502M

[soldave]

I looked at that paint can and thought it might have been citrus white and not cirrus! Really good to see you making progress

[Trunnion 74]

27 minutes ago, soldave said:

I looked at that paint can and thought it might have been citrus white and not cirrus! Really good to see you making progress

Thanks Dave

😂 It's definately down as Cirrus white in the Lotus paint codes. My paint guy says when you tint raptor it tends to come out a shade darker than when it's sprayed on as normal paint.  Really need to see it in proper daylight. And soon!

  Why can't the DVLA put proper paint names on the V5s instead of saying it's "white".  Would make life a whole lot easier...

[Trunnion 74]

Well the paint saga rummbles on, but thanks to a visit to the workshop by EXCEL V8 (Pete Boole) who remembered while drinking his coffee that in 2018 he had two rattle cans made up of Monoco White and Cirrus White!  A while later Pete returned with said cans so we picked a suitable test area and sprayed away, and this is what we got...  The first shot was taken in bright sunlight and the second a little later when the sun had gone in. Both the paint that I got recently and Pete's paint were mixed by the same local company as well.

                               L: Monaco White                                                                                      R: Cirrus White

Interestingly we have a Rover SD1 and a Merc at the workshop and both are an off white.  My paint guy says Cirrus White is closer to the Merc.

Tinting Raptor (underbody coating) does darken the paint a couple of shades which is why the underside of my Elite looks more yellow.

The other thing that both of us agreed on was that a beige interior doesn't work very well with Monaco white, black works better.  However a beige interior works well with a Cirrus White car...

 

Is there anybody on this Elite/Eclat forum that has a car in Cirrus white?  Would love to see a photo of it.

Thanks for your help today Pete It was nice to meet a fellow enthusiast and have chat.

Roland

[Trunnion 74]

Paint pt?

Well it has been an interesting few weeks.

I contacted Andy Graham at Lotus to see if he could tell me when Monaco white first appeared as a customer option, his reply was really interesting "the colour charts show Monaco White replaced Cirrus White in late 1973, and Monaco White is the colour recorded as one of the colour options for the Elite."

So Monaco white replaced Cirrus white as a Lotus option a good 6 months before the car was launched and as such, as Andy has said, "it is highly unlikely that it would have been a colour option at the launch of the Elite.  I should have listened to what Mr Evans (original owner) has always said "The car was an Ice white"

Soooo, it has been re-Raptor'd with Monaco white, and very nice it looks to.  Re-doing it has its benefits, it now has an extra coating underneath which adds to the protection and sound deadening.

Now the underneath is done the next job is to tackle all the little repairs topside.

[EXCEL V8]

Looks much better now Roland!!  🙂

Pete

[Trunnion 74]

49 minutes ago, EXCEL V8 said:

Looks much better now Roland!!  🙂

Pete

It does doesn't Pete, I'm pleased with the result.  Lesson learnt

[Trunnion 74]

Another day at the shop yesterday.  I was working repairs on the front end had to get down low and this is the sight that greated me...made me smile.

Sweet. 

 

Remember this front end damage?

 

Looks like this now

Not quite finished yet, needs a bit more finesseing.

It's a bit difficult to see (was very sunny) all the splits and damage to the leading edge joining seam has been re-bonded and repaired. All the cracks and seam damage in the engine bay has been repaired.

If you look closely at the windscreen A pillar you can just see a fibreglass repair to the top edge of the door frame where there was a piece missing, will post a better pic of that next time.

I'm making progress! 

Roland

[EXCEL V8]

Great progress Roland - well worth all the effort.

Pete

[Trunnion 74]

Front corner now complete. Smooth as a baby's bottom.

 

Nearside door frame was missing an edge

Stage 1

Lay in glassfibre mat

 

Both sides. Was missing quite a chunk.

 

Stage 2

Cut to shape and sand down

 

Stage 3

Final skim to make smoooooth

 

Job done

 

[Trunnion 74]

Windscreen corner rebuild.

Fibreglass on front face

 

and inside

 

Cut to rough shape

 

and then profile

 

Another one done.  On to the next one!

[Trunnion 74]

Fibreglass on the inside first

 

With tape backing

 

Then fibreglass on the outside

 

Then cut, shape.....

 

and another on bites the dust, another one bites the dust and another one's gone, another one's gone, another one bites the dust, Hey!....I'll get my coat.

 

 

[Denis247]

21 hours ago, Trunnion 74 said:

Fibreglass on the inside first

 

With tape backing

 

Then fibreglass on the outside

 

Then cut, shape.....

 

and another on bites the dust, another one bites the dust and another one's gone, another one's gone, another one bites the dust, Hey!....I'll get my coat.

 

 

Ensure the area's well ventilated when working with fibreglass otherwise it'll go to your head and you'll start singing .. oh, too late.

[Trunnion 74]

56 minutes ago, Denis247 said:

Ensure the area's well ventilated when working with fibreglass otherwise it'll go to your head and you'll start singing .. oh, too late.

😂😂 thanks Denis. 

The area is well venttilated and I do wear a very good 3M mask, can't smell a thing.

[Trunnion 74]

            That's It!

            I'm done!

 

 

 

 

with all the body repairs, they're all finished

Now I have some door repairs to take care of...

This one's going to take some doing...

[Tony D]

I know that repair. Top of the door on the inside, end that meets to the B post. Very weak spot.

I made an alloy plate to rivet on the inside, then blended the outside with filler. It's a neatish job, but hidden behind the door trim in any case.

Tony

 

 

[Trunnion 74]

Getting there.  Still a bit more to do

Some prep work on the doors. Skim of filler to get out the lumps and bumps and then blocking 1st with 80 then 180 grit until they were silky smooth

They're such a laff at the workshop...

All done.  One more job ticked off.

 

[Trunnion 74]

Think I can call that one done.  I'll cut the recess out of the top edge later.

Now onto the bonnet.  Some minor repairs to to do and then needs blocking ready for paint process