Lotus Europa Forum

I sold a 1971 S2 in 2017. I didn't want to, and I still feel bad about it. I am pretty sure the car's in good hands, although the car has been returned to England. Since then, I have been attending the local college's auto shop, mostly to straighten out a couple of Corvettes I had bought. They both sold just since last Thanksgiving, and I bought a newer C5, which I have recently finished straightening out, and now I can take on a new project.
My first S2 was in the midst of a powerplant substitution, and with the job 1/2 done, I was overwhelmed trying to figure out how to finish up integrating a Mazda rotary engine and dealing with the cooling, plumbing and other issues the previous owner never got around to.
This time, the car will be stock, and I won't have to re-engineer anything. Just reassemble the car. And we know that there were Europa kit cars sold back in the day, straight from Lotus. I should be okay, but I'm not going to handle this like it's a race. I want to take my time and be sure of doing a careful restoration.
As you can see, the seller bought a new bodyshell way back in 1978, so I'll need to learn to paint. It appears that he has gone through and restored the backbone frame before he remounted some of the components. I will go over all of that carefully, and get this puzzle put back together. I think that I will allow myself to do a generic aftermarket wiring harness and get away from that ammeter the car comes with, and I might modernize some of the interior lights and for sure get rid of the chrome ashtray thingee. Otherwise I am going to try to make it appear stock original.
I know that I'm not the first to do this, and I am glad that these folks have left good notes (even books) and videos detailing their efforts. Not that it'll be easy. Wish me luck! Dan