Silver metalflake roof

[vxah]

My car never had a metalflake roof but i always wanted it too. As i am restoring it now i found the car has metalflake under the yellow paint! With a lot of effort i flatted off all the yellow and the primer leaving the gelcoat with the flakes underneath, the roof was then buffed up by machine to remove the scratches and given two coats of clear. It now looks pretty good although from some angles it does look a bit yellow but i think that is just the gelcoat age?

I did think maybe someone had painted over it before my ownership but then when i got it back from the paint shop i found written in large writing on the side of the tunnel "all yellow" along with part of the VIN..

[mbell]

That interesting. My 73 appears to have been a whole lagoon blue car but not comments on the inside saying that.

The car had a badly done respray in red but enough of it has become away for me to know the door pillars (and therefore roof) are lagoon blue. If I ever get around to repaint it it will be interesting to see if the silver is hiding under there...

[JJDraper]

I had a conversation with a Lotus employee some years ago about factory metalflake which suggested that it was very hit and miss, being applied at the shell moulding stage in the Gel coat. If it looked good when the shell was turned out, it stayed. If not, it got sprayed over. So some cars have a guilty secret hiding under their original paint. Also some customers requested that the car was whole colour, and again the metalflake was hidden. Basically, its difficult and too much for some folk!..

Jeremy

[vxah]

I did think that may be the case, mine had a couple of "bald" spots on it but they are in the door shut. I touched them in before the clear coat went on, you can of course see them still but it's fine to have a blemish or two after 42 years...

[chrisban]

Mine was done in urethane clearcoat with the metalflake in it rather than acrylic. Since the original roof was done in the mold it would've been clear gelcoat with the metalflake. Here's a picture of the joint Gordon Sauer

Cheers Gordon, exactly the pic I needed, now to get mine looking as good as yours

[rmcpt]

https://www.stardustcolors.co.uk/flakes ... a0120_1128

Have anyone tried this paint on the roof of an +2?