Sprint goes gardening

[RichardS]

At last summer has arrived, 24 deg and the sun shining. What better transport to the local garden centre, in the sunshine, than my trusty Elan.

My purchases all fitted in the boot [and passenger seat/footwell] with space to spare. The boot is actually very well designed to take a bag of compost and a few trays of plants!

A gentleman in an Audi S8 drew up beside me at the lights on the way home and told me he couldn't believe how small the Elan was as he peered down at me. I think he was quite impressed with the fact that the Sprint hit 60 at round the same time the S8 did as we hit the accelerator when the lights turned green!

The simple pleasures in life.........

Richard

[persiflage]

Not wishing to detract from the beauty of the car ( have the boot and roof lost their surface? Affected about 75% of mine, never seen the same on any other colour)

But ...

The casters from shopping trolleys are absolutely perfect for fitting to a home fabricated engine build stand
... so I am told

[msd1107]

I would take my Elan to Home Depot to bring back pavers, cinder block, bricks, etc in addition to fertilizer, plants, mortar. Once managed to squeeze in a 27" TV. Do not put the heavy stuff in the boot, put it in the passenger side. Even so, with a heavy load I would have to drive carefully.

Would take blankets to protect the upholstery.

Since I do not have a spare, there is plenty of room in the boot. It is amazing how much stuff you can fit in an Elan. When my wife and I would go wine tasting, we could come back with 8 or more cases of wine, plus our luggage and picnic basket.

This is with a 3.55 differential and 2.51 transmission.

And I carried 1X12X12 and 1X12X16 boards on the roof of the Jaguar MK II. Same general way, blankets on the roof, twine around the boards and through the windows and again at front and rear from the boards to the bumpers.

I didn't see to many others doing the same!

Do not really need a pick-up truck or big SUV.

David
1968 36/7988

[JJDraper]

For the longer trips, try the +2 with room for barbecue, coals lighter, chairs, table, luggage and even a fridge.... Went across to France for the Hebecrevon hill climb last weekend. The French do love their hillclimbs, and so do we!

Jeremy

[RichardS]

Not wishing to detract from the beauty of the car ( have the boot and roof lost their surface? Affected about 75% of mine, never seen the same on any other colour)

Persiflage

Yes - a little fading of the lagoon blue on roof and boot! Saving up for a respray. It was beginning to fade when I bought the car in the early 1980s - I remember asking Graham Arnold for an opinion at one of the Lotus shows but he didn't have an explanation.

Was your fading paint also Lagoon Blue?

Richard

[GrUmPyBoDgEr]

Sorry no Pics, just memories.
I went for a weeks Camping with a Mate in my Lotus 7 once.
Tent, sleeping Bags, cooking gear, Clothes etc.etc.,mostly stuffed into the Passenger Footwell.
All a bit cramped to say the least
Decided to take on a far distant black AH Sprite whilst on a dual Carraigeway, it turned out to be an AC Cobra (A real one, back then) when we went past.
He didn't like that at all & pushed me almost beyond my limit until we hit the Dorset Country Lanes where he gave up trying, thank goodness.
Did similar Camping trips in the Elite (Mk14) on visits to Brands Hatch but there was sufficient space in the Boot.
Happy Days

John

[trw99]

Not wishing to detract from the beauty of the car ( have the boot and roof lost their surface? Affected about 75% of mine, never seen the same on any other colour)

Persiflage

Yes - a little fading of the lagoon blue on roof and boot! Saving up for a respray. It was beginning to fade when I bought the car in the early 1980s - I remember asking Graham Arnold for an opinion at one of the Lotus shows but he didn't have an explanation.

Was your fading paint also Lagoon Blue?

Richard

Richard

The lagoon blue does suffer from bloom. It was an earlyish metallic colour and they may not have got it quite right at the factory. I assume that it is the effect of ultra violet rays from all the sunshine we have in the UK!

If yours is not too far gone then a good spray shop may be able to polish it out for you using some magic potion.

Tim

[persiflage]

Hi Richard,
Lagoon Blue, yes.
I also purchased early '80s and the surface was already pretty far-gone. I viewed the car soon after a rain shower, which helped to disguise the flaws in the paintwork. The appearance could be revived slightly by a good polish, however it quickly reverted to its normal state. The effect was quite patchy with marked variations in colour and surface texture.

I recall discussing the situation with one of the fibreglass specialists (possibly Robin Alabaster?) who commented that it was a bit of an "experimental" colour at the time the car was built -1972.

Opted for yellow/white at the re-spray ... not so sure now.

[richardcox_lotus]

My Lagoon Blue Sprint has also suffered from fading paint (Same build batch ??). Considering that I didn't have much to lose, I attacked it with cutting compound last year, to pretty good effect. Don't know how many times I could actually do that before it's gone too far, but it will hopefully give me a year or two to save up for re-spray.

Oh - & if I get it done I will keep the same colour - the big question however is whether to stay blue/white or go blue all over. Decisions, decision.......

Rgds
R

[trw99]

Lagoon blue was introduced by Lotus in October 1970. The earliest FHC Sprint I know of with original L12 colour is Aug 71, the earliest DHC is Apr 71. It would not have been a batch problem as I have seen it in all ages of Sprints.

I believe it was a more popular colour on the +2, but of course those guys never look at what's going on in the Elan section, so I guess we shall never know if they suffer the same bloom!

And for what it's worth Richard, when you do go for the respray, keep it original - mind you, it's your car and you can do what you like with it!

Tim

[rgh0]

A lot of European cars from all manufacuters in the 70's and 80's used to suffer from paint fade in Australian sunlight. Reds and blue colours and to a lesser extent green were the worst. Blacks,whites, greys and yellows seemed unaffected. In the nineties the Europeans seemed to have got their paints better and the problem (which the Japanese or local makers never had) went away.

Vigorous cutting and polishing frequently could restore the gloss but only for a relatively short time before the fade came back.

cheers
Rohan

[RichardS]

Turned into an interesting discussion on fading Lagoon Blue!

Mine has long gone past the polishing stage and I intend to have it resprayed in the original colours when the time comes.

There has been one amusing outcome of the faded paint - we got married in 1983 and the Sprint was my every day transport back then so it was parked at a local hotel for the honeymoon night. The location was meant to be secret but leaked by my brother! Consequently we came down in the morning to find the Lotus sprayed with shaving foam with messages such as "just married" and "love" etc. The shaving foam actually "etched" into the paintwork so to this day, in certain light, the messages are still visible! So from a sentimental point of view perhaps that is why I am putting off the respray.

I think I might have a picture somewhere of the Sprint with honeymoon decoration - if I can find it I might post it up!

Richard

[Old English White]

That's not honeymoon decoration , but I had to do something with flowers prior to access the Bugatti track .
Last year , I had a blown head gasket the day before the event ... I decide to join with my brother and during the dinner , the organisators offered me a free card for 2010 at the condition I put these flowers on the car ... That I did , adding some grass ...


Christian.

[richgilb]

Hey, seems a bit dull outside the +2 section, doesn't it?

[alexblack13]

Hi Chaps,

My +2s130/4 had Lagoon with metalflake roof in silver and... The blue was horribly faded when I bought the car in 1976. Ended up black n gold!

I also had an Elite, later 2 ltr type, which I did not like one bit, but it had a well fitted towbar so I used it to tow my caravan (14') all over the place. Got some pics somewhere methinks..

Happy days!..

Just back from hols...

Alex...