In case you are not aware, I’ve just undertaken to recoup my investment in something that loses value, namely a car. A rare one.  My teeny Lotus.

If you are not a car person, skip down to below the picture or you will be bored.

I bought it thinking I was taking a short cut, and who knows if maybe it will turn out to be true in the end. It was represented a “trouble free original” which it turned out not to be on any level.

The car was absolutely untrustworthy. Plus, it came from the factory white, but now sports V0lkswagon Red body panels.

I spent a year sorting it. The Clutch was replaced entirely by me. New cable, new home made cabin abutment for it too. New disc, release bearing, pressure plate, and pilot bearing. Then I stripped and painted the rocker arm cover so it’s no longer orange red, but silver like the rest of the motor.

I rebuilt the drivelines, replacing every U-joint and bearing along with the roll pins, hub nuts, bearing spacers, lock washers, and one stub axle. The rear dampers were replaced also as will be the front ones. I swapped out the grease in the new hub bearings and replaced it with high temperature wheel bearing grease. Both stub axles were turned down by a machinist to accept standard 30mm bearings.

Then I solved serious electrical and ignition problems by replacing the ignition switch, rewiring the dash when I replaced it with a renewed one, and making sure the earth connections were all tight and proper. The main ground connection had been installed on the bolt without affixing a nut to snug it to the chassis. To remedy that I had to make an access hole in the Y-arm and then while I was at it I converted that main ground connection to a stud. Did the same with the hold down on the distributor (which distributor I also had to replace) because the threads for the bolt that held the distributor down were knackered for the first few. Now there is a stud and I tighten or loosen the distributer with a nut.  The master cylinder had to be replaced and correctly installed rather than the way the PO put it in. So now the spare tire doesn’t need a wooden ramp to keep it off the MC as before. I vacuumed, primed, and painted what I could reach of the T-section and chassis center tube. I installed a new water pump, tore out some improper plumbing, and got the radiator fan to work properly. The voltage regulator and some key relays along with the voltage stabilizer were all replaced with new and mounted correctly.

Then with those high points taken care of, I set the valve lash and made stud connectors to hold down the rear boot box and allow quick removal. I also  fixed the shifting problems by replacing a Spherical joint along with a  critical bolt.

Also I removed all the cruddy paint off the trans axle because a PO had painted over grease and dirt. It got repainted with Por 15. The transverse pivot arm trans axle bushings got replaced too and the threads were renewed at both ends of the tube with a new bolt at one end and new rose joint at the other.

In all this time, the car was not supposed to be the main consumer of my time, resources, and effort. I was supposed to be building an art business.

Maybe there is still time so that’s my focus now.

This web site has gone unfinished for three years and I’ve done nothing to create a brand or introduce it.

No wonder the income matches what I used to get for working in the yard as a kid. We didn’t get paid. We got a bed and a place at the table though.

Back to the original thinking of this web site, I’ll finish the upgrade over to the new version of Prophoto then create lean divisions so that those who may be interested in my photography, or those who like the portraits, or the land scape art, or the automobile art can go to those  pages and be inspired to buy their own prints, calendars, etc. or commission a portrait.

By the way, after all that work and frustration I can tell you that the red car is a hoot to drive! If you’re a face book person, find it’s story there under “The Glorious Lotus Europa”, not to be confused with Bryan Boyle’s “Lotus Europa” page. Bryan used to do the Europa calendars but interest died out. I did them for two years too. If I make a new one I’ll put a link where you can find it.

I called this post E1 because the lessons learned from repairing that Europa all come together with this concept: problems need to be remedied. They are what they are and take what they take. To fix them requires learning what’s necessary, then how to do it, then just do it.

I have never started a business beyond paying my government masters for the permission to do it and coming up with a name. No one in my family has either. We’ve mostly been hirelings. So there is a learning curve.

So this is the first application of the Europa principle: it is what it is and takes what it takes. Corollary to that is the idea that if it’s not going to be fixed or enjoyed then move on. So off I go. I have a business to create. The last one was dissolved and the state gave me the license fees back. The one before that also dissolved but the fees were lost. I still get mail for that after almost thirty years.