Lotus Elan S4 - Blasted Bodyshell

[@dief]

Great video, you’re very thorough and soda blasting certainly shaved 1000s of hours off your project! Happy New Year and keep up the good work and videos!

[@munky2k]

Thanks David! Yeah, theres a chap on the Elan & Plus2 facebook group who stripped the outside paint off his S4 FHC over lockdown and logged all his hours. It took him 260+ hours and that didnt include the interior, engine bay, boot or underside as far as I can remember. With a wife, dogs, full time job and a couple of part time jobs, I just don't have that kind of time to spare. Even if I managed 20 productive hours a week on it, it would have added about a year to the project and taken literally all my free time!

[@davidward4329]

Top restoration job , attention to details . And a car that deserve it . Great video

[@Type36]

Are the mounting bobbins hexagonal? The originals are oval and aluminium.

[@h-j.k.8971]

Very abrupt ending? I was waiting for this Vidio as I had picked my Elan S3 up from Sandblasting a few months ago, so this is a nice comparison. On the whole and after seing this, I am quite satisfied with my own shell as it was much further gone than yours after standing for decades in the desert. Also at some point someone had put Cortina style wheel arches on that looked particularly shoddy. One thing blasting has brought to light is how thin Lotus put on the gelcoat and the many pinholes in the Fiberglas. Good luck with the work ahead, J.

[@munky2k]

So... kinda forgot to film any form of outro, then only realised when putting all the clips together, doh! Like you say, its incredible how thin some of the sections of glass and gel coat are!

[@michaelcole7659]

I was looking for a video in which the car was painted, but couldn't find one. May I ask whether the paint shop re-gel-coated the fiberglass body or, if not, how was the repaint done?

[@munky2k]

It’s not been repainted yet but it will require re-gelcoating before painting

[@michaelcole7659]

I have an Elan +2 in which there are areas that I've repaired that are without gel coat. However, it's my understanding that gel coat won't dry when exposed to air so how will that be resolved? I'm unclear how to deal with these areas.

[@markanthony3275]

A fiberglass repair to an existing fiberglass part is never as strong as the original...because there is no chemical bond between the resin you apply and the resin already hardened in the part. The best you can hope for is a mechanical bond where you rough up the existing part by grinding it or even using sand blasting and then that provides mechanical grip for the new resin and fiberglass.