Restoration of 2358R

[BDA]

Great write up of a cool visit!

I got my carpets from Automat - with the Lotus roundel embroidered in each mat! - and I'm very happy with them, but I was really confused about the different piles so besides the cool tour, having someone to discuss it with you was really valuable. I was surprised they were mistaken about when the S2-TC change happened but I don't suspect they deal with that very often in spite of my banging a drum for them at every opportunity. There just aren't that many of us.

I'm sure you'll be happy with your kit!

[EuropaTC]

Great write up, the company comes across as a very good place to deal with. 

And ya just gotta love the Ghostbusters car......

[Bainford]

Great report, thanks for posting. I enjoy reports like this as it can be difficult to tell which suppliers are true, 'dyed in the wool' (pun intended) car enthusiasts and which ones are just pushing 'made in China' product. These guys are obviously serious about their work. I must say the price of the complete set was a surprise to me, but hand made quality is not cheap and always worth it.

[Certified Lotus]

Thanks everyone. Please note that you can purchase the carpet set for 1/2 the price I paid. I just went with the higher end carpet and was willing to spend the $$$.

[Grumblebuns]

For those of you that are interested in the details for the bearings in a 352 transaxle I'm posting various photos and the bearing number and size sheet for future reference.

Certified Lotus, great information on the 352 bearings. Maybe it's the closet bureaucrat in my soul but I like my information easy to find and I'm thinking that the info you posted is buried in a generic heading and will be lost to those who may need the info. I'm wondering if you can re-post the bearing info in the Technical section under it's own title.

Joji Tokumoto
Fallbrook, Ca
   

[Certified Lotus]

Joji, once I get everything done on securing all the parts and rebuilding the 352 transaxle I will create a new post just for that. No problem.

[Certified Lotus]

My new carpeting arrived from AutoMat this week ((Thursday). Fast turnaround from the day I ordered it. The custom floor mats with Lotus Logo are back ordered two more weeks.

Yesterday (Saturday) was one of those perfect days for painting. Very low humidity, no wind and sunny. I had a bunch of parts to be painted waiting for a day like this so I did some media blasting, wiped everything down with paint thinner to prep and hung outside for painting. Four coats later everything came back inside for storage and curing.

I had media blasted the motor mounts and after close inspection saw one of them had a long crack in the rubber mount. Added new motor mounts to my list of parts needed.

Spoke with Ray at RD Enterprises. He located the last two bearings I need for my transaxle rebuild. Those should be here soon.

[Certified Lotus]

My custom floor mats showed up on Thursday. Automat did a nice job. Will store them away for installation in Spring 2018......in hopes that my body will be repainted by then 

[BDA]

They do nice very work! They'll look great in your car!

[Certified Lotus]

Got a call from Precision Chrome letting me know my bumpers were done.  Drove down to North Phila and had a nice conversation with Marty. He has been chroming parts for 30 years in this location. Trust me, he knows what he is doing.  I had him remove a large dent in the rear bumper as well as fill in the two small holes (I know, the purists are going to howl). Marty welded small plates behind the holes and then filled them in and ground them down before plating. Everything was perfectly done and the re-chroming is spectacular.  Now I'm worried that I will have to re-chrome  everything else because the bumpers look so good.......

[Certified Lotus]

The last bearings I needed to rebuild my 352 transaxle arrived. Big thanks to Ray at RD Enterprises for sourcing them as they are rare as hens teeth. Ray even had to "create" a part number for the difficult to find double race pinion shaft bearing as it isn't listed in the Europa parts manual. As a matter of fact, there was no part number on the original bearings.

Unfortunately my friend Drew who is rebuilding this transaxle is currently in Italy at the Ferrari factory for some special "by invitation only" event. I will have to be patient and wait for his return.

[BDA]

You (and Ray) must have the last unobtanium magnet!

[Certified Lotus]

Spoke with Dave Hoffman over the weekend about the pickup of my Europa body. Looks like 2 weeks and it will be out of my garage and into his body shop. I have decided to fill the side light marker holes in as well as the antenna hole while the body is being worked on. I have seen a couple of Europa Twin Cam's that have had this done and really like the look.  This weekend I got all the carpeting and wiring out of the car, now it's really ready to be sent out!

Gotta love the original 2358 Yellow marking in the car. Need to keep that intact!

I left the interior headliner in place as it is in great condition. I'm hoping it can be masked off while being painted to keep it intact.

The engine builder called me last week asking what color to paint the valve cover so the completion of the engine is very close. Just waiting for him to call me with a date for the dyno run.

With the body going away and the engine coming in, along with the rebuild of the transaxle, I will have my winter project of reassembling the entire chassis in preparation for receiving the body back in spring. I have also decided to put disc brakes on the rear, just waiting for the group buy to be finalized.

[BDA]

Things are moving pretty fast! That's great!


Are you going to have a radio? If so, where will you put the antenna?


I don't remember if you said what you're going to do about door hinges? r.d.'s stainless steel set or Richard's brass set?


So are you painting the cam cover to match the car, going with the original black, or something else?


Can't wait to see pictures after you get the body back!

[Roger]

Original cam cover colour would have been red.