Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

I second the POR15 suggestion!

I did what you have done - sandblast and reinforced the chassis and I decided to go with POR15. I wanted grey/gray since that is my preferred chassis colour. The POR15 grey is very good. Some will tell you that it fades in sunlight-do you plan on turning the car over and leaving it that way?
After six (?) years and many thousands of hard miles the paint is in perfect shape--so perfect that I have not had to touch up any of it! I have done quite a few miles on gravel roads here in Canada and not even the front crossmember is chipped.

Yes you need to wear gloves, and disposable clothes. Also recoat within eight hours. Cover the surface of the paint in the can with clear plastic before you put the lid back on make sure it covers the area where the lid contacts the paint can-this stuff sticks like cement! Stir the paint regularly while painting. It flows out beautifully-no brush marks and no primer required or recommended.

Very cool David. Love how you drive it hard and over any road surface. I baby mine far too much.

Just looked on the Eastwood website and I notice they now also supply VHT and Por-15 products! I used the Eastwood branded black chassis and 2K engine paint previously and was very happy with them. In your application however you obviously need something that you can color match. Suggest send them an email for advice. I'm sure it will work well for you if you choose the correct product for the application.

2cams70 wrote:Just looked on the Eastwood website and I notice they now also supply VHT and Por-15 products! I used the Eastwood branded black chassis and 2K engine paint previously and was very happy with them. In your application however you obviously need something that you can color match. Suggest send them an email for advice. I'm sure it will work well for you if you choose the correct product for the application.

The chassis earlier in the post was painted with Eastwood rust encapsulator mat-red. It’s close enough to the original primer color that I think it will be good. I have a NOS gearbox support in the original primer so I’ll be able to check the color match.

Ian

rgh0 wrote:Personally i prefer to use an inorganic zinc primer and then top coat with a suitable top paint. .....

I am not keen on powder coating as I have seen to many poor examples of it flaking off when rust gets under it.

cheers
Rohan

I echo Rohan's comment here, I would not use powder coating, it cracks and lets water in where it will rust the steel unseen. If you don't believe me walk along any street that has garden railings and look closely at the railings, unless it is brand new you will see cracks & pieces of coating flaking off with rust underneath.

I declined having my railings powder coated when I installed them about 10 years ago and so I just use Hammerite paint and put an extra layer on every 8 years or so. I wish that I had used a zinc undercoat, but alas I did not. I've had great success with zinc paint an aqualung tanks in the past and they are REALLY exposed to rust inducing conditions.

My experience with powder coating has been very poor. My experience with POR 15 has been excellent but note the warnings. I managed to get it on my hands and had 10 days of very embarrassing meetings where I had to explain why my hands were in such a disgusting state before shaking hands. It is impossible to remove!

What surface finish you put on is up to you. One key point is that the first protective finish is put on IMMEDIATELY after the blast cleaning. The next day is too late!!!
FYI, the black paint on Lotus replacement chassis in the 70's was put straight on to the metal. I've got the T shirt.
Cheers
John.

elanman999 wrote:What surface finish you put on is up to you. One key point is that the first protective finish is put on IMMEDIATELY after the blast cleaning. The next day is too late!!!
FYI, the black paint on Lotus replacement chassis in the 70's was put straight on to the metal. I've got the T shirt.
Cheers
John.

That’s what I have been told! Mine will be done once to get back to bare metal and once after repairs, upgrades etc immediately before the zinc primer.

Ian

Ian,
That sounds like a very good plan.
Cheers
John.

Hi

Just to add my experiences here.

I have 5 chassis in various states at the moment. Dealing with the two Spyder ones first, one is an orange spaceframe, unused one but quite old and has been sitting around indoors for years. It had quite a lot of surface rust and some reasonable pitting. The second is a year and a half old Spyder Zetec job that has also never been used and kept indoors. There is light rust visible in some of the joins in between the welds, and it chips fairly easily.

It so happens that a family member has been in the shotblasting and metal finishing business for 40 years. He also does spray chroming and wet painting.

He took the orange chassis, blasted it, then immediately applied Zinga (96% zinc) by hand in all the gaps in the chassis where the powdercoat will not flow. He then applied a Zinc powdercoat followed by a top powdercoat.

It came back looking great, and I have not managed to chip it yet. The newer Spyder Zetec chassis will be going down to him for the same treatment later this week.

As far as the Lotus type chassis go, I have one that has been wet painted, but it chips really easily and then happily rusts. Once that has had some work to it it will be having the same zinc and powdercoat treatment as above, as will another original Lotus replacement chassis that I have. Its pretty sound, but I will be adding some strengthening plates to the turrets and a few other places. Where I live in Kent there are some really ridiculous speed humps and pillows, and with general road surfaces so poor it makes sense.

All the best

Berni