Disassembly time. Lot's of people ask me how many hours I put into a restoration. It seems like thousands, but I never really kept track on the other projects I've done. SO this time I've got a little clipboard and I'll see how long it takes for each phase of the operation.
This Europa was assembled in June of 1973; therefore it is the Newest Lotus I have ever worked on. That being said, it is still 32 years old and I'm sure I will find mostly very crusty and rusty parts in this phase of restoration. The engine/trunk cover (in the back) was the first part to come off and get shoved up into the garage attic. I put all the little nuts and bolts for the cover in a little butter dish. I use separate butter dishes marked with component names on masking tape for each major chunk of the car. That way when I go to re-assemble the car many moons later, I can narrow down what goes where. Since this is the first butter dish, I also dated it. It's kind of interesting when I get to the point of putting those first nuts and bolts hack on the car. I find out how many years and months it took to get hack to these first parts. My 1965 Elan project car took me 2 ½ years to get back to the drivers door butter dish. I usually clean up and re-use most of the bolts and install all new washers and locknuts. The Lotus Seven that I did was so bad that I didn't use butter dishes. Almost everything was junk, so I threw out almost all the bolts as well as the nuts.
I took off the Stromberg carbs and manifold and a few other items in the engine bay without any problem. The fiberglass body is held onto the chassis with about a dozen bolts 2X2X2X2X2X2 from front to rear. The first two I looked at in the engine bay sit in a little lip that conveniently holds all the water and muck that happens to get in the engine bay. The bolt heads are also only half-height, so when I attempted to remove them, it quickly became apparent that this would he the first of many jobs for the sawz-all/air grinder/air cut-off tool. Sparks were a flying! The front trunk came off with ease as did all the little paraphernalia and wiring in the front trunk compartment. The radiator is located up front and that gave me a bit of trouble. 32 years of weather had caused the nuts to he rusted on stronger than the tensile strength of the old brazing that held the bolts onto the radiator housing. Snap-snap-snap. 3 broke off. Only 1 out of 4 actually unscrewed. The part of the radiator housing that held the water was fine but there is a heavy mesh screen that goes over the part of the radiator that is exposed to the wheel well. That heavy mesh was now more like a heavy mush with about a third of it rusted
away. This will he a real challenge for my favorite radiator shop later in the project.
The driver's door had a new stainless steel hinge assembly so it was not rusted to death. It was a bit stubborn however. I was just able to reach inside the door to twist the rod back and forth and back and forth. After about a half hour of that my hands were really red and sore. After looking at the new hinge kits sitting on my workbench. I then realized that the bottom of the hinge had a threaded hole. I drilled out the rivets holding the aluminum sill cover and exposed the hole in the body where the hinge shaft comes out. I jacked up the car and threaded in a bolt to use with a vice-grip and a hammer. Ideally, it would have been nice to put the car on a lift and use a slide hammer, but you have to get by with the tools you have. I was able to hammer the shaft out. After unhooking the power window wires. I was able to get the drivers door off and set it on the workbench. The passenger side was a bit easier because I had the routine now. Only this time I wasn't paying full attention as I pulled and tapped out the hinge shaft. I was sweating pretty good and as the shaft was just about to pop out, the whole door popped out and fell on my head. Luckily Europa doors don't have steel I-beams for occupant protection. Luckily I've got a pretty hard head. It still smarted pretty good. How come when you drop something on your head it smarts! Shouldn't it stupid instead of smart!
That was enough for one night so I closed up and headed into the house. Only then did I realize how sore my hands really were from twisting that shaft inside the door. My fingers were now swollen like little sausages and after I washed my dirty hands they looked like they had been stuck in real hot water. I got out a couple ice cubes to soak them and a couple cold beers to rinse things out internally as I sat down and chilled out in front of the TV.
Next - Europa Euphoria, Part 3
