Reply With QuoteLovely restoration and great choice of colour, looks really pretty in that colour. Well done!
Regarding the colour: probably not, but Lotus archives have no record of the original colour (I tried to find out). When I bought it, it was red, which also wasn't original, and there was evidence that it was yellow prior to that. I am assuming it must've been yellow. I didn't want a yellow car, so I chose a colour from the 1967 Lotus option list, Wedgewood Blue.Originally Posted by weedram
Lovely restoration and great choice of colour, looks really pretty in that colour. Well done!
Great story in those photos. Perfect weather to enjoy it too!
Congratulations.
Fantastic , I'm seriously inspired . Couldn't take on something like that but I'm looking for a project car for my son and I to do together .probarbly a spitfire but hopefully a stag.well done
What a great post!
Like an earlier poster I was in awe when I looked at the photograph showing the new paintwork.
A fantastic restoration.
scooter
Great to read about a labour of love like this, and what a fine result!
Congrats, and thanks for sharing.
Looks lovely. Must show this to my friend/neighbour. He has a slightly darker blue Elan which he also renovated. He actually had to do it twice as he had the heartbreak of crashing and almost destroying it only weeks after spending 3 years renovating it himself in his garage. It took him 2 years to get over that and start again. Its now finished and lovely again. He takes it to Lotus rallys and drives it to Le Mans with a bunch other vintage Lotus owners.
Oh, WOW!!!!
That is one heck of a lot of work and I can empathise with the timescale taken: it looks a real ‘proper job’ too.
I’d be interested in hearing more about the steps you took in giving it a whole new fibreglass skin.
Enjoy your beautiful car, your sense of pride is fully deserved.
R
Ignorance breeds Fear. Fear breeds Hatred. Hatred breeds Ignorance. Break the chain.
Thank you!
The place which did the bodywork specialise in Lotus and TVR (they are called Option 1). The problem with GRP, at least as far as the Elan is concerned, is that the moisture comes through osmosis from inside out and creates bubbles in the paint. Combined with the cracks in the gelcoat which always come through as well, a regular paintjob starts crazing and bubbling after only a few years. A regular respray, like you'd do on a steel or aluminium body, often start showing issues after a single winter (the cheap respray my car came with when I bought it started falling apart after 2 years). The only proper solution is to strip layers of fibreglass and rebuild the whole surface with fresh GRP matting and resin, giving it perfect surface for the primer to bond with. Obviously, it's incredibly important for the people doing it to be able to retain the shape of the car properly, as there are certain crease lines which must be maintained (which are often lost with poor restorations, particularly on top of the front wings). This process technically goes overboard as Lotus themselves would have never prepared a car like this back in the day, but with a 48 year old shell I thought the only way was to go all the way. The car has had a new nose fitted at some point, which was joined pretty amateurishly (the nose was a proper Lotus part, but the work was done poorly), so the only way to rectify that was to go deep anyhow, so in for a penny...
Gorgeous, congrats
Just read this. Wow! One of my top ten cars, you must be immensely proud of how it's turned out Adi - congratulations
Thanks guys!
It sailed through MOT today without advisories! Woohoo!
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