Aladdin's Cave Seen near Lotus Factory in Norfolk UK

[4129R]

I answered an advert on eBay to buy a newly made engine bay luggage box for a cheap price, and came across this place.

[phil]

I bet there's some more ash trays amongst that lot!!

 

[Bodzer]

Boss motors? I'll be calling them in the future for a replacement nose section for my +2. Hopefully they'll be around for awhile.

[buzzer]

Interesting.  but on the luggage tray the one I saw was for £125, I though that was a bit expensive. I'm after one but I need to chop it about a lot to clear the exhaust system.

[Certified Lotus]

They have the original body molds for elan coupes? What did they do, buy all the factory stuff after the model was no longer in production? (For scrap I'm sure).

[Bainford]

Wow! Now there's a yard in which I could spend a lot of time scrounging. Very cool to see those old body molds.

[4129R]

Boss motors? I'll be calling them in the future for a replacement nose section for my +2. Hopefully they'll be around for awhile.

Correct.

The father blows out a few candles each year, but his son should be around for a while.

[4129R]

Interesting.  but on the luggage tray the one I saw was for £125, I though that was a bit expensive. I'm after one but I need to chop it about a lot to clear the exhaust system.

Better made than the flimsy originals.

"Chapman skimped on the fibreglass to save money" they told me when I collected an original one I gave them to repair for £20.

[4129R]

They have the original body molds for elan coupes? What did they do, buy all the factory stuff after the model was no longer in production? (For scrap I'm sure).

I think they must have bought 1 of each type after production stopped in 1974/5.

I didn't see a drophead mould, but I expect it is there somewhere.

[Bodzer]

Here's their eBay shop.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/322511742167

Lots of interesting stuff. I seem to recall that the father worked at Lotus as a body moulder. Is that correct? Good to hear that the sons will continue on.

[EuropaTC]

I didn't see a drophead mould, but I expect it is there somewhere.

Allegedly Lotus used the S3/S4 FHC moulds for the DHC and used a custom mould for the windscreen header rail.  I have no idea if that's true or not but it was the tale circulating back in the 80s when I converted my S3 fhc to dhc.

I spent some time looking at a mate's sprint which he'd bought new and it surprised me that the rear bodywork around the hood tray had a short raised lip which conformed exactly the shape of the rear windscreen lip & roof support pillars. Even the hood tray is designed to fit into this weird shape.  So it had some credibility because the earlier S2 had a flat rear deck and even if you had decided a raised lip was better for rigidity there's no reason to make it such a weird shape and complicate the hood tray mould.  And of course there were numerous moulds for header rails kicking around back then !

Brian

[RoddyMac]

Brian,
I've heard the same story on the Elan moulds, I wonder if it was true?

Rod

[EuropaTC]

I think it probably is Rod although I have no evidence to back up the claim. What convinced me was the rear deck arrangement on my friend's Sprint, which had always been a dhc and yet had exactly the same moulding as mine would have after the rear roof pillars had been cut away. And of course the hood tray, moulded specially to fit into such an odd arrangement.

If you think from a manufacturing viewpoint you could easily mould a body and finish an inch or so up the rear pillars/B post and then add on the top header rail for the top of the windscreen.  That's all that happened with my car, plus of course some reinforcement at the windscreen pillar bases.   

One set of moulds, two styles of cars. It's Chapman all over, isn't it ? 

Brian