each has brought its own challenges, but have been enjoyable and rewarding, and as always, it's great to be able to do our bit in keeping examples of one the great classic British sports cars marques on the road.
Lotus Elan +2S 130/5 restoration
We undertook a full restoration on a Lotus Elan +2S 130/5 that had been off the road for nearly 30 years. The owner had planned to restore the car but never quite got round to it and eventually decided to sell...
We bought the car as a project as it appeared to be very original and benefited from a galvanised chassis in good condition. However, those were about the only positive points and a complete restoration was required.
The body was stripped out and removed from the car, the chassis and wishbones cleaned up and then repainted. The gearbox and differential were overhauled, solid driveshafts fitted, brakes fully reconditioned, wishbone bushes and wheel bearings replaced, new springs and dampers fitted. The wheels were refurbished and new tyres fitted.
Once the rolling chassis was complete, the body was replaced and the car taken to the paintshop where it stayed for many weeks - the paint and gel coat were in truly terrible condition and needed many hours of preparation. The colour scheme chosen was a period combination of Metallic Purple with Silver flake roof.
Whilst the car was at the paintshop, the engine was stripped down, inspected and overhauled as necessary. This included a full reconditioning of the cylinder head, new piston rings and a honing of the bores, new big end and main bearings, replacement water pump and oil pump, a new timing chain, overhaul of the carburettors and the fitting of electronic ignition.
On return from the paintshop, the engine was refitted along with a replacement radiator, the wiring loom and all electrics were fully checked, electric motors fitted to operate the headlight raise/lower mechanism. Our Trimshop carried out a full interior retrim in Muirhead Polar leather with cream headlining and black carpets.
The end result after several hundred hours of work was magnificent, and we took it as a compliment that Absolute Lotus magazine wanted to do a write-up and following a road test and full photographic session, they ran a 6 page article in their magazine.