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Lotus Europa Community
This Forum is Dedicated to the Lotus Europa and It's Variants
News:
July 1, 2023 Forum membership reaches 1,465 !!
This Community became 11 years old in April 2023.
Recent Posts
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Garage / Re: Rear Wheel movement and Radius Arm Bushing play
« Last post by jbcollier on Today at 05:40:47 AM »The only way that hole can wear is if the lower link bolt is not tightened properly and it is actually loose allowing movement. I've never seen one worn there myself.
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Garage / Re: It's not easy being green - 1971 TC
« Last post by GavinT on Today at 03:28:27 AM »Davies Craig make an old school fan controller with adjustable cut in point. I believe this is the type Brian is referring to.
There's also these in-line otter switch adaptors, too.
There's also these in-line otter switch adaptors, too.
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Garage / Re: Rear Wheel movement and Radius Arm Bushing play
« Last post by GavinT on Today at 03:19:59 AM »I reckon your bolt hole issue is quite unusual. Any indication as to the cause?
But if you're confident of getting a good light press fit, an ally sleeve would be the way to go IMHO.
But if you're confident of getting a good light press fit, an ally sleeve would be the way to go IMHO.
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Garage / Re: It's not easy being green - 1971 TC
« Last post by Cheguava on Today at 01:56:46 AM »I have fitted manual over-ride earth switches to my cars. The fan is loud, so you can hear when you have switched it on. Normally only needed in heavy traffic or road works with a long wait at traffic lights.
Thanks for this, looks like I can fit a fan controller using the wiring for the otter switch, and add an override switch if it doesn't come with the kit. They all seem to come with a relay, which I'll definitely be using.
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Garage / Re: Anyone powder painted their Cosmic wheels?
« Last post by Cheguava on Today at 01:35:24 AM »Hi, no help on the powder coating I'm afraid, but in the same boat as you albeit just the five Cosmics to refinish. Went through the same cost/benefit analysis as you did with the idea of getting them diamond cut, only to find I could have bought a new set from Cosmic (or whoever holds the IP for them now), plus I'm trying to do as much as I can, and this will be the 9th or 10th set of alloys I've refurbed, including a set of Cosmics for my Mini half a lifetime ago, so hopeful of an acceptable outcome.
Only thing I can offer which you may already know about is that you can get scotch pads for rotary sander/polishers, which I didn't know about until I watched a few YouTube wheel refurb videos for tips. Ordered a set which arrived this week so not had chance to test them yet on the spare, they are marked 3M (but came from China so who knows) and might reduce some of the sheer drudgery and fingerprint recognition fails that follow doing it manually. Will post again when I have tried them out.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/224123446309?var=522912300925
Only thing I can offer which you may already know about is that you can get scotch pads for rotary sander/polishers, which I didn't know about until I watched a few YouTube wheel refurb videos for tips. Ordered a set which arrived this week so not had chance to test them yet on the spare, they are marked 3M (but came from China so who knows) and might reduce some of the sheer drudgery and fingerprint recognition fails that follow doing it manually. Will post again when I have tried them out.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/224123446309?var=522912300925
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Garage / Re: What are we missing, what should I make on a VMC?
« Last post by 314159td on Today at 01:26:36 AM »IIRC there are some starter motor adaptors that would be handy, I have one designed to put an Isuzu Trooper gear reduction motor in many places the standard Bendix ones goes, haven't poked around enough to know how simple/complex that would be for the Europa engines. Almost certainly just a $50 part though.
Kinda sorta ripping off this outfit: https://www.classiccarperformance.com/products/lotus-europa-renault-powered
They used to be worse priced ($300 a pop) but I pull those trooper starters for $10 so $200 is still a hard sell.
Kinda sorta ripping off this outfit: https://www.classiccarperformance.com/products/lotus-europa-renault-powered
They used to be worse priced ($300 a pop) but I pull those trooper starters for $10 so $200 is still a hard sell.
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Garage / Re: It's not easy being green - 1971 TC
« Last post by 4129R on Today at 01:22:03 AM »I have fitted manual over-ride earth switches to my cars. The fan is loud, so you can hear when you have switched it on. Normally only needed in heavy traffic or road works with a long wait at traffic lights.
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Garage / Re: It's not easy being green - 1971 TC
« Last post by Cheguava on Today at 01:06:59 AM »Thanks BDA and Brian - that's really helpful. Either of those solutions sound like they would do the job, I'm tending towards the automatic with override which was what I had on my old Scimitar which was a little marginal on cooling, particularly if you were blatting along on the motorway and then hit traffic, it was good to get the fan on early.
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Garage / Anyone powder painted their Cosmic wheels?
« Last post by Richard48Y on Friday,May 17, 2024, 11:24:53 PM »Power was out most of the day here so I looked for something to do manually.
I have ten Cosmic wheels to refinish, six Lotus and four for TR4.
Working on just one today I am reminded how labor intensive this could be.
I used aluminum duct tape to mask off the bare aluminum areas.
I plan to soda-blast the black to bare aluminum without affecting the bright areas then buff with scratch pads.
A bit more tedious than expected but I hope the masking will hold up well enough to leave it in place for repainting.
Just doing one for now as an experiment.
Not a horrible job and I am certain I would not want to pay someone else for their time to do it either.
If this works well it should be possible to PP silver then mask for black/dark grey.
I found a shop to redo the original diamond-cut for them but the cost is the same as just buying the new reproductions!
Thinking that PP should be less cost and very durable, particularly if I do the masking.
I think PP can be masked with normal paper tape.
PP is not original of course but my plan is to DRIVE this car.
Anyone else done PP on their Cosmic's?
I have ten Cosmic wheels to refinish, six Lotus and four for TR4.
Working on just one today I am reminded how labor intensive this could be.
I used aluminum duct tape to mask off the bare aluminum areas.
I plan to soda-blast the black to bare aluminum without affecting the bright areas then buff with scratch pads.
A bit more tedious than expected but I hope the masking will hold up well enough to leave it in place for repainting.
Just doing one for now as an experiment.
Not a horrible job and I am certain I would not want to pay someone else for their time to do it either.
If this works well it should be possible to PP silver then mask for black/dark grey.
I found a shop to redo the original diamond-cut for them but the cost is the same as just buying the new reproductions!
Thinking that PP should be less cost and very durable, particularly if I do the masking.
I think PP can be masked with normal paper tape.
PP is not original of course but my plan is to DRIVE this car.
Anyone else done PP on their Cosmic's?