Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Anyone have any experience with getting paint off S3 Elan body. My
situation: Imron paint failing (coming up, bubbling, etc.) over
questionable primer on gelcoat, 24 year old paint job.

Any experience, anyone??

so I'm gonna be painting this thing....
suggested primer/filler and color paint. Not want to use clear over
rubbed color coat.

thanks
Steve

Steve,
Where are you located? Just curious. I have been considering plastic media
blasting myself. I have only heard good things about it (if done by a
properly trained person).

Nick

-----Original Message-----
From: foggyalfa [mailto:***@***.***
Sent: Friday, December 03, 2004 4:36 PM
To: ***@***.***
Subject: [LotusElan.net] plastic media blasting



Anyone have any experience with getting paint off S3 Elan body. My
situation: Imron paint failing (coming up, bubbling, etc.) over
questionable primer on gelcoat, 24 year old paint job.

Any experience, anyone??

so I'm gonna be painting this thing....
suggested primer/filler and color paint. Not want to use clear over
rubbed color coat.

thanks
Steve

I removed 90% of all the paint on my Elan +2 by wet sanding by hand. It was
very labor intensive but produced spectacular results. The gel coat is smooth
and intact except in those areas where there are stress cracks and where the
gel coat is thin.

After my heart surgery last summer, I wanted to complete the paint removal
before the cold weather. I was running out of time. I decided to have a plastic
media blaster come to the house and remove the remaining paint and "clean up"
the interior fiberglass.

I was very pleased with the results. The blaster I used came with an
inflatable tent and removed the finish without a mess in my driveway. In addition, he
was very skilled and was able to leave the original primer coat on the body.
This way pinholes and other "damage" was eliminated. It was then a simple task
to wet sand the remaining one layer of original primer.

Bob
1969 Elan +2

I looked into soda blasting a few months ago and the cost was approx ?400
for 2 days work.

However, on further investigation I discovered my car had 5 coats of paint
plus primers plus huge quantities of spray on body filler, to cover up the
cracks. In some areas the total is 3 - 4mm thick.

Consequently, I assumed soda or any other form of blasting would be a none
starter; paint stripper (which you should not use anyway) would not touch
it, so I am following the Mick Miller technique as described in Lotus News a
few weeks ago.

This is basically to use a chisel! Actually it is not a bad as it first
sounds. The technique is to peel off all the coats down to the original
primer in one go and then use a sander. For example, after a little
experience it took 1 hour to strip the paint down to the primer on my boot
lid.

However, the chisels blunt very quickly for some reason, so need sharpening
every few minutes, and it is useful to grind a range of chisels for concave
areas. Also enlist all the car friendly teenagers in you area who will work
for peanuts for fun!

David




-----Original Message-----
From: foggyalfa [mailto:***@***.***
Sent: 03 December 2004 21:36
To: ***@***.***
Subject: [LotusElan.net] plastic media blasting




Anyone have any experience with getting paint off S3 Elan body. My
situation: Imron paint failing (coming up, bubbling, etc.) over
questionable primer on gelcoat, 24 year old paint job.

Any experience, anyone??

so I'm gonna be painting this thing....
suggested primer/filler and color paint. Not want to use clear over
rubbed color coat.

thanks
Steve

Hi David

I had the same problem I found a Skarsten scraper worked very well
cheers
Rod

There are so many issues in play with older Lotus GRP bodywork and painting
I have found that Miles Wilkins' books "How To Restore Fibreglass Bodywork"
and "How To Restore Paintwork" are great references.

In my experience, I have found that there are some significant qualitative
differences in what you find from one batch of Lotus S3 panels to the
next. Overall I was surprised by the amount of air bubbles/pockets in
Lotus GRP.

I like plastic media blasting for its ability to reveal near surface air
pockets (while maintaining panel detail), as I believe that the air pockets
will cause problems as the panels are subjected to movement, temperature
and humidity changes. The air pockets do take a lot of time to repair
though, and it is far from certain that every one of them would have caused
problems. Media blasting also returns a very clean surface.

I also use paint stripper, as recommended by Wilkins, with no
problems. You do have to be attentive and work small areas on each panel
progressively. It is important to get the panels fully neutralized and
fully dry, which may be a problem in some climates or without an oven.

At 02:35 PM 12/3/2004, you wrote:

Rod,

Is Skarsten the name of a neighborhood teenager? Is he/she willing to travel?

Rich

At 07:03 AM 12/6/2004, you wrote:

HI Rich
yes he lives in denmark
cheers
ros