Just one for your info guys - I have got a white “ghosting” under the Lacquer coat on the front clam. Albert is investigating.And no, I have not been abusing myself over the clam in the wee small hours - I use the exhaust for that.
I’ve had this too on a new aluminium vehicle - Lotus field engineer has looked at it and agreed to have it resprayed under warranty. Apparently its due to the metallic flake lying in the wrong direction!!!
Or maybe the metallic flake is correct but the car was facing in the wrong direction when they sprayed it??Maybe Dave should start a new section with ‘least convincing excuse by Lotus’.
Ken - nice one…hadn’t thought of that…but its probably equally possible
Why don’t they just admit that it is a quality control problem? They are simply not checking their very expensive product before it goes out.Lotus Engineer’s Report:Due to an unexpected vacuum in the rear luggage compartment, the vehicle failed to perform as expected. Once the vacuum was displaced, it performed to spec. It is not unusual in performance cars that such vacuums cause performance reduction.In plain English:The car managed to slip through our checks without an engine being fitted. Engine fitted and customer appears satisfied.
My Exige (new Aluminium) has a light crack in the paintwork, on the rear clam, above the offside wheel. It’s only about an inch long, and is hard to spot. The sensible thing would be to have it sorted under warranty (no it hasn’t had a shunt), but I must admit I don’t want to have the whole rear-end painted over a hair-line crack, and risk the car coming back in two different colours.Any comments ?
A good paint man (oops person) will have no problem matching colour, but as already mentioned in this thread the lay of the metallic can sometimes show. The big problem is getting a good paint man (sorry again). I have an excellent paint man (this time that�s correct) who I will use when my car needs the enviable stone chip work, but warranty is an uncertainty. My car has a problem with the door hitting the rear clam, which will need painting, my opinion is if its not right then it goes back until it is. If you can wait until you have to have the stone chips done just wait (provided you know a good paint person) If you live in the south-east you might like to email me and I will give you my mans contact. I have used him for many years, for many different jobs and he has never let me down. Once he even refused to let me collect my car when he sore the metallic was laying the wrong way, which I could not spot looking at the car.
WARNING!!! I’m sort of unlucky with all my Lotus. Whenever I own one for longer than about a month, some asshole parks in my front clamshell. I had this with my Elise… and now again with my Exige. So I’m used to respraying jobs. Problem is: The paint sticks very poorly to the epoxy (?) compound of the body. And a resprayed part doesn’t usually have the time to thoroughly dry AND it work is done in less layers of paint than at the factory. So the NEW paint layer is even more fragile than the original one. If you only have a nearly unnoticable crack in the paintwork, I would strongly recommend NOT to respray the clamshells because from then on even birdie**** leaves stains and scratches on your car you can’t polish away. I won’t even mention stonechipping… front clamshell? Respray? NEVER! If there is no REALLY deep scratch in it!
I feel Paws� comments do depend on the quality of the work carried out by the paint person (got it right this time). I have had work done my paint man which involved 12 layers of paint (five of which where lacquer), he is well aware of the problems of painting of GRP bodies, and Carbon ones (work he has done for me in the past). I have never ever had any problems with him, even years after the work has been carried out. My Exige will be painted when required (or when I get fed up with the marks)Lotus can paint no better, and no worst than any one else, it just depends on the quality of the work that is carried out. Let�s face it Lotus quality is not exactly the best, so why should we think that their paint is an exception to the rule. (Hence the reason for this thread)If you can find a quality painting person, who cares about their work, and their reputation, knows about the differences in base coats which depend on the materials being painted, then have your car painted. On the other hand if you don�t know the quality of the work you are going to have carried out then think long and hard.Chris.[This message has been edited by H15EXG (edited 11 April 2001).]
Exactly my point. AND let the fresh paint dry thoroughly!
Cheers guys.
Lotus painted the door on my elise and the paint did not match!They have just sent me a cheque for �4000.00 to make up for it.
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Duncan…�4k for a badly painted door…am I missing something here?
Steve, it’s a very long story! [image]http://www.exiges.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/rolleyes.gif[/image]
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Apologies, it wasn’t supposed to sound too gloatish…Briefly, having paid �1500 for premium paint, soon after delivery, micro-blisters and a crack appeared on the drivers door. Lotus resprayed the door and it the microblisters re-appeared.Worse still, the paint colour on the door mismatched the rest of the car. They polished the rear clam so heavily that they went through the lacquer. The car required a new door to prevent a recurrence of the microblisters, and the only was of getting a paint colour match was to blend adjacent panels. The elise doesn’t lend itself to blending because of the one piece construction of the front / rear clams. Lotus agreed that a complete respray was the answer and paid the repair/respray costs plus a litle extra for the cost of alternative transport / diminution in value. Despite the cheque, I would have rather had an unmolested car from day one and have not been outraged by the rude / incompetent behaviour by the supplying dealers staff. The conduct of Lotus in relation to my case was hardly satisfactory either. This is the brief version honest.!!
quote:This is the brief version honest.!!He’s not lying either! [image]http://www.exiges.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/wink.gif[/image]
My original problem has been solved. Lotus Ribble Vally paint man says something about polish and wax - what’s all that about then? [image]http://www.exiges.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/wink.gif[/image]
Well, mine can never be accused of under-polished, eh Steve?
I didn’t say a word david !