Very nice progress. Coming together very well. Should be a nicely sorted end product.
Update by Tim Suddard to the
Lotus Elan project car
Feb 27, 2018
The final product. We are stunned at how beautiful it is.
After sealing, we parked the body in the sun. This heats the fiberglass, causing it to expand and hopefully showing any cracks or defects before we apply the final coat of paint.
With the underside painted a grey that matches the original gelcoat, the underside is then carefully masked.
With a color chosen and the bodywork completed, it was now time to actually paint our Elan.
We had primed the Elan’s body with PPG ECP15 gray primer. This premium, quick-drying primer offers great adhesion, build and helps level the surface you are trying to cover.
After final block sanding with 500-grit paper, we sealed the entire car with black PPG NCS 2003 sealer. This sealer helps adhesion, hides minor sanding scratches, and makes a much more uniformly-colored surface to paint over. We could have lightened the entire car’s color a bit by using a white sealer, but this black sealer helped keep the topcoat richer and darker.
Before painting the top of the car, the entire underside of the car was prepped and then painted in gray, semi-gloss PPG paint to match what the original gelcoat would have looked like. We added 3M #08964 high cover black body schutz to the wheel wells.
Once this step was completed and allowed to dry, the entire top of the car’s body was painted with PPG Deltron base coat/clear coat (color code #17041).
From there the final task was to paint the rocker panels semi-gloss black as they originally appeared on the car. At the end of a long string of sessions in the paint booth, our Elan was finally ready for reassembly.
Very nice progress. Coming together very well. Should be a nicely sorted end product.
Mixing the Color published your competence well. Everyone will be amazed, seeing your craftsmanship.
Thank you
Thanks! We are very happy with how the car is turning out.
So you did not make Amelia Island?
In reply to pharriso:
Just seen the article that you posted on Amelia Island with photos of the car on display.
Congrats, the car looks superb!! I really enjoyed following your progress with what started out as a complete wreck.
Yes, somehow, with an incredible amount of hard work, we did get the car on the field.
It's a bit strange the way you left the articles... latest one has the engine bay starting to be completed... Amelia Isalnd was March 8th... no reports on completing the car or your experience at Amelia Island. Did the car get no love?
I have finished the print and web stories and the boys are posting them. We did not win an award at Amelia, but as the story says, just getting it done and to the event was award enough.
Tim, can you talk a bit about how your approach paint selection on an old restoration like this? There's lots of chatter about picking a vintage color vs a modern one. Beyond metallic, what would you say makes a color "look" classic? Are there other aspects that add depth or complexity that might not be appropriate for a classic?
You said you chose base coat / clear coat. Did you pick a specific formulation that would give the period-correct look? Some would say that only a single-stage would look right. Clearly you prove that wrong here.
Then again some might claim that 15 coats of hand-rubbed lacquer is the only way to go. Sounds like a lot of work to me!
Thoughts?
Thanks, Scott
Spectacular job, Tim - the Elan has always been my favorite sports car, in my mind, it is the definitive postwar sports car. I've loved them since i was a kid, reading the beautifully drawn Bob Challman ads in SCG (later replaced by simple ads that just said "the car that Clark drives"). I hope this one is a keeper, it is truly a classic by any definition.
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