Hi all, I thought it’s about time that I share the story of my 1970 Type 54 Europa, 7005140201Q.
My long time friend Richard Mann introduced me to Lotus and the Europa. I had a 105 Alfa at the time I met him and I remember him passing me a million miles an hour on track, and his car blowing up spectacularly a lap later. I also had the pleasure of driving his car and it’s something that stuck with me.
Anyway time passed and I went through a variety of Lotus cars but returned to the classics.
So back in May last year an ad came up for a S2 Europa with a second car’s worth of spares. The second body had been destroyed by fire, but had been stripped and most of the parts stored.
A couple of weeks we had the news we were pregnant with bubs 2.0, and headed into the never ending Lockdown in Victoria (Australia). Righto then, dust off the project and get stuck in.
First was stripping back the archaeological dig through 3 layers of old paint so I could see what I was working with. The car had a whole bunch of stress cracks, needed the usual 1000 fibreglass repairs.
Apart from that it was pretty original. So the next two months consisted of fibreglass repairs, filling and sanding…. Lots of sanding. I flipped the car over and removed the join lines under the front and rear, smoothed out the sills and repaired a whole bunch of other bits including the non-existent passenger seatbelt plate and missing firewall. And of course removed the awful sunroof hole.
Soon there was light at the end of the tunnel and with the roof pointing up again it was time for Polyurethane sealer, followed by high build filler and paint. I now had a bright orange shell and a whole heap of dirty rusty metal bits.
Again with the guidance of the Richard Mann I set about reinforcing the chassis and repairing the usual cracks and other damage. Pretty soon it was chassis done, mechanical bits stripped and off for sandblasting. Within a couple of weeks I had back some very nice looking clean, bare metal parts. Time to paint it black and put it back.
As Richard helped with the bump steer correction to the chassis then I re-assembled the four corners. I now had a rolling chassis to drool over…. Cool!
Next was the really enjoyable part. Engine rebuild! Disassembly and measurement of the engine showed it was in pretty good nick, so a deep clean, hone of the liners, new rings bearings and seals and back together it went. From there it really started to feel like I was on the downhill slope with every bit I put on making the thing look more like a car.
We got the car started for the first time, proved it was mechanically functional and slowly ticked off each system until August this year when the car was registered for the first time since 1988.
I didn’t quite make the milestone of finishing the car prior to the arrival of minion 2.0, but 14 months from delivery of a pile of bits through to registration isn’t bad.
The plan from here is to iron out all the usual new car bugs, then start on the upgrade path. I’m planning to get it out on track and learn how to drive it but for the minute am enjoying driving it on the road.
