72 TC restomod from BAT

[Polopharm]

After some work related delays, getting around to working on my nice daily driver- lol
Will be able to remove water pump without dropping engine , loosened all mounts and can get just enough space to sneak it out.
Accessing everything is only possible from under car.
Going to replace all coolant hoses with silicone at same time.
 Car is at a friend's shop to use lift. He asked about if anyone had added a cheapie reverse camera like the ones on Amazon that just go into lighter or any 12v.
He was very nervous driving it around parking lot and backing into things.
Not a bad idea. Camera goes on rear license plate holder. Very unobtrusive.

[jbcollier]

My Europa has a reverse camera as part of the GPS unit.  Works well.

[Kendo]

My car is apart for paint. But I plan to add a camera when I reassemble it.

[Edited for typos]

[BDA]

I have an obsolete JVC single DIN radio that takes a camera. Of course you can add a screen wherever you want if you use one of those.

It's nice but I wouldn't say it's necessary. The license plate cameras are generally of lower quality - at least, that's my opinion based on the license plate camera on my Mercedes that crapped out. The flat area above the license plate is a handy place to mount a camera.

[Polopharm]

Well it's been a trying first couple months of being a Europa owner. This has been a car I have always wanted, an attainable bucket list car.

I am sad to say that I am throwing in the towel. I am going to pursue selling the car. At this point I will try and get it up and running and see how much money I can re-coup. I am open to any suggestions on how to sell it.
I think BAT would relist it but I would obviously get killed on my sale price. I can't imagine a big bidding war on a car being relisted due to seller misrepresentation going very well!

I bought this a fun summer weekend driver. Almost 3 months in, I have driven it 3x, and each time ended in a different mechanical disaster.

Currently the new water pu
mp is installed. But the alternator bracket is cracked, and the normal adjuster bar was welded in a way that allows for about 1/4" of adjustment. At the end of the day the build quality just isn't what I expected. As the car
is, I am not sure I will ever feel comfortable driving any distance or having my wife
drive the car ever.

So, it's time to move on.

Any thoughts as to how to proceed are welcome. And obviously I expect to take a real beating financially. The time and money to redo this car negates the money I will lose.

 

[Polopharm]

Was not clear in post, but the alternator bracket is kind of just the straw that broke the camels back. The adjustment bar is welded to the solid metal
 motor mount, and obviously get a ton of constant vibration.
And I realize it's not a huge deal. It's just indicative of how the car was built.

[jbcollier]

Sorry it worked out this way.

[Richard48Y]

This is the issue with taking on someone else's "Custom Build".
What made sense to them may not make sense to anyone else, and may not be readily serviceable.
A proper build would include a notebook for sources and procedures.

The nearer to original any car is the simpler to maintain.

I have not followed all of your post but from what I have read, with a little re-engineering it should be a fine car.

As I recall you are in So. CA?
Should be someone available to sort it properly for you.
A deep breath and pause may be better than giving up and taking a bath on value.
Eventually someone is going to sort it out, even it that means restore back to original.
I will follow your progress, if no one closer is available I might be able to take a crack at it in a month of so.
NV near Reno.

EDIT: Whenever I buy a car I assume the prior owner neglected it as they knew they were going to sell it.
So I change all the fluids, belts, and hoses first thing.
This has served me well, the only thing that still catches me are in-tank fuel pumps.
In your case you also have some poor engineering to deal with but I am sure it can be sorted.

[Bainford]

Very sorry to hear your Europa dream has not worked out. I hope you are not soured on Europas in general. They certainly have their issues, lovingly referred to as 'quirks', but once sorted they can be very reliable with regular maintenance. I've put 23,000 mostly trouble free miles on mine in the last ten years, suffering only a broken throttle cable and a failed point set (neither a Lotus specific failure, and both easily sorted on the roadside), which I consider pretty good for any 50 year old, un-restored car. If you do sell your Europa, I hope we will see you return with another. Cheers.

[Polopharm]

Hello all,
I am a pretty realistic person, and dont ever expect any older car to be like new, and anticipate
some
 required
 tinkering. This particular car was just supposed to be something other than what it truly was.
If I had seen it in person i would have likely passed on it, even at a significantly less than what i paid for it.

I have sold several cars on BAT, more expensive than this car, and pride myself on anyone who gets a car from me will say "better than i expected"
Anyway i will need to get this sorted out more so i dont get completely destroyed.
And of course will disclose the issues.

Being on this forum and seeing fellow members cars, and the quality of the work, helped swayed me to part ways with this car.
Bda or Jbcollier photo galleries are the way i would want a car done. They are done the way my race cars are done. Quality, durabilty, appropriate engineering, and asthetically pleasing.

Was just seeing an ad for an outfit in California selling  body and chassis on Ebay.
Their ad says they will build you a lEuropa to your specs. The did a hayabusa powered europa, and several other drivetrains.
Anyone know more about them?

[BDA]

Thank you for the very nice words about my build! To mention my car in the same sentence as JB's is an honor.

I have seen ads on ebay from them before but I don't know anything specific about them. They seem to know what they're doing from looking at their website. I don't think their seat frame thing is worthwhile on a street car but on a race or track car, it might be worthwhile. They certainly seem to have a lot of good stock parts. I think you could do a lot worse than use their bits as a starting point of a fresh build. Their description of the body and frame seem very good and most of the parts seem to be blasted so they'll be ready for paint.

I don't know all that needs to be done for your car but I would think that in terms of getting a drivable car, you would be money and time ahead to press on with yours but you know what you want in the end and have a reasonable idea of what it will take to get you there so I won't say more.

Whatever you do, I hope you keep us informed of your progress! We all love build stories (with lots of pictures)!

[Richard48Y]

I went back to the BAT listing and looked carefully at every pic.
With FI and AC that engine is at least 8# in a 5# bag!
I have to wonder if it would be feasible to modify the head and one cam to provide a rear drive to the alternator as original to Europa's?
Seeing a notched frame for alternator clearance made me wince.
I can see why there is so little adjustment.
Perhaps a physically smaller alternator may be possible for more adjustment?
If it were me I would probably also find a smaller muffler, but I'm the guy who has been know to run strait pipes.
I know these engines are popular, do we have anyone else who has fit one more successfully?

[BDA]

The 4AGE is not a common swap but there are several out there. Several years ago, a gentleman by the name of John Pels made up kits for the conversion. I would be very surprised if the DPO didn’t use one. I’m not terribly familiar with them but I don’t think anybody drove the alternator of a cam shaft. There are some  pictures on the lotuseuropa groups.io list that might answer more questions.

[gideon]

Polopharm - the ad you saw was from this outfit - https://aandbpde.com/ - right?  They've been advertising their own brand of radical Europa restomod for some years.  I think I would want to hear directly from a happy customer or two first before asking them to re-engineer my car. 

Detlef and Jason Claudius are also in the LA area - https://lotuspbc.com/ - and it seems they do good work.  It might be worth making an enquiry with them.

[Polopharm]

Hi, trying to sort some of the nagging little issues that annoy me, prior to sale

Are sun visors hard to come by? This car has none.
 What was original headliner material?
was stock color if it had black inrerior?
The side view mirrors are both cracked and useless.
. I assume pulling door panels is straight forward?

Thanks