The Lotus Grand Tourers

Hi, Dave <BR>The stuff they use to stick the windows in will do fine.

Some prep work.... <BR><BR>I took the Excel badge off. <BR><BR>As I said I also have the rubing strip to replace and I did not have the pin stripe put back on, very '80s. <BR><BR>Also looks good with smoked repeaters instead of amber with rusty back plates <BR><BR>Had it done at a local vehicle restorers JB Arkley of Hartlepool.

<A href="http://www.car-resprays.co.uk/" target=_top>http://www.car-resprays.co.uk/</A>

Thinking about getting my "Pink" 90 SE resprayed to its original Calypso Red. Can anyone give me an indication of likely cost etc?
Rest of the car is as good as it gets.

I thought it would be a good idea to do some of the labour intensive prep work myself to keep the cost down,and then send the car off to the paint shop. After two days and a dozen sheets of 1200 grit wet and dry, I managed to get the Laquer off about one third of the roof! Only the rest of the car to go! I suppose the moral to this story is, LEAVE THE RED ONES ALONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Why did they laquer a flat red? I've had many a Ford or Vauxhall in red or yellow, that faded like they were going out of fashion. But a little T-cut always made them look as good as new!

I thought it would be a good idea to do some of the labour intensive prep work myself to keep the cost down,and then send the car off to the paint shop. After two days and a dozen sheets of 1200 grit wet and dry, I managed to get the Laquer off about one third of the roof! Only the rest of the car to go! I suppose the moral to this story is, LEAVE THE RED ONES ALONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Why did they laquer a flat red? I've had many a Ford or Vauxhall in red or yellow, that faded like they were going out of fashion. But a little T-cut always made them look as good as new!

Dougie wrote: Why did they laquer a flat red?

Well it's a paint "system".
The red is only required to provide the colour. The clear is required to provide the hardness, protection, gloss etc.

As to why the clear fails in the UK, when a Ford or Vauxhall doesn't, I don't know.
Here in Oz, we are somewhat used to European paint suffering abnormally under our sun.

Chers, Gvain

A clear over base on a solid colour is always better than just a solid colour and it is rare that the laquer should fail on factory finish cars of any kind like they do on the excel. They do laquer them for better fade resistance, I have seen unlaquered red cars that have turned white because they have faded so much. Also when lotus were laquering the solid colours very few other manufactures were doing the same, now nearly all solid colours are clear over base. Any one now what paint they used at the factory?.

steven popay wrote: Any one now what paint they used at the factory?.

Crap paint.

ICI I think ... the worst cars (including my 1990) were the first of the water based paints I believe!

Paint was Dupont and Lotus had huge warranty claims battles for some years.

Water based paints arent so bad but 1990 was the early days of water based paints and a few paint manufacturers brought it out before it was ready i have heared a few horror stories especially about ICI but i have not heard much about dupont systems

You can tell what paint was used on the car by the paint code number stamped on the lower left hand corner of the vehicle identification plate under the bonnet.
Paint codes with an "L" prefix are nitro-cellulose paint made by either International Paint or ICI.
Paint codes with an "A" prefix are used for cars finished in ICI 2K two pack acrylic polyurethane paints and are either:
P 420 Mono colour
P 421 Metallic
P 422 Basecoat/clear

Unfortunately my copy of the service notes only goes upto 1987 and so doesn't mention water based paints but if your car is one of the above let me know and I can tell you the ICI paint number and in some cases the Lotus part number.

My 92 SE has paint code 'B04' - which according to the Esprit codes is 'Lotus New Racing Green' and I believe (ICI?) code ABK9349.
I've not done any painting yet - any suggestions where I can get this paint? Preferably in spary cans
Also - I have a few 'interesting' cracks appearing in the paint, around the edge of the bonnet by the screen, on the body along the bottom of the rear quarter lights. These are not gell cracks or damage, but looks like the paint may be shrinking in a few minor areas. The car is always garaged, so its unlikely to be the weather. Maybe its just getting old!
Anyone else have this problem? And if so, suggestions of how to fix these would be appreciated. A full respray would be overkill, as the rest of the paintwork is fine.

Hi there,

I was having alook on an Espit world site and found this usefull page about paint codes. It seems to have most of them.

http://www.lotusespritworld.com/ETechni ... Codes.html

By the way from personal experiance you can spray 2 pac over cellulose, but not the oter way round otherwise it will create a unique eggshell effect. Also when buying the laquer make sure that it is compatable with paint underneath it, not the modern water based ones.

Chris

I dont think there is any water based laquer out yet is there, water based paints are normally just a base coat with a solvent based laquer, they were experimenting with comercial water based topcoats once but i dont know what happened with them