Anyone know this colour

:sunglasses: I have just bought a 72 sprint which is mechanically pretty good but the bodywork is poor - mainly paint cracks as opposed to gel coat cracks

The car is yellow over white but I want to have the paintwork done in a single colour (yellow)

Anyone recommend a good bodyshop - I am in East Anglia

Thanks in advance

James

Some pictures of the car - hopefully attached

Sorry about the title as I was trying to attach an URL of a yellow elan I have seen to see if it was a standard colour but I cannot do this until I have made more posts :slight_smile:

Pictures are too big…will have to try again later
:cry:

:laughing: This is the picture I was trying to show

Is this a standard colour - my yellow is somewhat faded over the years

thanks again - sorry about the previous abortive posts

James

Nice yellow.

You could nip along to Cottage Classics in Framlingham… my car’s in there at the moment.

cottageclassics.co.uk/

SMS in Spalding is one of the top three painters. They may not be that far away from you.
Tel: 01406 371504
Don’t expect it to be cheap. Be sitting down when you ask them costs!!!

Brian Clarke
(1972 Sprint)

SMS did my Sprint (yellow over white) a few years ago. While they were expensive they were no more expensive than anybody else I contacted for s similar quote. Being local (well almost I live in Cambridgeshire) I was able to visit them on a regular basis to check up on progress. They were also happy with me turning up with boxes of bits (such as chrome work) for them to fit. I have some photos of the rebuild on my website, www.lotuselan.co.uk (well somebody had to buy the domain name :slight_smile:

Carl

Hopefully some pictures of my new aquisition attached :slight_smile:

regards
James



James
My 72 Sprint was in Yellow over White The paint colour was “Lotus Yellow”. The Guy who sprayed the body was Bob Smith of GRP 2000 Southport, Lancashire. Tel 01704 532904.

Just noticed the picture you posted of the single yellow coloured Elan is in an exhibition hall that looks like Donington. The lighting system (Bright Sodium) changes the colour of all cars, Mine used to look like that at Donington. Be careful of colour comparisons on photos, My +2 can look like Pillar box red to deep purple depending where you are, it is actually Regency Red (Service Shade - ie a little paler)

Gordon

This looks more like the Lotus Yellow of my old S2.
This picture was copied from the PM website to send to a friend yesterday.

Brian Cl;arke
(1972 Sprint)

This is how mine looks (a year or so later) after the SMS treatment. It was red over white, resprayed black over white (three times) before it went to SMS so they had a lot of paint to remove.

The cracking paint on your car might mean it’s easier to strip off the old paint :slight_smile:

James,

Where abouts are you in Suffolk? I know of a very good guy up near Norwich who I will be using to paint my +2.

You will want to do the stripping yourself I think but he would do a very good paint job.

Cheers,
Simon

My experience was that stripping the old paint off was the most expensive/difficult/time consuming part of the job. If you use chemicals then you can run into all sorts of problems, short term and long term, so the best way is to scrape the paint off. A angle grinder will help if you don’t damage the fibreglass. I saw an Elan bodyshell at the Classic Car Show at the NEC a couple of years ago which was being used to advertise the quality of a paint shops respray. All the detail such as the fine ‘edges’ along the top of the wings had been ground off and while the paint job looked smooth, it also looked as it the paint had been applied with a trowel…
I made the mistake many years ago of taking my Elan to an ‘normal’ paintshop for a low cost respray. They filled in all the cracks and did a quick ‘blow over’. The car looked great for a week until the filler started to shrink and the bodyshell developed little ‘craters’ all over the place…
If you have the skills, time and patience to strip the car itself then that’s great…but it’s not an trivial job (I think changing a chassis is easier and quicker).

Carl

Absolutely agree… except…with me the angle grinder took too much off too agressively, the Nitromors was ok in small 1 foot areas and dont go near raw fibreglass, have lots of water available. Experience counts first and foremost, I had cellulose over bodge filler - looked great for six weeks, then cracked and fell off like eggshell! This time 80-90 hours to scrape the seven layers of paint off.

Mine so far:

cottageclassics.co.uk/phpbb/ … .php?t=245

Yes the lines along the wing tops on an Elan are very subtle and very easy to flatten. You need to proceed with great care.

The colour should be L07 Lotus yellow

:wink: Thanks for all your replies

I now have the workshop manual and Gordon’s restoration guide so plenty of reading to do before I start :slight_smile:

I won’t be able to start the work until April due to work commitments :cry:

I live in Woodbridge just down the road from Cottage Classics so I will definitely pay them a visit to discuss/price the work

My Dad used to have a 1965 S2 in his youth so I think I will be able to rope him in on the project

thanks again

James

I believe that Gordonlund’s car is the true “Bahama Yellow” Lotus color of that vintage. The others appear to be Canary Yellow or other shades which I don’t believe are original colors.

I believe that Gordonlund’s car is the true “Bahama Yellow” Lotus color of that vintage. The others appear to be Canary Yellow or other shades which I don’t believe are original colors.

My brother has a bodyshop in Hertfordshire and is doing my sprint at the moment. He has previously done various elan plus 2 and europas. He currently has a europa in red you could look at for finish. With these cars it’s not the paint job that’s everything. The preparation really is the key, and yes the front wings are subtly shaped, don’t let someone who doesn’t know the shape, either round them off or make them too creased along the top.

Paint codes are

L07 Lotus Yellow
Prior to October 1967 - April 1974
PJ 6170X3940
ICI P0309547
PPG 83935
GLA X3940

Good Luck
L07S.JPG

My local club lotus group visited the Lotus factory a few months back. Apparently they will take on spraying work, applying all the quality control that they use on the new cars that they are pushing out at the moment. I’d be interested to hear if anyone can get a quote. I’ve no idea if they do restoration work or not.

Sean.