My Type 54 to sort of 47 Conversion

[Rosco5000]

The car looked great Rod, and it was great to finally meet you in person!
Ross

[buzzer]

Car looks great and a lot done in a short time. A good mix of cars at the show to with some RHD Caterhams

[RoddyMac]

Ross,
It was good to meet you in person, too.  Let me know if you need any help with the design aspect of your S2 build.

Buzzer,
It was a very good turn out this year, though the Caterhams did outnumber the Lotus Sevens (two S3's and one S4).  I wish I had taken more photos.

[Rosco5000]

Hey Rod,
Have you had a chance to get back to finishing the car.  Last we talked you were going to take a break for a week or two.
Ross

[RoddyMac]

Ross,
The break has lasted longer than two weeks...  since the show I've sorted all the wiring issues (though I still need the to get another alternator), tightened all the suspension fasteners, driven it up and down the street a few times, modified the wiper motor drive gear to sweep the whole windscreen, and a bunch of other small things.  I'm probably one weekends worth of work away from sending it in for inspection.  Unfortunately, between now and August I only have one free weekend to work on the car, so it will most likely be mid August before I can drive it legally.

Rod

[RoddyMac]

Not a lot of progress has been made on the Europa lately, too many summer things to do.  But, this happened over the weekend (some may have seen it on Instagram already):





It looks like I'll be busy for the next several months getting the mechanicals sorted, then hopefully have it off to paint sometime later next year.  But, priority right now is getting the Europa finished. 

[EuropaTC]

every home should have one....   

.... of each   

Nice car, that looks like a part-completed project you've picked up Rod ?

[BDA]

You just don't have enough to do, do you?!  What are your plans for the Elan, Rod?

[RoddyMac]

The Elan will be restored back to stock, the car is presumably complete.  The chassis has already been gone through but still needs the RH rear stub axle replaced.  The key way is messed up as one of the previous owners decided to use a concrete nail in place of the usual key.  Other than that, the motor needs to be put back together and bolted into the chassis, then the dreaded task of prepping the body for paint.  The interior is complete and in very nice shape, the dash is perfect (or as perfect as a 50 year dash can be), and the body isn't that bad, just a few very minor glass repairs. 

Other than that, I still have to swap out an overdrive gearbox on dear old dads MGB, and get the Europa on the road. 

[Bodzer]

Nice pair of cars Roddy.  I saw your post on the lotuselan.net forum. Good luck with the rebuild.

[Certified Lotus]

Looks like you and I are on the same track of Lotus ownership Roddy, one Elan and one Europa.

[RoddyMac]

A small update, I had an oil leak that I couldn't quite figure out, after much head scratching and changing one piece at a time, it turned out that a hose fitting for the remote oil filter set up was leaking.  I've now converted the leaking hose to SAE fittings which has cured the leak and allowed this:

https://youtu.be/pgou0w2q9rw

Keen viewers might notice an oil trail from the driveway onto the street, that oil trail prompted the oil filter adapter/oil line investigation.  Also, I think I might need a quieter exhaust.

And, the Elan has been looked over and a few things have been purchased (one being the wrong rear stub axle).  Turns out the Weber head has been ported and polished, and judging by the work done, all it needs is rings and a gasket set.  The odd thing though, is the head is still the stock height for a "low compression" motor. 

[BDA]

I'll bet that drive felt good! Congratulations! 

What kind of fittings did you replace with the SAE fittings?

[jbcollier]

Very nice.  I prefer a quieter exhaust myself as well.  The car will already attract enough attention as it is.

[RoddyMac]

The remote filter adapter and filter head use NPT fittings, which work just fine but I'm not too keen on using them.  I now have NPT/SAE male-male fittings at the filter head with female SAE fittings on the hose. I still have to swap the others, but why fix something that isn't broken (yet)?  I prefer the SAE fittings as you can feel when they're tight, I was somewhat weary of over-tightening the NPT fittings into the aluminium housings.