Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Paint is probably the biggest single investment in your car, other non original things can be changed back relatively cheaply in comparison (should you ever want to). So keep it in its original Colorado

I could see flinching over Roman Purple but not Colorado Orange - its a good color on an ?lan and you get to stay original -

George

Any thought that the original orange will cause the car to be a slow seller is silly. Sprints bring a premium, and original colors bring a premium, though arguably a much smaller one. People aren't going to walk past your orange Sprint to buy a blue S3 unless they really like blue. Investor buyers aren't going to walk past it. Plus as noted there are many fewer Colorado Orange cars available.

I agree with those who say you should paint it what you like, but don't see any valid reason not to like Colorado Orange.

Then again, I have orange shoes and my Europa's seat covers came out looking orange.

I have a Colorado Orange and white Sprint and recommend that colour to you.

Some interesting observations. When I bought my Sprint a few years ago I had a debate about whether I should repaint the car along with the chassis up restoration where I kept the perfect original chassis/wishbones etc. The conclusion, with Morland Jones who use to look after my cars until they ceased trading, was that the car didn't deserve to be repainted and to do so might actually devalue it given how nice the original paintwork still is. So if you ever see my Sprint you will see some interesting history where the bodywork was clearly filled in a few places by the factory prior to them spraying the car. A few pics including the end result which may be of interest. Jim

Lovely Sprint! Wow!

Frank

That is unfeasibly clean; it's not fair on the rest of us.

I agree that the Sprint two tone generally detracts from the shape of the body, but I would definitely vote for Orange or orange/white over red/white. There are so many red/white cars, and I never found it attractive. Orange is unusual, and attractive. Also as cars attract more collector interest and higher values, the more rare colours also attract the highest interest and prices. Plus its original to the car... Many good reasons to go for Orange IMNSHO

Or perhaps, you could take a penny, leave one side all tarnished dark red, and shine up the other side to bright copper orange, look at the one side, then the other...and flip for it!

It's nearly time to make the decision on colour maybe one side red and one side orange

Now that's thinking outside the box! Maybe red base with long thin orange flames coming from the front (come to think of it one of my cars WAS once red and had a fire from the front end...), or red at the back with a long slow fade to orange at the front...? Or how about paint that flips from orange to red depending on which angle the light hits it? Perhaps someone can photoshop some of these ideas, and then maybe top it with some 22" chrome spinners...

I once saw a Europa that was painted a colour that was halfway between red and orange...you definitely don't want that! BTW my first Elan was purple with pink bumpers when I first pulled it from a chicken barn but I quickly repainted it in its original yellow, but with black wheels.

Perhaps you could print the pics of Orange and Red Sprints and post them around the house/garage to help with the decision?

Are you planning to run stock steel wheels or alloys? If so what colour?

Type28 wrote:It's nearly time to make the decision on colour maybe one side red and one side orange