Lotus Europa Community
Lotus Europa Forums => Members Cars => Topic started by: Rosco5000 on Tuesday,June 16, 2015, 03:38:54 PM
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Hi everyone, I just wanted to introduce myself. I am a new owner of a 1969 S2 Europa. The car has been sitting for a few years and is in need of some serious TLC. I just about bought a Europa about 10 years ago but I really needed a commuter car and the sensible me kicked in. Probably a mistake in the long run. But hey here I am 10 years later and I finally have one to call my own.
I have grown up around Lotus cars. My dad was a Lotus dealer and service center for Lotus through the 70s and 80s so I am drawing on his experiences. The shop raced an original Elite back in the day and 2 26Rs and even a type 47. So his experience is quite broad. It is just trying to get him to remember it all. He has his own Elan +2 project on the go so hopefully I get him to help me along the way as well.
Anyways enough about me. I hope to hear from the group. Here are some pictures.
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:Welcome: Sorry for the delay in getting your membership activated. Glad you found the forum.
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:Welcome:
It looks like you'll have lots of fun restoring those cars! There are a lot of people here as well as the lotuseuropa yahoo group who can help you with your questions.
Good luck! Let us know if you have any questions and update your progress when you can!
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:Welcome:
Another S2 in the group, awesome! Quite a few have popped up lately, looks like it's in pretty good shape. 8)
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Hi there, and welcome to the forum.
Another S2 and hey, that looks like one of "ours" with the single central wiper - shouldn't all your cars have two wipers ?
I can't get over how many S1 & S2 cars there are kicking around the world, either running or being restored. In the UK we have a website which shows how many are registered or "SORNed" (which means there but off the road) and that comes out at around 30-ish S2's in the UK. I bet there's more than that on this forum !
https://www.howmanyleft.co.uk/?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=lotus+europa (https://www.howmanyleft.co.uk/?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=lotus+europa)
Anyway, back to the thread. I like that car, it has that "patina" and looks like a timewarp car that's just emerged from a barn. It will make a great project. As for the +2, now that's what I call a PROJECT ! ;)
Brian (UK)
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:Welcome: Sorry for the delay in getting your membership activated. Glad you found the forum.
Hey Joe no worries on the delay. I am just glad to be part of the group. Cheers
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Hi there, and welcome to the forum.
Another S2 and hey, that looks like one of "ours" with the single central wiper - shouldn't all your cars have two wipers ?
I can't get over how many S1 & S2 cars there are kicking around the world, either running or being restored. In the UK we have a website which shows how many are registered or "SORNed" (which means there but off the road) and that comes out at around 30-ish S2's in the UK. I bet there's more than that on this forum !
https://www.howmanyleft.co.uk/?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=lotus+europa (https://www.howmanyleft.co.uk/?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=lotus+europa)
Anyway, back to the thread. I like that car, it has that "patina" and looks like a timewarp car that's just emerged from a barn. It will make a great project. As for the +2, now that's what I call a PROJECT ! ;)
Brian (UK)
Hey Brian, I was wondering about the wiper. The thing my dad was saying was that Canada often got a mix of cars. The cars they were shipped weren't Federal cars. His +2 has some of those strange things with it. It has a 130/5 dash and gauge layout but he has known the car since he sold it new and the owners didn't do any odd modifications.
He said sometimes it felt like Canada got shipped the odds and sods of left overs. :confused:
Rosco
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:Welcome:
Another S2 in the group, awesome! Quite a few have popped up lately, looks like it's in pretty good shape. 8)
The body is in great shape, I can't say the same for the interior unfortunately. The car was owned for the last 20 years by a real enthusiast but it seems that he may have fallen on hard times and just didn't have the drive to get it going again. The car came with a lot spares. 2 extra blocks, 2 extra transmissions, an extra head, 2 or 3 carbs, and a ton of random stuff.
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Rosco,
What shop did your dad work at? You say you're on the wet coast, was it Chequered Flag? And :Welcome:
Rod
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:Welcome: Welcome to the forum, Rosco. Glad to have you aboard. Cheers.
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He said sometimes it felt like Canada got shipped the odds and sods of left overs. :confused:
Rosco
When I had my 1st Europa TCS way back in 1978, it was the 5th or 6th last one ever made. It had a US Federal Sped bodyshell, but everything else was UK spec.
They were just getting rid of what they had left, while gearing up to produce the Esprit.
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That's the old Lotus production for you!
:lotus:
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Rosco,
What shop did your dad work at? You say you're on the wet coast, was it Chequered Flag? And :Welcome:
Rod
Hey Rod,
Yup my dad Rinze was partners with Mike at Chequered Flag, and later they merged with MCL. He has been out of the dealer scene since 1989. He stayed active working in a machine shop/mechanical restoration shop, but now he keeps busy with his own projects and maybe some of mine ;).
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Very cool, my dad bought an Elan Sprint from there back in the early 70's and a friend of mine helped with a restoration (though the car went to Oregon part way through) on the Cortina that Mike raced. Rinze was recommended by many to be "the guy" to rebuild Twin Cams.
Cheers,
Rod
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Very cool, my dad bought an Elan Sprint from there back in the early 70's and a friend of mine helped with a restoration (though the car went to Oregon part way through) on the Cortina that Mike raced. Rinze was recommended by many to be "the guy" to rebuild Twin Cams.
Cheers,
Rod
Hey that is very cool Rod. I can't wait for my dad to finish his +2, he has worked some over the years but I was very young when he sold his last running Lotus back in 85 or so and the +2 has been a slow project ever since then.
R
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Well it looks like the engine swap bug has got a hold of me. I thought for sure I would keep this car stock but a very low mileage Duratec came up and who can say no to a 32,000 Km Duratec for $500. Here is some pics of what I have got myself into.
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$500 for a low mileage motor is a steal! That should be a great project! Good luck and keep us up to date! :beerchug:
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Here is some pics of what I have got myself into.
Holy wire pile Batman, Looks like Robocop threw up! :FUNNY:
You got a great deal! 8)
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Here is some pics of what I have got myself into.
Holy wire pile Batman, Looks like Robocop threw up! :FUNNY:
You got a great deal! 8)
The new cars have a ton of wiring. I would love to run the chipped key for security but who knows if I can make heads or tails of that Robocop puke when the time comes. I may just resort to a megasquirt set up.
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The quest to get a new drive line together for the Europa continues. I have now acquired a 012 VAG transaxle out of a 2002 Passat (the same series of transaxle that is used in the Porsche Boxter). John from Mamba motor sports is putting together an adaptor plate and lightened flywheel to accept the VAG clutch but bolts up to the Duratec crank for me like he was using in his Lotus 23 replicas he used to support. So once that hardware is all here it will be time to strip the engine bay and get the body off the chassis and start the restoration. I am getting excited I just have to get a couple of other projects out of the way first.
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Hi Roscoe like the passat box swap interesting ,im going for espace 5speed condition unkown + crate zetec lots to do Derek
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Looks like a very interesting swap!! I am curious, what does the transaxle weigh in at?
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http://cdn.makeagif.com/media/7-02-2015/3K0d-H.gif (http://cdn.makeagif.com/media/7-02-2015/3K0d-H.gif)
Here is some pics of what I have got myself into.
Holy wire pile Batman, Looks like Robocop threw up! :FUNNY:
You got a great deal! 8)
The new cars have a ton of wiring. I would love to run the chipped key for security but who knows if I can make heads or tails of that Robocop puke when the time comes. I may just resort to a megasquirt set up.
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LOL ^^^ That's a funny GIF.
I haven't weighed the Transaxle yet. It isn't much bigger than the Renault transaxle. The most weight difference could be from the ring gear I think the final drive might be a bit bigger.
Also collected some more parts for the conversion. Mamba Motorsport/Bridge Engineering in England as able to supply me with an adapter plate and custom flywheel to mate the Duratec with the VAG transaxle. The flywheel is a work of art. CNC'd chromoly. Ford Duratec flywheel bolt pattern and ring gear alignment and the clutch face is lined up where it needs to be for the VAG transaxle mounted on the spacer and uses a stock VW 1.8T clutch. I also started down the intake route as the big plastic intake manifold for the Duratec will not mount well in the Europa frame so I bought some GSXR 1000 throttle bodies to mock up a new intake for the engine.
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WOW, that is almost too pretty to hide in the bellhousing!!!
:coolpic:
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That flywheel is a work of art, it's almost a shame that it will be hidden inside the bellhousing. How does it compare in weight to the stock Duratec flywheel? And what computer are you planning on running with the ITBs? There's an ongoing write up on using the Duratec/MZR engine on the locostusa website ( http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=14753 (http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=14753) ). Don't know how useful the write up is, but it might help with a few things.
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I have to check those weights as well. The stock one is a heavy beast. John from Mamba Motorsport ran this set up in the Nobel Lotus 23B replicas he produced for awhile, I think he has sold the 23B business but could still produce the adapter and flywheel for me. He had a lighter option if I wanted to use a competition multi plate clutch but the clutch was going to be so expensive I decided to stick with the stock VW one.
As for the ITBs I am going to have to run Megasquirt more than likely. There is an Ebay seller that sells motorcycle ITB and manifold kits with a computer ready to go for the Duratecs but it is not much cheaper than running Jenvey's so I will probably work on constructing the intake and velocity stacks myself and then go the Megasquirt route. Ever seen a velocity stack swaging, search it on youtube it is pretty cool and I think my old southbend lathe could handle it so I am going to give it at try.
Rod thanks for the other link on the locosts, I will have to give that a read.
Ross
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Very interesting bits you've got there, Rosco! I agree with everyone else that the flywheel is too pretty to hide in a bell housing. So that means you'll have to really pretty up that tranny! I'm really looking forward to more pictures as you put this beast/beauty together!
:lotus:
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So it has been awhile since I have had an updated but things are moving slowly on the Europa. One of my challenges is the S2 seats. I have wanted to buy a box pan brake for awhile so I thought why not give it a go, the seats seem to be a reasonably challenging but doable project. So craigslist helped me find a slightly used 48" brake and now I have to strip the seats and make some patterns. I think I will make the new ones out of stainless avoid the rusting issue in the future. I also had a leather theater seat that had seen better days. 2 of the reclining mechanisms broke. So the black vinyl seemed to be in good shape still and there was a lot of nice upholstery foam on them, so I might not even have to buy any other material to rebuild them, score!
Here are some pics.
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I'm envious, I used to have access to a brake like that a few years ago, then my friend retired and sold off all the shop equipment. I'm also going to be fabricating a set of seats, though I'm torn between aluminium and mild steel. I'm not a bit fan of stainless, and I'm sure if I were to build a set out of steel that they would last the rest of the car's life.
There is a file on the yahoo list with a 3D drawing of a Europa seat. I think its an S2, as I've used it to make a plywood "mock up" to see if I can actually fit in the car with a seat in place (luckily the answer is yes). Though I wonder how the 3D file compares to an actual seat. I took the 3D file and created a 2D cut sheet in AutoCAD, I can send you a the CAD file or a PDF if you want.
Rod
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Hey Rod,
A .pdf of the seat would be fantastic. I was going to work backwards from my best seat but the more information the better. I can't tell exactly what the bottom of the seat was supposed to look like they are that bad.
I have been doing some research on the stainless and I am leaning away from using it now. Mostly because is seems that it likes to harden when it is bent. I don't want to have a cracking seat in the future. Do you think Aluminum would work? I was worried it might not be strong enough.
I have to get the calipers out and figure out what gauge of steel I need to buy, then off to the steel store some time next week.
Ross
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Ross,
The next time I'm at my actual office (been lent to another engineering firm) I'll send you the PDF file. In regards to the steel, I'm guessing it's 20 ga (.0359"). If I build mine in aluminium I'll probably go with 14 ga (.0641") 5xxx series, though it depends on cost. I'm sure steel will be much cheaper.
Rod