Hi. Not much getting done on the car. I hit a snag when I disassembled down to the rear bearing carriers and found stripped threads. I am pretty sure I'll want to deal with them and be sure I can snug down the bolts, so I am going to have a conference with my auto shop instructor and be sure that I am not getting stupid about how I approach this restoration. I am pretty sure he'll agree Heli-Coils will get me back where I want to be. I also decided to contact Banks or what's left of them. It seems that I expected my Europa manual on CD to cover details about a raw bodyshell, which it doesn't. My bobbins are all glassed in, and I suspect Banks did that. But... I am seeing some other things I need to know more about. It appears that the customer was left to glass in the fiberboard firewall panels, and the work is attrocious. I am going to grind the work away and try again -- the air was not pressed out and I suspect since I see cloth with no resins in it, that it was never laminated correctly. I need practice anyway. I mentioned that I would like to try to smooth out some of the factory panel bonding because it looks so crude, although this is under the bodywork away from prying eyes.
But my big question is this rather large flange under the rocker panel area. I never noticed on my 1971 S-2 if it extended so low, or if it was unattached like mine is now. I suspect I will want to bond it to the rest of the bodyshell behind it, about 5 mm. inboard. Most of you probably notice that the Europa can have a fishbelly appearance at the rockers, with a droop in the center. I have an opportunity to "shape" the extra deep flange and minimize this appearance. I am hoping that Banks (Lotus-Supplies) will contact me with some ideas, otherwise... what are your ideas? Here's an attachment to remind you! The second photo shows the leading edge, driver's side, of the rocker panel area. I guess the flange isn't excessively deep, but I wonder if I could trim it at least a bit. What you cannot see well, though, is that the flange is a few mm. shy of contacting the fiberglass behind it, and I suspect that it should eventually. In fact, I suspect that I would want nearly a watertight seal there. I am thinking of laminating a "spacer" between the two and therefore gluing the whole shebang at that point.
