Removing paint

[10kph]

Hello All,
I remember speaking to an ex Lotus employee who worked in the factory in the early 70s.
I did ask as to why the early cars had colured gelcoat and later ones clear. The answer is . so you can see the air bubbles below the surface and chip out the bad ones and fill before painting. Once you have removed the white primer I bet you will see some hollow bubbles below the surface !
For the primer, first use epoxy spray primer which can be coated directly within 24 to 48hours without sanding with 2K primer. The epoxy coat stops any moisture travelling from below or above so stops blistering that many people experience. The 2K ( two pack) primer is easy to sand preferably dry and can be flash coated before your basecoat to give a scratch free surface.
Cheers
Tony

[djb222]

Hi, I've recently finished stripping all of the paint from the body of my S4 using just a few sharpened paint scrapers and the wife's old hairdryer. Granted it's a long process but less messy than sanding.

If you're interested I have a few videos on the strip down etc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlQWuEv ... -&index=16

[jono]

Thanks for all the comments.

I'm actually making pretty good progress and have almost got the front end stripped. The game changer has been the Dewalt DA mentioned previously which landed yesterday - what a superb bit of kit! Fitted to a powerful Karcher vacuum you can sand away without any dust (you could probably even do without a mask if you wanted)

I've also discovered 'Abranet' abrasive which is brilliant at quickly removing material without causing damage to the gel coat and the pads seem to last for ages.

So my modus operandi is to remove the paint down to the high build with a series of wood chisels and then attack the high build with the DA until you just a see the 'ghost' of the gel coat grinning through. I then go to a 320 Abranet pad on a vacuum attachment and take it just down to the gel coat.

Found a few old repairs which become more tricky as the paint is stuck better to those areas - I use the DA for those bits.

Cheers

Jon

[TeeJay]

Hi Jono, good to hear you got on well with the DeWALT, assume it was the D26453 version.

When getting round to final white primer removal from the top of the front wings, here is a tip I picked up from my research / book reading.

Tip, to retain correct line, carefully position masking tape to the line and flat off other side and then while tape is still on, wipe flatted area with slight damp acetone cloth and position more masking tape butted up to the original tape. Then remove original tape and flat off the area.
This will ensure you do not remove or alter the line.

Final sanding was done by hand with flat plate tool and extra long slightly flexible flat plate tool.

[jono]

Thanks for that great tip Trevor!

Yes, it's the Dewalt model you mentioned - there was a discount code hidden away on the Ebay sellers ad which meant I got ot for £82 delivered (Screwfix is £99.69 ish) - it's a quality bit of kit and the Sia pads are excellent, seem to last 10 times longer that ordinary ones.

Wil post up some pics at some stage, have also been doing some fibreglass repairs to break the boredom and fitting new cills.

Cheers

Jon

[TeeJay]

and the Sia pads are excellent, seem to last 10 times longer that ordinary ones.

Those Sia pads are a good find, I've just be reviewing them. Certainly use them on any future project.

Here are a few photos of some of what I found under the paint work, including the mobile wooden frame I made to help move the body about. It came in particularly useful when I decided spray the 2 pack high build primer and final preparation for the top coat.

Wooden mobile frame

Split join on door seal flange

RH Rear Wing

RH Door seal flange lower rear.

Options 1 Paint System

[mikealdren]

Your body looks in great condition if those are the only issues.

[jono]

Are you going with Option 1 Trevor?

I got my painter to 'copy' their process on my last Plus 2 and it came out well and still looked good after 10 years.

...but they certainly know how to charge

[TeeJay]

Your body looks in great condition if those are the only issues.

Hi Mike.
As the body was an early +2 (Jan 1968.) these are know to be a lot thicker than later ones.

So stress and star cracks etc, were less than than expected, BUT I found 3 areas of bad to very bad repairs, two by previous owners, one in my ownership (from 1975).

1. Was the boot floor under the fuel tank, I had to use glass matt across both surfaces, then glass tissue.
2. A “Mid Nose” replacement was poorly fitted, the joins starting at the top of the wheel arch completely across the car. I had to strengthen and fill voids in the joint.
3. In the days my wife was the daily driver, her MD in his usual last minute dash to the airport, reversed right up the front of Lotus. He paid for the repair, which was completed by a local Lotus dealer in 1982. On stripping the paint I was very surprised to discover the poor repair. The stress cracks had not been deepened to fill with fibre filled resin then glass tissue over.
All they had done was high build primer and top coat.

Area under Fuel Tank

Alum plate removed. Also note poor rubber sheet for fuel exit.

Damage to area between pop up headlights.

You can see that I have cut a "V" into the stress cracks, prior to filling with glass fibre resin paste and then glass tissue over.

Regards

[TeeJay]

Are you going with Option 1 Trevor?

Hi Jon.
Long story short. The paint work was finished in Oct 2011.

As previously said I stripped the paint, repaired and strengthened in the know week areas, prepped for the initial high build and primer coats and sprayed the paint. With the intention of using the likes of Option 1 for the top coats.

I researched every detail of garage prep, equipment required, spraying techniques, timings, best temperatures and humidity levels. Also watched YouTube videos of GPR cars being sprayed, particularly one by DeVILBISS (Spray gun supplier).

Also did several dry runs going around the car, fully kited out, with both air lines attached to spray gun and face mask. Until I was comfortable with everything, before actual spraying.

Well I was really pleased with my actual sprayed results, so I went on to do the guide coat and top coats.

I have Miles Wilkins Fibre glass Bodywork and How to Restore Paintwork books, just to name two, probably the most useful for this topic.

Another interesting read by SMS and Mick Miller taken from my Club Lotus magazine.

Comments about respray of Lotus

There are no short cuts; it takes time a lot of time. When you take on this project, you soon release why it costs so much from the like of Options 1 and SMS etc.

Finally, I started to strip the paint in October 2009 and all GPR repairs finished in 2010, primed Aug 2011, Guide coat Sept 2011, top coat Oct 2011.

So paint work has now been completed some 9 years and still looking good today.

High Build & Primer Coats

Blocking down the Guide coat

Top colour coat

Regards

[TeeJay]

Strange, the SMS - Mick Miller document is a 3 page .jpg type file, but appears as a single page photo.

So attempt two:-

Well uploaded but not as I intended.

[jono]

Crikey, that effort deserves real respect Trevor - I'd not realised you have done the entire process!

My intention is to do the stripping and fibreglass repairs but leave the painting to a specialist. I can well understand now why this costs so much but I imagine a big part of that is the paint stripping and fibreglass work which I will do myself. I think I can handle it and I can also be as painstaking as I like bearing in mind my time is free (I don't price 'hobby' time!).

I would never attempt to paint though.

[mikealdren]

Congratulations from me too Trevor, I once sprayed a steel car and that was hard enough.

Interesting that the repair was not done "correctly", how well did the repair last? Maybe it isn't as critical as we are lead to believe?

The worst repair on my car was the driver's door pillar, it was repaired by adding extra glass fibre layers without even removing the paint! When I took it apart I simply pulled the new layers off revealing the original damage. The replacement nose cone also had a lot of filler on the join.

[jono]

Nasty!

I made some more good progress with Abranet pads last night until my old Karcher vac packed up - new carbon brushes have been ordered.

I'd be interested to hear views/philosophy on old repairs - I have found some I presume accident damage(?) repairs (very hard 'filler') beneath the paint on the front nearside wing that must have been done very early in the cars life and which were not apparent in the paintwork before stripping. These repairs are not bridging over any paint - the body in this locaton was clearly taken back to bare fibreglass before they were applied and they are extremely well adhered so they appear to be 'professional'

They are actually extremely stable and show no signs of distress and part of me is thinking if they have lasted this long and are stable then why intervene and remove them only to replace them with the same repair?

So the question is - remove or leave be?

Jon

[Donels]

I stripped all of the paint off my +2 and found 3 accident repairs. 1 rear nearside wing and rear transom replacement, 2 front nearside wing replacement and 3 front offside quarter replacement. 1 and 2 were very professional repairs and having exposed the final filler they will remain as they are, they are very good.

The front repair was awful. I suspect the front chassis leg failed from corrosion and the resulting repair was done by animals! GF had been applied over road dirt and paint, the floor was split and the front apron could be moved by hand with little adhesion only the two mounting bolts holding it in place and the body was split both sides in the engine bay. This repair was done in 1983 and several subsequent owners appeared to be unaware. This has required extensive repair over the past 2 years.

So as awful as this repair was it went unnoticed for many years, so if your repairs look structurally sound and well executed then I would leave alone and accept its part of its history.

Dave