I need to stop defaulting to grade 8 hardware, I had grade 8 nuts and bolts added to my mcmaster-carr cart before I realized I definitely don't need to spend 3 times as much as normal hardware to mount my license plate lights, but that yellow zinc finish it normally comes in looks so nice
I'm a sucker for the zinc-aluminum flake coated hardware, especially for suspension parts. OEM quality finish but you sure do pay for it
Tractor Supply sells grade 8 by the pound .....
Changed the oil, didn't have a chance to test it to see if that was contributing to my clutch issues, but I did notice that I can see the sight glass on the engine through the wheel well, not quite as convenient as a dipstick but not bad
Almost done with wiring. Have working lights, turn signals, windows, and wipers. if you want self canceling turn signals on a car, the Europa/late mgb setup wouldn't be too hard to adapt to different cars. Was unhappy with the skinned carbon dash I made earlier, so I whipped up a temporary switch panel to serve until the weather is nice enough for me to lay a full carbon dash. Would probably save about 5-10 pounds over the skinned one. 
saw this picture of some Europa in Japan
really like the flares and skirts on the one in the back, might be my long term plan
The flares, skirts and air dam make that look like a totally different car! I really like that!
gixxeropa said:I need to stop defaulting to grade 8 hardware, I had grade 8 nuts and bolts added to my mcmaster-carr cart before I realized I definitely don't need to spend 3 times as much as normal hardware to mount my license plate lights, but that yellow zinc finish it normally comes in looks so nice
Agree on the addiction to the look and the questionable value for most applications.
However, the value proposition for me is that bolt management becomes an order of magnitude easier. We all know how entropy and hardware organization works. With only one grade of bolt to deal with, it is much easier to do the occasioal re-sort.
Made a 3d printed adapter for the 77+ mgb turn signal to the Europa column, because it's identical except for the diameter of the column clamp 
i also made a battery tray for the motorcycle battery since i couldn't an off the shelf one
then i got frustrated with how janky the cut off gsxr grip i had for controls in the car was, so i opened it up and rewired it to a switch for fuel and a start button
i then decided to try just letting it run in gear on jack stands for 10 minutes to bring the clutch around, rather than taking off the clutch cover and trying to adjust the clutch to start. it seems to have worked. Before I could move the wheels by hand when it was in gear, and now I can't. Gonna try to go for another drive tomorrow
I took it for its first real drive! Here's the GoPro footage:
.... oh wait, I pressed the button, it beeped, then proceeded to record absolutely nothing.
notes from the drive:
tires scrub a bit on full lock
needs an alignment
loud as berkeley (Apple Watch gave me a noise warning)
need new seatbelts before I take it on a real road
it's terrifyingly fast. It's geared down a lot, plus it has a lot of grip on the slicks. Feels at least as fast in a straight line as my F600, which is supposed to be around 3ish seconds to 60.
i had been doubting whether all of the time and money was worth it lately, but the drive confirmed it absolutely was
Yes!!!
Awesome!
That is AWESOME news
Ordered some Pyrotect formula style belts, $235 each for FIA 6 point belts seems like a steal (plus they come with a $25 Pitstip USA gift card and free shipping). Gonna replace my F600s belt with one as it expires this year and then put the other one plus the expired belt in the lotus.
Next, I need a fire extinguisher. Eventually I plan to have a fire suppression system, but that isn't at the top of my list at the moment. Has anyone actually had to use one of those Element stick type fire extinguishers? they seem neat but I wan't to make sure they're reliable
Had today off for Good Friday, so I fixed the leaky remote clutch reservoir, built some cribbing to make working under the cart more convenient, put some rubber edging on my switch panel, wrapped the part of the exhaust that's under the oil pan, put on a catch bottle for the coolant and heat sleeved the fuel lines where they're near the engine.
Just checking off small things at the moment, planning on going to a show next weekend
No pictures, but today I rerouted the fuel lines further away from the headers and installed a small radiator fan. I just went with a small one because I'm concerned about drawing more current than the engines charging system can provide, plus being a bike motor it doesn't need a ton of help with cooling, hopefully.
Please kind sir, if you could spare some Piktsurs for poor us following from home...
was out of town for work (at one of the giga factories 
) so I haven't done much, but I managed to mostly fit my roll bar today. Need to put some bolts in but it's wedged in there pretty good. I'm thinking I'll go with kirkey aluminum seats rather than directly pouring an insert like I had first thought.
picked up some new studs because there's not quite enough engagement in the rear wheel lug nuts
Took some measurements and the normal kirkey won't fit, would need the legends seat which is full containment and would be inconvenient for street driving. I know there are tillett seats that fit, but they're $1500 
. I know Corbeau has a line of seats that fit the Elise, but I'd have to import them. No easy option here, unfortunately
What about bomber seats from the street rod world
In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :
Those look cool, but I was hoping for something that would keep my head away from the roll bar a bit
Ive seen them used with extra headrests added to the cage in vintage race cars. No handy pictures though
I'll try to find some pictures of that, might be a good option.
In other news I finally got around to checking the voltage on the battery at idle. It's still charging with everything but the wipers on. Would probably break even with them on. So that's nice that I don't have to worry about killing the battery much
In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :
Here’s one in an elan from CM, not a terrible option
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