16 years old = Europa

[TheKid#9]

Originally Posted by BDA

When my car was "new" the crash pad vinyl was not anchored around the window. When I rebuilt it, I had my new crash pad covered with the finest hides of naugas . I had them stitch along the front edge and try to follow the contours as well as they could, the ends were impossible so they don't quite curve with the crash pad underneath. It's been a long time, but I think I asked them to glue it down where the windshield goes. That sounds wrong (maybe there's room for both to be attached?), but I think that is what they did and it seems to work pretty well. I don't drive it in the rain though.

There is supposed to be a trim piece that covers the joint at the windshield and crash pad so if you replicate that, it might be able to attach it independently of the windshield. You might ask the trim shop or a glass shop for advice.

Good luck and I can't wait for you to find your camera charger!!!

Alright thanks for the help. We will get at it this weekend and see what happens! Hope all goes well.
I'll look for the charger, I don't know where it is, we might have to get another one.

[TheKid#9]

Hey Everyone. My father and I have worked on the car these past weekends. We are still wiring up a few things and putting in fuses, and relays. We put relays in for the window motors, not sure if we will do the same for the headlights.

We fitted the crash pad and it fits okay for right now... Still needs a little more trimming and work done, but we will get it soon. We will be starting the engine up the first week of January, I hope! Everything is ready for it to be started! We might finish more of the interior up before we do it, but we are aiming for the first week in January to start her up! No photos again... sorry guys. I'll get that sorted soon...
Hope everyone has a great Christmas!

[stugilmour]

Originally Posted by TheKid#9

We put relays in for the window motors, not sure if we will do the same for the headlights.

Nice build Kid. I haven't looked thru the whole thread yet but what I did check out looks great.

I would definitely run relays and fuses for the headlights. Looks like your light switch arrangement is different than my Plus 2, but I found running the high wattage loads thru the 40 year old switches not advisable. Elans all use relays for the headlights because of the movable pods, so YMMV. Relays for my window motors really helped, although I ended up getting rebuilt motors as well due to motor failure.

Looking forward to seeing it on the road!

[TheKid#9]

Originally Posted by stugilmour

Nice build Kid. I haven't looked thru the whole thread yet but what I did check out looks great.

I would definitely run relays and fuses for the headlights. Looks like your light switch arrangement is different than my Plus 2, but I found running the high wattage loads thru the 40 year old switches not advisable. Elans all use relays for the headlights because of the movable pods, so YMMV. Relays for my window motors really helped, although I ended up getting rebuilt motors as well due to motor failure.

Looking forward to seeing it on the road!

Thank you, and thanks for the tip on the headlights. The headlights look good with out relays for right now but we will see later.

We hope to get some work done today on the car. Pictures will come soon too! Hopefully I can get the crashpad fitted than covered to bolt up the dash and finish all of that so I can show you guys! After we will start her up put interior in and finish. Easier said than done haha

[TheKid#9]

Hey everyone.
My dad and I finished trimming the crash pad. Everything lines up and works great! All we need to do now is get the crash pad covered. After that everything will be in place! Everything works right now, just need to ground a couple more things once the crash pad gets covered and it will be finished. All of the lights work, headlights, tail lights, side, interior light, gauge lights. All of them! The only one that isn't working great is the oil gauge light... We replaced all of them, but once we take the crash pad off to get it covered we will check it again. All is good though!

Hope to get it over to the upholstery shop sometime this week, probably aiming for next week to start the car, but who knows. All I know it will be soon!
Still haven't found the charger for the camera, so I used my phone, not the best but it will work.

[TheKid#9]

My dad and I have done a few things these past days. We finally got the crash pad fitted and we took it over to the upholstery shop today to get it covered. We also took a few other parts to them as well. We put some heat shield under the trunk, and fixed our handbrake micro switch the other day.

We are putting the felt and carpet in. Just test fitting it right now, hopefully tomorrow we will glue the felt in and put the carpet over it and secure it all down. We also put our World Championship Badges on and our VIN plates.

We will be starting the car up on the 14th!! Hope everything goes Great!

[BDA]

I hope so, too! Good luck! It's looking great!

[Bluefang08]

Looking good.

[TheKid#9]

It RUNS!!!

Europa Start Up - YouTube

Europa Start Up - YouTube

[XHILR8N!]

Sweeeetttttttt!

We ran around in ours maybe 40 miles yesterday. Most comfortable car I've ever sat in. So smartly thought out.

Interesting to wonder how many Europas might be on the road in the entire world at that moment. Sometime we'll have to both be out at the same time so we'll know there are at least two

[BDA]

Looks good! Sounds even better! I know that has to feel good! Congratulations!!!

[TheKid#9]

Originally Posted by XHILR8N!

Sweeeetttttttt!

We ran around in ours maybe 40 miles yesterday. Most comfortable car I've ever sat in. So smartly thought out.

Interesting to wonder how many Europas might be on the road in the entire world at that moment. Sometime we'll have to both be out at the same time so we'll know there are at least two

Thank you so much! You tease me a lot... haha
I wondered how many are on the road the other day too, can't be to many...

When mine is finished I will definitely try and come up and see you, so both of our Europas will be driving around together. That would be a blast!

In my opinion, I think yours, Bainford's, BDA's and mine (When Finished) will be some of the greatest looking Europa Twin Cam Specials in the U.S. Of course their are others, but you guys are the only ones I have actually seen on the road being driven rather than for sale and never driven. Soon we will all be united at a LOG together!

Originally Posted by BDA

Looks good! Sounds even better! I know that has to feel good! Congratulations!!!

Thank you so much! My dad and I can't stop watching and listening to the video and hearing the engine rev! We are very, very excited! We can't wait to finish the car and drive it!

[delomike1049]

Congratulations! It is a great looking restoration, and I have enjoyed following the thread.

[ksm]

Awesome! Beautiful job. Truly.

[TheKid#9]

Originally Posted by delomike1049

Congratulations! It is a great looking restoration, and I have enjoyed following the thread.

Originally Posted by ksm

Awesome! Beautiful job. Truly.

Thanks for the kind words guys! Glad you two have followed the thread, and I hope more people are too! The next video will come soon of me driving it!

My dad and I will be bleeding the brakes tomorrow when I get home from school. This weekend we will do more jobs too!

[TheKid#9]

Hey everyone, my dad I worked all day today and yesterday on the Europa! We put in the headliner, the sending unit, and the rear window seal. The headliner looks great! Can't wait to finish up the rest of the interior! Took a long time to do, but we got it! The rear window seal took the longest though... Putting the window in won't be much fun, as we have read! Wish us luck!

Our sending unit is a S2 because we couldn't find a TC one, but my dad made it work! He bent the rod around to make it fit in the tank, than he made sure the gauge worked, and it did! Another thing we did was buy some material from our upholstery shop to make a cover to fit over the gear boot. Ours wasn't flat so we riveted the gear boot down, than covered it with material to make it flush. Looks good, and was much cheaper than covering the whole console.

We put in one of the door locks on the drivers side. However we can't get the inside door lock working correctly... We are also trying to figure out our brake pedal, still bleeding the brakes. Hope we can get all of the air pockets out of the lines next time we bleed them.

We will get some more things done next weekend!

[TheKid#9]

My dad and I have done a lot these past few days!

Finished installing the rear window(See picture 2 for the tools we used to install window), except the locking strip we will do that next time. We covered our door handle pulls and around them to make them look flush when the panels go in. Got the windshield edge trim in and got the A-pillars glued in, we will finish the rest of those once the carpet and door seals goes in. Our crash pad got back from the shop too! Its a different material than the rest because we didn't want it to reflect the light onto the windshield, so we put a flat material on it, and it looks great! My dad also made Seat Belt Push Buttons! He is GOOD! After he made them and painted them, we bought stickers from Kangol on Ebay and stuck them on! They look Perfect!

We did a lot! We will try and do even more next time!

[TheKid#9]

.

[XHILR8N!]

Im(press)ive.

[BDA]

Very nice work! You guys are doing great!

Please don't tell me you're going to hook up the seat belt buzzer!