Dragged another one home - Pt 1

[Grumblebuns]

                                                                                                                 
                                                                                                               Future sage of 2229R

Dragged Another One Home Pt.1
Future saga of 2229R

I first saw 2229R advertised on the San Diego county Craigslist and made a mental note to take a look at it when I had more time. When I noticed that it was still for sale a couple of weeks later I contacted the seller and arranged to take a look the Europa. The car was stored in your typical packed and cluttered two car suburban garage. The lighting was poor but from my initial impression, the Europa didn't look half bad. The first thing to jump out was the decent paint job. It was a metallic dark blue , freshly painted 20 years ago when the car was put into semi-storage to the back of the garage. The owner related to me the long convoluted story of how the car came to be in this condition, too long  for this thread. The second impression was the missing front windscreen, no motor, and no rear glass. The interior was in poor condition with faded and worn carpets, the oatmeal seat cushions were sagging and ripped at the seams, wood dash was delaminated, the crash pad was missing and all four tires were flat and wouldn't hold air.

The owner was trying to sell the disassembled twin cam block/crank, complete head and 352 transaxle separately from the car but we came to an agreement to include the all of the engine and transaxle parts and all spares with the car for $3500. I then spent the next couple of weekends getting the car prepped for it's trip onto the trailer With four flat and cracked tires, I swapped three with with my spares and the fourth with the Europas spare which appeared to hold air pressure.We then installed and supported the 352 transaxle, attached the drive shafts and lower links to hold the wheels in line to roll straight.

Two weeks later with the help of my friend and fellow Europa owner Larry Mullins, we drive down to pick up the Europa. As we try to roll the car out into the driveway and discover that the left rear wheel will not roll. We lift and remove the wheel and diagnose the likely cause to be a stuck brake drum. With no time for finesse or niceties, we hammer and pry the drum off the hub, reinstall the wheel and finally loaded the Europa onto my trailer and made the 60 mile trip safely to my garage.   

Joji Tokumoto
Fallbrook, Ca

[BDA]

Joji, you and I have the same disease - we want to get a new project before we finish the old one! How many have you got now?

I think you got a good deal and she'll come out great when you're finished with her! Let us know how it goes!

[SilverBeast]

Verry nice.

I do like the clean front end without the indicator bulges. I see it also has the S1 style body cut-outs for opening the door, although they are slightly lower than on an S1.

I look forward to seeing the cars progress.

[Grumblebuns]

Jim, I really had no intention of making an offer when I went down for the look and see. After talking with the owner and hearing of the few really lowball offers he had gotten so far and looking over the car as best as I could, I made an offer on his asking price. For what was there, I thought it was a fair price. It was on my second visit that we agreed on a package deal for the separate engine components. Those included two professionally cleaned 701 blocks (one from his destroyed Elan), a complete Stromberg head with valve cover, the Strombergs, crankshaft, and jackshaft and a pair of 40 DCOEs from his Elan. The missing Weber head from his Elan is a long story in itself. If I didn't already have a lot of the missing items, I probably wouldn't have bought the car. When I have more time, I'll inventory what came with the car and see what items are missing.

Those S1 style door cutouts and missing door handles will probably constitute the biggest headache on the build. I need to decide whether to go with the original door handle or source the S1 pushbutton or a solenoid style opening mechanism as envisioned by the PO. Once I have more time I'll push the Europa outside and get a full look under better lighting.

Oh, to answer your question, this only Europa #5 plus two parts Europas.

Joji Tokumoto
Fallbrook, Ca
     

[surfguitar58]

Oh, to answer your question, this only Europa #5 plus two parts Europas.
   

Congrats Joji! Looking forward to following you progress in this fresh acquisition, but aren't they ALL parts Europas until they are actually on the road? 
Tom

[BDA]

Did the seller also impot olive oil? He sure gave you an offer you couldn't refuse!

[Grumblebuns]

                                                                                                                   First Close Look

A week later I finally got a few uninterrupted  hours to get the chance to take a closer look at the new Europa. The first thing I did is to wash the accumulated garage dust off with a bucket of water and a wet sponge. With the dust and grime mostly washed off, I get the first clear look at the paint job in the late afternoon light. My initial impression is that paint isn't half bad. It's not show quality but definitely not an Earl Scheib/Maaco paint job either. There were some shortcuts taken by the body shop with the original paint showing on some of the hidden edges that were not masked off and painted. Stored in a garage and serving as a storage shelf for 20 plus years took a toll on the paint with some scuffing and chipped areas. In conclusion, a buff and wax after all the work is done should make for an acceptable paint job.

My first priority with 2229R is to start with the interior. Some initial observations of what needs to be done in the cabin:
1. The interior is rough to say the least. The beige/oatmeal upholstery is split in some of the seams and the original vinyl is stained and feels hard and stiff.
2. The carpets are worn and sun faded to a light yellow.
3. The door cards are missing although they may eventually show up as the PO  finds more missing items
4. The veneer of the dash is heavily cracked and is missing the crash pad.
5. The seat belt receptacles are missing the push button release mechanism and the belts should be replaced.
6. The headliner seems to be in decent shape with no obvious sag.
7. The rear window glass is missing
8. The center console is missing
9. The seat runners are not rusted in place to the seat; both seats move back and forth very easily.

I'll start removing the seats and the carpeting this weekend, cleaning up the interior and start looking at carpet and upholstery options. For those of you with the oatmeal seats, are the carpets also beige?

 

[4129R]

The original carpets were beige/oatmeal, then Lotus started selling honey coloured carpets in about 1978/9 when they ran out of beige.

The lighter colour make things easier to find in the footwells.

[BDA]

It sounds like you didn't score an ashtray! 

It looks like a good start presuming the frame is in good shape. It's good news that the seats weren't rusted in place!

Are there any rear windows to be had? A guess a plexi-glass replacement wouldn't be out of the question.

Good luck with your new baby!

[Grumblebuns]

The car came with the metal base for the ashtray, although the ashtray may eventually show up. If not I have collected a couple of spare ashtrays over the years so I'll use one of those for this car.
Same with the rear window glass; I have a couple of spare rear windows. I'm thinking of cutting and fitting my own carpet. Anyone done this? Is it worth the effort?

[BDA]

I think there are only a few pieces to the carpet that require sewing to fit a contour. Then, most carpet piece edges are finished off with some vinyl (or similar). I would expect those would require a beefier sewing machine than most people would have. I suppose you could get that sewn for you. After that, it's probably not a big deal. On the other hand, I got my carpets from https://www.autointeriors.biz - they have lots of colors and piles to choose from, and I had my interior shop install it for me (I pretty much had someone who knew what they were doing do it if it was going to show!).

[Bodzer]

Nice one Joji! I love the sight of a lotus project. Good luck with it.

[dakazman]

  Looks like you’ll be busy for awhile. I glad it found a restorers home.    Looking forward to reading about your progress.
Dakazman

[Mikey likes it!]

Next time we meet....  It won't be halfway.....   I would love to see your stable of Lotus !   

[EuropaTC]

I'm thinking of cutting and fitting my own carpet. Anyone done this? Is it worth the effort?

Hi Joji,
I did mine a year or so ago using the old ones as patterns.  Firstly, it took far longer than I expected (but doesn't everything ? ) and secondly the cost wasn't that far off buying a set of ready made carpets.  The plus side is that I've probably got a better quality carpet and it's exactly the colour I wanted.

Cutting from the old patterns is easy enough and most parts can go in "as cut".  The outer sills aren't finished because the trim hides the edges. Ditto the front footwells, rear firewall/floor behind the seats. At the back, just below the rear screen I have the carpet on a separate board rather than glued to the fibreglass, so the carpet just folds over with no exposed edges.

The difficult bits are the transmission tunnel behind the console where it forms that "triangular" shelf. I did that with a sewn joint along the edges to get it sitting neatly. The other one is the footwell carpets. Because it's easier to pull them out to clean I think you do need the edges covered with trim to stop fraying. If you glue everything down and use rubber or footwell mats then it's not an issue. 

It's another of those "I did it because I wanted to" jobs, it's certainly quicker and probably cheaper to buy a set of pre-made carpets if you're confident the patterns are correct.

Brian

Edit to add.... I think that paint looks pretty smart for a restoration project ! You've got yourself a good buy there, well done.