wdb

The quandary is, how do they manage to make a profit? I am prepping a car for a trip I'm taking soon. Among the tasks I'm performing is an oil change, in the midst of which I realized that I did not have enough of the oil specified for that engine. I checked Amazon -- local suppliers don't carry the specific oil I needed -- and not only did they have the oil, they offered to ship it to me "same day or next day". This was at 4:00pm, so imagine my surprise at the "same day" offer. I was additionally surprised to see that if I chose "next day" I had a choice of THREE different delivery time windows; 4-8am, 10am-3pm, or "any time". Given that the car was in process and I wanted to get it finished and off the lift, I chose the early option. I also needed a couple of light bulbs, which Amazon also had, and also provided me with the same delivery options. All of these options added $0.00 to the total cost. This morning at 5:30am one of my Ring doorbells announced a person at the downstairs door. One minute later that person returned. At 5:50am, another person appeared at the same door, but just once. I went down and retrieved the deliveries. Four individual boxes, all identical in size, each containing one of the items I had ordered. Four items, four boxes, two separate deliveries. I don't understand how this business model works. Is it some kind of automated process at the warehouse? That may be why the boxes are all the same size and each contains a single item, also why these items "qualified" for all of those delivery options. Or do they pre-package items in anticipation of routine, expected orders? Would I have received more boxes if I had needed more oil, or more bulbs? None of those explains why I got two separate deliveries within minutes of one another. The whole episode feels a bit bizarre.

Hmm.

No pictures yet, terrible ad copy, full of weird characters on my MacBook, but I do believe I see "twincam Lotus" in amongst them. Hmmm.

What about new parts for old cars? Crossing fingers...

I had the Se7en out for a wee romp about two weeks ago. The weather was finally good enough and the roads clean enough in combination. It's so strange how this car affects me after I've been out of it for a while. It feels familiar but the thrill is elevated nearly to the same level as that first-ever drive. What a refreshing thing this Se7en is. One of the fun parts of having a little car (or two!) and a 4-post lift is that the little car is "width challenged" relative to the ramp spacing. The Se7en isn't too bad because I can lean over and watch the front tire roll on. The Elan however does not allow me to do the same, plus the track is narrower than the Caterham. I have about 2" to spare on each side. So I came up with a solution. I purchased an inexpensive 2-axis laser level and aligned it's vertical output with the center of the lift. Now when I drive up I can line the green light up with the center of the car and just drive on. Saves a ton of back/forth fiddling. Here's the laser in its final resting place, bolted to my toolbox.

$34 is not 25% of what my seat kit cost. My guess is pre-trump duties. Thanks for the data point!

Indeed it does. I have been hemming and hawing about getting a seat reupholstery kit for the Elan from an English company. Trump announced tariffs and so I thought okay, let's get in under the wire, and placed an order. They took my money. Then they told me there is a 7-9 week backlog... ...I'm going to stay the course anyway. I'll try to remember to update y'all as to whether I pay a tariff.

What, no clamshells?

This is not a bad suggestion.

That's the rig I've been looking at too. Seems like a lot of bang for the buck, and it has to be better than the jackstands-and-PVC scenario I'm dealing with currently. How do you like it?

The tapes on the front wheels tell you about the front wheels. String alignment tells you about the entire chassis. Here’s an FCP Euro video that I found super helpful.

Lucas Tire sells the Pirellis in the US (and Canada?). https://lucasclassictires.com/

(I had cars with wire wheels for many years. Never used a tube. Maybe I was lucky?) I'm going through a similar exercise with my Elan. The previous owner had fitted 175-70R13 all season tires to the car's 4-1/2" rims. I have never driven any other Elan so I don't have a basis for comparison, but the handling is a good bit more vague than I expected and I wonder how much the tires have to do with that. The cars originally had 155R13's. I can understand why more tire width can seem like a universally good thing, but responsiveness and lower unsprung weight are good things too.

That's one I have definitely considered. I have the spare tire mount but no spare so it could even sit up off the ground. Might be my go-to, at least until I cut the spare tire mount off.

Oh I use mine -- perhaps you haven't heard about my two ruined oil sumps! And yet I've found that, when going to a car gathering, the very best parking spaces tend to be in the midst of the event rather than eight blocks east.