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Hello all,
Since last week marked several milestones in the effort to put
Daisy the Box Car (named by my wife due to the car's color and the
fact that it came home in boxes) back together again, I thought
I'd give you all a little progress report;
For those of you who've recently joined our program, on December
4th, 1994, I brought home ~ 95% of a 1970 Lotus Europa S2, whose most
distinctive feature was that it was completely disassembled. Several days
later (before I'd actually determined how much of the car was missing) my
wife and I decided that Monterey '95 would be appropriate as our
on-the-road goal.
And so it began, "8 1/2 Months, the story of a box of parts ..."
As you may remember, as we unloaded the lovely powdercoated
frame I noticed the "usual" Europa cracks at the junction of the
backbone & front crossmember. Why the PO powderpainted over them is
the question I'd like answered.
The frame was taken straight to Petersen Technical Services for repair.
PTS is a custom fabrication shop located in Sunnyvale that can do just
about anything, and a few hours of careful work later the cracks were
repaired and several strengthening straps added to ensure this does
not happen again.
While the frame was at PTS I figured it would be a good time
to rebuild the areas of historic weakness. Much time was then spent
conversing with other Europa folks to identify where the problem areas
were and what could be done to strengthen them. Without going into
detail (I'll save that for the technical write-ups), we R & R'd the
following areas;
* Fabbed up reinforcing gussets for the rear frame legs and front shock
mounts
* Rebuilt the rear crossmember that ties the top of the shocks together
using rectangular tubing rather than the stock flimsy U-channel
* welded hardened ground stainless steel thrust washers into the lower
control arms for more positive trunnion location
Additionally, much time was spent cleaning various pieces in the
glass bead cabinet, making everything either ready for painting or
reassembly.
So here I am, with 199 days until Monterey. The frame repairs are
completed, and the reinforcements are ~ %80 done. We hope to finish them
up tonight and ship it all off to the powdercoaters in the next few
days, so next week it'll all be ready to come home.
Most all of the perishable brake & suspension parts either have
arrived or are on their way, and all of the items that were supposed to
be there in the first place have been located and purchased, with the
exception of the coolant swirl tank and the master cylinder. For the
swirl tank I'm holding out for the real McCoy. For the M/C I am not.
Call it heresy if you will, but I do not embrace the idea of
originality strongly enough to shell out the big $$ the Europa M/C
commands. So I welcome advice from those of you who have successfully
adapted another M/C to your S2 Europa.
And before this gets too long-winded (assuming it already hasn't),
I'll finish on a very positive note.
Regarding my recent post on getting the title transferred *and* the
VID on the title changed to match the ID plate, saving future troubles,
all my worries were for naught. The first trip to the DMV I paid my
transfer fees, signed the certificate of non-op, and since the car had
long ago gone off the computer, I was asked to have a verification of
VIN form filled out by a DMV verifier or police officer. I opted for
the latter and called one out to the house the next weekend. After the
usual comments regarding the likelihood of me installing a V8 in it, we
settled down to business, verifying the numbers and plates were all as
they should be. This form I then dropped back off at the DMV the next
week, and was told all was in order and my new title, complete with VID
that matches the ID plate in the front luggage compartment, will arrive
in 4-6 weeks. Although it all went very smoothly, I must admit I
breathed a sigh of relief on the way home.
All for now-
daren (199 days till Monterey)
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