Firstly, whenever I wash my car it looks great APART from the headlamp covers which are dirty on the inside as is the bodywork on the inside around them
Can I get easily remove and refit the covers - I am thinking of eventually moving to the scooby style lights on Elise Parts.com, but before I do, I want the existing ones to look good…
2nd question… I have noticed a nasty stone chip on the nose which needs attention, but I have no touch up pen. Had a look in Halfords, and there’s nwt for Lotus overall, let alone the Exige
Am I gonna have to go my local Lotus dealer? How much will they charge me for the pleasure?? Mine is metallic black…
I just changed mine, the standard sticky stuff is not at all easy to remove - I used heavy duty velcro on teh new ones … looks fine and is easy removed ( you have to cut the strip to about 5-6mm wide )
Mine is Metalic Black as well - I use BMW cosmos black - its close not 100% but clsoe …
TT
like Andy says it aint easy but you can remove with a small screw-driver and lots of care. The original double sided tape (its like a vynyl type material and quite narrow and black along the edges so you can’t see it easily from the side) costs �25 a roll from Lotus or you could approach your friendly dealer who might give you some? They will hold it in stock as this is a job they do frequently.
A touch-in pen for the orig Lotus colour will probably need to be gotten from Lotus dealers… that’s how they work unfortunately!!
Well it’s going into Lakeside on Tuesday for a B service, so is it worth getting them to do it instead? I have a habit of not being very patient and f*cking these things up…
I think you know the answer to this already…Of course you could go this route… but I would ask them for a firm price before you let them loose, then decide yourself if you want them to do it or do it yourself. No brainer really…
Ive recently taken my covers off and like a fool after trying loads of different double sided tapes I decided to buy some of the proper Lotus stuff. All I can say is dont bother… Its rubbish. The stuff is hardly sticky at all and yes its �25 a roll.
The thing is the Lotus tape is about 5mm thick which positions the covers off the clam enough so they fit nearly perfect but it just aint very sticky!!!
Just as a matter of interest, Originally, mine were sort of stuck on with a black sticky rubber, which looked original but still rubbish, And a pain to get off!
All Im going to do next time is build up a few layers of some black double sided stuff to the same thickness or velcro them so you get em off to clean.
Re.the touch-up paint,I bought some from eliseparts.My car is nautilus blue,which I thought might be difficult to match,but I pleased with the results.
Eliseparts also do headlight covers that you can remove.They use 3 ‘plastic pins’ that,if you can get over the psycological problem of drilling the bodywork,work quite well.You have to be careful not to loose the pins,but they do allow you to take the covers on and off when you wash the car,so you can keep everything looking sparkley!!
Having cleaned the insides, the dealer sealed my headlamp covers back on with black silicon (the bathroom/kitchen stuff I assume). No moisture or dirt in there since.
I used the eliseparts fasteners on my S1 and they were fine.
They are a type of push fit plastic rivet, so I had plenty of spares I ordered a bag of 100 from Farnell.
As for drilling the clam you will need to drill 4 holes per cover (hold the cover in position and drill through both cover and clam using a smaller drill to mark the clam), then use the correct sized drill to finish off the clam. After that you simply push the 4 inserts into clam, place the covers in position and then push the plastic rivets through the covers and into the clam. These can then be removed periodically for cleaning etc. I haven’t yet done my exige but it is on my list of jobs to do.
On the paint front, my local Halfords (large store, Leamington Spa) have a paint mixing machine and said that they could do Lazer Blue without any problem, so presumeably they could do other Lotus colours as well.
(Mind you, last time I went there to buy some simple and common fixings they didn’t have any and I’m not a great fan)
On the paint front, my local Halfords (large store, Leamington Spa) have a paint mixing machine and said that they could do Lazer Blue without any problem, so presumeably they could do other Lotus colours as well.
I tried to get some Lotus Mustard paint mixed at Halfords a few months ago. They said they couldn’t do that colour because it’s got some dangerous chemical in it which they don’t use. Pretty much any body shop should be able to mix some though.
I tried to get some Lotus Mustard paint mixed at Halfords a few months ago. They said they couldn’t do that colour because it’s got some dangerous chemical in it