Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

For once i had some time to do quite a few bits of work on my car in last few days. While doing this I noticed my car has the gold flake roof and sills/rockers of a JPS car hiding under the multiple layers of paint.

I know from the factory records my car is Lagoon blue body and roof from new, not a JPS car. So I suspect that my body was a "JPS body" but had a defect in the gold flake somewhere or they had too many JPS bodies and so wasn't used as a JPS body but instead give a full covering of lagoon blue.

None of this surprises me, but I don't think I've heard of this occurring before. Anyone else got a not JPS car with factory gold flake roof and sills hiding under the paint?

Yes,
I had an August 1973 +2S130/4 and under the lagoon blue there was the gold flake.
There were a few and as far as i understand they were all painted lagoon blue.
My car had a problem with the gold flake near a roof air vent.
Alan

Thanks, suspected it wouldn't be a one of...

As far as I understand it the JPS model was not an official model per se, built to order. They were simply a 'fully optioned' Plus 2 (Sundym glass, corduroy seat panels, 5 speed, radio, gas burner wheels etc) which Lotus decided to paint with the gold highlights (sometimes on an already coloured body) to move them on when sales were slow.

It's not a sexy story but that's my understanding as a former JPS Plus 2 owner. They were all 1973 model year and the total number is subject to conjecture but somewhere between 80 and 100.

No reference to JPS appears on V5, it's essentially a colour scheme and a front wing badge - typical Lotus marketing, it has Chunky's fingerprints all over it

On my 1973 +2S130/4 that i spoke about in my first post the Gold Metal Flake was definitely in the Resin for the Roof and the Sills.
Alan

Mine also appear to have the gold flake in the roof/sill resin not painted from the very small bits I can see.

I am not questioning what a JPS car is/isn't. I was just surprised to find the signs of gold roof not silver and gold sills on my originally lagoon blue car. It makes sense for Lotus to use shells with gold roof/sills for none JPS cars due to issues in the finish or lack of demand for JPS cars. I just wasn't aware of it and was interested to know how prevalent it was.

We're at two positively identified cars but likely quite a few more...

I remember Graham Arnold touching on the JPS Plus 2 in one of his many chats in Club Lotus back in the 1980s.. Towards the middle of 1973 the glitter roof wasn't selling well, and the JPS Plus 2 sales were also slowing down. Very few glitter roof Plus 2 cars were made in the last quarter of 1973, and he mentioned that as many as 30 JPS cars had their gold bits over-pained black, making all-black cars. The problem was that black wasn't a very popular colour for cars in the UK in the 1960s / 1970s either, so it's not hard to imagine that many were painted a different colour.

Since the flake was in the gel coat, it would also seem to be easy to make a bunch of flake gel cars and the ones that look crappy just paint over

Elanintheforest wrote:I remember Graham Arnold touching on the JPS Plus 2 in one of his many chats in Club Lotus back in the 1980s.. Towards the middle of 1973 the glitter roof wasn't selling well, and the JPS Plus 2 sales were also slowing down. Very few glitter roof Plus 2 cars were made in the last quarter of 1973, and he mentioned that as many as 30 JPS cars had their gold bits over-pained black, making all-black cars. The problem was that black wasn't a very popular colour for cars in the UK in the 1960s / 1970s either, so it's not hard to imagine that many were painted a different colour.

That's interesting thanks. Will have to take a better look to see if I can see any black piant on mine to suggest it was converted from a jps. It's does have the JPS options, apart from no sign of a radio.

gus wrote:Since the flake was in the gel coat, it would also seem to be easy to make a bunch of flake gel cars and the ones that look crappy just paint over

Yeah, that's what I think was happening.