Introduction from new '73 Special owner

[kiwiokie]

Yessir, Grand Rapids to be precise.  Do you know Garry?

[blasterdad]

Yes sir I do! I thought I recognized it, (I've seen it in person).
He did a beautiful job restoring that Lotus, you got a great car.
He has some beautiful MG's also! Great guy.
Wow, small world! 

[kiwiokie]

Yes he did a fine job on the Europa but it had to go to make way for another MGA project!  I feel very fortunate to be the new owner.

[blasterdad]

Look familiar....

[BDA]

Very pretty!

Blaster, how is your car coming?

[blasterdad]

Very pretty!

Blaster, how is your car coming?

Unfortunately it's not, kitchen almost complete though. Other things conspire also - the twins driving test/license, first car,  the holidays, winter prep, Christmas lights/trees, in other words, LIFE! in general. Wouldn't trade it for anything though... The Lotus will be attended to when time allows, meanwhile she is admired daily & worked on in my head.   

[kiwiokie]

Yes that is very familiar!  Garry got the car 90% done.  I still need to recover the seats and door panels then rehang the doors with new pins as they have dropped.  The paint suffered some scratches on assembly so those need to be touched up and then it is done!  Or at least until I do a rear disk conversion so I can have a hand brake that will at least hold the car on a flat surface in a breeze.

[kiwiokie]

Just got my seats back from the upholsterer and before I install want to make sure I am using the correct hardware as these bolts were a bear to remove.  I would have thought Allen head bolts would have been better.  Are these correct - length is 1.2" regular hex head

[kiwiokie]

While I had the seats out I removed the doors and installed the RD Enterprises stainless hinge kit.  While not the worst job I have done on a car it is one of the most frustrating.  The workshop manual is not very clear on the arrangement of the stainless and abrasive washers but here is what I concluded from the pictures.  Is this correct?

[kiwiokie]

I followed the suggestion of padding the door bobbin with rubber hose to reduce the wiggle room by using some oil line hose over the threaded insert.  This achieved a good horizontal fit in the door aperture but the upper edge is still too far out which creates a noticeable gap around the window frame.  Need to wrestle with it one more time.

[kiwiokie]

I substituted nylon washers for the stainless washers on which the door sits.  On my car four under the door and one on top gave a good vertical alignment.  I used moly grease to keep them in place while inserting the hinge rod.

[kiwiokie]

My car is far from factory original so decided to keep the gold theme with inserts covered in plaid from the Scottish Weaver that has a golden tan in it.  The covers themselves along with door covers were sourced from Banks in the UK.  The grain of the vinyl is not as pronounced as the original vinyl but I am very happy with the fit and suppleness and the order turn around time was impressively quick.

[BDA]

The seats look great!


Joji wrote a tech article on door adjustment that might be useful here: http://www.lotuseuropa.org/LotusForum/index.php?topic=1049.msg8560#msg8560


I'm not sure about nylon washers. You might need the stainless steel ones from r.d.'s kit.


Just know that adjusting the doors is one of the most frustrating jobs on a Europa. I spent hours getting the passenger door aligned so that it wouldn't open on its own and it was terrible. I eventually got them adjusted pretty well. The driver's door is pretty good but the passenger door seems not to be quite the same shape as the opening. The gap in the front of the door is bigger than that on the driver's door but the top of the door is very close to the A-pillar and the upper edge of the door opening so I can't move the door forward. The door closes and latches well and is close to being aligned, but I'm at a loss how it could be aligned any better.


I wish I could help you with the hinges you have but I have Richard's brass hinges and they are different.

[Roger]

While I had the seats out I removed the doors and installed the RD Enterprises stainless hinge kit.  While not the worst job I have done on a car it is one of the most frustrating.  The workshop manual is not very clear on the arrangement of the stainless and abrasive washers but here is what I concluded from the pictures.  Is this correct?

Not quite. The abrasive washers should be either side of the door fibreglass, to hold the hinge in place by friction.
I got frustrated by my kit from RD (though by far my favorite Lotus part supplier), as the holes in the large diameter washers were too large, but the OD too small. I therefore bought some larger diameter washers, with smaller holes, and bonded coarse emery cloth to them. They do not slip but are easy to adjust.
YMMV.

[kiwiokie]

Thanks for the reply Roger.  I had them either side of the door bobbin at first as that seemed logical even though it did not match what I saw in the shop manual. However the hole in the bobbin is so large they were were tearing as the nuts tightened and I had trouble with the threaded insert turning as well.  Moving the lower abrasive washer to the outside seemed to fix that problem.  I also scuffed the washers with 60 grit sandpaper to try and get more friction.  Bonding to the stainless washer is a good idea.  At this point I wish I had found out about the Banks brass hinges earlier!  I have had these doors on and off half a dozen times each side.