Restoration of 2358R

[Certified Lotus]

A couple of weeks off from working on the Europa. Business travel was the main culprit but then my wife wanted to repaint a room in the house that needed lots of prep work and detail painting. So the Europa sat patiently while I got everything else done. 

I want to get the front suspension and brakes installed, but need to get everything refinished, rebuilt and ready for reassembly. The upper front A-Arms needed media blasting and new bushings installed. Spent some time in front of my hydraulic press getting the old bushings out (by the way, a torch to warm up the collar is advisable) and then pressed in new bushings. Once that was done I went about prepping the metal with M600 for painting. 

My friend Drew told me about Eastwood's "Extreme Chassis Black" spray paint last year and it has been my new favorite rattle can spray paint. It takes several coats to get a nice full finish on it, but when you have taken your time and let everything dry properly between coats the finish is very very nice. Plus, its a close match to the powder coating. 

While the paint was drying, I was disassembling the left front suspension and brakes.  I had done the right side a few months ago, but left the opposite side until I was able to remove the chassis. Everything will be disassembled, media blasted, rebuilt and painted before reassembly.

[Certified Lotus]

Another warm weather day in Princeton, amazing its in the 60's (F) in February!

Brought some of my metal painting outside as it was so warm (although windy) using my son's basket ball hoop as an ideal place to hang metal bits for spraying.

Went back into the shop to continue disassembly of the left front hub, stub axle, lower trunnion assembly, and bearings. As I was disassembling I noticed a fair amount of play in the trunnion.  Odd I thought, why would that be.  I carefully unscrewed the trunnion and cleaned off all the grease.  I could not believe what I saw. The thread on the vertical link was completely chewed up. Almost disintegrated. I could not come up with a logical explanation to myself of how that would even happen. Bad wheel balance and driven for an extended period of time?  No grease?  Lower control arm bent and causing unusual loads on the trunnion?  What could cause this on a low mileage car?   

As I have mentioned before, some parts of this car demonstrate it wasn't driven very much, other parts are completely shot. I wonder if the first guy that owned it only autocrossed the car and put huge loads on it without understanding any normal maintenance requirements?  Who knows.

Luckily I bought a parts car several months ago and stripped the front suspension, gear shift tubing, engine and transaxle off the car (sold the chassis and body).  I went right to my "spare" left front wheel assembly and took everything apart.  Good news, the entire assembly is in perfect condition.  Now I need to completely media blast all the parts, paint and then reassemble with all new bearing and bushings.

[jbcollier]

Water and lack of maintenance.

The trunnion seal fails and allows water in.  That and 90+% of the trunnions are lubed with grease.  When grease is pumped in, it escapes out the easiest path; that is, straight out again.  Very little "new" grease stays in.  When you use oil, it fills the trunnion providing fresh lubrication to all of it.

If you are going with used parts, make sure you get a proper wheel alignment when you are finished.  The uprights are easily bent and it is hard to spot unless you check the included angle of each side.  One of mine was bent.

Random thoughts:

- Please also fit new trunnions.  They are cheap.  Threads on an upright can look OK.  You need to check them by fitting a new trunnion and check for play when it is a full turn from lightly home.

- Do not install a trunnion fully tight.  Run it snug home and then back off so it can turn freely side to side.  The temptation is to leave it "tight" but that stresses the trunnion seal which then fails leading to water incursion.

- Trunnions are easy to oil.  Do not fit grease nipples!  Fit easily removed plugs -- I use plastic ones.  Jack up the front to unload the trunnion.  Remove the plug and use an oil can of GL4 gear oil to fill the trunnion (it will flow out from the seal).  Replace the plug.

[Roger]

I don't  agree with  JBC'S comment about grease, nor do I want to reopen the grease vs oil debate that runs in every forum of every car that ever used the Alford and Alder upright - and there were many of those.
If you look at the photos above, you can see that oil or grease pumped in through the nipple can only go down to the bottom of the upright, then up again past the threads. It cannot flow directly out of the seal.
What is clear, and where I completely agree, is that corrosion has caused the problem in the upright, and that lack of lubricant, of whatever form,  is the culprit.

P.S. I use 50/50 Redline GL4 and Mobil1 synthetic grease, applied by gun, in both Elan and Europa. I suspect that whatever puts your mind at ease is the best choice!

[Certified Lotus]

JB, your probably right, lack of grease or no grease caused the problem. I keep on reminding myself this car sat for more than 30 years and although most of it was in the back of a a garage, some of the time was in FL outside storage (same owner).

I agree on new trunnions and seals, the ones on the extra set seem to be new (along with the spindle and bearings). Never the less, I will change them out.

I've had sports cars all my life.......never heard of using oil vs grease. I certainly appreciate a different point of view, but I'm sticking with grease.

Roger, appreciate your thoughts and comments.

[jbcollier]

Oil refreshes the places other lubes can't reach...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BFn-jSSrBPQ

;-)

[EuropaTC]

(part quote)
I've had sports cars all my life.......never heard of using oil vs grease. I certainly appreciate a different point of view, but I'm sticking with grease.

The debate has always puzzled me as well but it's regularly debated in the Elan community with valid reasons either way.  Ditto the Triumph boys who probably have a longer history with the components.

One reason for oil that I heard was that Triumph used grease until the Herald came along and that bought a change to oil. The reason was to extend service life to 6,000 miles because greases of the period had a habit of drying out too quickly.  Another theory was that it's a cold operating swivel and unlike a propshaft UJ or bearing might not generate enough heat to let the grease of the period work efficiently. I've no idea if that's true or not, in the 1940s I wasn't even playing with toy cars let alone real ones, but they don't sound unreasonable.

Everyone has a personal viewpoint on this. I used oil back in the days when I was doing high mileages and giving the Elan a quick check-over every month and I usually found that when the oil squirted in, water came out first. As every failure I've seen has had an element of corrosion in the upper sections I decided this wasn't good and changed to grease. If you take the weight off the trunnion before lubricating, I find that grease comes out of several points around the seal, so I think it works. The Elan has been like that for at least 37 years and although I've regularly changed brass trunnions, the vertical links are the same, no corrosion and a new trunnion restores the swivel.

My take is that we're not running the cars in the 1950s or 60s and should look at what we have available. For example the grease used in CV joints never seems to dry out to me, in fact I can't think of any modern automotive grease that does, although no doubt there are greases designed for high temperatures that will do so.

Brian

[Certified Lotus]

For the most part, these are weekend driver cars......which get a lot of maintenance attention. I don't drive my car without checking all  the fluid levels and tire pressure. Every spring I replace the oil and filter as well as pump grease into all the fittings. Full visual inspection of everything under the car. Last year I drove about 2000 miles. And during the winter it's stored in a garage that never gets below 50 degree under a breathable cover, started once a month for oil lubrication in the engine.

I think EuropaTC is correct in his thinking. Modern grease is much different that what was available in the 60's. That and the fact these cars arent being driven daily in all types of weather conditions suggest that grease is still suitable.

Interesting about using oil. I will read up on it to really understand the theory. Thanks as always for your opinions. I always find them informative and helpful.

[BDA]

Did you ever get your shift linkage sorted out (I can't remember). SwiftDB4 is selling a 352 linkage - which should be the same for the 365 - for a buddy who died. It might be a good way to get a good linkage and help the widow of a Lotus owner...

[Certified Lotus]

Thanks BDA! I sent Dave an email. Appreciate you looking out for me!

[Certified Lotus]

Visited my local auto body shop who has done fiberglass and paint work on some of my other Lotus'. Can't get me in until mid May and then 5 months to complete the work. Not exactly the schedule I was hoping for but I don't really have a choice as there are very few shops that specialize in fiberglass work close to me (except for two vette shops that probably won't pay attention to a Lotus).

[BDA]

Man! I thought my body shop experience was bad! It's been a long time so I don't remember the details, but I remember being disappointed in how long they kept my car (I have no problem with the job they did, they did a great job!)- but I think it was something like six or eight weeks!


That's got to be disappointing, but it sounds like you know they'll get the job done right.

[Lou Drozdowski]

Visited my local auto body shop who has done fiberglass and paint work on some of my other Lotus'. Can't get me in until mid May and then 5 months to complete the work. Not exactly the schedule I was hoping for but I don't really have a choice as there are very few shops that specialize in fiberglass work close to me (except for two vette shops that probably won't pay attention to a Lotus).

If I could recommend someone to help you sooner...send me a message. I had entrusted Dave Hoffman to paint my Europa and was thrilled with his work. A long time body man and ex Elan racer, a true artisan. His shop is right across the river from you in Hatboro Pa. He was referenced to me by Brian Boyle, who had his ropa done also...you wont be disappointed. His # 215-290-9366, tell him I said hello.

[Certified Lotus]

Lou, thanks for the recommendation. I will call him next week.

[Certified Lotus]

It never fails.  There is always some tool you don't have that holds up your progress.  Despite the fact that I have been working on British cars my entire life, I do not own a set of British Standard wrenches or sockets. I have always been able to have a work around and never needed them. Until yesterday! I was removing the front and rear bumpers and the capture bolts and nuts were very rusty. Sprayed them with WD40 and let them soak. The nuts were all British Standard and using a metric socket to get them off wasn't working. Luckily my friend Drew has a full complement of British Standard tools so off to his house I went to borrow some (Chris was with me and we spent an hour or so chatting with Drew on his latest projects in his garage). When we got back, removed the bumpers and then I returned the tools. Of course it took hours to get it all done so yes there was progress and no, not much got done.

The bright side of the story is I finally bit the bullet and bought British Standard wrenches and sockets on-line last night. Found a nice set of used Snap On wrenches and got the socket sets from a company in the UK called AB Tools.

My friend Chris had come over early in the morning (he drove is Elan S3 with top down in 40 degree weather for over an hour, that is a Lotus Enthusiast!) to help me work on the Europa and show me his newly designed shock spring compressor tool he made. We installed 12 inch springs on his new AVO front shocks with his cool new tool and it worked like a breeze. Chris surprised me with a gift of the tool, he made two of them and one was mine. After he left I media blasted the steel, prepped it for paint and am in the midst of painting the metal plates. It will have a special place in my tool box drawer of spring compressors!

Now I'm researching a place to re-chrome my bumpers and few other metal bits.