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
SMS in Spalding is one of the top three painters. They may not be that far away from you.
Tel: 01406 371504
Donât expect it to be cheap. Be sitting down when you ask them costs!!!
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
James
My 72 Sprint was in Yellow over White The paint colour was âLotus Yellowâ. 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)
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 itâs easier to strip off the old paint
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 donât 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 âedgesâ 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 trowelâŚ
I made the mistake many years ago of taking my Elan to an ânormalâ paintshop for a low cost respray. They filled in all the cracks and did a quick âblow overâ. The car looked great for a week until the filler started to shrink and the bodyshell developed little âcratersâ all over the placeâŚ
If you have the skills, time and patience to strip the car itself then thatâs greatâŚbut itâs not an trivial job (I think changing a chassis is easier and quicker).
Absolutely agree⌠exceptâŚwith 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.
I believe that Gordonlundâs car is the true âBahama Yellowâ Lotus color of that vintage. The others appear to be Canary Yellow or other shades which I donât believe are original colors.
I believe that Gordonlundâs car is the true âBahama Yellowâ Lotus color of that vintage. The others appear to be Canary Yellow or other shades which I donât 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 itâs not the paint job thatâs everything. The preparation really is the key, and yes the front wings are subtly shaped, donât let someone who doesnât 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
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. Iâd be interested to hear if anyone can get a quote. Iâve no idea if they do restoration work or not.