Restoration of 74 TCS - 044615R

[dakazman]

Racurley,
  That’s a great start. I found that staying organized a a place to store the parts on as you disassemble them / reassemble them and a waiting area , for rechroming , machinist etc ...Keep suspension, engine, interior, etc ..together. After rebuilding and testing Wrap in plastic bags or light millage sheeting. Do not use suran wrap it’s extremely difficult to remove.
  I made a choice to purchase all the blasting equipment and found it extremely helpful getting my project to the level I want. Looking at rusted parts drives me crazy.. lol. You can get overwhelmed by all categories of the rebuild so take one or two at a time .
Start a budge
Start a wish list
Keep taking pictures ,it’s your progress.

Just my 2 cents
Dakazman
Keep in with this site and others 😁

[Certified Lotus]

There are several of us on this site doing total rebuilds (frame off). As long as your this far, might as well strip the chassis, media blast all the parts, paint and reassemble with new bushings, bearings, shocks, etc. it really not that hard, just a little time consuming but if you stay after it every weekend you will get it done by summer.

[buzzer]

Your question on shock absorbers/springs. Go for an adjustable sets, height and damping. As suggest Spax are ok but Banks in the UK does a nice set of AVO's. You can then play a bit with the ride height. You'll regret it if you don't.

[racurley]

Your question on shock absorbers/springs. Go for an adjustable sets, height and damping. As suggest Spax are ok but Banks in the UK does a nice set of AVO's. You can then play a bit with the ride height. You'll regret it if you don't.

I'm guessing these the AVO Dampers listed below?  What's the bush/rose designation?

Code   Diagram   Description   Unit   Price   Qty
RX0001   -   AVO Damper - front - adjustable & uprated - (bush)   Each   100.73    
RX0001A   -   AVO Damper - front - adjustable & uprated - (rose)   Each   105.00    
RX0005A   -   AVO Damper - front - adjustable & uprated - Banks 62S   Each   96.66   

[racurley]

...
  I made a choice to purchase all the blasting equipment and found it extremely helpful getting my project to the level I want. Looking at rusted parts drives me crazy.. lol. You can get overwhelmed by all categories of the rebuild so take one or two at a time .
...

I'm curious what equipment you purchased?  I've looked at the benchtop blast cabinet from HF which can be had for around $100 plus I would need to find a high volume compressor.  This could do the smaller stuff.  Not sure where I'd use a bigger blaster.  How did you do this?

[RoddyMac]

Code   Diagram   Description   Unit   Price   Qty
RX0001   -   AVO Damper - front - adjustable & uprated - (bush)   Each   100.73     
RX0001A   -   AVO Damper - front - adjustable & uprated - (rose)   Each   105.00     
RX0005A   -   AVO Damper - front - adjustable & uprated - Banks 62S   Each   96.66 

Bush means metalastic bushing ends, Rose means "Rose Joint" or rod-end ends (metal to metal).  The Banks 62S will be for the Banks 62 chassis, not standard Europa.  If you're restoring it as a street car, Bush type dampers are preferred.  If you're building a race car, Rose type. 

[BDA]

To expand on Roddy's post: "Rose" refers to the use of a spherical bearing or rod end. In England, they call them "rose joints" similarly to some in the US who call them "heim joints." Heim and Rose are manufacturers and their name is sometimes used like "Kleenex." Rod ends and spherical bearings give more accurate positioning of the suspension links because there is no compliance like there is in a rubber bushing. However they are more expensive and subject to wear from dust and grit. The are more commonly used on race cars.

[BDA]

...
  I made a choice to purchase all the blasting equipment and found it extremely helpful getting my project to the level I want. Looking at rusted parts drives me crazy.. lol. You can get overwhelmed by all categories of the rebuild so take one or two at a time .
...

I'm curious what equipment you purchased?  I've looked at the benchtop blast cabinet from HF which can be had for around $100 plus I would need to find a high volume compressor.  This could do the smaller stuff.  Not sure where I'd use a bigger blaster.  How did you do this?

I used to use a sand blaster I bought from Sears. You would blast larger items on your drive way or somewhere you don't mind having A LOT of sand. It is an amazingly dirty job. The sand goes everywhere! Given the size of a frame, if you have a way to get your frame to a sand blaster with any convenience at all, it would be a good move. A small sand blaster that you might get would take a long time to do a frame.

[dakazman]

Racurley,
I'm curious what equipment you purchased?  I've looked at the benchtop blast cabinet from HF which can be had for around $100 plus I would need to find a high volume compressor.  This could do the smaller stuff.  Not sure where I'd use a bigger blaster.  How did you do this?

     I purchased the larger hf cabinet and modded it with a 3 ft led single light strip, cyclone dust collector , new gloves from a different vendor , 3/4 heater hose for pickup, and a sliding door vent.
Most of the mods are on YouTube. The mod for a foot pedal is my next mod.

Yes you need a compressor with a water separator. I also use the handheld blaster for use outside
And a canister type On larger pieces such as frame. I had the bottle type from hf also worked well
But the front leg ripped a hole in the bottom of tank. I use glass bead for media , and yes playsand with a respirator only outside so I can sweep it up , run it thru a screen and reuse.
—-Do not use sand without a respirator—-
Dakazman

[Certified Lotus]

I’m on a flight so don’t have access to my model numbers of media blast cabinet and compressor. What I can tell you is next to my two post lift my media cabinet is the best piece of shop equipment I have ever bought. Don’t buy a super cheap one, your better off getting a medium value one from a reputable company. TP tools sells “hobby” media cabinets with a vacuum sytem. Look at these. You do need a large capacity compressor, that will be your big expense (look on Craigslist for a used one).

But I wanted to say the best way to media blast the chassis and other large parts is to take it to a company that makes headstones for graves. They have walk in media blasting rooms and are happy to take on additional work. I had a local place do my Europa chassis and all the large metal parts for $300 cash. Well worth it!

[andy harwood]

If you have someone that does powder coating locally, they may blast for you. Had my frame done for less than $100.

[Chuck Nukem]

If you have someone that does powder coating locally, they may blast for you. Had my frame done for less than $100.

100 is a pretty good deal. I had my local guy charge me $75 to do a valve cover and a bell housing. That's what caused me to buy a sandblaster. If you get a quote for $100 I would jump on it. I sand blasted mine with a crappy sears oilless air compressor that ran on 110. It took me about a week to sandblast, weld in rust repair, and repaint all of the metal parts on the car. If you have an 80 gallon compressor which runs a decent cfm then it will be much faster. Nothing worse than stopping every 30 seconds to wait for air. After seeing a twin piston 2 stage ingersoll compressor run my sandblaster non stop I shelled out for an 80 gallon....money well spent

[racurley]

Thanks for the replies.  I have seen some chassis that have been blasted and coated.  Looks like a great target for us.  I've gotten the front suspension off - well, everything except for the lower wishbone pivot pin on the left side.  That's being stubborn.  Will try the heatgun on the frame and see if it will come out.

I've been looking at the rear suspension and planning to remove the engine/trans and am not quite certain how to proceed.  So, there's a "roll pin"  at the inner U-joint and transmission shaft that I'm supposed to remove with a drift?  Looks like the rest required to pull the engine is to remove the gear linkage, which is explained in the manual, the lower arms on the suspension, the coolant hoses to the water pump, and the two mounting brackets.  There's also a cable going into the left rear of the transmission.  I'm guessing this is the tachometer maybe?  How does that piece come out?

One step at a time.  I'm getting ready to go on a trip for a couple of weeks so will have to get back on this later in January but trying to get a good plan in place for now.

[4129R]

There's also a cable going into the left rear of the transmission.  I'm guessing this is the tachometer maybe?  How does that piece come out?

Speedo drive.

Held in place normally with a metric thread bolt at the rear passing through a hole in the metal gearbox bracket, and a lock-nut (Renault gearbox is metric).

Undo the bolt and in theory the speedo cable pulls out.

[racurley]

Hmmm.  Here's what mine looks like.  Sort of just looks like it's stuck in there

by acurley, on Flickr