Stripping paint

[Lens4]

And don’t take it apart. Lol !

[pianoderby]

Has anyone here tried the Cooper’s chemical stripper? https://coopersstripclub.com/metal-lpp1/
They show it taking a Corvette down to the gel coat and leaving the gel coat intact.

[Andy8421]

I have followed the 'how to strip' threads with interest for the last few years. I have also contacted two well known Elan refinishers, Option 1 and Spyder.

Much as I would like to have found an easy way to do it, the general consensus seems to be that the best way to remove the paint without causing long term damage to the gell coat is mechanical. There was a period that Spyder used soda blasting, but when I spoke to them, they had reverted to scraping and sanding as reinstating the damage done to the gell coat by blasting took longer than mechanical scraping itself.

I had hoped dry-ice blasting may be the answer, but I haven't found any reports of success with an Elan. Wet slurry blasting is used on boats, but the GRP is about a foot thick on a boat, and often the aim is to remove all the gell coat to address osmosis issues.

Chemical stripping seems to be avoided by professionals as it inevitably effects the gell coat. The challenge with GRP renovations is that problems with the gell coat may not become obvious until months / years after the car is resprayed as the sinkage of the surface may not become apparent until a lot of time has passed.

Edit: If anyone knows better, or has had luck using other methods, please update this thread.

[Lens4]

Watch ( Painting classic cars ) lotus elan. On YouTube. Len

[Gemini1962]

Thanks for the posts and information. I will strip it by hand mechanically and then might paint it myself. I've painted an Esprit before which didn't come out too bad but I'll see how much enthusiasm I have!

[Andy8421]

Watch ( Painting classic cars ) lotus elan. On YouTube. Len

Len,

Thanks for this. Link (should anyone be interested) is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbfg6kDc0zE

While it is possible that steps have been missed out, removing the gell coat and replacing with an epoxy substitute without applying tissue mat or similar is a recipe for stress cracks reappearing in the car's later life. Epoxy in of itself without a glassfibre matrix won't provide the base for a stable paint finish. There are members of this forum who have used epoxy to renovate a body, but with a tissue mat sheath.

I was also surprised that the usual depressions where the boot hinges fit on to the body had not been rectified.

It is always easy to be an arm chair critic, but it would be interesting to see how this car looks in a couple of years time.

Edit: With credit to Option 1, from their website, these are the steps (below) that they take in preparing and finishing an Elan. I have seen the quality of their work and it is first class.

Stage 1: Glass fibre tissue base (30 gram/sq mtr GRP matting) is laminated with a mix of resin and gel coat to the ENTIRE exterior of the shell and panels. It is then hand sanded to a thickness of 1.0 and 1.5 mm. This gives the bodyshell a new fibre glass skin, which is stronger and more flexible than the original gel coat, providing the very best substrate for all primer and paint applied.
Stage 2: Composite adhesion promoter. This product is of our own design and is sprayed onto the bare GRP to ensure perfect adhesion of primers and top coats.
Stage 3: Ultra High Build Primer (first coat primer). We use a special high resin content primer, imported from the USA to fill imperfections in the GRP base coat and give us the build required to sand and remove minor undulations.
Stage 4: 2K Primer Surface (2nd coat primer). A top quality 2K primer, approved by most major vehicle manufacturers.
Stage 5: Body Colour Coat. First colour coat to highlight the smallest of imperfections prior to final top coats.
Stage 6: Basecoat Final Colour. Water based or solvent. Mixed in house to provide an exact colour match to your existing paint.
Stage 7: High Gloss Lacquer. Premium quality high solids 2K. When fully cured, hand sanded and machine polished to provide the perfect paint finish with excellent resistance to U.V. light and weathering.

[alanr]

Andy Hi,
The Option1 process is no doubt the creme de la creme perfect way of dealing with a resparay on fibreglass cars and will no doubt last forever.
However the prices they charge for doing a full re-tissue of a fibreglass car at £20k'ish is way out of most peoples budget and so most of us have to make compromises in order to keep costs a bit more realistic.
Of course the lower cost compromise won't last as long, but there you go......You pays your money and takes your choice!

Alan.

[Gemini1962]

My understanding is that Lotus was unable to achieve a consistent surface finish straight out of the mold and used a polyester spraying filler, light grey in colour, to give the required finish. Two S3 67 cars I’ve done both had this preparation, personally I would not go beyond this layer if you find it.

Having stripped some of the bonnet today I think you are spot on. However, I have an awful lot of star cracks to deal with so I'm having to take it right back to the bare matting.

[Craven]

Don’t knock yourself out pursuing 50-year-old repair techniques, once resin has cured any added surface is just stuck on.
https://u-pol.com/au/product/fillers/sp ... ed-filler/
Light grey factory finish darker grey high build primer over repair of ground out cracks with above.

[Gemini1962]

Two S3 67 cars I’ve done both had this preparation, personally I would not go beyond this layer if you find it.

How did you strip the paint?

Paul.

[Craven]

Car had multi layers of I think was plastic based paint (acrylic?) that when gently warmed with hot air gun, soften and allowed a hand scraper, rounded corners, to slide under several layers at a time. Now before there is an outcry I say warm if the surface get too hot to touch, too much heat, definitely not blister, common sense on this. Factory finish old school cellulose? BRG was again hand scraped down to a point where acetone on a rag simply wiped the thin layer off, giving an almost pristine surface.
Again my aversion to going back to matting is one you lose all reference to original surface levels, just imagine resetting the recesses for hinges door handles fuel filler etc. Elan body is an absolute mine field of subtle compound curves, you could spend hours trying to reinstate those fine slope changes along the tops of the front wings.

[Gemini1962]

Car had multi layers of I think was plastic based paint (acrylic?) that when gently warmed with hot air gun, soften and allowed a hand scraper, rounded corners, to slide under several layers at a time. Now before there is an outcry I say warm if the surface get too hot to touch, too much heat, definitely not blister, common sense on this. Factory finish old school cellulose? BRG was again hand scraped down to a point where acetone on a rag simply wiped the thin layer off, giving an almost pristine surface.
Again my aversion to going back to matting is one you lose all reference to original surface levels, just imagine resetting the recesses for hinges door handles fuel filler etc. Elan body is an absolute mine field of subtle compound curves, you could spend hours trying to reinstate those fine slope changes along the tops of the front wings.

I was toying with the idea of having Option 1 strip and paint it but it's difficult to justify spending £17k on a paint job when a good S3 only seems to be worth around £30k. Obviously I'm not restoring this with the intention of making money but common sense does have to come into play as a divorce is even more expensive.

[elanner]

Don’t knock yourself out pursuing 50-year-old repair techniques, once resin has cured any added surface is just stuck on.
https://u-pol.com/au/product/fillers/sp ... ed-filler/
Light grey factory finish darker grey high build primer over repair of ground out cracks with above.

I have to say this looks like an appealing solution for dealing with minor cracks/crazing. Do you have any long term experience about how it holds up (cracks don't re-emerge six months later, etc.)?

Nick

[Craven]

Repairs carried out through restoration by this method, none visible as yet still own car.
View click 'open image in new tab'

2014

2017

2024

[elanner]

Looks good. Thanks!