Matilda gets out of the box for a little bit of sunshine...
For a VERY good reason...
Matilda gets out of the box for a little bit of sunshine...
For a VERY good reason...
I would just look at the Europa as a "skin", you need to get the MR2 cut down enough to fit the Europa body on it, and then just get the modified MR2 running and reinforced. You can then install the body and complete the rest of the car. So cut away even if the Europa is just the front, back and sides. The real car underneath is an MR2 with a bunch of extra weight removed. So on the chassis, think "cart" and go for it. Will be much easier to do your V6 swap with the body off and you can drive the result to test before you do the final body assembly.
I saw this ad and thought of this thread:
https://seattle.craigslist.org/sno/pts/d/snohomish-lotus-europa-5-speed-twin-cam/7062223914.html
Wait!! What's that behind her??
I had made the decision recently to buy a scissor lift for my garage. I realized if I set it up in the shipping container, it would give me the ability to raise and lower the car easily and accurately repeatedly while fitting and figuring out exactly what to cut.
It runs on 110V, so I run it off a generator.
So the body and chassis are getting closer to each other...
There was too much happening in the middle of the car for any degree of accuracy, so I decided to start gutting the dash and clearancing for the cowl area:
What did that lift cost? I have been thinking about getting one, definitely would be useful. Years ago, I had my son's football team be the "lift" as we moved the Spitfire body on and off the chassis to test fit and check clearances. Now I don't have that luxury, so need a lift and the overhead crane for these projects. That looks like it will work for you. A Harbor Freight overhead crane is cheap and would let you lower and raise the Europa body for the final fitting very easily.
The windshield had been leaking for a long time. The base at both A-pillar corners is badly rotted, and the water damage continues inside the car throughout.
I don't think I will be using much of the MR2 wiring harness. Every connection is corroded. Hopefully, I can make the wiring harness from the Victim work.
In reply to dherr :
It's a Titan lift. It's their premium lift. I bought it because it has a higher lift capacity (6600# can handle my truck), 5 different safety lock positions, and a remote safety release. It's really well built. I paid $1949 including delivery to a local freight depot. So far, I am pleased.
It's theoretically portable,but it weighs 1100#, so good luck with that!
Even the glove box is full of yuck. Ewwwww!
The good news is that I'm finally getting most of the mildew smell out of the container. 
The conflict at the corners of the A-pillars we discussed earlier wound up being worse than I thought. The door mechanism for the Europa is odd, and my choices were to hack the crap out of the A-pillar, or move the body back 4". Moving the body was gonna screw with everything else, so bye-bye A-pillars.
The Europa has a pocket molded into the body that creates the door jambs,and makes the stupid Rube Goldberg hinge mechanism work. Removing the entire A-pillar will let me keep the entire door pocket, which will finish the Europa better.
The Europa doors are REALLY long. I needed to open up space at both edges of the doors.
I'm having a little trouble measuring the heights for the final resting position of the body. The MR2 is so ridiculously light that it doesn't compress the springs. So, the relationship between the wheels and the body is screwbally.
I'll be dropping the car until the strut towers hit the body work. That should get me close to OEM heights as best as I can tell from internet pics. I may be installing really short springs...
I would imagine you will want to convert to ebay cheap coilovers so you can adjust the height. This thing has to weigh far less than the original 23xx pounds, even after you add back the engine and transmission. That automatic is heavy, so that should help to settle it, but the front will not have much weight on it,
Today's weigh-in:
That's the body AND chassis. Includes suspension, wheels, etc. But it's deceptive. Some of the chopping on the MR2 is still incomplete, I had a few tools laying inside, and the Europa still has it's floor.
I think I can get the body and chassis to a combined weight of about 1200#.
That means the finished car is on track for being about 1800#... still should be under 2000# with rollover protection and reinforcing.
In reply to dherr :
Yes, you are right. Coilovers are on the radar. But I can’t drop it too low... handling will be negatively effected.
I fail to see how the MR2 front suspension geometry is even remotely close to as good as the Europa. The rear of the MR2 is better by a little bit, but the front, no way, and the struts are super tall. Weld the front of the Europa chassis to the rear of the MR2 and get the best of both, as well as easier fittment in front.
Why don't you take the springs out and use blocks of 2*4 to set the ride height while you work?
Replace shocks with 1" threaded rod. You need to set the chassis ride/stance early in the game
In reply to Robbie :
That’s a good idea.
I probably wasn’t clear. I don’t know what the ride height SHOULD be. There is no body to correlate it with. Right now, the “ride height” is gonna get set by how low I set the body on the chassis, without knowledge of what the stock heights are, or what the height will be when more weight is added.
Its a complete shot in the dark.
TurnerX19 said:I fail to see how the MR2 front suspension geometry is even remotely close to as good as the Europa. The rear of the MR2 is better by a little bit, but the front, no way, and the struts are super tall. Weld the front of the Europa chassis to the rear of the MR2 and get the best of both, as well as easier fittment in front.
That's not an unreasonable approach.
Although it leaves me with a crapshoot overall suspension design...
SVreX said:In reply to Robbie :
That’s a good idea.
I probably wasn’t clear. I don’t know what the ride height SHOULD be. There is no body to correlate it with. Right now, the “ride height” is gonna get set by how low I set the body on the chassis, without knowledge of what the stock heights are, or what the height will be when more weight is added.
Its a complete shot in the dark.
With strut equipped suspension (well even dual a-arm stuff), the general rule of thumb is to have the control arm parallel to the ground or with the inboard pickup points slightly higher to help reduce the inherent design issues with strut based suspension and travel.
As to Turner's mention of the MR2 suspension being worse than the Europa's, well yeah maybe. The control arms are quite short and it was designed before radial tires were a thing by a company that was known for a severe lack of funding and many products that were never quite "right" but were often close enough to be good enough to sell in order to fund the next round of F1 development. Then again the MR2 is based loosely around the X-1/9 and it used struts all around and the praise over the Exxie's handling to this day is still a known quantity. For what he wants? Put lots of rubber under it, enough negative camber to make them happy on the autocross course and enough travel to keep the driver happy and send it.
You are going to want the final ride height to be with the A-arms almost parallel to the ground. Then set the body down until the ergonomics from the driver's seat feel OK...your head does not hit the roof or the dash is too high/low.
Don't be in a hurry to cut off the Toyota sills since it is possible the Lotus shell is going to want to sit on top of them.
In reply to Stefan :
Yeah, parallel is what I am shooting for.
In reply to NOHOME :
Definitely not hacking the sills. That’s where the body will sit, and any weirdness can be hidden in the side skirts.
I saw this and thought of this thread:
https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1974-lotus-europa-6/
:)
Hope you're still making progress! Keep it up!
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