Restoration of 2358R

[Certified Lotus]

Surf, glad your car (plus you and your wife) escaped any damage from the storm.

[surfguitar58]

Surf, glad your car (plus you and your wife) escaped any damage from the storm.

Thanks Cert. Today is a clean-up day. Good luck on you push for the 8/11 Auto Show!
t

[Dan C 2624R]

Glenn,  I forgot about the New Hope Show.  I will try to make it.  Not sure of your schedule but the Positive Earth Drivers Club  (pedc.org) is having their "Brits on the Beach" car show on September 14 in Ocean Grove.  Only issue it's limited to 130 cars.  Many MGs and Austins but only  a couple Loti last year.  Dan.

[Certified Lotus]

Thanks Dan, but my September is completely booked.

[dakazman]

Certified, It sounds to me you are ready to start a new thread soon. I for one will be an active reader of the trips and shows of 2358R. I can see the he trophies piling up already.
Dakazman
 

[Certified Lotus]

Dakazman, power of positive thinking but I always go to the car shows wanting to see other cars and what type of restorations owners have done as well a share restoration experiences and motivate a few people who have had project's in their garage for way too long. If I happen to win a trophy I'm a happy guy, but its not the sole purpose. 

There will definitely be a video of the road trip to LOG39     

[Certified Lotus]

A little more progress today.  Most of my time was spent on custom fabrication. It's a dilemma, do I just focus on getting the big projects done to get the car on the road or do I continue the rebuild completing all the things I want to do that are small but important (to me) enhancements to the car.  My vision wins and I'm spending valuable hours fabricating things.

The throttle linkage is a factory weber part but it required some fabrication to make the linkage operate effortlessly.  That meant making a threaded receiver for the part of the linkage that connects to the butterfly valves.  Found a large clevis pin that fit perfectly and cut it down with my small compressed air cutting wheel, then drilled a hole and used a tap to thread the hole so the linkage rod could screw in from the side.  I made an extra one for my "road kit" as this is a part you will not find in a local shop if you break down on the road.

Next was making another wiring harness plate with rubber grommet.  I found it odd that the car was designed with only one seal from the firewall to the interior of the car.  It clearly had leaked and is a weak spot for water to get inside the car.  I made a second plate so there is one inside and outside the firewall to minimize the ability of moisture penetrating the interior of the car. Overkill I'm sure.......but its the details that make a custom rebuild so special.

Installed clevis pins on the brake pedal, clutch pedal and throttle pedal.  What a pain to get them in as the area in the foot well is hardly big enough for me to really fit, but I manage to contort my body enough while lying on my back to get everything installed.

Painted the bracket for the heater valve and choke cable controls. I know, no-one will see it, but it was a little rusty and needed to be media blasted and repainted. Also painted the front wire grill while I was spray painting outside.

[BDA]

Good work, Certified! I do think that carburetor linkage is kinda important so time wasn't waisted on that! Same goes for the brake clevis and your grommet!

[tedtaylor]

just noticed what I think is the VIN number on the chassis frame member where you have the wiring going through the firewall?   First time I've actually ever seen those numbers on a Europa chassis.   Usually rusty or unreadable.

also, problem with the new rubber items produced today is that white coating.  very visible on the foot pedals.   unimportant for sure, but a wire brush job cleans them up quick to look black like rubber should.

it's coming along...

[Certified Lotus]

Thanks BDA, your right the throttle linkage operating well is kind of important 

Ted, this Europa had its chassis number all over the car. Not only was the chassis clearly stamped (good eyes) but the doors, firewall and chassis tunnel all had the number inscribed. Plus the color yellow was written in (which is why I kept the car the OEM color).

Thanks for the tip on using a wire brush on the white coated rubber. I did not know that. Was going to use “back to black” liquid cleaner which does a nice job, but I will try your method.   

[Certified Lotus]

Also installed the windshield wipers

[Certified Lotus]

I had posted a question about the fuse box location and Surfguitar58 showed me a picture of his fuse box location that I really liked so I fabricated a bracket to mount in the same location. (Thanks Surf!) The OEM location was behind the edge of the console and it just didn't seem like a good design for accessing the fuses.  Yes I know, more custom fabrication instead of working on the absolutely necessary stuff to get the car running.

After I finished the bracket and installed it, I spent most of the evening flat on my back on the floor under the dash running wires and testing circuits. 

Unpacked the carpeting I had ordered in 2017 and laid it out on the floor to see what I had and think about the install.

Chris is coming over tomorrow to help me install the doors as it would be very difficult to do on my own. I would have liked to have had the wiring completed and the carpeting installed before I installed the doors, but having Chris help me supersedes everything else.

I've called around to a number of alignment shops  and no-one (so far) will do a Europa. That's not good. I'm going to need to be creative.

[BDA]

I'm surprised that you're having trouble getting someone to do your alignment. If you haven't found anybody yet, you might look for shops that cater to performance cars, track cars, race cars, etc. When I first got my car on the road, I took it to a shop that works on track, race, and autocross cars. He was happy to do my rear end toe-in. I felt I could do my camber and front toe.

If you still have difficulties, you might get your own gear. Camber/caster gauges aren't that expensive. There are also full car alignment setups if you don't want to the string and jack stand method. This one looks pretty interesting (https://www.ebay.com/itm/Professional-4-Wheel-Alignment-System-Digital-Camber-Gauge-Caster-Toe-tool/281369075714?hash=item4182e76002:g:pHEAAOSwGiRTqJqi). There are others on ebay. Even this setup should pay for itself after a few alignments.

[Certified Lotus]

BDA, Race shop is a good idea, but the closest one is almost 2 hours away at NJMP. I had thought of that but figured I could find someone more local. If not I will head to the track.

If I wasn’t selling my home (and more importantly my garage) I would have already ordered suggested 4 wheel alignment set-up.  Looks like it would be a great addition to anyone’s shop.

[Certified Lotus]

The day did not turn out as planned (I should be getting used to this by now). Chris was coming over at 8am and I was setting up my garage at 7am for working on the doors. Cleared out my Elan's so we had plenty of work space and brought out two folding tables to place the doors on.

I went down to the basement where I had the door stored and covered (didn't want them in the way getting scratched in the garage) and carefully brought the first door up (left door) and placed it on the table.  As I was leaving the garage to go and get the second door I heard a crash. Uh Oh.  Turned around to find the door laying on the concrete floor.....

Calmly walked over, picked up the door and put it back on the table. How did that happen? Realized I had placed the door just at the right angle for the curve of the door to cause a slight slip and the rest was up to gravity. After a careful review of the entire door it was evident it could have been much worse. Two areas on the top edge need repainting. The top corner will need some glass work. Contacted Dave who said bring it over on Monday morning and he will get right to it.

Chris arrived and I told him my story. He thought I was being rather calm about the whole thing. Stuff happens.

We got all the parts out for the assembling the doors.  All the interior parts (electric motors, door receivers, rods for the door locks to receiver, etc etc all nicely bagged and marked right/left doors).  Read the door pin/hinge instructions from RD and test fit the entire assembly. Looks easy, this will go quickly.......

I had purchased new locks, exterior door handles and interior door openers.  The exterior door handles where in OEM bags marked left and right. I took out the right door handle and we started working on the right door. The handle didn't quite fir so I brought out a drill to open the one hole a bit more and then some sand paper to get some of the paint off the inside edge of the handle opening. I wont bore you with all the details but after an hour of fettling in was obvious this handle wasn't going to fit flush to the body.  Strange I thought.  Went to go look for the original door handles, found the right one and put it in place. Fit instantly. Huh?  I went to the other new door handle bag and it clearly said left handle. Opened it anyway and tried it. Yup, fit like a glove. The bags where labeled incorrectly. Upon further inspection it was also oblivious that the new handle had changed a bit as the opening mechanism had a different fitting on it. Enough of this I thought. The OEM handles weren't that bad, I'm using them. 

Chris and I both thought the way the handle was secured to the fiberglass via two bolts with small washers was way too delicate and decided to custom make new washers to enhance the area of the backplate to cover more glass.  I made a template on a large washer and ground it down then filed it to fit the unusual shape. While I was fitting the exterior handle Chris made another custom washer for the left door.

We then set about installing the new interior door opener.  Yup, that had changed too.  Decided we could modify it enough to fit and started drilling holes and cutting off the ears that were not needed nor did they allow the new openers to fit inside the mounting bracket. Chris made all the changes after we talked about what needed to be done.

I bolted in the receiver on the right door and was assembling the control rods when I realized I needed two of the those special clips that hold the rod in place.  I know I ordered those. Where did I put them. After 30 minutes of searching I gave up. Ill just order more from RD.

On to attaching the door. I had purchased RD's stainless steel hinge set for both doors. I know, Richard's brass hinge sets are noted for being so much easier to install and adjust. But they are doubt the price and how hard could it be........

I tried to test fit the large SS door pin.  Just what I thought.  The bobbin opening are just a bit too small. I used a micrometer to measure the pin and the holes. Got out a 1/2" bit and right angle electric drill to open the holes.  That worked. Now we are ready for the right door install. 

The RD instruction sheet says some people take four hours to install and adjust and they say they can do it in 10 minutes.  Guess which time frame is more accurate? 

It was a hot and humid afternoon in my garage. Typical August weather. And that door took every minute of two plus hours to install and adjust. I was dripping wet and the only thing that kept my sanity was two beers in the middle of the adjusting process. Thank god Chris was helping. He was outside the car holding the door and the special flat steel wrench to hold the nut in place while I was inside the "fiberglass oven" tightening the locking nuts.  Several times over.

So here is the secret.  When you tighten the nuts inside the door it moves the door location. We finally placed thick cardboard in the door gaps to make them even and then tightened the nuts. 

It also became very evident I should have installed the rubber door molding to get the gaps exactly right. Well, now I am well prepared for the left door when it comes back from Dave's.

Chris left to take his girl friend to dinner (thanks for being patient while we finished the door install) and I installed the new rear deck lid hinges.  Ah, something fit without modifying!

Feeling a little accomplished......but not really.  Learned a lot today. I have decided the New Hope auto show is not reality, I'm focused on getting the Europa done for LOG39.

Tick Tock.