1968 Lotus Europa Restomod

T.J. said: When you get the Europa finished, have you thought about maybe taking on a Biturbo for your next project?

The next project is finishing the resto on Dad's MG TF, followed by maybe a Sebring Sprite. Italian cars just aren't my thing.

In other news, I managed to achieve my goal of primer by the middle of September. Sunday morning had the car looking like this:

And by the afternoon is looked like this:

I also managed to get the fiberglass repairs done on the front lid and the RH door, the LH door and engine cover will get repaired later in the month. Fingers crossed I might have the doors and lids in primer by the end of October. Then it will be back to getting the mechanical side of the car sorted out, I still have to fab a set of headers, an intake manifold and the cooling system.

Rod

It's been nearly a month since my last update as there hasn't been too much progress. I have finished all the fiberglass repairs to the doors, engine cover and front cover. So another day or so of sanding and filling and they will be ready for primer.

In other news, I picked up a box of mandrel bends yesterday morning, and by mid afternoon they looked like this:

And by the end of the day they looked like this:

Once I pick up another bottle of argon, I'll get them all trimmed to the same length and the merge collector fabricated. I roughly measured the lengths, and they are all withing 3/4", not too bad for a "that looks about right" method of fabricating a header.

Rod

Very cool

Another method for equal length header pipes uses a variable frequency source (there's an app for that).
Hold the sound source at the open flange, and sweep to determine the actual resonant frequency of each tube.
Because that's really what you are interested in, right, not how physically long they are?

erohlsc,

That's a new idea for me to ponder, I hadn't thought about using a variable frequency source. I've always subscribed to the equal length theory and not worrying too much about resonant frequency. Once I trim the tubes all to the same ending point, I'll try out the variable frequency source.

But in all honesty, I'm not too concerned about the performance of the header. I'm using 1 1/2" diameter primaries, which is what the stock Focus header had to begin with. I'm also going to be running stock cams, so the motor wont be warmed up at all. I built up somewhat of a warmed up 4AG (296 duration cams, small port head, webers etc)for a Lotus Seven replica years ago, and as much as I enjoyed listening to it scream it was a pig to drive in traffic. For the Europa I'm wanting something a little more tame, that still makes around 150 hp.

Rod

Time for an update, I've been picking away at the to do list on the Europa and I've now nearly completed the dash. I've always been partial to the earlier Europa dash, so I've made one up that closely resembles it:

All that's left on the dash it to sand the front rail of the dash top and cover in vinyl.

I've also fabricated an intake manifold so that I can run CBR900 carbs on a Zetec.

I think it looks a bit too racy.

And other than that, I've now have the front cover in primer. The car certainly looks different all in one colour:

Unfortunately most of my time these days has been allocated to this:

I'm currently on a temporary layoff from work due to lack of jobs, so dad has kindly let me prep his TF for paint. Hopefully I'll be back to work soon, though it would be nice to see his car finished, finally. It's been in pieces for probably 30 years now, so it's about time it should get finished.

Rod

Rod, that motor is in no way too racy. It's just bitchin'.

RoddyMac17 wrote: I think it looks a bit too racy.

When I had mine I picked up an aluminum valve cover from England that had been powder coated BRG, as well as a vintage style aluminum oil cap. Almost everyone but a Lotus aficionado would think it was a stock engine at first glance.

Too racy? This is a concept I've not encountered before. Please do explain.

Awesome dash work!

Have you considered the BDA cover for the Zetec? http://www.retro-ford.co.uk/shop/content/zetec-bda-rocker-cover-z057

Daewoo,

Just being a bit sarcastic. I was a little surprised by how it looked once I lobbed the carbs on.

RossD,

I have seen the BDA cam covers and one is on my wish list, but lack of funds prevents me from getting one. Once the car is finished and sorted I'll pick one up.

Rod

It's been a while, so here's a small update. Dad's TF has gone from this:

To this:

To this:

Which hasn't left me a lot of spare time to work on the Europa. I did manage to get a few hours this week to do a small amount of work. I picked up an Ebay Civic alloy rad a few years ago for another project, and me being a cheap bast#@$, I figured I could make it work for the Europa. I repositioned one of the hose connections, made a baffle for the header tank (making it a double pass radiator as per the stock Europa one), and removed the filler neck. I haven't taken any pics of the rad, I'll snap some when I put it in the body.

I've also re-purposed the filler neck, I picked up some aluminium tube and plate this week and set about making an expansion tank:

Based on what I've seen in the write ups for Zetec cooling systems, it should work, fingers crossed. Next week I'll hopefully start on the twin gas tanks.

Rod

Here's a bit of an update....

I picked up some 16 ga aluminium and started on the gas tanks. They're slightly shorter than the stock tanks, but they should hold about 40 litres combined.

All that's left to do on them is fix the few pin holes, weld on some filler necks, and fabricate a sending unit mount.

Next up, and just because I'm a cheap ba#$%# and didn't want to shell out roughly $80 (canadian), I fabbed up a brake balance bar:

I need to pick up a COM8 bearing and it should be complete. Total bill for the balance bar should be somewhere in the region of $30.

I've also managed to get a starter motor, I had hoped to intercourse a Toyota starter with the Ford ring gear, but that didn't quite work. Instead I've picked up a Focus starter and modified the bellhousing to accept it. I had to weld on two threaded bushings, but managed to leave the stock mounting points for the Lucas starter so that if anyone really wanted to, they could reinstall the Lucas motor.

The wiring has also had some work done on it. The car came with a nearly complete harness but as I wanted to install a few extra circuits and delete some of the archaic charging system bits, I unwrapped the harness and modified it. I didn't take any pics of the harness unwrapped, but here's one of the harness re-wrapped in non adhesive tape:

And the last bit of work has been working on the Civic alloy rad, again. I had to relocate the other water outlet to make it fit in the Europa nose:

Rod

Your fab work is fab!

I picked up some bits for my car on the weekend, but part of the deal included getting this:

I'm undecided as to whether I keep it and build a second car or offer it up for sale. Anyone on this forum fancy a Europa bodytub?

Rod

I could quite possibly be persuaded.....

I figured I'd post an update to prove that this build isn't dead. I've been busy filling all the small voids and pinholes all over the body (shoddy gelcoat from new) in hopes of shooting the final coat of highbuild primer on the Canada Day long weekend. The goal for this summer is to have the body painted by September, along with getting the motor back in the chassis and running. Paint will happen for sure, but the motor running is still up in the air.

Anyways, a few pictures:

Rod

Looks great. Fantastic work.

Your craftsmanship is fantastic. Keep it up!

I managed to meet my goal of spraying more high build primer over the weekend:

But, I discovered even more pin holes, so more there's more filling and sanding in my future. The good news is I don't think I'll have to respray the whole car in primer, just some localized areas. Some other good news is I finally got some gas caps. I ordered a pair in early June that as it turned out were too small (2" filler neck) so had to wait another couple weeks for a larger set (2 1/2" filler neck).

Fingers crossed I might meet my goal of paint by September.

Rod

Are you aware of "Feather fill" high build primer?

http://www.eastwood.com/evercoat-reg-featherfill-g2-black.html

This stuff and a set of Durablock sanding blocks takes a lot of the pain out of this block-sanding game.

NOHOME, Yup, I know about Feather Fill. I was tempted to use it on this car, but elected not to. Instead I've been using Besa-Car High Build . I managed to "paint out" most of the pin holes but there are still some voids that will require more glaze type filler. I thought I had filled them all, but with differing colours on the car they weren't apparent (inside the garage with artificial lighting and outside in the sun).

I've had the past four days off work and have managed to get some work done on the car. I borrowed an engine hoist and put the motor and gearbox back into the chassis:

Then refitted the body to the chassis, but discovered the motor hits the firewall. Out came the jig saw to create a nice access hole for the front of the motor:

And, now the body, chassis and motor fit together nicely:

Next up will be tacking together the fuel filler necks, fabricating a bracket that links the chassis to the pedal box, and start on making a center console for the interior.

Rod

Yeeesss!!

Did you build the chassis yourself?