ELSE Europa restoration 2015 -2018

[Gmg31]

Full restoration Superb finish, £125 for the carb and £40 for the manifold

[BDA]

That's really pretty! 

[Gmg31]

This guy has been very good, quick service, loads of advice and affordable.

[buzzer]

Hmm,

Think I'll give the guy a ring. lovely job.

Dave

[Gmg31]

I needed some early results to keep my enthusiasm up  so I've started doing some prep work on the interior. Fully restored and cleaned seats

[BDA]

They look great! Upholstery is just one of the things I would never consider attempting...

[EuropaTC]

Wow, they look good.

Were they good enough just to clean up or is that a home re-trim ?  If so, you have a real talent there.

Brian

[Gmg31]

A mix of both, the rear of one seat was rusted through and needed re fabricating.  4 of the pads needed new sponge and rear boards but all of the vinyl was in good condition. The hardest part was cleaning the basket weave it is so difficult to clean out all the little crevices.

[Gmg31]

Such a frustrating day today. This car has stood for 35 years and every bolt is seized or corroded.  I had to take an angle grinder to the U bolts and brackets today to free off the steering rack.

[Gmg31]

And then one of the wheel nuts sheered off

[EuropaTC]

ouch, that looks nasty, but sometimes you just aren't going to get things done without brute force.   If the car is as rust-bound as that then I think I'd just invest in a few slitting discs for the grinder and give up trying to salvage the nuts and bolts.

If there's no petrol around then it might be worth trying a propane torch to see if you can shake them, but they take so much bashing to get them off it's questionable if you'd want to use them in critical areas anyway.

Brian

edit to add - and the wheel nut looks even worse !  I think this is what's called "in at the deep end" or "baptism of fire" on the grand scale of Lotus restoration. On the plus side - that must be so dispiriting that things can only get better !

[jbcollier]

Very common to over torque the Europa/Spitfire wheel nuts, damaging the threads.

[buzzer]

propane torch by itself cannot give enough focused heat. I would use one of these oxygen/gas welding torches. they are great pieces of kit. you can focus the heat on the parts you want and there is a much better chance of getting the bit apart rather than hacking it with a cutting disc.

http://www.weldingshop.co.uk/diy-hobbyist-c-139/oxyturbo-110-gas-welding-kit-p-377.html?zenid=d4d51b2a04ff5e52245be96bc2486bfe

great hobby gas welding kit, not particularly cheap but if you have to buy new brackets for the steering rack and other brackets you will save the money. I bought one earlier this year and wish I'd done it sooner!


Dave

[Gmg31]

Well it turns out my car has 1 extra bolt on top of the tunnel bolted directly into the backbone.  Even Richard didn't know about this bolt!! So eventually the shell is off and going to paint next week. The body shop is happy to take 2 months to do the work which gives me time to restore the chassis brakes and suspension.

  I have been a bit disappointed with the quality of the "out of sight" fibre glass even on this replacement shell. So I purchased a huge bucket of gel coat and I've been painting it on all the internal unfinished surfaces before going to paint.

[BDA]

Glad you finally got it separated!

I wouldn't complain too much about the fiber glass quality. It seems to me that it was better in the Elan and S2 than the TC, but people who have more direct experience with them may disagree, but the glass on my TC that didn't show was of varying quality. Part of the floor in front of the front trunk was thin, it wasn't well finished in the engine compartment, and, of course, the boot, bonnet, and doors don't fit all that well.

Keep in mind that you're dealing with a Lotus.