The Zetec 'Ropacane

[Chuck Nukem]

yee haw.........dang nice work.   Anyone that has a press.......impress's me

Alas my friend I must confess,
I am a charlatan for it is not my press.
To be accompanied by a gorgeous figure
in late evenings it brings me pleasure

To cast envy with such a splendor,
her long legs tread where other wonder
But as we part my heart gets weary
As soon as I have finished she states it clearly

"Eighty dollars" Her cold glare hinted
My wallet's grief surmounts feelings of betrayal
I quietly discover that she was rented,
not by the hour, but by the minute!

[Chuck Nukem]

Nobody enjoyed my ode to prostitutes? tough crowd..

Here are a few shots of my sandblasted and painted suspension components. I hope to have the original frame blasted and painted soon. Going to work on remaking some of those pieces I have made before (for the new frame)...turns out bending sheet metal takes finesse to get it right...

Serge you always seem to be about 5 steps ahead of me!! I am living vicariously through your progress.

[Serge]

Looks good, Chuck!

I'm on my third year into this project, so all in all, I think you're still ahead!


Serge

[3929R]

yee haw.........dang nice work.   Anyone that has a press.......impress's me

Alas my friend I must confess,
I am a charlatan for it is not my press.
To be accompanied by a gorgeous figure
in late evenings it brings me pleasure

To cast envy with such a splendor,
her long legs tread where other wonder
But as we part my heart gets weary
As soon as I have finished she states it clearly

"Eighty dollars" Her cold glare hinted
My wallet's grief surmounts feelings of betrayal
I quietly discover that she was rented,
not by the hour, but by the minute!

 

[Chuck Nukem]

Here's a little before and after:

Now that the shop is clean, I have taken the old frame to the farm so that I can put her out to pasture...


...The welding pasture that is. Hopefully there will be some progress to report soon!

I have changed plans. When I picked up the new frame section I had ambitious plans to make new parts for it so that I wouldn't have to "hack up" the original frame. The truth is that the rusty frame is going to need welding anyway, and any cut outs I have to do to it for zetec belt clearance can be welded back. When I get around to overhauling the twin cam I will right the original frame. After seeing how good all my painted parts came out, I have confidence that the frame will look just as good after a little welding.

I am still going to proceed with my project frame...but that can wait til after I have a running and driving car. This way I will get to spend much needed time behind the wheel to see how driving the car actually feels. I think this decision will probably speed up my build by a month or more. Once I get an idea of how it goes I can really modify my project frame to suit something a little more nontraditional...Let's have some fun!! 

[Chuck Nukem]

Well here we are two weeks later and I have a nice update for you all! Every piece of rusted steel that is destined to return to the car has been repaired and painted! Unfortunately right as I was laying my top coat down the air compressor decided to take a crap on me. It ceased to charge above 25psi, so I was left with a "textured finish" on some of the parts... Better call sears...

I recently ordered some of the 75A Polyurethane after reading Dean's (HealyBN7) tutorial on making motor mounts. He said his were still going strong, so in addition to those I am going to try and make the tranny and trailing arm bushings as well. If all goes well I may even try to make some bushings for the A arms. With all this clandestine manufacturing I feel like I should rent a cave in Afghanistan and start making AK-47's as well...

How is my support group?!?!?! 

The next phase is to get power in the building where the body is at. After it was all said and done we removed 7000 lbs of debris from there! I plan to start the bodywork on my '66 chevy pick up so that I have something to do when I get bored of doing the bodywork on the lotus. What is a man without options?

Pay no attention to my brother's vulgar expressions of relief, a nail popped a hole in that tire and he had to plug it somehow. Notice that the top of that tire is above the windshield line...That is not a 4x4 truck either...just a plane jane lwb C10. I have been telling people that the lotus is just a semi-waterproof motorcycle only lower. I think that picture sums it up pretty well.

[EuropaTC]

Great pics and a great update, reading that gave me a chuckle at O-dark hundred on a Sunday morning......  Keep 'em coming.
 
Brian

[Chuck Nukem]

Fair warning...this post contains major alterations to the inherent quality of my car. It is in no way authorized or approved by the factory. Stringent purists avert your eyes now!!



You have been warned....




In the spirit of the Europa del sol, and that red hood scooped abomination on ebay I decided to....
 






...make my first permanent alteration to the car....  My mom and I (I can hear the laughter now) made a pattern for the steering wheel and cut a piece of leather to fit. My main contribution was the menial task of punching the holes out to prep it. She started on the sewing it yesterday and needless to say I am impressed with the result! She used to sell hand made dresses and I told her I was going to commission her as the artisan consultant for my interior. 


In other news I got a big box of grade 8 bolts in the mail yesterday... Lets see where this frame ends up by April 30th. Exarkun and Serge are storming past me!

[HealeyBN7]

I recently ordered some of the 75A Polyurethane after reading Dean's (HealyBN7) tutorial on making motor mounts. He said his were still going strong, so in addition to those I am going to try and make the tranny and trailing arm bushings as well.

Oh *&^*&^.    Don't do it.   they worked for a while, but eventually had to replace the mounts with captive sleeves and bushings.   You can see what I did for the rear mount in this link:

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/lotuseuropa/files/Zetec%20Megajolt%20S2%20Manual/

Or on the third page of this thread.

http://www.vintagemotoring.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1534&start=50

One of the front mounts gave out after a spirited autocross session. 

While there is indeed less rubber in these mounts, they still provide dampening and appear to have tightened up the rear suspension.  Don't underestimate the role they play in handling.  I tried to attach a picture of the new front mounts, but I am not sure it it uploaded.

Let me know where you found the motor mount posting and I'll either pull it down or add a new ending.

Dean

[Chuck Nukem]

Well fiddlesticks. Your link is on the lotus europa master documentation menu at the bottom of the engine section. http://www.lotus-europa.com/manuals/  When I emailed you replied,

"The motor and trans mounts are working out great. Before the change I was getting some rear end steering on our crappy rain grooved freeway, now there is less, so I know it made a small difference."

So I went ahead full steam and made not only motor mounts, but trailing arm bushings and tranny mounts out of the stuff. In fact I was about to go machine some molds out of aluminum to pour front A arm and rear link bushings!! I'm glad you got a hold of me! What do you think lead to the failure? I have a vacuum pump and was going to let the bushings cure under vacuum to draw out any voids.

[HealeyBN7]

They were working fine for a couple years.  It wasn't until I pushed them hard on during an autocross session that I experienced the failure.   The weak point doesn't seem to be the rubber material, it is the bond to the metal that pulls away.   

I don't know how meticulous I was a cleaning the bonding surfaces so that may be a factor.  I didn't use a vacuum pump.  If you wanted to give it a try, I would go after them with a very rough (40 grit) sander and make sure they sparkle before setting the mold.  The other thing I thought would help would be to add more surface area to the mounting plates perhaps by welding small tabs or angles to make the mounting areas more complex.

I do recall responding to your email.  I wonder if I was thinking about my "new" bushing style mounts when I misled you as the before/after comment could have only transpired after I changed from the pour-your-own mounts.  Poo!

I'll ask Jerry to pull down the documentation.   

Dean

[Chuck Nukem]

No worries man!! Don't stress it! I am going to keep running with what I've got. I sandblasted the surface of the mounts before I poured them, so maybe that will hold up better? One of the original rubber mounts had done exactly what you described, it simply slid out. The tranny and trailing arm mounts have a configuration that should keep the poly in place. I will be very vigilant with them. If yours lasted a few years, I figure I will be OK for a while. Was the car controllable during the failure at all?

I am super impressed with your through documentation! It is almost a scientific paper! I can only hope to provide a fraction of the level of relevant information to the community. I really like the idea of pouring ones own bushings/mounts, maybe you could just put a caution note on the page.

I am still going to proceed with the bushing moulds. I got some 303 stainless to make the inserts. We will see how it goes...I don't mind being my own guinea pig.

In other news my wheel is finished! Now I'm off to mill a faceplate more reminiscent of the S1/S2 style.

[Chuck Nukem]

Can anyone tell me what the diameter of the horn button is for the S1/S2 cars? I'd like to machine my faceplate to be somewhat close.

[Serge]

I just measured my S1 steering wheel and the ring with the rivets that holds the horn push has an inside diameter of 54 mm and and outside diameter of 82mm.

Serge

[Chuck Nukem]

Thank you Serge!