Mike's 1964 Elva Courier MkIV Build Thread!

[ELVA164]

Hey guys! I saw Sina has his Peugeot build thread here so this seemed like a good place for mine. I've never done a build thread and it seems late to start one for my E30, so this is my first attempt.

Let me first give you a little background info on the car I'll be building. It is a 1964 Elva Courier Mark IV, serial #1187, a British sports car that was commonly used as an "arrive and drive" race car in the mid sixties. It is actually only a few years younger than the car in my sig, which also inspired my username. The car first came to our shop about 8 years ago, where it was built as a kind of car-for-hire from our shop. That didn't last long, as one of our customers decided to buy the car outright and race it. Here is a shot of the car at that stage:


The car was run for about two years pretty successfully before the event. We brought the car to the street course in Pittsburgh, where it was to meet its end.

After this, my Dad bought the car back and sold some things like the Prather MGB motor and dry sump system. The remnants sat outside until this past October, when he gave the car to me as a birthday gift.

I'm really excited as I only dreamed I would someday be able to own my own vintage race car! I've been very lucky to race the Lotus Cortina, but it is actually co-owned by my Dad and another one of our customers.

Current pictures in the next post so this one doesn't get too long!!

[ELVA164]

Here are some pictures of the body and chassis as they currently stand! First, the body:













And what's left of the chassis:





Got some work to do! :)

[ELVA164]

A few updates! Got some of the rough fiberglass done on the nose:



Also picked up a Triumph Spitfire chassis that will be donating the area between the front bumper and the firewall!


Last but not least, cleaned out all the wiring and removed the dashboard.
Here's a shot of sme of the harness and the old fuse box(who needs that?):


The pile of extra weight and the dash:


The top of the dash is facing right, by the way.

Next on my list is to remove all the gauges from the dash and surround, then decide which gauge setup I will be using and make an aluminum dash to fit those!

[mbonder]

Man there is a bunch of work there, save her!! Good luck, will be paying attention to this build.

[ELVA164]

Man there is a bunch of work there, save her!! Good luck, will be paying attention to this build.

There sure is a lot of work, but thanks for the encouragement! I hope to get as much done as possible before the race season gets into full swing. I'm really looking forward to learning how to do some fiberglass too!

[BlackbirdM3]

Looks like a fun restoration project. Elva's can scoot right along. I guess the good news is that the body is fiberglass. Had it been metal, that would not have been a fun or easy fix.

I wish I had taken more pics of my Datsun while I was doing most of the rebuild. That was back in the days before digital cameras however so it wasn't exactly convenient. I've got pics of the car before, and some of it in primer, but none of the actual bodywork. I did document the paint job in 2012, and the engine build in 2011. Eh, perhaps I'll start a new thread on it. I could also do one on my '59 Alfa Sprint, but that project is kinda dead in the water till I have a lot more $ to get the nose section fixed, or find another nose section that will fit (mostly hand built bodies so its not that easy.)

Keep up the good work, building your own race car is both fun and rewarding. Its even more rewarding when you take your first race start in it knowing that you built the car and know every inch of it. That also pays off as the driver if you know and trust your own work.

Will

[graveshaker]

Love build threads subscribed.

[ZM Blue Devil]

awesome

[ELVA164]

Looks like a fun restoration project. Elva's can scoot right along. I guess the good news is that the body is fiberglass. Had it been metal, that would not have been a fun or easy fix.

I wish I had taken more pics of my Datsun while I was doing most of the rebuild. That was back in the days before digital cameras however so it wasn't exactly convenient. I've got pics of the car before, and some of it in primer, but none of the actual bodywork. I did document the paint job in 2012, and the engine build in 2011. Eh, perhaps I'll start a new thread on it. I could also do one on my '59 Alfa Sprint, but that project is kinda dead in the water till I have a lot more $ to get the nose section fixed, or find another nose section that will fit (mostly hand built bodies so its not that easy.)

Keep up the good work, building your own race car is both fun and rewarding. Its even more rewarding when you take your first race start in it knowing that you built the car and know every inch of it. That also pays off as the driver if you know and trust your own work.

Will

Thanks Will! I totally agree about the metal; that was the first "joke" I made when I started disassembling everything. I feel the same way about the Cortina you feel about the Datsun; I have some pictures just before and after paint, and some more as we started racing it, but there are a lot of gaps.

I am really looking forward to racing my own car that I've built. It's no fair that only our customers have gotten to drive the cars I've (helped) build so far! :razz:

Love build threads subscribed.

awesome

Thanks guys!

[rex]

You don't see those every day, well, I don't.

Cool car and ambitious project

[JRKOUPE]

Mike......Joel here....

that is a fuggin awesome gift..u r one locky sob.......ur dad rox!!!!


how do u sleep at nite?....knowing u need to work on her?

is this 2014 season your goal?????


see ya soon!

[frankenbeemer]

That's a great video, despite the crash. Knowing something bad was going to happen barely tempered the joy of watching her go, but when the music started I edged closer to the screen and an involuntary oooowww escaped me when it hit.

That thing really scoots! What a birthday gift, looking forward to updates.

[ELVA164]

Mike......Joel here....

that is a fuggin awesome gift..u r one locky sob.......ur dad rox!!!!


how do u sleep at nite?....knowing u need to work on her?

is this 2014 season your goal?????


see ya soon!

Haha, it is very cool but definitely the most expensive gift I've ever recieved :p The deal is I'll do about 80% of the work and pay for about 20% of the parts. I wish the 2014 season could be possible, but I'll be lucky if 2015 is possible. I'll run out of time to work on it pretty quickly...

[ELVA164]

Small update. Got the gauges out of the dash and got it ready to return to the car:

I also unearthed an aluminum gauge pod that was made for the car before its demise:

I might need to see how it works! :D

Also, there were rumblings about some additional fiberglass work getting done over the weekend!

[ELVA164]

The bodywork is on hold until things warm up due to space constraints, so that leaves me some time to think about things way before I need to! :D As such, I've been putting a little thought into color choices and would love your opinions. Here is how the car looked before:

This is my (badly photoshopped) idea at the moment:


I went with this scheme to integrate the dark blue which is one of the shop colors (blue/yellow) with a bit of a change to differentiate the car as mine. I also thought the silver stripe would match the silver bumperettes on the four corners well.

Feel free to share/photoshop any ideas you have! I'd love to see what you guys come up with!