More on the 1977 Eclat potential project.

[Setione]

Can anyone tell me if the 1970s Eclats were made to a standard colour fibre-glass shell of a base colour and spray painted to the finished colour or, was the colour of the car a result of using coloured gel-coats at the start of the laying-up process. The reason I ask is that; the car I’m considering as a potential project has been painted red (with eveidense of over spray on the exhaust, this could of course be a minor repair overspray) while the shell is a sort of mustard yellow colour.

The car has a very bad paint/surface finish, i.e. the surface paint has bubbled up over almost all of the body. If the bubbles are punctured a clear watery liquid is found and this has a very acrid smell, like a solvent of some kind. Anybody any ideas?

I believe this to be caused by osmosis, a common problem with fibreglass boats where moister gets between the gel-coat and the coarser base fibreglass matting/resin

Is this problem likely to reoccur if the body is professionally prepares and re sprayed?

Thanks for any comments.

[marshalla]

Lotus painted their cars.

The problem you've identified does sound like "osmosis" (really hydrolysis). To deal with it properly the car needs to be stripped and properly dried out before painting. If it's as bad as it sounds, the water damage has probably affected the structure of the GRP though - questionable whether it's worth trying to save it.


Mind you - if it's mechanically sound, it's possible to get a bodyshell from another car via lotusbits and create one good car as a result.

Edited by marshalla on Tuesday 26th July 23:10

[Junglehop]

true that. getting a shell from Lotusbits may be your best option if everything else is in ok nick... they have literally a shed load of em...

[marshalla]

Mind you, looking at the other thread ( http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a... ), it sounds like chassis has gone too.

[Setione]

Thanks for all the info/advice. In view of the possible chasis corrosion and body shell problems, too tight fit in the garage, the state of the interior (uugh) and engine recon/build costs. We've decided to abandon this project.

Thanks again for the help. Reminded me of the help the enthusiast sites provided in days when I built a Lotus 7 look-a-like by Robin Hood.

Jim