1970 s2 0453R - A new Beginning

[dakazman]

  My heater is electric and my choke cable just runs under rug and exits the firewall along with the accelerator pedal cable.

[dakazman]

  Got a little sidetracked today but managed to finish the console. Only setback was I misplaced the hinge pin for the armrest.🥴. Something else to do tomorrow.
  Now to dream up something that will secure the muffler cover.🫡
   Dakazman

[dakazman]

  I must first state that my above temp repair will be welded in minus the plug plate.
 
   I turned my attention to the muffler heat shield and mount. Making cuts around the gearbox mount bolts I was able to lower the bracket that hold the muffler and then I had to change the mounts that hold the u-bolts to one side and re-weld.the inlet pipe from the header to the muffler was extended about 3/4 “ and angled differently. The re -wrapped with header fabric.
The durarock and the fabric is under the stainless cover. Still a work in progress to secure those but they can’t go anywhere.  I maintained about 1/2 clearance around the entire muffler, and the trunk fit perfectly.
  Next I’m going to play with a Wi-Fi backup camera and trying to find an ideal location for a usb /pd connector.
  Then sine it’s cooling down to 78f I’ll try to charge up my A/C system which will entail hooking up the last three control wires or switches…🤷🏼‍♂️. Maybe even learning how to adjust the Weber carb knockoff.

[BDA]

Congratulations on your progress, D'man!! 

Hopefully you'll be driving your baby in air conditioned comfort soon!

[dakazman]

Congratulations on your progress, D'man!! 

Hopefully you'll be driving your baby in air-conditioned comfort soon!

 
     Thanks BDA, I forgot where I was and went on this tangent...: FUNNY:
 
  I got around to things I wanted to do while waiting for a radiator hose for my daughter's car that I mentioned in off topics/ distractions. weather was just perfect today and after some shopping with the wife I was able to scrounge up some time to paint my lower close-out panel and touch up my lettering on the JPS bonnet. This lower panel will get me off my a** and finish the wiringto the A/C.
  Then a little touch up work around my Tiburon's rear window. Painting season is coming and I'm ready to paint the veil coated door panels and engine cover, Black of course.
  Then a much-needed re-spray on the corvette.
 
  A little daily road trip with the Europa is enough to reveal its short comings and the operators , that I fix ASAP, but that small gearbox leak is driving me crazy.
  Dakazman

[dakazman]

  Not much completed but now running a brand new battery instead of old batteries I had laying around. Nothing special just a leadAcid battery with 3 year warranty.
  Then my daughter showed up with a surprise, a GPS/dash cam setup with two cameras. 😁
  Good thing I didn’t install the close-out panel yet to cover the wiring. I did find time to get it painted. Now to really come up with a location for a usb charger port for phones., and a hardwire or use a 12v cigarette lighter plug . I don’t want to drill holes in the facia or the close out panel.
  I’ll get this slaved in and go from there.
 Dakazman

[berni29]

Hi

When you say your heater is electric, what unit did you use? Also how did you deal with the electrics? I put a Fiesta (MK7 I think it was) 800w electric matrix in the heater box of my +2 (along with a modern water matrix) in order to give instant heat while the car warms up. I have not had it actually working in the car yet (only on the bench) but it draws nearly 70A according to my calculations. Because of the extra load on the engine it should actually help the engine warm up faster.

All the best

Berni

[dakazman]

  Hi Berni
  I found it here
https://www.lotuseuropa.org/LotusForum/index.php?topic=2058.1305

  However the picture of the eBay post is not there anymore.
 You can read further from this page. I disassembled the heater and rebuilt it to fit under the wiper arms twice. I wired it directly to battery with A 10 gauge wire to a relay to heater  the on off is where the original cable was . It has a larger cfm fan that runs on the defogger switch that I may also run to the control relay for dual functionality.
 This is what I searched for , mine was metal case but they seem to have others cheap enough to test .

https://www.ebay.com/itm/196729705786?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=nMZO75vdQcu&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=QOunqopVSxS&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=SMS

Dakazman
 

[berni29]

Hi

Thank you for the information. Does the heater work well? I did look into that type a while back, but the power claims did not stack up for me.

This is a pic of the Fiesta electric matrix in the +2 heater box. Its mounted under the water matrix and is nearly the same size.

Love the aircon install!

All the best

Berni

[dakazman]

  I still haven’t tested it inside the Europa under actual conditions. It has been turned on and heat comes out . Unfortunately it’s been in the 90’s and only now 80’s. Our winter is maybe a week of 50’s and 32 maybe at night.  Like I said my test was in a car, not moving in a 50f garage.
   That heater looks like it would do well in the UK depending on the fan or fans needed to transfer the heat. What are your reasons for deviating from the stock heater ? Mine was to add an under dash A/C unit which is still a work in progress and needed in Florida.
    I took some temp readings on the radiator transfer pipes inside the frame at 170f , to bad we
Couldn’t come up with a heat exchanger around those pipes and direct the flow into the cabin area.
 Dakazman

[dakazman]

  Moving along and sometimes backwards came into play. I finished mounting the close-out panel on the hinge and the magnetic catch works great .  I’ll have to come up with a better way to remove it to work on the fuse and ground bar but that should be far in between.
  Then the one step back, my prop rod fell out with a gust of wind and landed on the ground but the lid came down on it hard, cracking the lid. I guess it could have been worse if the wind blew it over the hood and this being in my garage.
  Luckily I have my composite veil lid in prime and I should be able to swap it out , painted and polished by Saturdays Cocoa concours car show.
Dakazman

[BDA]

That's a real bummer about your engine cover. Maybe gas struts would help in the eventuality of that happening again...

[berni29]

Hi

Ugh, its horrible when that sort of thing occurs. They say most accidents happen at home.....

I have been there a few times with dropping things on cars when squeezing past or inadvertent scratching. if you are regularly working on a car its almost impossible to entirely avoid small accidents.

All the best

Berni

[dakazman]

  BDA   
                  Absolutely, Now that I have most of the problems worked out Its going to the top of the list.
   BUT,, now it gave me an idea where to mount the rear backup camera. 
   
  The dash cam works really nice and setup was a breeze. I slaved it in on the El Camino and it was up and running and linked to my I-Phone for GPS locating and vehicle speed amongst other features. The hardest part is going to figure out where to put a 12 V outlet. TWO in my case. or the company has a hardwire setup for the power cord. I'll probably just cut the cigerette lighter adapter off and hardwire it in. The rear camera cord is miles long, so hiding and routing wire shouldn't be a problem.

   Bernie,  Yep I agree there too. Watching my neighbors walk by with their keys dangling off their belt drives me crazy.

 Dakazman

[berni29]

Hi Dakazman

My reason for wanting instant heat in the car is the same one that makes me gravitate towards fuel injection.

I used my very first Lotus, a 1968 plus 2 as an everyday driver about 20 years ago. The car was hideous during the winter, especially in really cold weather. Hideous until it warmed up that is, but most of my commute and driving generally was quite short distance. So to combat this I fitted a petrol powered Webasto Hi-Top in the nosecone. This was on a timer and would heat up the engine coolant to 78 dec C which made things a lot better. So it is the memory of that experience that makes me want instant heat, and the good running from cold that fuel injection gives.

As an aside I crashed that car straight into a slate embankment in North Wales. It was a moonless night, absolute pitch black. The headlights were pathetic and I thought I was on a fast straight (on a road I thought I knew well) but was actually approaching a tightening bend. The bang was incredibly loud and smashed the car completely right up to the front wheels. Just before the impact I was wondering why my wife was screaming. Even though the seatbelts were the fixed type we were completely uninjured. I found that fibreglass absorbs impact quite well (at least in a frontal impact). When parting out the car later I found several quite large cracks in the chassis.

All the best

Berni