The Lotus Grand Tourers

I've ordered new door trim holding strips, and the door to glass seal, and a new inside door to glass fuzzy seal as well while I was at it. I wanted to order a strip for between the front of the roof and the windscreen, but SJs came back to me and said NLA, so I'm glad the painter has left the old one in now.

Latest update - the body is in the booth, all prepped and ready to go for primer!

The removed bits (bonnet, boot lid, spoiler, headlamp pods, spats) are also all ready to go. Only the front and rear bumpers need finishing - both need a bit of repair work, particularly the front. Interestingly the rear bumper is rubber, while the front (non-original, supplied by SJs) is fibreglass - I never knew that.

The bonnet had some issues too, so that has had to go down to gelcoat - apparently that was 1 1/2 days work on it's own. I'm starting to feel that I'm way under-paying for the amount of work he's going to end up doing...

Dropped off the door trim holding strips, and some rubber to go along the top of the doors against the windows. Tony suggested (on another thread) that this just pushes into place, no clips or anything, can anyone else confirm this for sure?

Turns out he's already removed the windscreen-to-roof trim after I said I could get some, before it turned out SJs said they didn't have any after all. Haven't tried Lotusbits or Paul Matty yet, has anyone had trouble/success getting hold of this before? Otherwise he'll just fill the gap with some sort of gloop.

This is the point in the journey where it looks worst - should get better from now on!

Oh crikey I've got so much sanding still to do......A day for the bonnet

At least you can see that they are doing things the way you want.

Neil.

I was wondering if the B pillar covers and window seals are being removed?

Dropped off the door trim holding strips, and some rubber to go along the top of the doors against the windows. Tony suggested (on another thread) that this just pushes into place, no clips or anything, can anyone else confirm this for sure?

Here's a photo of the seal on my door. Definately just pushed over in my case. It appears there may be a silicon sealant used as bonding agent in the past, but mine came away very easily.


There is one of those really plasticy trim pieces at the B post end, but only has 1 screw and a bit of goo.

Tony

11 days since the last update, and to be honest not much progress... basically all he's done has been the bumpers, although other (more urgent) jobs have been in and out of his workshop, which is the main cause of delay.

The front bumper main section has been fibreglassed on both corners, where some careless owner (me) has given it a few knocks. Now needs sanding down in preparation for primer.

The lower section with the air intake has been sanded right back to base, this part had been replaced (with a new unit from SJ Sportscars) about 6 years ago and it seems he couldn't just take off the top of the paint and still leave it without any edges that will be visible after painting. I didn't totally get why this was, whether it was due to the way it was painted last time (which was a local Aberdeen shop not necessarily skilled in fibreglass).

The rear bumper turns out to be made of rubber, not fibreglass. There are a couple of cracks, which led to cracking in the paint. He's fixing that by using a soldering iron to melt the rubber, first on the outside then the inside, so it'll bond together again.

The bumpers should all be ready in the next couple of days (he's taking tomorrow off for his wife's birthday!), so the new forecast is to prime on Monday next week. He reckons on making an early start @ 6:00am so he can work his way round the car three times with high build primer over the course of one day. Then he can do the removed parts (bumpers, bonnet, boot lid, spoiler, spats, headlamp pods the next day while the bodyshell primer hardens - no baking for my car. End of the week it will all be hand-sanded with fine-grade paper.

So then the next week for the top coat... then hand-flatting and polish... plus re-assembly, and putting the waist trim on. I reckon it'll be another 3 weeks at least, and we're already 6 weeks into a 4-week project!

Rear bumper - the little black bit is where he is melting it with the soldering iron to fix the crack:



Front bumper, showing the new glassfibre on the cracked corner:



Other end of the front bumper:



Lower front bumper - a lot of sanding for a part that's hardly seen!

Thanks Richard. Looking good.
I have a question regarding baking. I have been given the impression that baking had to happen in oreder to ensure there is absolutely no chance of any water vapour being present in the fibreglass before the paint coats started being applied. Otherwise there would be a risk of bubbling in freezing winter conditions as ice has a greater volume than water. Is the baking process only neccessary for some types of paint and not others?
Duke

Hi Duke,

I'm no expert, but I'm just going on what my paint guy, Ray Lennon, is doing for me. He would normally bake a steel/aluminium car, but says that it's best not to bake fibreglass. From what I understood, I think he was saying that there will be trapped air bubbles etc. in the fibreglass that will heat up and push their way out in baking, which would mess things up. Best to let sleeping dogs (and bubbles) lie. But he was talking about not baking after painting, which he would do with a metal car to speed up the curing of the paint. There was no discussion about baking before he even started. If the weather stays like it is now, it should be nice and warm and dry anyway

There is an issue with water vapour, and apparently it can date back to when the car was originally painted at Hethel, if that had happened on a moist day.
Or any subsequent repaints. This, so I read, could have been the cause of my lacquer blistering and flaking off in the first place, even though it took 25 years to make itself known.

Maybe it's best to make sure your painter has a booth that will be warm and completely de-humidified, but not actually heat the car up?

Hawaiis0 wrote: ↑

Fri May 28, 2021 21:21

I was wondering if the B pillar covers and window seals are being removed?

Sorry, I didn't spot this question earlier! The B pillar trims are staying in place. The window seals on the door tops are being removed, I've bought him some replacements to fit afterwards. However the ones around the rear side windows won't be touched, that looked like it was too much potential trouble.

He's removed the trim along the top of the windscreen, so he could sand the whole roof, because I promised I could get a replacement. Now I find that all the suppliers say NLA even though it's listed on SJ's website, LotusBits don't even have a used one I could have. So he plans to fill that gap with some sort of filler when he's done.

Thanks Richard.
My car had no bubbling before the respray , but it was turning pink, which some of the red ones do, I am told, hence the respray, followed by the bubbling..there was no bubbling for about a year after the respray. I think they did not dry the car completely after prep. and before paint. But I don't know much about this. But your guys' methodology makes sense. Thanks once more for keeping us posted on your paint job. Much appreciated.
Duke

rbgosling wrote: ↑

Wed Jun 09, 2021 09:08

Hawaiis0 wrote: ↑

Fri May 28, 2021 21:21

I was wondering if the B pillar covers and window seals are being removed?

Sorry, I didn't spot this question earlier! The B pillar trims are staying in place. The window seals on the door tops are being removed, I've bought him some replacements to fit afterwards. However the ones around the rear side windows won't be touched, that looked like it was too much potential trouble.

He's removed the trim along the top of the windscreen, so he could sand the whole roof, because I promised I could get a replacement. Now I find that all the suppliers say NLA even though it's listed on SJ's website, LotusBits don't even have a used one I could have. So he plans to fill that gap with some sort of filler when he's done.

Richard, if the top trim really is a problem I can try the local firm that used to supply to Lotus, Walker Rubber, they still have lots of options and could probably do a run for us if we wanted a few cars' worth made for the club.

I was told some years ago not to sand grp with wet paper, ie wet and dry to because it can introduce moisture. Not every bodywork person knows that cos grp cars are quite rare these days.

Bash

bash wrote: ↑

Wed Jun 09, 2021 13:25

I was told some years ago not to sand grp with wet paper, ie wet and dry to because it can introduce moisture. Not every bodywork person knows that cos grp cars are quite rare these days.

Bash

Good point Bash. My guy genuinely seems to know his stuff with GRP, but I'll make sure this is his plan.

AndyC wrote: ↑

Wed Jun 09, 2021 11:45

rbgosling wrote: ↑

Wed Jun 09, 2021 09:08

Hawaiis0 wrote: ↑

Fri May 28, 2021 21:21

I was wondering if the B pillar covers and window seals are being removed?

Sorry, I didn't spot this question earlier! The B pillar trims are staying in place. The window seals on the door tops are being removed, I've bought him some replacements to fit afterwards. However the ones around the rear side windows won't be touched, that looked like it was too much potential trouble.

He's removed the trim along the top of the windscreen, so he could sand the whole roof, because I promised I could get a replacement. Now I find that all the suppliers say NLA even though it's listed on SJ's website, LotusBits don't even have a used one I could have. So he plans to fill that gap with some sort of filler when he's done.

Richard, if the top trim really is a problem I can try the local firm that used to supply to Lotus, Walker Rubber, they still have lots of options and could probably do a run for us if we wanted a few cars' worth made for the club.

Someone was asking about this just a couple of months ago on one of the Facebook groups, so I'm not the only one interested. But, because FB has no search facility or archiving it's a right PITA to find out who it was. If only people would just post here instead...

AndyC wrote: ↑

Wed Jun 09, 2021 11:45

Richard, if the top trim really is a problem I can try the local firm that used to supply to Lotus, Walker Rubber, they still have lots of options and could probably do a run for us if we wanted a few cars' worth made for the club.

Hi Andy, I’m in the same situation and would definitely be interested if Walkers could remake them. I know the Elan M100 group did a group buy from them of the rubber lip spoiler for that car.

There is also another window trim/seal that appears to be NLA, which I guess they may also have made - it’s the trim along the bottom of the rear quarter lights.