A&Q about Lotus
Q:
So who's pulling the scam? That's not easy damage to repair... the chassis is damaged... gotta start with a fresh chassis.
Cade
A:
Originally Posted by MotorCade
So who's pulling the scam? That's not easy damage to repair... the chassis is damaged... gotta start with a fresh chassis.
Cade
No comment from me other than, let the buyer beware.
Don.
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Car is toast.
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Originally Posted by APOGEE
No comment from me other than, let the buyer beware.
Saw that damaged baby behind Autostrada right after the "incident". Wonder what happened to the wreck?
A:
With a little gauze pads and duck tape you'll have a new Elise.
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Yup. Torn out upper suspension pickup point on the chassis.
Non repairable, unless you buy a new chassis and swap over all the bits.
If it goes for a low enough price then that would be an option for somone doing the work themselves and not having to pay labor rates.. Could still work out cheaper than a normal second-hand Elise and perhaps even better put together
Bye, Arno.
A:
Originally Posted by Arno
Yup. Torn out upper suspension pickup point on the chassis.
Non repairable, unless you buy a new chassis and swap over all the bits.
If it goes for a low enough price then that would be an option for somone doing the work themselves and not having to pay labor rates.. Could still work out cheaper than a normal second-hand Elise and perhaps even better put together
Bye, Arno.
Reminds me of daydreaming as a kid of buying a car one part at a time as I could afford it, and assembling it as the parts arrived in the mail.
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Can someone enlighten me why its not repairable? Sure, it wont be as good as new, but some welder job will make sure it rides fine. And for 18k you wont complain
A:
Originally Posted by Val
Can someone enlighten me why its not repairable? Sure, it wont be as good as new, but some welder job will make sure it rides fine. And for 18k you wont complain
The chassis can't be welded..
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Originally Posted by Val
Can someone enlighten me why its not repairable? Sure, it wont be as good as new, but some welder job will make sure it rides fine. And for 18k you wont complain
The chassis is non repairable - you cannot just cut one corner off and weld a new one on as the aluminium is too thin.
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Mound is only a few mminutes from here. I'll have to drive around and check it out. Poor Lotus
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I sent an email to the seller asking what gives. He has positive feedback so I don't really think he is intentionally trying to mislead anyone. He probably doesn't know you can't weld the frame if you screw up your suspension pickup points.
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Originally Posted by Aedo
The chassis is non repairable - you cannot just cut one corner off and weld a new one on as the aluminium is too thin.
And the welding heat can do terrible things to the bonding agents that hold the whole thing together.
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Originally Posted by andykeck
And the welding heat can do terrible things to the bonding agents that hold the whole thing together.
Actually no one really knows just how long those "bonding agents" will last. There's a real good chance you won't be seeing any '05 Buzzers at the 2020 Barrett / Jackson auction.
Buzzbomb is a very simple vehicle. Just a little labor to hang EVERYTHING off a new chassis.
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Although there are plenty of S1's around 10 years later. So the track record of the Chassis is quite good.
Originally Posted by dickedup
Actually no one really knows just how long those "bonding agents" will last. There's a real good chance you won't be seeing any '05 Buzzers at the 2020 Barrett / Jackson auction.
Buzzbomb is a very simple vehicle. Just a little labor to hang EVERYTHING off a new chassis.
A:
Originally Posted by Val
Can someone enlighten me why its not repairable? Sure, it wont be as good as new, but some welder job will make sure it rides fine. And for 18k you wont complain
As others mentioned.. You can't weld the chassis as the material is much too thin to allow welding. To weld aluminium you need quite a big material thickness and large welds.
Bonding on new (sub)parts is also not an economically viable option as the original glue needs to be 'baked' in an oven at around 190 degrees celcius.
Bonding agents that will clure with the same sort of strength at room temperature are very hard/expensive to come by and usually need special handling to get a good connection.
And then there's the problem of obtaining the separate chassis bits in the first place as Lotus (or more precisely, Hydro) don't sell them separately.
So repairing damage like this is not possible in the practical sense at the moment.
But a new chassis, or as lotus calls it a "Partial body assembly", with most of the parts already on it like the pipes in the chassis, windscreen surround, clutch hose, etc. sells for around 3500 UK pounds, which is not that bad. (you pay more, but when you send back a cut-off of the original chassis with the VIN on it you get a partial refund)
Usually it's the labor hours that's the financial killer on a re-chassis job, not really the materials..
Bye, Arno.
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This Elise was hit in the front left wheel area and will need repairs to the upper frame member where the suspension attaches, which is a relatively simple repair.
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Everybody says it can't be repaired, but quite frankly somebody with a good shop, engineering know-how, and the time and inclination to do a good job COULD do a fully functional and servicable repair. Now it wouldn't be the SAME, but it would properly function.
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If you filled it with seed it would function properly as a bird feeder.
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If it was a lot cheaper, someone could use it as a parts car... the engine, etc. and everything in the rear looked good on it. But what does the engine in our car go for? $4500? Not worth the $18,000 buy it now price for sure. (And that is a legitimate question... how much would a replacement engine cost for our car?)