Lotus Europa Resto/Project Under Way
Discussion
CraigyMc said:
Miles Wilkins is still in business and it's entirely possible owns moulds to remake body panels for the Europa.
http://www.fibreglassservices.com/
He's a character.
I thought Fibreglass Services had closed and that the site is to be redeveloped into houses?http://www.fibreglassservices.com/
He's a character.
Anyway - Great thread - Having been intimate with Bobo W's mates Europa above in my teens and twenties I will follow with interest
AVES said:
CraigyMc said:
Miles Wilkins is still in business and it's entirely possible owns moulds to remake body panels for the Europa.
http://www.fibreglassservices.com/
He's a character.
I thought Fibreglass Services had closed and that the site is to be redeveloped into houses?http://www.fibreglassservices.com/
He's a character.
Anyway - Great thread - Having been intimate with Bobo W's mates Europa above in my teens and twenties I will follow with interest
Bit more progress this weekend. Removed the brake Master Cylinder yesterday, didn't take too long and was pretty straight forward, I just had to move the gaiter off the steering rack in order to get the spanner in to the brake pipe.
Today was supposed to be dashboard, steering column and seats. However, to get the seats out I need to be able to move them forward on their rails, but they appear to have rusted completely solid. Not sure what I'll do about that, but I assume I'll need to drill them out, which is not ideal. Not a problem since I was planning on bolting them directly to the floor anyway, but not ideal.
Anyway I did manage to get the dashboard off. Having read through the manual last night I wasn't expecting it to take me all day, but there were some niggles, the first of which was some really fiddly little bolts to release the steering column from the dash. They were sitting way up behind the dashboard, over a metal lip, beyond the reach of any ratchet, and I only had about 1/8 of a turn's worth of room on the second one, and lots of thread to get through... So I spent the whole morning getting these b
ds out:
While sitting on the ground wrestling with said bds, I noticed that someone had scribbled what looks like a faded "Geezer" on the clearcoat of the driver's side door. Would be keen to know whether that was there before its first restoration or whether it was done then - probably no way to know.
After significant effort, the bds were out. Next step was to simply remove the vents from the crash pad. Four little screws each. Of course I didn't think about the fact that the windscreen was going to be in the way of even the smallest screwdriver:
But, after some gentle and cautious persuasion, they were freed (Note to self - put the windscreen back in after the interior goes in!):
Next problem was the switch that turns the interior light on when the door is opened. Passenger side came out easy (but is seized and needs replacing), but on the driver's side, the bolt was spinning in place, with the outer side of the head inside the fiberglass hole, out of reach of any spanner, mole grips, plyers etc.. The inner and outer layers of fiberglass appear to have come apart:
Tried using a clamp to pull the two sides of fiberglass together to see if I could get something on the outer bolt to stop it from spinning:
But no luck. Thankfully after an hour or so of struggling i realized I could just take the bracket off the dashboard, rather than off the body - I'll have to get the bracket off once the doors are off etc..
Freed the dashboard and labelled all the wires. There are a few switches whose function I am completely unsure of right now, so had to label them things like "switch left of Temp gauge" etc. but it will work for now!
And this is where we are left now:
A complete mess!
Didn't get to the steering column but that should be possible tomorrow, then we're about 75% of the way to body-off. Then we'll tackle the seized seats and take out the remaining heater hoses etc.. Of course, if I don't have space by the time we get to 100% ready, I'll continue the interior strip and get to work cleaning and preparing the bits I've taken off already.
As a side note, if anyone is thinking about doing something like this, here is how I am keeping track of everything that comes off the car. Each piece gets taped up along with its fasteners, and on the tape I write the part, and the treatment I intend to take on that part ("re-use", "repair", "replace", "paint" etc..)
And I keep a separate list of every part and the treatment that's required, which will go into a spreadsheet at some point so I can work through the bits that needs something other than straight "reuse":
Excuse my child-like handwriting
Cheers
Today was supposed to be dashboard, steering column and seats. However, to get the seats out I need to be able to move them forward on their rails, but they appear to have rusted completely solid. Not sure what I'll do about that, but I assume I'll need to drill them out, which is not ideal. Not a problem since I was planning on bolting them directly to the floor anyway, but not ideal.
Anyway I did manage to get the dashboard off. Having read through the manual last night I wasn't expecting it to take me all day, but there were some niggles, the first of which was some really fiddly little bolts to release the steering column from the dash. They were sitting way up behind the dashboard, over a metal lip, beyond the reach of any ratchet, and I only had about 1/8 of a turn's worth of room on the second one, and lots of thread to get through... So I spent the whole morning getting these b
ds out:While sitting on the ground wrestling with said b
ds, I noticed that someone had scribbled what looks like a faded "Geezer" on the clearcoat of the driver's side door. Would be keen to know whether that was there before its first restoration or whether it was done then - probably no way to know.After significant effort, the b
ds were out. Next step was to simply remove the vents from the crash pad. Four little screws each. Of course I didn't think about the fact that the windscreen was going to be in the way of even the smallest screwdriver:But, after some gentle and cautious persuasion, they were freed (Note to self - put the windscreen back in after the interior goes in!):
Next problem was the switch that turns the interior light on when the door is opened. Passenger side came out easy (but is seized and needs replacing), but on the driver's side, the bolt was spinning in place, with the outer side of the head inside the fiberglass hole, out of reach of any spanner, mole grips, plyers etc.. The inner and outer layers of fiberglass appear to have come apart:
Tried using a clamp to pull the two sides of fiberglass together to see if I could get something on the outer bolt to stop it from spinning:
But no luck. Thankfully after an hour or so of struggling i realized I could just take the bracket off the dashboard, rather than off the body - I'll have to get the bracket off once the doors are off etc..
Freed the dashboard and labelled all the wires. There are a few switches whose function I am completely unsure of right now, so had to label them things like "switch left of Temp gauge" etc. but it will work for now!
And this is where we are left now:
A complete mess!
Didn't get to the steering column but that should be possible tomorrow, then we're about 75% of the way to body-off. Then we'll tackle the seized seats and take out the remaining heater hoses etc.. Of course, if I don't have space by the time we get to 100% ready, I'll continue the interior strip and get to work cleaning and preparing the bits I've taken off already.
As a side note, if anyone is thinking about doing something like this, here is how I am keeping track of everything that comes off the car. Each piece gets taped up along with its fasteners, and on the tape I write the part, and the treatment I intend to take on that part ("re-use", "repair", "replace", "paint" etc..)
And I keep a separate list of every part and the treatment that's required, which will go into a spreadsheet at some point so I can work through the bits that needs something other than straight "reuse":
Excuse my child-like handwriting
Cheers
Edited by Tubes63 on Friday 15th September 10:41
Too wet to push the car into the drive today, so couldn't make any real progress, but had a go at cleaning up the dash instruments. Just took them apart and spit-shined them so pretty happy with the results. Fuel gauge was too far gone to save and didn't try the "air temp" gauge yet. Not 100% sure about which I will keep and replace, but I do like the idea of keeping as many of the "original" gauges as possible, and pleased to see I definitely don't need to replace them all! 
Before:
After:
Before:
After:
Before:
After:
Before:
After:
Edited by Tubes63 on Friday 15th September 10:54
I'd agree the air temp is an aftermarket thing, but the lucas ammeter is probably original. Mine has the same gauge & marked Lucas when all the others are labelled "Smiths" but it is the one that came with the car. No idea why it's the odd one out, probably Chapman got a better deal from someone flogging Lucas parts 
Bobo W said:
After a somewhat significant off at the weekend there's going to be a parallel rebuild for the Banks 47 mentioned above
Sorry to hear about that, Bobo...72twink said:
Re. The steering column bolts, if you'd undone the knee pad trim along the bottom of the dash the column bracket with the awkward bolts would be free (albeit still part of the column), you can then split them on the bench.
Top tip! Will remember this for reassembly. One of those things where now you mention it, it seems so obvious Edited by 72twink on Tuesday 30th May 17:20
Massive "thank you" to mr. 72EuropaTC, (who you may be surprised to hear has previously owned a Europa, I believe but cannot confirm it to have been a 1972 TC), for sending me the hard copy workshop manual - will make life a lot easier and is bound to wind the wife up when I end up reading it in bed
He's also sent through some cool stuff showing an analysis of the gearing and interchangeability of parts with other cars (for instance, the bumper is interchangeable with a Ford Anglia - who'd have thought?).
Great stuff, sir
He's also sent through some cool stuff showing an analysis of the gearing and interchangeability of parts with other cars (for instance, the bumper is interchangeable with a Ford Anglia - who'd have thought?).
Great stuff, sir
Edited by Tubes63 on Friday 15th September 10:57
No big ticket progress this weekend really, but a little bit here and there. I now only need to remove the seats to get the body up so have been thinking about whether my rafters can support the weight of the body and investigating lifting techniques.
Friday was a sunny afternoon here so I just sat in my chair and started sanding down bits that I will later be painting and reusing:
Saturday I got the steering column/wheel out of the car and pulled the thermostat out - haven't tested it yet. I also took the alternator off to complete the wiring removal.
Today I had another bash at getting the exhaust at least out of the way of the body. I realised it wouldn't get it off without removing the rear crossmember so that came out easy enough:
and this is as far as the damn thing would budge. Need about an inch more space between the starter solenoid and the chassis to get it out at this angle, but once the body is off it will shift, and then I will use the heating/banging technique to finally free the silencer from the downpipe:
So that's where we are. Now I desperately need to encourage the old man to shift his 340R out of the way so I can start making decent progress!
Friday was a sunny afternoon here so I just sat in my chair and started sanding down bits that I will later be painting and reusing:
Saturday I got the steering column/wheel out of the car and pulled the thermostat out - haven't tested it yet. I also took the alternator off to complete the wiring removal.
Today I had another bash at getting the exhaust at least out of the way of the body. I realised it wouldn't get it off without removing the rear crossmember so that came out easy enough:
and this is as far as the damn thing would budge. Need about an inch more space between the starter solenoid and the chassis to get it out at this angle, but once the body is off it will shift, and then I will use the heating/banging technique to finally free the silencer from the downpipe:
So that's where we are. Now I desperately need to encourage the old man to shift his 340R out of the way so I can start making decent progress!
Edited by Tubes63 on Sunday 4th June 21:07
Edited by Tubes63 on Friday 15th September 11:04
Very interesting project.I hd been searching for a TC version for quite sometime.Still dont own one but hopefully will find one soon.
I am currently doing some work with a good friend in Belgium.He has a Lotus workshop there.Mainly Exige but we now have three Esprite to sort out.One has been out of the UK for around 20yrs.Was owned by a German guy who removed the original engine and replaced it with a Rover V8/Citeon trans etc.
Point of this post is regards to Lotus raiding other manufacturers parts bin's.Ford,BL and Vauxhall were obviously favorite suppliers.Btw,any ideas on where one might find a pair of the double race rear wheel bearings?
I am currently doing some work with a good friend in Belgium.He has a Lotus workshop there.Mainly Exige but we now have three Esprite to sort out.One has been out of the UK for around 20yrs.Was owned by a German guy who removed the original engine and replaced it with a Rover V8/Citeon trans etc.
Point of this post is regards to Lotus raiding other manufacturers parts bin's.Ford,BL and Vauxhall were obviously favorite suppliers.Btw,any ideas on where one might find a pair of the double race rear wheel bearings?
Gassing Station | Classic Cars and Yesterday's Heroes | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff