Help!! My Baby has been Keyed!!

[chia9876]

I was with the wife and she wanted to stop at a store. I wasn't crazy
about leaving the car out of sight but I did. The next day I noticed
my wing had been keyed, huh!!!!! It's about 6 inches long. People
suck, I work very hard for my family and this is my little reward, I
didn't inherit it!!! Well I just ordered touch paint (and the
rear "Esprit" decal) from Jay @ JAE and I should have it next week.
Now if that doesn't workout, I will need to have the wing painted
(while I'm at it,I'll have the tail light surround and valance like a
01). Any suggestions for paint or anything. I know it's a hard color
to match and I don't want to skimp on my baby!!

99 Esprit with B36 "New Lotus Yellow (Spice)" paint aka metallic
yellow

Pictures:

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ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º- Christian Waldron - IT Guru -º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø

99 Esprit "New Lotus Yellow" #178

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[srebbe64]

Sods - what would you do if you could get your hands on em?

[chia9876]

Nothing. Obviously I'm dealing with a non intelligent person with no respect for others and them selves. I'm sure they have there own issue if they must pump them self up by vandalizing someone's else's pride and joy. Bottom line, I'm happy with my life and that person is very miserable, for what ever reason!! That's enough punishment in it self :> BUT in the dark part of my mind, I would have love to beat them like a one eyed monkey on a ten cent balloon!!!



ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º- Christian Waldron - IT Guru -º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø

99 Esprit "New Lotus Yellow" #178

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[Autocross7]

Support Gun control... Hit the target!!!

What happened to the gene pool?

Drive topless!!!
Cameron

[kylie]

Sorry to see your car getting scratched/keyed...not good at all, I really don't know why people do it.

Take the wing off, leave the car at home. Take it to someone who is used to dealing with exotic cars and not a back yarder, unless you really know them. Any good colour chemist will be able to look at the paint formulation from the Lotus code and match up. If the scratch is deep, they may need to fill with gelcoat first.

Good luck

[princecharming]

I responded on the Turbo Esprit list earlier, but am really sad to hear of your bad luck, especially around the holidays since it is a year ago last Sat that my Esprit was keyed on three panels during a Lotus club holiday dinner. So much for holiday spirit.

Like Travolta said in the film, Pulp Fiction...Just once, I'd like to catch the guy in the act...it would almost be worth him doin' it, just so I could catch him. We're good people, but next time, the guy might not be so lucky.

Hoping that the next car the culprit vandalizes will belong to a gang member, paroled felon, or serial killer that catches him in the act.

BTW, I loved Kylie's idea of taking off the wing and bringing the wing alone to the shop. It's amazingly easy to remove and you won't have to leave the car there with them. Good thinking Kylie!

[chia9876]

I decided to have the whole rear end painted so it looks like an 01 (no black Toyo lights or valance.)

Since I will drive the car a little when the weather allows, I'm going to wait till March/April before I have it painted due to salt.

Gee, I hope it doesn't rust!!

ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º- Christian Waldron -º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø

99 Esprit "New Lotus Yellow" #178

Lotus, It's not my hobby. It's my obsession!!!

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[cnh1990]

Unfortunately metalic paint is very hard to touch up. I suppose if you were handy you could get a custom mix and have the shop load it into spray cans for you.

[roadburner]

Hello,
ask your locally paint shop for a "spot repair".
I'm working as a car painter and i can say that it's no longer popular to paint the whole part.
We sanded scratches like these with 2500 sandpaper and fill the rest of these scratches with clearcoat(no filler,primer).After that you can spray your metallic.That makes the colour match better.After that you can spray clearcoat on these areas.Polishing is the last you have to do.
I'm working for Lamborghini and they got colours which are very bad to respray but it works in this way.

[cnh1990]

What roadburner says is true.

With my non metalic paint I used to just fill in a scratch with a touch up paint brush, sand it down and hit it with fine cut and wool buffer.

Have to spray metallic, doesn't look to good otherwise.

Roadburner, you work on Lamborgini's?

Do you mind if I email you and have a chat about Lambo's with you? I could use some advice.

Calvin

[mark_88_turbo]

Sorry to hear the news. You're fortunate it's only on the wing, not on the rest of the car.
You could just remove the wing altogether, fill the holes and repaint it. IMO Esprit's look better with out them anyway

Mark
88 Turbohttp://freespace.virgin.net/mark.a.blanchard/index.htm