Restoring my S4, it appears my boot never had LOTUS script letters, as per attached image.
Boot is original to car, same paint on guard and boot.
Is this a thing, I assumed they would have had lettering.
They all should have come with the LOTUS lettering. But anything is possible with a Lotus. However most likely it had a crash at some point in the rear and the boot lid and maybe other rear body sections replaced. The replacement panels do not come with the badge holes and probably they were never drilled and badges fitted after the repairs. The paint being the same on the rear body does not guarrantee the boot lid was on the car from the factory. Keep cleaning off the paint and see if you can find if a new rear section has been fitted, it may even be a complete new body
cheers
Rohan
Hi Jeff, both my S4’s had lotus letters on boot lid.
Cheers
V
Usually all Series 4 Elans had the Lotus letters on the boot.
However, I did find in my collection a Lotus press photo of an early S4 with no letters on the boot, see below. Equally, I also have other Lotus press photos of S4s with the letters on the boot!
My conclusion would be that the very earliest S4s, perhaps only a handful, may have eventually been sold without the letters on the boot after they had done their press duty. How early is your S4?
Ultimately, of course, as Rohan states, Lotus could have their moments and it could be as something as simple as someone on the production line forgetting to fit them (and then quality control and final inspection failing to spot it), or the line ran out of letters for a day or two and carried on shoving the cars along!
Tim
I love the English propensity for understatement
cheers
Rohan
Thanks to all for the responses.
According to Andy Graham, car is late 68 early 69.
Was sold new in Australia in September 1969.
My 1970 S4 does not have Lotus Lettering on the boot lid. I am thinking about adding the letters as I do like the look. I have a spare S3 lid that has the holes so I can make a template. My original plan was to use the S3 lid as I repaired fiberglass damage on my S4, but found the S3 lid and S4 lid were not the same size. They look identical but when put side by side the S3 lid was wider and would not fit.
^^And the hinge depression could be different because early S3s had the elongated S2 hinges vs the
squared off S4 hinge. Also, the hole for the wiring loom is on the other side.
Fitment of external badges obviously involves drilling holes in the GRP. So did Lotus pre-drill the bare bodies, or did they drill after paint was applied? If the latter, then an unrestored car would show evidence of drilling through the paint layers. If the former, perhaps a boot lid (or two) slipped through without being pre-drilled and a decision was taken not to risk wrecking the fresh paint.
One more “who knows what Lotus did?” to add to the list.
I have 3 s4 boot lids and none of them are quite the same, I think it depends on who was doing the lay-up, how quickly they cured and of course 50 years or so later, they may have warped, been damaged etc. I love the fact we have hand built cars but it can get frustrating at times!