Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Picked up my car yesturday so I can sleep now(?) can anyone tell me what yellow (year 1974) they think this is and paint code. Is the body colour marked up somewhere? when I had my TVR it was on the VIN plate. Any help would be appreciated.

Cheers.

Doug

Always difficult from a photograph - colours can look a lot different on a computer (and as far as I am aware nowhere on a car does it give the original colour - and who it to say that was its original colour anyway).

My twopenneth - i reckon there's a ggod chance its Lotus Yellow which if I recall correctly is paint code L07 (in ICI is that right?)

The original body colour is normally engraved on the bottom right corner of the chassis plate in the 'Paint Code' box.

Ok here's one for you, mine is the car at the front of the picture. The one behind it is French Blue. Mine is much lighter

My guess is Olympic Blue. But I got a can of Ford Olympic Blue from a local retailer and it is nothing like it. I am thinking Lotus/ Porsche paint colour.

Jason

Ok thick question, but I am new... mine has a spyder chassis which means I wont have it now right? my money was on Lotus Yellow, what threw me was some info I found reckoned it was discontinued in 1972.

Midlife wrote: mine has a spyder chassis which means I wont have it now right? .

The chassis plate should stay with the body irrespective weather it has a spyder or lotus chassis,it should be under the bonnet but not all cars were stamped with the colour code, my Sprint does not have the colour code on the plate but many cars do.

Don't be daft, Midlife, Lotus would never do anything as obvious as fitting the chassis plate to the chassis!

On later Plus 2's the chassis (VIN) plate should be fixed to the inside of the wheelarch within the engine bay, on the exhaust side.

On earlier cars it was fitted to the top of the pedal box cover, I believe.

In either case, there is no reason that a change to a Spyder replacement chassis should have disturbed the VIN plate, though they are easy enough to remove, so easily lost it over the years.

Have a look at this site for the paint details:

http://lotus-europa.com/colors.html

It indicates there that Lotus Yellow went on well into '74, probably to the end of Plus 2 production. I have a late car, chassis number starting with 7312, which is all yellow like yours...most 130 S cars had a silver glitterball roof which to me looks very period but doesn't suite the yellow colour. You should have a VIN plate under the bonnet on the passenger side inner wing just in front of the servo.
Mark

I have got the VIN plate where you described, I misunderstood earlier. There is no colour code on the VIN, however looking at the post with the colours I think its definately Lotus Yellow.... Cheers all.

My '71 +2 had the color and the code written on the inside of the roof, but, of course, you can only see it if you pull down the headlining. I believe that it is sometimes also written inside one of the door panels.

Ken
'69 +2, etc.
NW Florida

Hi .I had the same problem .I ended up after many hours surfing, writing to Lotus cars archive Dept .They wrote back saying my 68+2 had no colour records but they did say the records get better as the years progressed . Try
Chris Brown
Technical Services /company Archivist
Lotus Cars
Hethnel
Norfolk
NR14 8EZ
Good Luck Nice Colour!!

Jason1 wrote:Ok here's one for you, mine is the car at the front of the picture. The one behind it is French Blue. Mine is much lighter

My guess is Olympic Blue. But I got a can of Ford Olympic Blue from a local retailer and it is nothing like it. I am thinking Lotus/ Porsche paint colour.

Jason

I have the original Lotus colour chart. It shows two blue colours. The lighter one is Wedgewood Blue and the darker one is French Blue. Unless they were resprayed in some other manufactures paint I suggest that these colours are correct. The original colours can still be reproduced today as I have just had mine painted in the original Cirrus White.
Jim

Jim

Cheers, I other blue car in the pic is French blue, I know this as I asked it's owner, he had just had it resprayed after an accident.

I will try and get a can of Wedgewood blue and see what it's like. I will get it resprayed at some point but really just want a small can for touching up.

Jason