S2 rebuild catchup

[Lotusteve]

So in early 2022 I bought a very tired but complete Uk S2 Europa as a rebuild project. Around that time there were either fully restored examples or complete wrecks. This one was somewhere in between, though looked better than it was - it had been stored outside under a cover since 1992, so thirty years since its engine had cried enough. Was it the burnt valve, worn bearings or detonated piston? (or all 3).
PO had messed with the car in his youth, so odd paint, ugly wheels, sunroof, and disordered switches and wiring.
I assumed the chassis would be shot, but body looked ok.
As a recent member to the forum I thought I'd post some catchups on the project, as work progressed a few mornings a week until April 2023,
when house rebuild took priority. Naturally this took twice the supposed timescale, but its now finished so attention will go next to the S2.
As this is my first post then photos might be present or not, upside down or not.

[BDA]

  Lotusteve!!

Your pictures came out great! I know we'd all like to see more!

So tell us more about your baby! How doe she run? Are you planning on keeping her stock or are you planning any mods?

Once my car sat under a tarp for six months and it ended up looking a lot worse than yours so I'd say you're pretty lucky!

[TurboFource]

 

[EuropaTC]

Hi Steve (?) and another 

For 30-odd years outside it's not done too badly and despite the paint the body looks straight with doors fitting nicely, etc. Panel fit in the 70s was never a big thing with Lotus so that's a plus. 

And some typical period "improvements" with the glass sunroof and wolfrace (?) alloys. Very 1970s....  I'd guess it came with steel wheels and the first or second owner fitted the alloys, at least that's what happened with my TC.

I can see in the last shot you've got it jacked up, so here's to the next installment !

cheers
Brian

[Dilkris]

Is that a black decal on the forward section of the bonnet or are they cut aways? If so has the P.O. installed an alternative radiator set up?   

[dakazman]

 
 Lotusteve.
 
    We look forward to your progress with the old girl. Post often, you’ll be sure to enjoy your journey as you look back at it here in the future.
 Dakazman

[Lotusteve]

Thanks for your kind welcome to the forum. So this catchup is a sort of time lapse part one, bringing it up to the present. Here are a few more pics of its 'as found' condition. As you may have guessed the main question in '22 was whether to rebuild to original as left the factory condition or to modify to echo the Type 47 cars. Well as trackdays, maybe hillclimbs, are intended then I chose the latter.
Seems (in the uk at least) that originality is key to good resale value and ooh factor. I'm resigned to missing both of those targets but I did want a lighter more powerful car than my Elan Plus 2 (ST170).
On top of the early decision to take the body off the S2, then the question was - could the original chassis be repaired and strengthened or start again with a Spyder chassis like my previous car.
Whatever happens then the body was to be lifted off - future warning I do not recommend how I did this!

[Lotusteve]

So the body removal started in Spring '22 and the plan was to try and wedge a twincam Spyder chassis under the S2. It soon became clear by talking to people and looking at this forum's threads that this wasn't as simple as it looked, there were real differences between the bodyshell mountings and grp internal structures, particularly in the mid section by the rear bulkhead. I thought I would have to raise the body high enough to get a chassis in and work with angle grinder etc underneath the whole lot.
So I got some cheapo pulleys and rope at each corner and a friend helped me winch it slowly up - apart from a professional four post car lift (which I didn't have, strangely enough), I'm not sure how else to do this.....do the whole lot upside down?  Any ideas for future use?
Here are a few pics - I've resized them to fewer pixels as the last batch went large when clicked on, I'm sure annoying for members!
Let me know if this lot are better.

[BDA]

I think your setup is well within the usual method of dealing with a body separated from the frame. I don't have a high ceiling in my garage so I can't have a lift and I couldn't hang the body from the ceiling either. I used a pair of saw horses and had the frame under it until I mated them together. Your setup is way preferable!

Your pictures are a bit big. but I'm not complaining. If you would like to try another method of resizing your photos, I display the picture and then using a "snipping tool" to copy the picture reduces the resolution enough so I can post them. So far nobody's complained. Here's a video about using the snipping tool (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_55eg00H-w). This is for Windows but Macs have a similar functionality. People have posted tutorials on it in youtube too.

[TurboFource]

Very similar to what I did, I left mine suspended rom my garage ceiling to keep it out of the way while worked on the chassis etc.

[Lotusteve]

Good news (I suppose!) from members that there wasn't an easier way to get the body off. I wanted it to keep its shape so still had doors and windows, and along with dash ,petrol tank etc was actually quite heavy.
Sean at Spydercars (about 40mins from me) was really helpful with advice on what chassis to use when thinking of an engine conversion. Saw their S2 and Twincam bare frames and twincam rear 'Y' section was splayed out more, presumably because the Twincam block is chunkier than the Renault?
However I wasn't convinced by the Spyder rear upper wishbones - very short, so camber changes?
Talked to Richard at Banks Europa as I liked the look of their frame, using a 4 trailing arm setup, like the Type 47 maybe.
Anyway he said he didn't make them anymore, so a bit of a dead end. Had a quick look at the Banks Europa 'Marketplace' on their website, and there actually was a used Spyder chassis for sale. Rang up, knowing a new one was nearly £4k ...seller said he wanted 200 (200 what I thought!)
Amazingly it was £ and it was hardly used - turning his Twincam into a historic racer he couldn't use the Spyder chassis so wanted it gone!!

Having this meant I could repair and paint my old chassis (which actually wasn't very rusty but had quite a few cracks) and sell a whole S2 'kit',
Chassis, trailing arms, rear wishbones, driveshafts, uprights, engine, gearbox.
Here are a few pics (of the old chassis and the new one I viewed at Spydercars), which I now can resize to 800x 600 pixels, hoping that this at last gets them to a viewable size (I use a Macbook)