Lotus Europa Community
Lotus Europa Forums => Garage => Topic started by: Elanman39 on Tuesday,November 21, 2023, 09:37:29 AM
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Hello Everyone,
Just doin' as the man says and introducing myself. I was an Engineer at Lotus for some 30 years working on a range of stuff like the LT5 engine in the ZR1 Corvette and the S2 Elise, Exige and 2-Eleven and now have a small (one man, fred-in-a-shed :D) business looking after a range of old Lotus for various customers. I've a lot of experience with the RWD Elans and varous racecars like the 23B and single seaters, but this is my first Europa so it's learn as you play time! I've been lurking in here for a while and it's good to find such a well tempered and balanced group of enthusiasts. Nice to meet you and looking forward to geting to know you better. Is there anyone out there close enough to me to want to have a coffee round here some time?
Best, Nick
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Hi Nick and :Welcome:
Now that's a great back garden you have there ! Welcome to the forum and with your background I think it's going to be us asking you rather than the other way round.
We have another member in your neck of the woods, I'm across the Wash in Lincolnshire. We have a map showing where some of us are located....
https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1jTRZcWu4mLh2TGGlmcLH5POFnQXI-SHc&ll=50.97950499343604%2C-4.694070614794148&z=6 (https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1jTRZcWu4mLh2TGGlmcLH5POFnQXI-SHc&ll=50.97950499343604%2C-4.694070614794148&z=6)
Brian
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:Welcome:
Welcome Nick,
Great to see another one being restored. Afraid I'm on the wrong side/end of the country which is a shame
All the best with the rebuild…and your experience and ongoing lotus work sounds fascinating
Andrew
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:Welcome: Elanman39!!!
You certainly have an impressive resume! Not to mention the view of the castle from your back yard!
I can't help much with S2s (it's surprising how different the S2s are from the TCs!) and unfortunately, I can't meet for coffee since I'm across the pond but I'm looking forward to learn about your progress on that Europa as well as other projects you're doing! I can believe they will all be very interesting!
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Hi Nick,
Yes, I am very local to you and would like to meet up soon.
Alex in NR20 5SF
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Thanks for the welcome, I look forward to getting to know you all! If I you think can help with anything just shout it out! Alex, really pleased to hear you are so close, and even happier to hear you have a spare rearbumper. I'll pm you to sort out when we can meet.
Best, Nick
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:Welcome:
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***DELETIA***
Is there anyone out there close enough to me to want to have a coffee round here some time?
Best, Nick
Can I get a rain check till I come over to mother country next spring? Although, talking Lotus, a pint (or two) might be more appropriate if your local public house can stand having a Yank in the establishment!
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8)No problem, look forward to welcoming you when you do get over this side of the pond!
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:Welcome:
Nick,
Looks like you’re well into it all ready.
Thank you for joining our sight.
Dakazman
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***DELETIA***
Is there anyone out there close enough to me to want to have a coffee round here some time?
Best, Nick
Can I get a rain check till I come over to mother country next spring? Although, talking Lotus, a pint (or two) might be more appropriate if your local public house can stand having a Yank in the establishment!
The local pub has photos of B24s which used to take off from Attlebridge Airfield around 1943-1945, so they are Yank friendly, over here, overpaid, and over sexed !
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The local pub has photos of B24s which used to take off from Attlebridge Airfield around 1943-1945, so they are Yank friendly, over here, overpaid, and over sexed !
My ex-father-in-law (RIP) was assigned to Wymondham in the air corps during the war (strangely enough) as a bomb loader and almost stole one of your beautiful English lasses as a war bride...but luckily (or not) ended up back here before things got out of hand...would have made my life less stressful if he had, I'm thinking, and wouldn't have been my ex-FIL. LOL
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Wymondham
Pronounced "Windham" !
Andy Graham of Lotus Records works in Costessey, pronounced "Cossy".
Have a guess on "Happisburgh".
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Hi Nick
How close are you to Wymondham?
I spent my childhood holidays in Spooner Row very near Wymondham with my Grandparents…joyous years with a lot of very very low flying military aircraft flying over and not far from Hethel
…..another good reason to nip over from Gloucestershire to say hi and a trip down memory lane when the weather clears up and I get a chitty from the boss
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Have a guess on "Happisburgh".
I'm still trying to wrap my head around Worcestershire, and everyone knows that one.
Welcome to our little sandbox, Nick. Good to have you aboard. Lovely garden sculpture you have there. Looks like it was once Gold Leaf colours.
Cheers :beerchug:
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Wymondham
Pronounced "Windham" !
You mean not 'why mond ham" LOL. Yeah, knew that. How my FIL pronounced it (changing to hethel occasionally...guess the base was hethel, but his billeting was in Wymondham...
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Not to mention the view of the castle from your back yard!
No castle, all of the churches in Norfolk look like that post 1066. Pre 1066, the Anglo Saxon churches have round towers, not square Norman towers, and there are 120 of the Anglo Saxon in Norfolk.
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Thanks! I appreciate the architecture lesson!! It's amazing to me to have buildings that are over 1000 years old!
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If you're getting together to talk Europas, would a geezer from Essex be welcome?
Hi Nick,
Yes, I am very local to you and would like to meet up soon.
Alex in NR20 5SF
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Hi all,
It was good to meet up with Alex last week and I now have a much better rear bumper for the S2 as a result! It would be good to meet somethime Spike, I'm certainly going to be needing help/access to another S2 as a guide as the build progresses as the car came to me in bits and the parts manual, whilst good, isn't perfect! Fancy a trip to Norfolk sometime, maybe when the weathers a bit more friendly?
I've finished all the fibreglass repairs and the body is now ready to to go my friends at Classic Team Lotus for paint. It's got to wait until the type 77 F1 car currently in the booth is finished though. :))
I made a simple jig to support the rear suspension without the gearbox in place so I can use the chassis as a trolley for the body. Crude but effective!
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Being next in line for the paint booth is pretty cool! Usually you have to wait!
Give Clive our regards!
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Looking good!
Very interesting shop.
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Purely by way of co-incidence I see it's 2 days over a year since I started this thread. Well, the car is finished all bar a trip back to CTL for a couple of small paint glitches where I dropped spanners to be rectified and the final paint polish and then the badges can go on. It's been an enjoyable project, the first Europa I have done and hopefully not the last. Total hours on the restoration came to a shade under 600 and just over £10k on parts, not too bad when you consider it arrived completely dismantled and in about 15 wet cardboard boxes which it had lived in for over 15 years. Thanks to all of you for your support and advice during the restoration which was much appreciated, especially Alex (4129R) without whom the rear window would still be refusing to go in place. I'm sorry I didn't do as I planned and post a series of updates on the restoration, but I just didn't seem to find the time and the idea of posting everything in one thread just didn't work as the questions quickly got buried and missed. If you have any questions or need any information on what I did then don't hesitate to get in touch.
Nick
ps: sorry about the wierd perspective in the rear 3/4 picture, I promise you the Elan behind is not a giant!
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Impressive! You really hit it. No dawdling for you!
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Congratulations!! She's a beauty!! :beerchug:
Is that your shop?!! I am SO envious!!!
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Nicely done!!
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Elanman39 :beerchug:
Very nice original.
You set the bar pretty high on this build.
Congratulations
Dakazman
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Beautiful job you have done there…well done
…also love the Lotus bike hanging from the roof
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Thanks Guys, appreciate the kind words. The Elan is the next customer project :))
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Stunning Europa. Beautiful work. Congrats on a job well done.
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I have seen the progress of this restoration, and the workmanship is far beyond what you would see on the factory production line.
The attention to detail has fixed all the things that years of experience have found should have been done in production, to make the car faultless.
The lucky owner will be driving a engineering masterpiece.
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Quote: "........ I made a simple jig to support the rear suspension without the gearbox in place so I can use the chassis as a trolley for the body. Crude but effective! "
Clever!! This is the first time I have seen a solution to this problem - brilliant.
I would like to see more photo's of that if available.
I'm surprised Lotus at the time, or others in this day and age, didn't or don't, market them.
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Car looks fantastic. I'm not counting hours on my S2 restoration because I don't want to remind myself how much other paid work I could have been doing.
I see you don't have front side repeater indicators, is this standard?