Happiness is a strait and rust-free chassis.
Disappointment is a repaired trailing arm.
Progress is the body off the chassis.
Happiness is a strait and rust-free chassis.
Disappointment is a repaired trailing arm.
Progress is the body off the chassis.
In reply to RichardSIA :
That's a major step accomplished!
What are your thoughts about the trailing arm?
Trailing arm is getting replaced.
I am stripping to the bare chassis, clean and paint before reassembly.
It seems this will be the second body-off restoration for this car.
I intend to do a bit better job than the last rebuilder.
Some DPO had goober-welded a pair of heavy angle iron brackets to the rear of the chassis.
Today I removed them. I will have to do some flange repair but the hardest part is done.
In reply to RichardSIA :
Any idea what their purpose was?
Possibly added on mounts for the rear luggage box?
In any case they were far heavier than needed and interfered with reaching two of the body mount bolts.
Next trick is fabricating the body rotisserie mounts.
Bodywork will be the majority of this restoration.
Made it to the hardware store today.
They have a very sparse selection of stains.
I picked one that looked just a fraction darker than the original dash.
Doing a small sample it appears a little lighter than I had hoped but may be OK once I get the clear varnish on it.
Still not sure what type of veneer I have but it has some almost iridescent qualities when viewed at an angle.
I intend to avoid the thick varnish of the original dash.
Semi-gloss Spar Varnish, not gloss.
I will have to match grain at the center but after all the cut-outs there will be very little remaining joint visible.
Hoping to do this soon as it's a relatively simple and inexpensive task.
Using the $12.00 in 'scrap' veneer helps a lot. 
Should have a sample pic in the morning after the second coat of varnish.
In reply to RichardSIA :
I've seen some maple like that. Is it a fairly light colored wood?
Very light until stained, still lighter than the samples at the store after stain.
I also have Dark Walnut stain but that is too dark even on this light wood.
Pics, stained and raw, in the light and in shadow.
In the light the color is pretty golden, in shadow it is closer to what I was looking for.
Camera is not 100% accurate.
In reply to RichardSIA :
That's intriguing, it's almost like a partial birdseye maple, but not quite.
I think the somewhat golden dash will go great with the French Blue paint.
Have to order the correct adhesive.
Dash in the Europa is almost always in the shade. This will look great, better than OEM.
Today I soda blasted my bonnet.
Here are my observations.
It required more soda than I would like at $1.00 a pound.
After a few minutes I was able to reduce the soda flow while keeping the efficiency.
Smooth side blast a lot quicker than the rough.
Original paint can be stubborn.
I still need to touch up a few spots on the rough side.
If there were a chemical stripper that could be used without issue it would probably be my preference.
But Soda gets ALL the paint and filler off so reveals every old repair and flaw.
It also takes the soft Bondo away.
I am now convinced that Soda is the best if the body is to have all old issues addressed.
Cleaned the back side of six Cosmic wheels today.
I will use the five best and have one as a spare.
Unable to do the work I would prefer so doing what I may.
Soda blaster works but is slow and the media is expensive.
So I switched over to carefully using glass bead in the blast cabinet.
Much more pleasant and faster.
I am also painting the clean aluminum with silver caliper paint.
Color is a pretty good match and a less porous surface will be much easier to clean in the future.
I don't know why the backside of aluminum wheels are left raw, I guess they are expected to be disposable.
Today I committed this.
I have to pull it apart so that I may see exactly what I need to order before the Pound and Euro rebound. Which of course they will as soon as I have my list.
Of course they will....
Got the engine apart.
I will not be reusing the pistons or cam.
This makes for a much more expensive build. 
Cam has one ruined lobe, right at the nose.
One piston has a small chunk missing from the skirt.
Whoever assembled this engine last time decided the piston damage was inconsequential and used it anyway.
I do not know if the cam issue was present at assembly.
The good news is that the crank is Std/Std.
Hoping the No. 1 main will polish up.
The French really do engineer differently, 11mm bolt heads and square lock washers.
In reply to RichardSIA :
Do you think it could have run those hill climbs with the broken piston?
It is only a small piece at the very bottom of the skirt.
File marks are visible where the builder smoothed the edge.
So I know this is old damage.
Cam looks like it might have taken out the whole engine if it had run.
Ouch, that cam has seen better days.
What does the Hive think of this cam?
Euro 550 and shipping, Ouch!
Goal is a warm street car that hopefully may still run on 91 Octane fuel.
Looking to make around 125 HP.
That puts me even with the Lotus/Ford TC at less weight.
intake exhaust
camshaft data:
lash ramp: 0.40mm .40mm
duration @ 0.1mm: :280° :280°
duration @ 1.0mm : 236° :236°
valve lift : 10.00mm :10.00mm
cam lift : 6.25mm :6.25mm
lobe angle : 110° :110°
timing @ 1.0mm : 8° / 48° :48° / 8°
valve lift @ TDC : 2.15mm :2.15mm
Plan for the engine is coming together.
Forged Wossner pistons, but I have to shave them for realistic compression.
I will be getting a minor displacement increase to 1595cc from the 77.8mm pistons.
Buying new cylinders too, still cheaper than getting my originals re-bored even with shipping from France.
Still undecided on the cam, either the one I posted above or the next level hotter.
Next level shifts the power-band up by 300 RPM.
Trailing arm assemblies have been removed.
Now simpler to work with.
Whoever assembled this car last did some seriously sketchy work, like a trailing arm attachment bolt with maybe two threads engagement to the nut!
In reply to RichardSIA :
125hp in a ~1700lb car sounds like plenty of fun as long as there's enough torque where you need it in the RPM range for your gearing.
It should be lighter than that with Richard in it ;)
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