There it was

Ah, the joys of Europa ownership, so much fun, buzzing around in a speedy and great handling little car. Ah, happiness is…

It was fun… for a while, but then it changed, don’t ask me why.

I starting taking bits off the car to clean it ‘properly’. “Well, if I take this off I’ll be able to clean under there. Mmmm, and if I take that off I’ll be able to clean better around here too”. And on it went.

So, that’s when it came to pass, the Europa fell into a full restoration. What the heck, “shouldn’t take too long”, I thought. Err,… right. That “shouldn’t take long” ended up being a project that lasted for several years in fact. The best laid plans as they say…

Over the course of months every part of the vehicle and its components were stripped, cleaned (usually by hand), inspected and replaced or repainted/plated. I even had parts sent from the UK as it was next to impossible to get stuff in South Africa, where I was living at the time. I think I had one of only three cars out there, though that may be just dreaming.

Well, after a while the Europa was getting somewhere; super clean and properly built. Splendid, all was going well and it wouldn’t be too long before I would have a ‘mint’ Europa on the road. Marvelous.

And then a spanner fell into the works. I needed to return to the UK… and my car was still in bits. Ah, nuts, literally.

I was still determined to finish the project and keeping an eye on Europa prices I noticed they never dipped. In fact, Europa’s were gradually becoming more valuable, so it made sense to finish the job. And that’s what I did, in the UK. Seemed to me that it would be easy enough to finish the job back in the UK, to pick up where I’d left off.

Okay, you can stop laughing and don’t say it, mistaken thought number 2. And yep, there’s nothing like shipping a car across the world, in boxes!

The condition of the car and parts when it finally arrived in the UK was stunning. So bad I‘d thought someone had switched cars with me. With various problems with shipping and documents and taxes it had taken 18 months to get the car from South Africa to England. And where on earth had they kept it? It looked liked it had been stored in a muddy field, completely exposed to the weather. All the work that I had done in SA was wasted and I would literally have to begin again. Was I disappointed? No, pis**d off more like, but there was no choice, rework had to be done.

I was rather fortunate that my father had some workshop space available, which made working on the car so much easier and, only really working each weekend, I refurbished all components and rebuilt the Europa again… over the next two years. What was that, “shouldn’t take too long”?

Much the same procedure was undertaken as I had done in SA, but I’d had more room this time (but was still short of cash!) and by the time I had reached the condition I’d left the car in SA it was some 18 months later. Further studies also during the year restricted the time I had to spend on the refurbishing, but it was happening.

When I was ready to refit to the chassis I found it to be a rather simple task. The major components were back on the chassis, engine/gearbox/ suspension, so it was free standing and it became just a matter of dropping the body in place, with the help of three friends. A bit of giggling and gentle persuasion and all the bolt holes lined up, more or less. Splendid. Preparation certainly pays.
A few more weekends and all the structural bits were in place too, and the car was starting to look purposeful.

Next step the interior.

I sourced some carpet that was virtually identical to the original Europa stuff and it was real easy to fit too. Probably the most difficult part was refitting the dash, though it was made easier because the windscreen was still missing at this point. The screen was one thing that had to be replaced as I’d broken the original in SA.

Out there a replacement windscreen, if you could find one, cost more than five times the price of a 3 Series BMW unit! I know there weren’t many Europa’s in SA but that was a bit over the top.

A new screen fitted (by an expert as they’re pretty tricky items to fit on Europa’s) and most of the interior done, including seats, next up were the doors. New pivots and fittings certainly made a difference here. Judicious use of card spacers and tape had them lined up and secured. Fitting the doors is not a difficult task, just very tricky with the pivots and really, really time consuming to get a decent alignment.

It was getting close.

Most of the exterior components were then fitted and wired. The only bits I left off were the badges, which would be installed before the car “hit the road”. By this time I couldn’t wait to get the Europa fired up, but first things first. Everything concerning wiring, fuelling and brake lines had to be checked and double-checked. Europa’s were too prone to fires and electrical faults, and I was having none of it, not after all the work I’d put in. It wasn’t long, after rectifying a couple of minor slip-ups, loose wires and a slightly leaky brake line, the car was ready to start.

Start Up.

This proved to be rougher than it should have been. The engine would run, but not real well. I knew the carbs weren’t in the best shape (a regular practice is to replace the twin Dellorto’s with twin Weber 40 DCOE’s, jetted to suit), though this wasn’t reason enough. A few checks of all the regular stuff and a quick compression check and there was the answer… my compromises to save money early on in the engine build had backfired. I should have checked this out much earlier, but then I did make that choice at the time…
Well, what could you do? It was time to build the engine properly and spend the money and time I should have first time around. So out it came again

After spending a stunning amount of money at Burton Performance (saved and borrowed) the engine was rebored, had new pistons/rings, new shells, new hardened valve seats (to allow  unleaded fuel use), new valves, seals and so on and so on. The motor had undergone a major overhaul and rebuild. For what I had paid you’d have thought Burton had rebuilt the motor rather than just machining. Still, if you want the best..

I must admit I also didn’t pay much attention to the distributor first time around and during this rebuild I discovered an incorrect one was fitted. The unit didn’t have the correct advance. It was in fact just retarding. Strange. So a new dizzy was obviously required…more money. Lovely.
Anyway, at the end of the day the engine fired up and ran real sweet and with some minor carb adjustment and it ran good and strong. The Europa was ready to rock ‘n roll.

The last thing to do? Registration/title.

I was again a bit lucky here. It so happened that I was also qualified to test vehicles for roadworthiness. I had access to all the test equipment, emissions and brake test gear, etc., so preparing the Europa for it’s British MOT (road worthy) was a doddle and quickly done.

I didn’t have the original Lotus documents, only the South African ones, and by this time I really didn’t have the patience left to deal with Lotus Cars to get factory verification for date of manufacture. And besides, they wanted to charge stupid money for a piece of paper. This meant that the car wouldn’t have a license plate suitable to it’s original build year, 1975. But really, I didn’t care. I just wanted the car on the road and I could change the registration later if I wanted.

I didn’t put back the front and rear bumpers on the car. I thought it looked better without them, though I kept them in storage.

So, long story short (relatively) there you have it. One finished, registered Lotus Europa, on the road, driving great… until I sold it some 12 years later.

Boy, those mistakes don’t stop