Elva Courier MkIII Restoration Blog

The reason I have not made any posts lately is not because nothing has been happening, it’s because what has been happening is not so photogenic or very interesting.

The shop itself became inadequate for me to finish the painting.  Whenever I sanded using air tools, my wrists were getting wet – the lines were full of air.  Neither priming nor painting can be done with that much water in the lines.  I drained the water separator, no water there.  I drained the compressor, no water there.  It was ONLY in the lines from the water separator and the tools.  Something structurally was wrong in the system.  I went to the shops that sells paint and equipment for painting; then I went to Google for more information.  Everything had been wrong with the way the system had been installed, and technology for this issue had improved in the past 17 years.

As it turned out, the way I had set up this shop 15+ years ago was all wrong for keeping water out of my air lines; who knew?  Anyway, to make a long story short, I had to buy a new and much improved 21st century air drier system, and I needed to re-plumb the mounting of it, so that it was at the lowest position possible, incorporating a passive trap.  That required that I move everything out of the shop to access the plumbing; that required a complete reorganization  of the shop.  That is why there have not been any progress photos lately.  I don’t think anyone wants to see photos of that operation.

The bodywork has continued, though even that has been somewhat boring to look at photos of.  The floorboards, rear bulkhead and roll cage have now been primed, and sanded several times with minor bits of spot putty along the way.  The goal has been to make the interior look like an Osca, which was all aluminum and had no carpeting.  The transmission tunnel has over 100 hours in it so far.

This photo is of the Osca that inspired me to do the dash and interior the way I am doing it, which has been very time-consuming.  My color scheme is obviously BRGreen rather than red, but you get the idea.  Hopefully, the photo communicates both the reason I am doing it, and the why it is taking so long.  Elva never built their cars to this standard, they were cars a middle class guy could afford, unlike the Osca.

As most of you know, anyone who has ever driven a car knows, the dashboard is the driver’s link to the mechanical systems and the outside world.  It is a critical part of any car, and even more critical for the sports/racing type of car.  One little problem, this basket case project had no dashboard: none.  There should have been a metal dash, which was mostly flat with some rounded edges, and also a padded section that went over the instruments, which would have been upholstered along with the top of the cowl.    If I can find them, I will include a couple of photos of other MkIII Couriers with the proper dashes.

In among the boxes of parts I got was a piece of a dashboard that I later found was the instrument cluster from an Alfa Romeo Giulietta.  So I built my dashboard out of that cluster section and two other metal dash pieces from a 1967 MGB.   The final assembly into one welded unit was both a nightmare in the process, and a better-than-expected success in the end.

Add to this, the interesting quandary:  First, it should be functional for the race track;  secondly, it will occasionally be driven on the street.  So, because I will have two separate engines, I also have two separate sets of gauges for the oil pressure and the water temperature.   One set is electronic and feed information to the original-style 3-in-1 gauge.  The other two will use a mercury tube and oil capillary tube to the separate instruments.  The two recesses which were used on the MGB for heater and defroster controls are being replaced with low oil pressure and high water temperature warning lights.