Chuck E. Cheese...

[katanaman]

  Yikes!!!  This car has been to a few evil places!  I took out the driver's seat to see what I have to "look forward to" and find out why the car is so moist inside...  I found a 25 cent "piece" from Chuck E. Cheese.  I remember the only time I'd been to one -- it was about 25 years ago -- a party for my niece, Misty.  THat ol' rat came over and freeked out my nephew.  Now he is living in my old house and going to work for the big "B" -- Boeing, helping assemble 737s in Renton.  Time flies.
  I have a great pizza place I've been going to for over 40 years, now only about 16 - 17 miles away.  One of the reasons I moved here the day after I retired.  Chico's has no rats.  Kevin, the owner, does however, trade pizzas for crabs his friends catch, so there are crabs in the freezer!
  Tomorrow I go into tax free Oregon for parts for the Lotus.  I will attempt to shore up my new tent garage due to the nasty storms we have been having lately.  The back wall has no "framing" in it, so I think that I'll miter some ABS pipe and wedge it in to provide a little more stability to that back wall.  Wednesday the friend who came back to Moreno Valley with me to tow the car here will take me into town to a place that will be able to identify the alternator and an apparently associated voltage regulator, so we can find out once and for all it the regulator is a Renault thing or a Mazda thing.  It so far doesn't look like it's a stock S-2 component, and the manuals are vague about this, too.  Then, he has a wonderful band saw.  The only time I saw Richard use it was to fabricate a mechanical fuel pump block off plate for his 1970 Spitfire to allow him to use an aftermarked electric pump.  His grandson commutes in the Spitfire across the river and into Astoria for college.  It crapped out on him, of course in a storm, the day they closed the 4 mile bridge there due to a strong windstorm.  Just made it back home before some scaffolding collapsed onto the road surface and derailed a 2 1/2 year repainting project on that bridge.
  Anyway, I'll get a crack at the bandsaw to cut out the new dashboard for the Lotus.  1/2 laminate that I'll probably not stain -- it's dark enough in there already.  I have an opportunity to really change things here, but I think I'll keep it close to stock -- just change a few rockers into new US units, maybe with LED frills.  I intend to keep the (I think they're called binacles) stock plastic pod thing for the tach and speedo, and I've decided to make the cut-out for the glove box, but will probably hide the new style fuse box in there (I have no cardboard glove box for the cut-out) and maybe hide an electrical cut off switch in there as well.
  I'm a little dismayed to see the condition of that seat frame, but from the reading I've done on them, I might have one of the more intact examples out there...                                                            Dan

[cal44]

I'm lovin' the stories Dan.

If you get frustrated making the fascia for the dash, there are a number of top notch ones for sale, although not cheap.

I get confused, is it Oregon with no sales tax and Washington with no state tax? 

Mike

[katanaman]

Uh... let's see...  Right!  No sales tax - Oregon, and no state tax - Washington.  Now ... for something completely different...
  I had a battery shop take a look at the S-2's Mazda alternator today.  Turns out that the reason the regulator was very hot after work on the wiring harness and after connecting the battery, was not due to my handiwork on the harness.  The battery guy said that all of the internal diodes inside the alternator were burned out.  This allowed the AC current to flow through said alternator and back into that regulator box, causing it to nearly melt down.  So... this car would have never made it back home in case I could have gotten tuning info and the wiring issues dealt with.
  I was surprised to find out how many options I face with the alternator.  Some of you might remember the Oroville, California green TC Special for sale over the summer.  I think he still has it, too.  He had installed a Kubota alternator due to clearance issues with what he callled the Kent based TC engine -- it had the drive stuff on the front side of the engine, and therefore little clearance for the alternator, so the smaller Kubota unit was used.  The battery guy brought up the Kubota option today.  Turns out that I can fit just about any unit I want, and kind of modernise the system at the same time, in that the new ones have internal regulators, and a more modern interface for connections into the system.  This will come in handy when I install that US made wiring harness. 
  My last discussion with my LBC friend up the street today involved the dash design I face.  I told him how I want to keep the design near original, excepting the rocker switches -- on mine, for instance, I see rockers that are oriented both vertically and horizontally.  And, again, all unmarked -- I will never know if the hazard switch was out there, or where it was, for instance. 
  Anyway... he came up with an idea for my dash design.  I had told him how I used some ABS glue, successfully, to repair cracks and issues with that $65 plastic part that houses the tach and speedo in the area shaped just like the glove box.  So, now he is trying to twist my arm into maybe laying up a sheet of aluminum flush with the back face of the dash, and mounting the tach, speedo and 3 indicator bulbs between, flush.  Maybe even doing an engine - turned swirly thing for asthetics.  Now, that new Europa delSol restoration book out I mentioned, had its author doing an all carbon fiber dash.  He had it professionally done.  Well, I like the wood dash, but...   How does that aluminum piece being covered with a carbon fiber decal sound?    Dan

[EuropaTC]

Hi Dan,

Although it might not be the news you want to hear, it's good that you've got to the bottom of the alternator problem. And as your guy says, an alternator is nothing special and if you're prepared to fabricate some custom brackets you'll have lots of options.

The only thing to watch IMO is the overall length of the unit and the direction in which it has to rotate, those are your main restrictions. Wiring is just wiring and you can fit whatever wire or connectors you need to the loom.  I fitted a Lucas 17ACR unit to my TC, no issues at all other than new connectors and ten minutes juggling about with spacers to get it aligned properly.

I'm a traditionalist where the interiors are concerned though, I stuck with dead trees when I replaced mine a few years ago. Although it might seem as a cop-out in staying with OEM, these days most cars are plastic and so just having a bit of tree in there is already "customised" 

Brian

[LeftAngle]

Evil Places?

Mine had dozens of condoms (still packaged and unused, thankfully) under the driver's seat.

[Pete Gossett]

Evil Places?

Mine had dozens of condoms (still packaged and unused, thankfully) under the driver's seat.

So I'd say we can deduce from this that the previous owner bought the car with the intention of using it to help him get lucky with the ladies, but that obviously the plan failed miserably.