47 Bodied Project Starts - Slightly Delayed. Big pile of bits to sort out.

[StrawberryCheesecake]

I bought the 'car' a few months ago, but I've been busy rebuilding an old Scirocco as the midweek project. Now that the Scirocco is MOT'd and on the road, it's time to start on the Europa.

In the meantime, the security and vermin control team in my mate's barn has been keeping an eye on things,



and my mate has lent me a corner of his enormous barn to crack on with it.


Here's what I've got.

47 Replica body with doors, front lid in kevlar (I think), and engine lid.





Spyder Chassis - double wishbone conversion on the rear




Roll Cage - or rather a rear hoop, and stays that go back through the body, to the rear part of the chassis.


Massive Radiator and an oil cooler already installed. Plate above the driver's feet is to mount the  custom pedal box.


Rose jointed wishbones all round - missing a couple of rose joints, but will get to those, Spyder (I think) fabricated front and rear uprights.





First impressions are ... blimey it's all very very light... I used to have a mini marcos, many years ago, but the body on this is much much thinner... maybe 2mm in places like the floor. My mate Steve and I lifted the body up between us without a problem, and the same for the chassis.


And Several boxes of bits... some of which I can tell what they are, and some others I haven't a clue about. Hopefully some advice on here will point me in the right direction. I could look in the manual, but it's a bit of a needle in a haystack job if you don't know which area of the car they belong to.


More of that in the next post

[StrawberryCheesecake]

So I did the 'sensible' thing and spread it out all over the floor, and tried to figure out what most of the bits were....

Carnage


From the front:

Steering rack, wishbones, anti roll bar (lying on the floor). Fabricated uprights need bearings and hub flanges, and some other bits n bobs. I may well have found a set of stock front hubs to fit on - probably easier.




Standard (?) front calipers, one disc - not sure if it's for the front or rear, disc backplates. There are a couple of brackets that I'm not sure if they belong to front or rears. Maybe rear disc conversion brackets, but the spacing of the caliper mounting holes fits the front brake calipers.

Steering column std(?) it's a two piece column - the lower part appears to slide inside the outer...


Custom pedal-box for race/track type setup. Mounts to a plate above the driver's feet. Pedals look hand fabricated.



Rear calipers that came with it are Honda. Also in this pic there's a spare seat of lower rear wishbones with rubber mounts. Might switch to them at some point



Are these standard rear uprights? Look fabricated but could be a lotus bit I guess?


I have most of a set of driveshafts I think, between what's in the rear uprights and what's next to them. Missing the UJs

[StrawberryCheesecake]

Is this a custom gear linkage setup? Is it specific to certain gearboxes?



There's a rear frame of some sort, that fits to the rear of the chassis. I've probably got this the wrong way round, but I just offered it up to see if the spacing was the same





Tail Lights... LH lens missing, but I see that they can be bought from SJ Sports Cars.


Is that the standard rear number plate light setup above? Looks a bit big and clunky for lotus stuff.


That's enough for now... lots more to follow, but I don't want to completely swamp the thread with questions.

[jbcollier]

Can you adopt me?

Lots of work ahead of you but it will be very well spec'd indeed!

[BDA]

 That looks like a great start to a certain-to-be-great Europa! Congratulations on scoring a great project car. Please keep us informed of your progress!

As for your parts, the rear uprights are not Lotus (at least none I've ever seen). The gear shift linkage is also probably not Lotus. I would guess it goes with the tranny th PO intended to use. I didn't see a tranny in your pics so the rear "sub frame" that's designed to pick up the rear of the tranny would serve as a good clue to the intended gearbox. If you don't have a tranny, I'd advise you to get an NG3 and then deal with the linkage and rear sub frame.

Have you decided on an engine yet?

Good luck! 

[StrawberryCheesecake]

Engine will be 2.0 Zetec on twin 45s , unless I fall over a bargain Twink in the meantime. I could go for ITBs but would rather have a low pressure fuel system. I've already got a Zetec lump kicking around.

I have a 4 speed and a 5 speed box in the big pile of spares (not pictured). I think the 5 speed might be a 365 box, but I'm told by the Sage of Southport that it won't last long with the extra torque of a Zetec. An NG3 box is probably the answer to that problem.

Is there a link to the essential knowledge on buying an NG3 box?

[EuropaTC]

Hi,

I didn't create this spreadsheet and as it's "internet stuff" then as usual, check before buying. But it does give a good starter for the ratios of various Renault gearboxes and the sources.

Brian

ps - earlier question, the rear uprights are Spyder design.  I also think the gearchange is a Spyder fabrication, it looks very much like one I saw once on their chassis which they fitted their own IRS to. In which case, with any luck it might be just what you want for that NG3 box.....

[buzzer]

That does look fun! Loads to do over the winter, I hope the barn is warm!
Good luck.
We do need to catch up as I'm now on the build up stage on my TCS. I need to find the time to post pictures on what I'm doing

Dave

[jbcollier]

The chassis is a space frame/47 hybrid, possibly made by Spyder?  This has the rear suspension mounting points on the frame (better) than on the tranny as is standard Europa.  The gear shift linkage is custom but similar to the stock set-up.

Do you know what engine and tranny were originally in there?  Or, is this a kit that's not been built up before?

The uprights are fabricated copies of the 47 units.

[StrawberryCheesecake]

Hi,

I didn't create this spreadsheet and as it's "internet stuff" then as usual, check before buying. But it does give a good starter for the ratios of various Renault gearboxes and the sources.

Brian

ps - earlier question, the rear uprights are Spyder design.  I also think the gearchange is a Spyder fabrication, it looks very much like one I saw once on their chassis which they fitted their own IRS to. In which case, with any luck it might be just what you want for that NG3 box.....

Thanks Brian - I'll have a look at the spreadsheet later. Health warning is taken as read.

Thanks as well fit the steer on the linkage. What does IRS stand for, if it's not the U.S. tax man? :-)

[StrawberryCheesecake]

That does look fun! Loads to do over the winter, I hope the barn is warm!
Good luck.
We do need to catch up as I'm now on the build up stage on my TCS. I need to find the time to post pictures on what I'm doing

Dave

The barn is definitely not warm, but long johns and padded overalls make a big difference.  ALDI & LIDL's finest for me.

It would be great to catch up and compare notes, Dave.

[StrawberryCheesecake]

The chassis is a space frame/47 hybrid, possibly made by Spyder?  This has the rear suspension mounting points on the frame (better) than on the tranny as is standard Europa.  The gear shift linkage is custom but similar to the stock set-up.

Do you know what engine and tranny were originally in there?  Or, is this a kit that's not been built up before?

The uprights are fabricated copies of the 47 units.

The chassis is indeed Spyder, and I think the uprights bolted to the car are as well. As far as I know, the chassis has never been built before, and the body has definitely never been painted before. Never had a power unit bolted in before, so I hope it's a Twink one, as it'll fit the Zetec easier, I think

[BDA]

Richard at Banks told me many years ago that the NG3 wasn't really any stronger than the 365, but parts are much more available for the NG3. They are still available in salvage yards. I think I read that they were in production in South Africa until the 1990s. Of course Richard sells them. He makes some mods to the shift mechanism that may mesh with the linkage you have. There are several people who use the NG3 with the stock shift orientation and fixed a cable shifter arrangement which I think is very interesting. There are several good options!

[EuropaTC]

Thanks Brian - I'll have a look at the spreadsheet later. Health warning is taken as read.

Thanks as well fit the steer on the linkage. What does IRS stand for, if it's not the U.S. tax man? :-)

Independent Rear Suspension ?     That's a geeks for you, always abbreviating things and using letters where words would be much, much clearer.....

[BDA]

Maybe I was trying to over-think it. I thought Independent Rear Suspension was a given on a Europa so I thought there was something else in mind.