My 72 Europa SS

[Certified Lotus]

Great to see the various steps you went through to build your car. Keep the photos coming!

[Sofa King]

Careful what you ask for!
With lowering the nose and moving the rear wheels backwards, I thought that the rear facia was too high, so I lowered it about 5”. I cut the bottom off the stock facia and narrowed it a couple of inches so that it matches the taper of the body. Then I used sections of a storage tub that I cut up and screwed them to the inside of the body and piece that I had cut off. Then I layed fiberglass over the plastic on the outside, building it back up to the level of the body. The plastic could then be popped off the inside and I added several layers to the inside for strength.

[Sofa King]

The back portion of the fender flairs were radiused to meet the new facia panel.

[Sofa King]

I found these inexpensive LED tail lights and thought that they looked like the ones in the current cars, so I modified the tail light buckets to French them in.

[BDA]

Sofa, you sure are handy with fiberglass! Nice, creative work! 

[Sofa King]

Thanks! This was the first time I’d ever messed with the stuff! I experimented and learned on the fly. Of course I’m only showing what worked!!

[Certified Lotus]

Ha! I was wondering about all your trials & tribulations along the way. Major undertaking for sure, but I for one am super impressed!

[Sofa King]

The process really wasn’t too bad. Moving the wheel wells went pretty much as planned. Probably went better than I expected. Realizing that the opposite side quarter panel was the right shape for the filler piece that I needed was a huge bonus!
I ended up doing the front flares twice, because I misjudged what I needed to cover my wheels. The redoing of the fronts caused me to change the front half of the rear flares, but that turned out to be a bonus because I liked the change better than the first look.
I was pretty lucky, most of the challenges that I didn’t see coming, led to solutions that ended up better than my original plan!

[Sofa King]

While I’m at it... here is a photo of the engine and transmission. The aluminum adapter plate, turned out to be the most expensive part of the entire build. It cost more than either car, the engine or the transmission!
The headers were a great find, and one of the best deals of the build. They are designed to mount twin turbos in front of an LS engine, but I turned them around. They really simplified my exhaust system... and I think they look pretty cool! $150 on eBay!

[Sofa King]

The transaxle is from a 2004 Boxster S. Chosen because of the available adapter, and my ability to use the stock Porsche shifter and linkage. I was also able to use the stock clutch slave. Nice when you don’t have to reinvent anything.

[BDA]

I can imagine the adapter plate was expensive!

Fiberglass is nice to work with. I didn't try anything as ambitious as you but I did a few things. I'm glad it turned out so well! If you have more, I hope you'll post more pictures and tell us more stories!

[Certified Lotus]

What makes the adapter plate so expensive?

[Sofa King]

Well, part of the problem is that I got great deals on both cars and the engine!

Also in all fairness, the adapter included both the plate that you can see and a pretty specialized flywheel that has the GM starter gears and then sets back into the Porsche bell housing to allow the Boxster clutch to be used. It’s a very nice system, made by Kennedy Engineering primarily for guys building Lamborghini or GT 40 replicas. It’s about $1900 not including the clutch!

[Yellowbelly]

Really enjoying the photos of the modifications. Please keep them coming.

[Sofa King]

Will do!
I like your Cobra trailer! I have a spare Europa front end and rear panel, was thinking about doing the same! I have zero trunk space left. If I want to bring a toothbrush, the passenger has to hold it!