My Type 54 to sort of 47 Conversion

[RoddyMac]

A small update, I sent the car to "the paint shop" at the start of the month, I had thought that all it would need would be some additional wet sanding then straight into paint.  I was wrong, the guy painting the car found a number of flat spots and decided it would be best to sort that out before painting.  This has put the cost to the very limit of my budget but at least it will (should!) look nearly perfect. 





In other news, I started on the seat foams and seat covers.  I inquired about foam at a local shop just after Christmas and was told by an employee there that my plan to use an angle grinder with a flap wheel to shape the foam was ridiculous, so I opted not to buy foam at that point.  I did some research and the guys on the HAMB had success doing as I had planned, so some foam was duly purchased.  I rough cut the foam with a bread knife (an electric knife would have made it easier) then with a 60 grit flap wheel everything was smoothed.  The grinder worked a treat, though if I wasn't careful it dug in a bit too much.  I can say that it's very very messy, the foam bits stick to you, the work space, and anything else that close by. 



I covered one set of side bolsters, but forgot to take a photo.  I also did one headrest, but after getting home and checking the various seat photo's I've collected, I will have to do it again as I incorrectly put the headrest backing board in the wrong location.   I'll post some seat photo's when they're done, or at least looking better.

Rod

[BDA]

I admire your willingness to do it all - or at least almost all. It would never occur to me to attempt to reupholster seats! That's something people can see! I'd wish you good luck but it seems that you're beyond that now! Good on you!

WRT paint, I had a similar experience. I covered the doors, boot, and bonnet with veil. I sanded the entire car down to at least 600 grit and everything looked flat to me but when I got the car back (I think they had it for six weeks), I found some sort of filler that was showing in the drain holes behind the tranny. If they put it where you can't easily see, I assume they covered the entire car with it. I've painted one (steel) car in my life so I was happy to let them do it the way they thought it should be done. I was very happy with the results.

[RoddyMac]

BDA,
I had thought about finding some used seats (I didn't get any with the car), but they seem to be either rare as hens teeth or beyond economical repair.  I'm kicking myself for not picking up the ones that were for sale on Lotus Europa Central over the past summer.  Oh well, I have some free time while the car is away at paint, so why not try something new.  I was quite pleased with the foam shaping and the one seat looks ok other than the headrest.  The nice thing is you don't see a lot of the side bolsters once they're in the car, the largest bit you do see are the seat squabs and the headrests. I won't be sewing the seat squab covers, I've farmed that out and the foam pieces are simple shapes so fingers crossed they'll turn out well.  I'll have to wait till the weekend to tackle the headrests again.

Almost forgot, the nice thing about building your own seats is you can tailor them to fit yourself.  I've had to shave the side bolsters a bit to sit in them comfortably.  I had even thought about slicing the seat in half an adding an inch to the width, but I'd need the car back in order to measure how much room I have.

Rod

[BDA]

IIRC, Foose added 2" of width to 7upJohn's seats in his S2 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AGknF9L-O8&t=6s) so I assume they would fit. I have to say, I think it would be a very tight fit to do that in my TCS. Anyway, maybe the paint shop could give you access to your car long enough to make some measurements.

[gideon]

Having just pulled an S2 seat apart, it seems to me that the side bolsters were simply rectangular section pieces that were glued down to make their shape.  I'll try to remember to post a picture when I get home.

[dakazman]

Rod, the seat looks great. Can’t wait to see the finished product.
Will you be going with black leather or something else?
Dakazman

[RoddyMac]

Dakazman,
I'm going with vinyl, leather would have been the dogs danglies but the price forced me to go with vinyl.  I'll post some more photos next weekend when I have some more garage time.

Rod

[Certified Lotus]

Rod, I’m impressed with the level of work your doing and no fear to tackle every aspect of building the car. Bravo !

[gideon]

I guess this is a moot point now, but here's that picture of the side bolsters from one of my S2 seats.  The outer edge is compressed, and it looks as though that is the edge that would have been facing forwards, but it got bent round and glued down on the adjacent edge.  It looks like a simple trick to get the bolster shape. 

[RoddyMac]

So the body and chassis have been handed back from the paint shop.  The body still needs a colour sand and polish, but it certainly looks good.   It's much straighter now and the paint isn't see through. 





Next step it reassembly...

[BDA]

She looks great! She should start coming together pretty quickly now! Keep up the great work!

 

[Bainford]

Woohoo!! That looks fantastic. Love the colour. Exciting times.

[jbcollier]

Beautiful.

[andy harwood]

Wow! Looks great!

[Lotus7]

That color blue what #2 on my short list of colors for the Europa. Look really good! I just wish you would go back and delete the pics of the car while you were sanding it. Just looking at them make me start to itch again remembering all the sanding on my car!