Respray info

[deak]

Hi,

I'm new to the forum so forgive me if this has already been asked somewhere (darn search button don't work either!).

I'm looking to buy an Esprit SE soon and want it in black. However, apart from SE's being fairly rare anyway, black is almost non existant!

So, I've had this cunning plan that perhaps I can just find the right SE, nevermind the colour and then get it resprayed black. Has anyone had any experience doing this or got any rough costs involved? Is there anything I might be able to do myself to reduce the cost involved?

Any info much appreciated

D

[lotusse89]

deak said:

Hi, I'm new to the forum so forgive me if this has already been asked somewhere (darn search button don't work either!). I'm looking to buy an Esprit SE soon and want it in black. However, apart from SE's being fairly rare anyway, black is almost non existant! So, I've had this cunning plan that perhaps I can just find the right SE, nevermind the colour and then get it resprayed black. Has anyone had any experience doing this or got any rough costs involved? Is there anything I might be able to do myself to reduce the cost involved? Any info much appreciated D

Black is one of the most common colors for early Esprit SE's. Red, White, Black.

A proper respray will be pretty expensive. You can reduce the costs by taking the whole car apart yourself...

Travis
Vulcan Grey 89SE
www.lotuscolorado.com/vulcangrey/

[mike.griese]

I just had my '83 done a few years ago. Figure around $8-$12k US for a complete strip and repaint, depending on how much prepwork you want done. My car had some stress crack issues (mostly in the paint) which required a complete strip to repair. The door gaps were evened and straightened and the car was block sanded to within an inch of it's life. The block sanding is important, particularly for black, as it will show all of the flaws in the fibreglass. Three color coats (sanded in between) followed by a couple of coats of clear (with a couple more on the hood and upper fenders). I have to say I am very pleased with the results, although it is probably a better paint job than the car deserves. With any luck it will be at LOG later this week.

[MikeyRide]

mike.griese said:

Three color coats (sanded in between) followed by a couple of coats of clear (with a couple more on the hood and upper fenders). I have to say I am very pleased with the results, although it is probably a better paint job than the car deserves.

I bet it looks amazing though. The painter probably put in more effort getting things right than they did at the factory.

I'm suprised to hear the color coats were sanded. Modern basecoat/clearcoat doesn't get color sanded. In fact, I was under the impression that the base-clear bonding doesn't work properly if you do. It actually looks awful before you clear it.

base:


cleared:


The clear gets sanded and buffed.

[deak]

Thanks for the info guys. I also phoned round a few places and the cheapest estimate I got was about £3500 +vat plus mechanical labour!

Time to think how important colour is methinks (especially seeing as I'm colour blind anyhow!). I doubt I'd get any of the money back if I had to sell the car :-(

D

[unity1]

Having a full respray is not that much of a problem. I've had mine done twice now. Once to change the colour and then again recently after a minor accident repair couldnt match the colour. My fault for having a unique choice last time.

See my site for full details

Steve
89 Turbo
www.unity1.co.uk/Lotus

[deak]

Cheers for the link. Just been through the site and the car's looking cool. Bad luck about the initial problems

I notice that when you were getting the colour changed, you mentioned it looked odd with with the red under the bonnet but you'd be changing that to black. Was that done as part of the same work or by yourself? And more importantly, did you have to do the same for the engine area?

Also, if you don't mind me asking, what sort of price have you paid for the resprays?

[unity1]

Inside the bonnet was left to me the boot was done however.

Price will depend on how much work you do yourself and the paint choice. I did most of the dis/reassembly work myself (apart from the glass) but left all the body repair/prerp work to the shop. The paint I decided to go for was around £300 per litre however a plain black will be more like £50.

In all you'll be looking at £2-4k for a quality (better the factory) finish. A word of warning when I was getting quotes in some were around £6k. Just be sure that who ever you get to do it has done fibreglass work before.

>> Edited by unity1 on Saturday 27th August 19:14

[deak]

Thanks again for the info Steve, it's been really useful. Just need to go and find me the right Esprit now! :-)

[mike.griese]

The color sanding was more of another go at block sanding - may fault for not being clear. It does look good, I must say.

The car did make LOG and came in second in the concours on Saturday between a very nice metallic green '87 (original paint - he got my vote) and another black '83. Now I can relax and start dinging it up for the next repaint.

If I could ind a place to host a picture...

Mike

>> Edited by mike.griese on Tuesday 30th August 20:55

[sanj]

Try www.myphotoalbum.com/index.shtml

[mike.griese]

Thanks Sanj!

http://mikegriese.myphotoalbum.com/view_album.php?set_albumName=album03

Mike



>> Edited by mike.griese on Thursday 1st September 15:13