engine cover underside foil

[teigan]

at the moment, i'm lounging in the garage pulling the foil and glue off the engine cover. i don't plan to reapply foil as others have seen fit. i notice it was originally sloppily applied with huge air gaps around all edges and corners. no wonder it comes loose and makes all esprits unsightly. the areas that do make close contact are still good after 27 years, and it's taking a sharp paint scraper to shift it. if done right, it need not have deteriorated. as it stands, i'm going to waste quite a few mornings this week just to clean up the mess lotus made of it. next step will be to sand it all smooth. i have the boot rigged to lift the engine cover lid when up, so a finished surface is all the more desirable.

[F1Karting]

It does look a bit rough after 20 years of use.. but...it does look reasonably good when its fresh and new tho... and its dead easy to re-do, doesnt look half bad, probably functional to some degree, as well as somewhat a protectant for the FRP surface.

Hope your refinishing works out as expected.

[kylie]

teigan said:

at the moment, i'm lounging in the garage pulling the foil and glue off the engine cover. i don't plan to reapply foil as others have seen fit. i notice it was originally sloppily applied with huge air gaps around all edges and corners. no wonder it comes loose and makes all esprits unsightly. the areas that do make close contact are still good after 27 years, and it's taking a sharp paint scraper to shift it. if done right, it need not have deteriorated. as it stands, i'm going to waste quite a few mornings this week just to clean up the mess lotus made of it. next step will be to sand it all smooth. i have the boot rigged to lift the engine cover lid when up, so a finished surface is all the more desirable.

Your not going to leave it un protected are you? Engine covers get pretty hot under there. Not to mention keeping the underside clean. 27yrs you think about it, its pretty good going for a hand built car I think. Just stick some some new foil in there, its one of the easier jobs to do on the esprit. But do what ever, bear in mind the next person who buys your car will be pretty bummed to find you took the foil off. Just my 5cents worth.

[lotusse89]

Yeah what Kylie said, the foil does a fairly effective job of reflecting heat from the interior of the boot and the fuel tanks....

You aren't removing it entirely are you?



I replaced mine with self adhesive aluminum tape made for heater ducts. Cost about $5/roll and was easy to apply.

[teigan]

thanks for the advice everyone. the heat was a concern of mine too, but i monitored the surface temp after a few long drives, and it never gets high enough to deform the fiberglas reinforced polyester. what prompted the foil removal is: i have to make everything clean and smooth to take a usable mould of the underside. once that's done, i may line the original with one layer of carbon. not sure it's worth the trouble because the final goal is a monocoque hexagon sandwich engine cover finished top and bottom. all the glue is finally off, but my fingers are scraped raw. by the way, i had a heat gun attacking the glue bringing parts of the cover to over 600F, and nothing drooped or gave off visible fumes.