Lotus Europa Community

Yes, the VIN on my TCS was written on the top “shelf” under the window on both doors. That’s how I know that both my doors are original, even though the driver door was extensively damaged and repaired by a PO. Protip (actually, amateur…) scrape the paint out of the VIN casting so paint doesn’t “erase” it.

VIN is written on door…I will have to look at mine closer …

That crossover pipe arrangement between the carbs and engine head is not original. Might still work for all I know.

Hi There

I stripped out the seats, hoovered up the copious amounts or rat/mice and what ever droppings. The seats will be stripped to the bare frames and sent off for blasting and painting. Do people modify them in any way before restoration? Like solid bases or metal straps instead of the rubber webbing?

One of the bases has been recovered and I like the look of the more pronounced stepping/stitching. I did see a pair of seats that had been redone in this style but I cannot find the pictures. Does anyone remember or know who it was?

Is the cardboard on the firewall at the back of the engine look original?

Also I have included pictures of the paint chipping. Does it look original? It seems to have a lighter coat underneath in places. I'm really not sure. It looks pretty thin.

Many thanks for any thoughts!

Berni

 

I thought I'd remind everyone that if you split the caliper, you should use the square section o-ring and not a regular round sectioned one. The square section ones are generally available where ever rebuild kits are sold and may be part of the rebuild kit.

Somewhere around, I have the torque figures (there are two different size bolts, and Girling never released the figures.  Easiest (closest) way to see what the torque should be is to use a beam torque wrench and note the break-away torque) to use in resetting the two halves together.  It's close enough.  Proper name for that seal is "Quad Seal" and usually not in the standard rebuild kits (since you're not supposed to split the caliper), but most of the usual suspects have them.

Needless to say, rebuilding calipers is one of the more enjoyable repair jobs on these things.  OK, I'm strange.