The revival of 650143R, 1970 with TS.

[Richard48Y]

Lots more study to do before I commence laminating.
So far it seems I should only cut the outside perimeter, glove box opening, and glove box door before glueing.
The door gets set into the opening during lamination.

I will be using a vacuum bag for clamping, and Unibond 800 Urea glue.
To avoid edge chipping from the router I will need a very good bond.
Fortunately I believe nearly every edge gets a trim piece of some sort by the time it is all assembled. The exception seems to the rocker switches.

[SilverBeast]

I believe the biggest untrimmed edge is round the recess where the Speedometer and Rev Counter binnacle? Is mounted in the dash. That's also right in your face every time you drive the car.

[Kendo]

This was the sort of veneer trimming tool I used. But it looks like more of an edge band trimmer.
https://www.woodworkingshop.com/product/vf10000/

But Google mentioned veneer router bits. So I went looking. The top links were to up-cutting bits, which I think would be a bad idea for thin veneer. This one cuts downward.
https://www.veneersupplies.com/products/Down-Cutting-Edge-Trimming-Router-Bit.html

[GavinT]

To avoid edge chipping from the router I will need a very good bond.

After it comes out of the vacuum bag, perhaps apply a couple of coats of 2-pack polyurethane before cutting?
I'm thinking that should saturate and stabilise the veneer and hopefully provide some insurance against chipping. It should also help protect the surface against unintended marking by the router base.

For the switch holes, I gave them an initial coat of polyurethane before the dark brown paint was applied. That way, any overpainting excursions onto the face can be sanded off without issue.

[Richard48Y]

I think I like the idea of doing some of the finish work before final cutting. 
Not certain what the top coat will be as I want a semi-satin finish.
I do not like looking into mirror dash faces.

Todays petty progress was to pull the DCOE small parts from the Gunk and put the main bodies in.
In order to soak the main bodies I have to pour three cans of Gunk into a five gallon plastic bucket.
Standing on end this gets them fully covered.

[GavinT]

Forgot to mention that a common woodworkers method is to put down some masking tape to reduce the tear out. I'd do both.

Agreed, mine was a high gloss material and rather too shiny for my liking. I flattened the gloss and buffed it back to something more like a satin.
Marine 2-pack polyurethane is kinda expensive in my part of the world but the hardness, UV resistance and the ability to block it back is essential, I reckon.

Here's one we prepared earlier.
First pic - need to adjust the hinges a little and sunlight is playing some tricks but the actual polyurethane surface was blocked dead flat with wet & dry. The white speckles on the close up shot is dried compound I hadn't cleaned off....

[BDA]

Well done!! 

[Richard48Y]

Lots of orders arrived today.
I now have the parts to assemble my rear suspension, laminating supplies, and a new router base.
I just need some decent weather to be able to start putting all of this to use.
I also picked up my block and rods from the machine shop.
They measured the actual fitted bearing sizes to have the crank ground.

One more trick I may use on my dash, a layer of Carbon Fiber on the back side to provide a conductive ground.
When I worked on an S2 in Monterrey grounding was the main issue.

[Richard48Y]

Nothing pic worthy today.
But I do have the hard part of the body rotisserie installed.
Still have to complete the engine bay portion.
I am being cheap and using whatever steel is at hand, will be an ugly setup but should function fine.
Since I made it modular I hope that it will be usable again if I ever do another Europa.

Also bought some dielectric grease to use for the shaft bearings on the DCOE's.
Supposed to be less soluble than regular grease.
Got new leather seals but they are perhaps too thick.

[Richard48Y]

Another day, another parts order.
New spacers for the rear from RD Ent.
Really want to get the hubs together so I may complete the disc brake conversion.

[Richard48Y]

After realizing just how much "Fun" assembling the rear hubs will be I decided to turn a scrap stub-axle into a tool.
I turned down the inner bearing shoulder on my lathe so that the bearing just drops on.
I no longer need a press to get it apart.
Now I may use it to easily mock up my disc-brake conversion.

I am a bit surprised that the distance sleeves are such a loose fit on the stub-shafts and nothing to center them.
Perhaps I will fit some "O" rings inside, or am I missing something?

[TurboFource]

Richard,
I found that a small cable tie was the right thickness to center them...

[Richard48Y]

Good to know. 

Speaking of making tools, I am getting closer to having the rotisserie complete.
I wish I had a junk chassis to modify as that would have been so much simpler.

[Richard48Y]

RATS!
Too much flex in the forward rotisserie mount.
Going to have to reconfigure it.

Also have another S2 arriving next week.
I will be doing most of the work on it for a friend who bought it from another member here.

[gideon]

I saw a post somewhere (Facebook?) from someone who used a scaffolding pole to make a rotisseries for a Europa body.  The pole goes right the way through the body - through the front grille and through the rear cutout where the license plate would go.   You have to make a couple of brackets to attach the front and rear body mounting points to the pole, but then it's relatively easy to find something to hold the ends of the pole.

The other possibility is to use the actual frame and find a non-damaging way to attach brackets to the front and back of the frame.  The four suspension pins at the front should be good for this.  At the rear, maybe use the two body mounting points and the transaxle mounting point.  The tricky part there is making sure the front and rear attachments are co-axial.  If they're not quite co-axial then you could stress the body as the whole thing rotates.

Or, is it possible to put a pole right the way through the body and the frame?  It probably won't quite fit, but if it did it would be ideal.