Author Topic: A heartfelt THANK YOU to the Lotus Europa Forum  (Read 1733 times)

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Offline HelpMyLotus

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A heartfelt THANK YOU to the Lotus Europa Forum
« on: Monday,November 27, 2017, 05:10:40 AM »
Almost exactly a year ago I was fortunate to gain possession of my father's Europa from 1989.  I got it back on the road and started making local trips in it.  I always feared the slight noise from the  trans.  My fears came true when it locked up on me. Inspection showed the internals were toast.  I started inquiring about a 365 transmission which I thought would be a little tough to find but not impossible.  Next fear came true.  The 365 is being kept by anyone who needed it, and very few are out there for sale.  Luckily Joji Tokomuto (GrumbleBuns) contacted me and offered the one he had in storage for sale.  He even shipped it to me trusting I would pay (which of course I did).  Without his kindness I would either be modifying the car to accept a different trans or not have one at all.  Thank you to the great people on this board for helping keep my car going. 

Offline lotusfanatic

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Re: A heartfelt THANK YOU to the Lotus Europa Forum
« Reply #1 on: Monday,November 27, 2017, 07:50:33 AM »
That’s a great post to read!

well done GrumbleBuns for being so helpful and trusting...

(long may your Europa continue to keep going!)

Mark

Offline BDA

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Re: A heartfelt THANK YOU to the Lotus Europa Forum
« Reply #2 on: Monday,November 27, 2017, 09:32:38 AM »
Kudos to Joji for being trusting and to HelpMyLotus for being trustworthy! A great story all around!

Offline LotusJoe

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Re: A heartfelt THANK YOU to the Lotus Europa Forum
« Reply #3 on: Monday,November 27, 2017, 10:14:17 AM »
Joji, Is that the transmission I sold Mike in Escondido and bought from him?
Joe Irwin
3927R TC Special
(The Classic Barn Find)


Offline Grumblebuns

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Re: A heartfelt THANK YOU to the Lotus Europa Forum
« Reply #4 on: Monday,November 27, 2017, 01:16:45 PM »
First of all, glad to help someone get his Europa back on the road. A replacement 365 transaxle is probably the most component to replace much less locate. I've had that 365 for years just sitting on the shelf waiting on a project to get started. Rather than let it sit for another 20 or more years, I figured it's time to let things go and help someone get his car back on the road, this is coming from a borderline parts hoarder.  Mark, don't blow this one up !!!.

Joe, the 365 in question is not from Mike (AKA Cal44). I think he sold it to someone else when he was getting rid of his Europa parts. I do have the TC engine he bought from you however sitting on my shelf.

Offline LotusJoe

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Re: A heartfelt THANK YOU to the Lotus Europa Forum
« Reply #5 on: Monday,November 27, 2017, 02:21:21 PM »
First of all, glad to help someone get his Europa back on the road. A replacement 365 transaxle is probably the most component to replace much less locate. I've had that 365 for years just sitting on the shelf waiting on a project to get started. Rather than let it sit for another 20 or more years, I figured it's time to let things go and help someone get his car back on the road, this is coming from a borderline parts hoarder.  Mark, don't blow this one up !!!.

Joe, the 365 in question is not from Mike (AKA Cal44). I think he sold it to someone else when he was getting rid of his Europa parts. I do have the TC engine he bought from you however sitting on my shelf.
Got it! I knew you ended up with some of Mike's stuff.
Joe Irwin
3927R TC Special
(The Classic Barn Find)


Offline Certified Lotus

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Re: A heartfelt THANK YOU to the Lotus Europa Forum
« Reply #6 on: Tuesday,November 28, 2017, 06:50:25 AM »
I’m always thankful to the community on this site. Very helpful and willing to get new owners of restoration projects headed in the right direction.

Offline shootingsight

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Re: A heartfelt THANK YOU to the Lotus Europa Forum
« Reply #7 on: Saturday,December 02, 2017, 08:49:58 AM »
Dammit!  I was looking for a good forum name, and GrumbleBuns is an excellent one!

That said, thanks to this forum.  It brings tears to my eyes that my Europa, which has been in storage for 30 years, is in my workshop, at home finally as of 3 weeks ago.  I don't have time to work on it, however every post on this forum gives me hope that there is enough support out there that I can get it running again, if I just put in a LITTLE effort.

I'd love to have the car, I don't love to have to do the work, but I'll do it because I love the car.

That, and this super hot girl who proposed we have sex in the Europa 30 years ago.  Didn't happen 30 years ago, and I'm not sure it is even possible, and laughable as a concept today (with me being 75lb heavier), but if I did get it running, and I lost weight, and found a skinny girl, and the stars aligned, I like to think it could happen....if I had a cool forum name, like GrumbleBuns....

In the meantime, thanks to the forum for increasing the probability that my Europa will run.
« Last Edit: Sunday,December 03, 2017, 07:00:06 AM by shootingsight »

Offline BDA

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Re: A heartfelt THANK YOU to the Lotus Europa Forum
« Reply #8 on: Saturday,December 02, 2017, 10:03:09 AM »
If you are a reluctant wrench, hopefully we can provide the motivation to get your car back on the road. If you are a noobe wrench, there are lots of people here who would enjoy helping you out. Europas are pretty simple cars (as evidenced by the fact that I put one together). However, I don't think we can help you with the forum id. Joji is a great guy, but I don't think he's going to want to give his id.

Sex in a Europa... you might be interested in a post I made a while back: http://www.lotuseuropa.org/LotusForum/index.php?topic=1386.msg13625#msg13625
« Last Edit: Saturday,December 02, 2017, 07:16:49 PM by BDA »

Offline Grumblebuns

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Re: A heartfelt THANK YOU to the Lotus Europa Forum
« Reply #9 on: Saturday,December 02, 2017, 12:44:53 PM »
A belated  :Welcome:

Yeah, thinking up forum names can be time consuming. At the time I only had a couple of forum names on hand, either "Grumblebuns" or "MyDickHurts". You know which one I chose, the other one is used for another login and no it's not a porn site. Grumblebuns is a nickname for my grumpy old black male cat.

Even in storage, a Europa can deteriorate. I recommend starting small and work on one system at a time. Just having the Europa in the garage to look at can be a great motivation to get it running.   

Offline shootingsight

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Re: A heartfelt THANK YOU to the Lotus Europa Forum
« Reply #10 on: Sunday,December 03, 2017, 07:28:16 AM »
Thanks for the offer of support.  I did a body off rebuild 35 years ago, when I was 20, so I'm not a nube, though at 20 and cash strapped, some of my fixes involved blow torch, hacksaw, and bailing wire (or maybe re-purposed hangars, as bailing wire costs money).  So I had it all apart at one point, and it was my daily driver for 3 years after that.

Then a series of unfortunate incidents caused me to split the block when I let it sit in the freezing weather during a radiator repair, so I replaced the block with an R16 block that I salvaged, and one of the big end bearing caps was a replacement that I don't think aligned correctly, so last I recall from 35 years ago was that oil pressure would drop way low during idle after it had warmed up.  So today, I'll start with an engine rebuild and align-bore.

THe clutch pedal is seized.  Dunno if it is the pedal assembly itself that has rusted, or if it is the cable, which was sticky back then.  Brake pedal is all soft, so I don't know if it simply leaked all the fluid out, or if the lines are rotted through.  Have not checked the radiator fluid, so I do not know if the transfer pipes are rusted out (I might just replace them with copper pipe while I have the engine out).  I jury rigged an alternator from a '68 Pontiac, as it cost a lot less than a Renault alternator, which was special order back in 1985 .... I shudder to think if the electric windows still work.  Yeah, this will be fun.  Luckily, I'm retired and own a half decent machine shop with mills and lathes and welders, so I can fabricate stuff way better than I ever could when I last did this.

That said, in my retirement, I own the machine shop because I like to design and tinker and prototype, mostly competition trigger systems for target rifles, and then I do short run productions, and sell them to target shooters on the internet.  After 30+ years of doing engineering and R&D work for a large corporation, I'm living the American Dream of being able to develop what I like, not what the corporation tells me to, and to chase the possibility of making money off it.  I don't make money, but I lose a lot less than if I were playing golf, so it is still a good deal.  Plus I cover the cost of having a machine shop that I can invent stuff in.

THe reason I am telling this is that if there is something that is a common problem to Europa owners, we might collectively come up with a better solution, and I might be able to help getting a custom development put together.  I see there is someone developing a disk brake upgrade.  While I do not have any experience in brakes, and would not want to try, that is the sort of scale of project that might be possible.  As I said, I have CNC mills, I also do business with real machine shops who have laser cutters, EDM capabilities, sheet metal fabricators.  Stuff isn't cheap, but if you make 20 or 30 of something, it is way cheaper than making one.

Offline BDA

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Re: A heartfelt THANK YOU to the Lotus Europa Forum
« Reply #11 on: Sunday,December 03, 2017, 09:55:08 AM »
It sounds like quite well set up! One of the neat things about Lotus owners, and maybe this applies to many vintage car owners, is that many of them view their car as a canvas on which to exercise their creativity. There is a never ending list of possible enhancements and customizations people have thought of. One that's been on my mind is to replace the rubber forward radius arm mount with a spherical ball joint. Maybe we can get enough interest in them or some other project that you might also be interested in it.


I hope you won't be a stranger!