Europa S2 540936 in Sweden

[GavinT]

Well done . . looking very neat.
Might want to swap that top pivot pin around. You won't be able to get it out after the body goes on.

[BDA]

Things are moving along! 

I reread my previous post about spraying your tranny and I thought I'd reiterate that when they painted sevenupjohn's tranny, they sprayed it with "silver" (I don't know the actual color) and then sprayed a clear coat.

It was all shown on two episodes of "Overhaulin". You can find the second, an maybe the more interesting, episode on YouTube by searching "overhaulin lotus Europa." It's about 44 minutes long.

[RoddyMac]

Gavin,
It looks like it's the right way round, doesn't it come out through the hole in the footwell?  The photo look like it's taken from the cockpit side of the front cross member (caliper is towards the rear, steering arm to the front).

[GavinT]

Gavin,
It looks like it's the right way round, doesn't it come out through the hole in the footwell?  The photo look like it's taken from the cockpit side of the front cross member (caliper is towards the rear, steering arm to the front).

You're right, Roddy . . and I'm wrong.

Ignore me, lahi.

It was the big hole in the T (lower left of the pic) that had me confused.
It's a right hand drive car. Ooops. 

[lahi]

Things are moving along! 

I reread my previous post about spraying your tranny and I thought I'd reiterate that when they painted sevenupjohn's tranny, they sprayed it with "silver" (I don't know the actual color) and then sprayed a clear coat.

It was all shown on two episodes of "Overhaulin". You can find the second, an maybe the more interesting, episode on YouTube by searching "overhaulin lotus Europa." It's about 44 minutes long.

Thanks! I'll have a look when my children are asleep 

[lahi]

Gavin,
It looks like it's the right way round, doesn't it come out through the hole in the footwell?  The photo look like it's taken from the cockpit side of the front cross member (caliper is towards the rear, steering arm to the front).

You're right, Roddy . . and I'm wrong.

Ignore me, lahi.

It was the big hole in the T (lower left of the pic) that had me confused.
It's a right hand drive car. Ooops. 

The pivot pin is inserted from the rear. That must be right? Now is the time to change it if I need to 

It's a LHD car. There's holes on both sides but not at an equal distance from the center line. See picture.

[GavinT]

Apologies, lahi, I was wrong about the pin orientation.

I'm blaming cabin fever. 

[lahi]

Apologies, lahi, I was wrong about the pin orientation.

I'm blaming cabin fever. 

No worries!
I'm happy for any help, info, anything that can help me in my restoration, and this is the group to be in 

No cabin fever here yet. I have been working from home for three weeks earlier but that got boring so now I'm back to work. I'm in Sweden

[lahi]

Long time ago since I posted here. I had some progress with my Europa! Came to a 1 year halt due to working with my hobby and ended up not going out to the garage as it became too much cars at work. I managed the engine development department at Koenigsegg and led the Gemera engine program and some other non-official engine programs. Entertaining job but way too much overtime and just stress, stress, stress. With three small children and a farm full with animals I can't have that so I recently quit and got my interest for my hobby back  Yaaay.

So, chassis is done.

[lahi]

I have sanded the entire body and covered it with thin fiberglass veil (30gr/m3) to seal all micro cracks. Turned out very well!

The body, doors and bonnets will go to the painting guy in four weeks Color will be L05 Carnival Red as the VIN plate says. With clear coat. Wheel wells and underneath will be black body and engine compartment, front compartment (where the spare wheel sits) and underside of bonnets will be satin black.

This is a restoration to how it was when new, so no modifications at all (except the spray body under the car and the painted gearbox and engine as that's just to be able to keep it to a nice standard for longer). This means that I will keep the Solex DIDSA2 carb. No one makes gaskets or a overhaul kit for that carb as it seems that the only car that had that Solex was Europa 1470cc. Not even the Renault where the engine came from had that carb. I finally found a rebuild kit for a Solex fitted to some BMW from the seventies. Most parts seem to be the same so I will be using those.

[jbcollier]

Looking very sweet indeed, congratulations!

Please, please, please add a little reinforcement to the a-pillar.  It is very weak there.  Don’t ask me how I know :-(

[lahi]

Looking very sweet indeed, congratulations!

Please, please, please add a little reinforcement to the a-pillar.  It is very weak there.  Don’t ask me how I know :-(

Thanks for the tip! I didn't think of that... I have just noted that it's very weak there and haven't done anything about it. I have time to fix it! How have you done it? There must be room for some layers of fiberglass on the inside of the a-pillar? Facing the cabin? I can't imagine it will interfere with any of the panels.

I would be very upset if the paint cracks when it has new paint 

[jbcollier]

You could epoxy in a strip of aluminium or stainless steel.

[BDA]

She’s surely going to be a beauty!

Manager for the engine development at Koenigsegg! Your Renault motor is certainly in another world from what you had been working with!

[lahi]

You could epoxy in a strip of aluminium or stainless steel.

Was thinking of that. I have some carbon tube in different sizes but that feels a bit wrong to put in a -68 Europa that's going to be as close to standard as possible    How much room is there on the inside of the a-pillar? If I remember correctly the interior stuff is glued directly on the a-pillar? So anything added there will give me a visibly thicker pillar? But that's a lot better than cracking paint  I guess the pillar itself is reinforced by the windshield so the paint won't crack along the short sides of the windscreen but the risk of cracking where it attaches to the roof or to the fender is quite big? Am I right? So in those areas it's important to add strength? It moves a lot there when I twist the a-pillar