Lotus Europa Community
Lotus Europa Forums => Garage => Topic started by: kiwiokie on Monday,July 27, 2015, 07:16:17 PM
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Hi folks, just took delivery of a 1973 Special. This is my first Lotus and in fact the first British car I have owned despite having been born in the UK. While I am new to Lotus I have been messing with European cars for 25 years or so. Having done all the restoration work on a car before I now look for cars where someone else has done the labor of love leaving me some finishing touches as I enjoy driving cars more than restoring on them. The previous owner of this car completed a complete mechanical restoration and brought the cosmetics to a pretty high standard. While not restored with originality in mind it has been nicely done and it drives great. All it needs to finish it off is some touch up of scratches in the paintwork from reassembly, the doors need to be aligned and the seat covers have some splits. All in good time. Will post pics as I make progress. Cheers, John
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Engine details
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:Welcome: kiwiokie!!
She's a beauty! I certainly can't argue about the color! ;D
I also like the way he carried the gold throughout the car! She sure is a beauty! I predict many happy hours with you behind the wheel!
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Wow, I like those wheels. I did something similar with mine but in silver. I'm thinking they might look good in gold with the red paint job. What do you think?
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Those look nice, but I think a contrasting color to the aluminum might look even better!
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That colour scheme is stunning. I love the gold pin striping
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Thanks for the compliments on the car. Here is a close up of a wheel. I think it would look good on a red car especially with gold rocker panel/sill.
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Gorgeous detail work. Even the gas tank appears to be painted gold.
Joji Tokumoto
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:Welcome:
Wow looks great.
What is the firewall made of? It almost looks like a mirror it's so reflective.
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I believe he said it is polished stainless steel. Certainly makes inspection of the engine easier.
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Posted this over in the Technical section but now see that does not get as much traffic:
Just finished the install of a gear reduction starter from RD Enterprises on my 73TCS and found the old solenoid had two small gauge wires. This is not shown on the instructions from RDE. Is the second wire what is referred to as the cold start? I did not connect and the starter works fine but wondered how the cold start comes into play and whether I should connect it? Also found my battery connection would only just reach the positive terminal which was my limiting factor on rotation of the motor. Cheers, John
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Yes, the second wire is a cold start wire. Some starters have a terminal that is connected to the battery only when the starter is engaged. It bypasses the ballast resistor to increase the voltage available to the coil during cranking. The gear reduction starter does not have a provision for a cold start circuit but you could easily use a relay to the same effect. Gear reduction starters generally draw less amperage and a cold start circuit may not be required.
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Thank you for the explanation. That makes sense. The RDE starter does have the cold start connection so I will hook it up.
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:Welcome: John welcome, great choice of car, the detail is excellent. Im amazed at the attention they get from people
Happy motoring
all the best
Stuart :lotus:
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Did that car come from Michigan by chance?
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Yessir, Grand Rapids to be precise. Do you know Garry?
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Yes sir I do! I thought I recognized it, (I've seen it in person).
He did a beautiful job restoring that Lotus, you got a great car.
He has some beautiful MG's also! Great guy.
Wow, small world! :)
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Yes he did a fine job on the Europa but it had to go to make way for another MGA project! I feel very fortunate to be the new owner.
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Look familiar.... ;)
(http://i67.tinypic.com/2953b6c.jpg)
(http://i67.tinypic.com/wce3kp.jpg)
(http://i66.tinypic.com/289wkmf.jpg)
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Very pretty!
Blaster, how is your car coming?
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Very pretty!
Blaster, how is your car coming?
Unfortunately it's not, kitchen almost complete though. Other things conspire also - the twins driving test/license, first car, :help: the holidays, winter prep, Christmas lights/trees, in other words, LIFE! in general. Wouldn't trade it for anything though... The Lotus will be attended to when time allows, meanwhile she is admired daily & worked on in my head. ;)
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Yes that is very familiar! Garry got the car 90% done. I still need to recover the seats and door panels then rehang the doors with new pins as they have dropped. The paint suffered some scratches on assembly so those need to be touched up and then it is done! Or at least until I do a rear disk conversion so I can have a hand brake that will at least hold the car on a flat surface in a breeze.
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Just got my seats back from the upholsterer and before I install want to make sure I am using the correct hardware as these bolts were a bear to remove. I would have thought Allen head bolts would have been better. Are these correct - length is 1.2" regular hex head
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While I had the seats out I removed the doors and installed the RD Enterprises stainless hinge kit. While not the worst job I have done on a car it is one of the most frustrating. The workshop manual is not very clear on the arrangement of the stainless and abrasive washers but here is what I concluded from the pictures. Is this correct?
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I followed the suggestion of padding the door bobbin with rubber hose to reduce the wiggle room by using some oil line hose over the threaded insert. This achieved a good horizontal fit in the door aperture but the upper edge is still too far out which creates a noticeable gap around the window frame. Need to wrestle with it one more time.
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I substituted nylon washers for the stainless washers on which the door sits. On my car four under the door and one on top gave a good vertical alignment. I used moly grease to keep them in place while inserting the hinge rod.
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My car is far from factory original so decided to keep the gold theme with inserts covered in plaid from the Scottish Weaver that has a golden tan in it. The covers themselves along with door covers were sourced from Banks in the UK. The grain of the vinyl is not as pronounced as the original vinyl but I am very happy with the fit and suppleness and the order turn around time was impressively quick.
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The seats look great!
Joji wrote a tech article on door adjustment that might be useful here: http://www.lotuseuropa.org/LotusForum/index.php?topic=1049.msg8560#msg8560
I'm not sure about nylon washers. You might need the stainless steel ones from r.d.'s kit.
Just know that adjusting the doors is one of the most frustrating jobs on a Europa. I spent hours getting the passenger door aligned so that it wouldn't open on its own and it was terrible. I eventually got them adjusted pretty well. The driver's door is pretty good but the passenger door seems not to be quite the same shape as the opening. The gap in the front of the door is bigger than that on the driver's door but the top of the door is very close to the A-pillar and the upper edge of the door opening so I can't move the door forward. The door closes and latches well and is close to being aligned, but I'm at a loss how it could be aligned any better.
I wish I could help you with the hinges you have but I have Richard's brass hinges and they are different.
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While I had the seats out I removed the doors and installed the RD Enterprises stainless hinge kit. While not the worst job I have done on a car it is one of the most frustrating. The workshop manual is not very clear on the arrangement of the stainless and abrasive washers but here is what I concluded from the pictures. Is this correct?
Not quite. The abrasive washers should be either side of the door fibreglass, to hold the hinge in place by friction.
I got frustrated by my kit from RD (though by far my favorite Lotus part supplier), as the holes in the large diameter washers were too large, but the OD too small. I therefore bought some larger diameter washers, with smaller holes, and bonded coarse emery cloth to them. They do not slip but are easy to adjust.
YMMV.
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Thanks for the reply Roger. I had them either side of the door bobbin at first as that seemed logical even though it did not match what I saw in the shop manual. However the hole in the bobbin is so large they were were tearing as the nuts tightened and I had trouble with the threaded insert turning as well. Moving the lower abrasive washer to the outside seemed to fix that problem. I also scuffed the washers with 60 grit sandpaper to try and get more friction. Bonding to the stainless washer is a good idea. At this point I wish I had found out about the Banks brass hinges earlier! I have had these doors on and off half a dozen times each side.
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Well I discovered just how dumb I am today. After fighting to get the front bolt out of the seat rails when removing the seats I was at a loss on how to get them back in. I read the section of the workshop manual which suggests sliding the seat forward to remove the rear bolts and backward to remove the front bolts but there rear firewall prevents the seat sliding backwards far enough to expose the front bolts and installation is the reverse of the removal. Just like every other car I have worked on.
After looking at it for some time I wondered if it would be possible to install the rails then bolt the seat to the upper rail. Then it dawned on me there may be enough room to slide the seat entirely forward off the rails. Sure enough the rake of the seat allows the seat to slide forward off the rails without bumping up against the steering wheel. Seats now in, easy peasy.
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For anyone else that gets stuck on this here is the orientation of the rails and the hardware I used. This is the passenger side so the RHS of the picture is the front of the car.
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While the seats were out I installed the reverse lockout from pboedker. The gearshift boot was too stiff which lifted up the lockout rendering it always unlocked so I installed a small spring to apply some downward pressure. Not the prettiest but functional.
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Once I get the doors back on the next project is replacing the modern stereo with something more period correct, new door speakers and reinstalling the interior door panels. Might also change out the old incandescent interior and dash bulbs for LEDs. Looking forward to getting Lilly back on the road again!
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She's coming together nicely! And you have an ashtray!! :)
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Thinking ahead, does anyone have advise on fastening the rocker panel trim? The upper lip was secured with double sided foam tape on my car. Is that the recommended approach for keeping that lip flush with the body?
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I believe r.d. enterprises sells a kit that includes a replacement chrome strip (which I don't think required the attachment clips listed in the parts manual). There are clips to attach the bottom of the panel (they are in the parts manual. I don't remember them but that was a long time ago) and the ends are pop-riveted into the wheel arch. I remember that, as you describe, the top was attached with badge tape.
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While the seats were out I installed the reverse lockout from pboedker. The gearshift boot was too stiff which lifted up the lockout rendering it always unlocked so I installed a small spring to apply some downward pressure. Not the prettiest but functional.
Hi John,
I actually had another buyer with the same problem. It appears my own gearshift boot is old and flexible whereas a new boot is much stiffer and would like to 'sit low' as in your photo. The length of the reverse lockout was made to fit the lengths of my gearstick and gearshift boot so that the rubber clips into the groove at the top. I can see that the lockout handle would need to be shortened to fit a new boot.
I took some pictures of my shifter and had an email correspondance with the other buyer which I will try to fill in below to explain what can be done to make the reverse lockout 'disappear' inside the rubber boot.
I hope that helps.
"In neutral, the distance between the liftup handle and the nut/gear knob is 30mm. The rubber boot is stretched some, it helps keep the liftup handle down when in neutral, but it can still be lifted easily.
You can just pull the liftup handle through the top of the rubber boot or insert it from the top. That way you can experiment with how much it is too long and/or how much the rubber boot will stretch. I was expecting that the gear sticks and boots could be of different sizes, and the length of the tube itself is not critical, as long as it is pulled downwards in neutral and the driver must positively lift it to clear the bracket when selecting reverse.
I attach another photo of the rubber boot top pulled down a little on the liftup handle. The rubber boot actually doesn't shrink very much but instead lifts the handle a little. The photo is with the gear stick in neutral, but it only needs a tiny bit of lifting to clear the reverse gate bracket."
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No worries Peter, I am very happy with the reverse lockout and the spring is not a deal breaker for me. As my shift boot softens I may be able to ditch the spring in the future.
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Well I have officially given up on the RD Enterprises hinge kit and ordered the Banks brass hinges. Being all stainless, the RDE hinge is certainly an improvement over the stock hinge but I could not get the upper hinge tightened without it pushing the door out of alignment. Horizontal alignment was fine but the upper door and window frame would push away from the body as I tightened the upper nut. This job would be so much easier if the hex head on the threaded insert was able to be held from the inside with the door closed! I wonder if the factory used a bent wrench to hold the insert by someone on the outside with the door closed while a person seated inside tightened the nuts? Trying to guess the closed horizontal alignment with the door open is very difficult. I hope the Banks kit works better on my car!
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Thanks to some help from BDA I have the Banks hinges installed and the doors are looking much better. I have to tweak the horizontal alignment on the drivers side and the vertical on the passengers side and I am done. Thank goodness for that. What a miserable job. I ended up epoxying 220 grit sandpaper to the bobbin side of the large washers just for good measure. Also included some pics of Garry's handiwork on the suspension. I feel fortunate to have this car. He did a great job on it.
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Glad I was able to help! So are you ready to drive it? How about some pictures of the car?
:lotus:
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Still finishing off my stereo installation and then have rocker trim to put back on. While the door panels were off I sealed off the opening for the wiring tube to reduce draft and noise.
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And filled in gaps around the window trim.
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Bought a set of Boston Acoustics 6.5inch 2-way speakers off eBay. Interior trim panel holes had been cut too big to install the speakers and I have never liked grills sticking out from the door front. Bought some 1/4" ABS sheet and made some spacers and mounted the speakers to the door then the trim will be punched to let the sound through. Also added plastic drape to keep rain off and foam cup for driver.
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The rocker trim had previously been installed with the wrong clips in the wrong places on the body so refitting was a bit of a pain. Only tried 7 or 8 attempts! Ended up figuring out that the short barbed end of the clip slides into the cutaway in the body seam first, then offer up the trim and the long flexible part of each clip secures the lower edge of the trim. Used 1/4inch 3M molding tape for the top edge and 1/8" rivets on each end. I left the backing on the tape until all was positioned then pealed it back 6 inches at a time and rubbed firmly to adhere the tape. Before I installed I made some holes in the red backing and secured some string to give an easier way to peal the tape once the trim was on the car. Worked surprisingly well.
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Used excess tartan material for the area below the door handle an recovered the handle in black vinyl. Used a $10 leather punch off eBay and a paper template to punch out holes for the speakers.
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The used Becker radio off eBay fits perfectly and I could not resist the model name! A little bit of plastic polish really made it shine. I also bought the blue tooth module so I can stream music to it. I realize it is pretty noisy inside a Europa but I do like to have music every now and then.
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Really happy with the way the interior finished up. Lightens up the cockpit quite a bit.
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Superficial wipe down and first drive for a year!
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Did some engine bay cleaning too. Just love that the previous owner had the transmission and engine painted in epoxy. The oil just wipes clean.
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Very nicely done! I really like the plaid! Let us know how it runs.
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It was initially hard to start and idled rough but after warming up a couple of times it ran great. It still idles high according to the tach (1,500rpm) but have not put an external tach on to make sure it is accurate. The engine has an electronic distributor and the tach was modified by Nissonger to work with that but need to double check. Had one problem - drivers side window refused to work. Checked for voltage at switch and all was fine so had to pull the door trim off again. Fortunately nothing broke or tore! Wires had fallen off the contacts on the motor. I could barely reach them with my hand so used some 3M body sealant to hold them in place.
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Sweet looking radio!
I fit one. Drove it once at 70 mph and took it out again. I fit a rally intercom system with practice headsets and bluetooth.
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Your Europa is looking great. I really like the look of the plaid inserts, and the radio looks the part also. You have done some nice work here.
I will eventually be replacing the dash wood on my car and will be taking the opportunity to add/rearrange gauges when I do. I have also been considering removing the radio as well. I have driven 21,000 miles since I bought my car and never listened to the currently fitted AM/FM/8-track for one of them. Nonetheless, I keep my eye on ebay once in a while for a 70s vintage high end cassette deck.
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If you're keeping a wood dash and you're not doing it yourself, I'd suggest you talk to the guy at prestigeautowood.com. He make a beautiful dash with a great selection of veneers. He finishes both sides of the dash and all the edges so moisture can't get to the wood. He also does custom jobs so if you want to rearrange things or change things, he will work with you. I got mine from him and I'm very happy with it.
If you're going to make your own, then I would advise you to do what he does and finish both sides and all the edges.
Make sure you show us how it ends up!
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Cheers BDA. I will definitely be doing it myself with the help of a friend who's hobby is making beautiful things out of wood. I never considered the need to finish both sides though, but having heard it now it makes very good sense. I will certainly be showing pictures to the class when it happens (though it is a bit down on the priority list at the moment).
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BDA, the picture may not look like it but the dash is new so nothing to do there. The previous owner had this car already to 90% leaving very little left for me to complete. Now did to drill hole for aerial, check clutch adjustment, tune and lube per the shop manual. Cheers, John