Lotus Europa S1: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

It has been a while since the last update, but I haven’t been sitting still. When I last updated the blog, I just had disassembled everything, and the next step was cutting the chassis out of the body. So I’ll talk you through the past couple of months.

 

What you can see here is a custom intake manifold for twin 40 Weber DCNF carburettors made by Valeiro Leone for the 697/821 wedge head. That’s one part of the induction system taken care of, the other part will be dry sump 40 DCNF’s, but they can wait until I’ve got an engine built.

 

This is one side of the front suspension completely taken apart, it’s quite rusty, but all structurally sound. One of the bolts was stuck in one of the steering arms, and wouldn’t budge, but it would be a good part to try the vinegar rust removing technique. Below you can see how well it worked!

Not completely rust-free, but with a bit of work it should come out perfect!

 

In these boxes were some extra engine parts: crankshaft, camshaft, connecting rods, distributor and some other bits and bobs.

 

My Christmas present from my parents were these books that they bought from Bruce Brammer at Lotus-Books.com.

 

I also moved the engines and gearboxes to one side of my workshop in order to get some more room. Below you can see some of the pictures taken right after we had finally extracted the chassis from within the body, it was a long and laborious task. As you can see, my friends who were helping me were very happy when we got it out.

 

When I got the chassis home I could inspect it further, it wasn’t pretty!

 

I am now debating what to do: try and restore this one, buy a second hand one or buy a brand new one. I’ll be making some extra measurements and afterwards I’ll remove all of the rust and see what’s left when the rust is gone.

 

Enjoy & share!

 

Serge