Changing the colour of the Elan
Discussion
I am nearly at the stage of getting the Elan re sprayed. It's original colour was red and my intention was to put it back to that colour. However I am contemplating changing it to Medici Blue, would this effect the value and history of the vehicle or would people see it as another step in the vehicle's life. The Elan is an early 1966 S3 and had a 4 bolt crankshaft engine but I have changed that to a 6 bolt crankshaft so that is something different already. ( I see have the original engine components ). So, should I stick with the red or go with blue? Thanks.
I guess the question you should ask yourself is "am I doing this with a view to resale or do I want to keep it ?"
If you're going to sell the car shortly, then a red elan is more likely to appeal to a wider market than medici blue. Nothing wrong with either colour and there are a few blue ones on Lotuselan.net which look stunning, but even though it is one of the standard Lotus colours it's not one that most people think of when you say "Elan".
If you're going to keep and drive it, then go for the colour you like most. My Elan started off life as a red fhc. It's been a silver fhc, then a silver dhc and now a red dhc, so as you might guess the originality of the car isn't of prime importance to me. If you like medici blue and you're driving it, then why not ?
If you're going to sell the car shortly, then a red elan is more likely to appeal to a wider market than medici blue. Nothing wrong with either colour and there are a few blue ones on Lotuselan.net which look stunning, but even though it is one of the standard Lotus colours it's not one that most people think of when you say "Elan".
If you're going to keep and drive it, then go for the colour you like most. My Elan started off life as a red fhc. It's been a silver fhc, then a silver dhc and now a red dhc, so as you might guess the originality of the car isn't of prime importance to me. If you like medici blue and you're driving it, then why not ?
My own 1965 S2 Elan started life a dark blue, then went green, then went yellow, & is now red!
None of the first three colours were removed, they were just painted over, but before my own red respray the whole body etc was taken back to the gel coat & everything repaired properly (that was a lot of tedious work but definitely worth the effort)
As has been said already, the cars look lovely in red (with silver everything else) & probably would sell better in that colour as well if that is the intention (irrespective of the original colour)
None of the first three colours were removed, they were just painted over, but before my own red respray the whole body etc was taken back to the gel coat & everything repaired properly (that was a lot of tedious work but definitely worth the effort)
As has been said already, the cars look lovely in red (with silver everything else) & probably would sell better in that colour as well if that is the intention (irrespective of the original colour)
Thanks for your views, I won't be selling it any time soon, I've done too much work on it to sell it straight away. When I got it was orange with black bumpers. I spent 5 months just taking it back to it's gel coat and making sure the bodywork was up to scratch. I think blue is the colour then.
I posted a similar question about my plus 2 and got a load of replys that may help you.
here's the link.
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
Good luck.
here's the link.
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
Good luck.
Gassing Station | General Lotus Stuff | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff