ME AND MY RESTO
This Elan +2 wasn’t for the faint-hearted, but Andy Kenning’s efforts paid off
Mark, a farmer friend in Devon, asked me what I was going to do once I had finished my MGA project. I replied that I wanted to restore an Elan +2 and, to my surprise, he told me that he had a spare one if I was interested. Who has a spare +2? Well, obviously he did. A deal was done and the ‘cow shed’ Elan was mine. Cow shed, as that’s where it had lived for 14 years. The car had been partly stripped, the obvious missing parts being the engine and gearbox.
Having got the car home, the first thing was to shovel the pigeon poo out of it. A controlled demolition followed, including the cataloguing of all parts. Eventually the body was separated from the chassis using a lifting jig I fabricated, picking up on the sill jacking points.
I then stripped the chassis, repainted it and installed new brake lines. New bearings were fitted throughout and each part was cleaned, checked and painted before refitting. I dismantled the Chapman struts at the rear and rebuilt them with new bearings, springs and adjustable Spax dampers. I also refreshed the drivetrain and differential, opting for a solid driveshaft conversion.
As for the missing drivetrain, I bought a four-speed gearbox that I stripped, checked and reassembled with new bearings. A friend of a friend sold me an engine, which I partially dismantled, but it turned out to be mostly in great condition. After reassembly with a few new parts, it started well with a squirt of fuel – no issues!
I wanted to paint it myself but had no experience of steel or GRP, so I began a research marathon. I had the body soda-blasted and, over the next few months, taught myself to repair glassfibre, cutting out poor repairs and doing the jobs properly. I did an initial fill and dry-blocking and then applied the first coat of epoxy primer, sealing the glassfibre to prevent osmosis. A second stage of filling and epoxy pr
