One last hard chore, frame head rust removal!

[Richard48Y]

I intend to keep my (Or at least most of) original chassis and suspension.
I want to drive the car San Jose BMC refused to sell me when I was young, with the in-period TS engine upgrade.

[Bryan Boyle]

Graphic below shows the difference, right out of the parts manuals.

[Kendo]

What do those turned up ends do on an S2? The upper suspension points are below the ears. Cradle the body somehow?

[BDA]

Yeah, I think it was silly but I can't think of another reason to have them.

[Pfreen]

It would help to strengthen the upper link thru-bolt to frame bosses.  It gives lateral support due to the vertical lip, which resists twisting.

[GavinT]

What do those turned up ends do on an S2? The upper suspension points are below the ears. Cradle the body somehow?

Probably, but you'd think the body isn't going anywhere laterally given it's 'hugging' the central backbone.
Bolts go through the body bobbins and those ears and they're easily accessible separately via the wheel well. I don't know where the bolt holes are on the TC but presumably it's above the suspension pivot bosses and a little more tricky to access?

Another explanation might be to stop the cat pushing your coffee off the end of the T.

[Richard48Y]

From Spydercars,

Yes, we could manufacture and supply a front suspension bulkhead.
These are the later spec where the damper mounts between the front wishbone spindle bushes.
The cost would be £1000 plus carriage.
You would also need 4 x wishbone spindles @£17.55 each.
 
Lead time would be around 4 weeks from receipt of £500 deposit.

I have not asked about a group buy yet.
That would certainly increase the lead time.
But if the fixture is already out and set up doing a few should be faster than setting up each time.
In my case the frame head is very repairable but not ideal so I have to think about this. 
At least these would be simple to ship.

[Richard48Y]

Not satisfied with how slowly Evaporust works.
So today I bought a big plastic tub and sodium carbonate to try electrolysis.
Freezing tonight so it is tomorrows project.

[Richard48Y]

Here is my frame head getting an electrolysis bath.
Muck floats to the top almost immediately.
Probably old dirt, oil, and remnants of Evaporust.
I am using a 200A "Dumb" battery charger in "Boost" mode.
Water gets dirty pretty fast, not sure how long to run such a large part and it is already hard to see it.

[BDA]

That looks interesting! Let us know how it turns out.

[Richard48Y]

Had to go this way.
Enough of any other product would be exorbitant.
Only large expense here was the plastic tub that I will reuse.

[TurboFource]

So you will do this then repair as you started earlier?

[Richard48Y]

Not certain yet.
I hope so as the new frame T from Spydercars is still $1,500.
I have to finish this process and take a hard look at it.
I could make my own frame T but that would delay me for months as it is just too cold to use outside equipment while relearning how to use a metal brake.
Turned the process off after a couple of hours.
I cannot see anything in the dark.
Maybe the muck will settle overnight so that I may get a good look.
​​​​​​​Nice thing about this is that I can just run it longer if I am not satisfied.

[RoddyMac]

I wonder what Send cut send would charge for the pieces.  Somewhere on the interwebs there were pdf's of the chassis (Found them:  http://www.lotus-europa.com/manuals/misc/Lotus%20europa%20chassis%20drawing.pdf ). 

I think send cut send can bend them as well as cut them.  It might save you some time. 

[Bryan Boyle]

That looks interesting! Let us know how it turns out.

I may go down this road for the fuel tanks, if I can find a 12v power supply (I have some 30-40A units I use in my ham radio shack...) that can put out the current...still futzing over how to take care of the flash rust...