Cheers thommo,
its just meccano for grown ups 
so long as you’ve space (garage ideally) and time.
I’m doing the majority of it after the little un is in bed.
Make sure you get those front uprights clean, nothing short of BLING will do 
must do more cleaning 
Day 10
After having trouble getting the zinc passivising done here in Germany I decided to go the Por-15 painting route but with a topcoat to look similar to the original.
The wishbones where sandblasted first and then prepared with the ‘metal ready’ from the Por-15 starter kit.
This leaves a zinc phosphate layer on the wishbones and also protects where the paint wont go ie in the ball joint eyes and where the bearings will go.
Then I put 3 coats of Por-15 silver on, waiting approx 6 hours between coats. This stuff cant be removed if left to dry on the hands (I’ve still some on now)
Then I rubbed down the paint once dry and applied 2 coats of Hammerite gold, sanded that down slightly before applying a top coat of Por-15 clear as I had that from the starter kit.
Day 11
Time to install the ball joints using the removal tool to reassemble, this was quite a job and could have been easier with a vice or press but at least doing it this way ensured that the ball joints sat true and correct.
I started by using the socket ratchet evenly tightening each bolt no more than half a turn at a time and then moving on to using the Torque wrench to get the leverage to press the ball joint in.
Ensuring the Ball Joint is fully seated
Time for lunch, Pizza and bearings
Freezing the bearings overnight allowed them to be installed much easier.
I used the wishbone removal tool to install the bearings. Once lined up they went in without to much force and i used the spanner and ratchet spanner (moving to a socket ratchet if needed).
Then the Spacers and o-rings where pushed in by hand. The o-rings where soaked in ACF-50 first.
So next is where the fun starts and re-installing the parts below to the front of the car (photo taken before installing the bearings and ball joints)
Day 12
Front end on the car
Before fitting the parts to the front end I cleaned the chassis with magic sponges (off ebay) and very fine sandpaper on the harder areas.
After leaving overnight I coated everything with AFC50
As the wheel arch liners where off the car they got a good clean and where treated with carpro DLUX which gives a permanent protective layer.
Then onto putting it all back together. There where no major problems apart from a spinning ball joint.
Because of painting the steering arm the ball joint taper couldn’t grip whilst tightening up the nut.
A piece of course sandpaper in the taper area helped solved that.
I used a small amount of superglue on the caster washers to keep them together when installing (looking back on the photos helped remember how many where installed on each side).
When possible on installing the bolts for the wishbones I pushed another bolt through from the opposite side to line everything up, this especially helped with the bolts that go through to the foot wells and by the steering gaiters.
I replaced all the suspension bolts with new ones.
As I have the bearings in the wishbones there was no need to get the correct hieght before torquing up the wishbone bolts.
What I did do though is I jacked up the suspension to approx ride hieght before torquing up the upper and lower damper bolts to take up any slack.
The torque settings I used were from the elise service manual (Nm):
Upper and lower wishbone pivot bolts 45
Upper ball joint to steering arm 55
Lower ball joint to plinth 55
Lower plinth to hub carrier 45
Steering arm to hub carrier 45
Track rod end to steering arm 30
Damper to lower wishbone 45
Damper to top anchor bracket 45
Damper anchor bracket to chassis 25 (this is the revised torque for S2 as 45 seems to much for an M8)
Brake caliper to hub carrier 45
Anti-roll bar rubber bush mounting clamps 20
Anti-roll bar drop links 45
Next is getting the rear back on.
Excellent work
Day 13 & 14
Time to get the rear parts on the car:
First off was to remove the nearside bracket to allow the uprated toe link to be fitted and trimmed away some of the heat sheild to allow the new brackets to be fitted (I used some cheap from Amazon ‘cut anything’ scissors).
Then to cut the bracket so that there’s still some protection for the brake line.
The new toe link brackets match the existing holes.
The toe link has been approximately set to match the old one, until I do a geo.
I cleaned up and painted the drive shafts whilst I was at it.
The rest was installed as a reversal of the removal process.
The upper balljoint kept spinning when tightening up the nut so I used the balljoint removal clamp to squeeze the plinth to the balljoint and was able to tighten up the nut.
I cleaned the chassis and treated the wheel arches as per the fronts.
Installed new brake discs and pads and all is done.
Torque settings used (Nm):
Upper and lower wishbone pivot bolts 45
Upper and lower swivel joints to plinth 55
Upper swivel joint plinth to hub carrier 45
Lower swivel joint plinth to hub carrier 45
Toe link outer ball joint to hub carrier 45
Toe link ball joint lock nuts 78
Damper to lower wishbone 45
Damper to chassis 45
Brake caliper to mounting bracket - upper 45
Next up will be to get the ride height and geo sorted, I will be having a go myself using the string method and measure bump steer with a made up gauge.
What the chuff did you do to these Jonny?!? Seriously, my front uprights are bare right now, and I like bling…
I cleaned all the crap off and had them polished at Bader Anodising in Brum, £30 Kurt. I also had the wishbones and stuff Zinc Coated at JW Rudge in Brum and that cost £40! The clear coat POR was a sinch to apply, even easier applying a second coat.
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I think I need to look into them both! I reckon a drive to Brum is on the cards…
Thanks for the gen 
This is all very impressive seeing the efforts that go into a full suspension strip down and refresh however I just don’t have the time nor the tools to tackle a job like this so what do you folks reckon cost might be for a good garage to take this on?
I would be looking at keeping the stuts as they seem in fine fettle and I can cost up the refresh kit, so labour hours?..
Cheers!
I’ve not had it done myself but I’d guess at 3-4 days labour for a specialist to strip, clean, send, collect from others and reassemble. Powder coating is cheap, mine would go soo if it for 150. Brakes need to be done by a specialist though I did a better job than my specialist did.
Then you have full sets of bushes, bearings, tie rodd etc. I bet it’s around 5k if your existing drive shafts, rack, springs and dampers are ok.