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Lotus Europa Forums => Garage => Topic started by: John R on Wednesday,March 03, 2021, 09:24:55 PM

Title: Silver sills - colour code
Post by: John R on Wednesday,March 03, 2021, 09:24:55 PM

Hi All
I am close to respraying my 73 Special but in spite of trawling through previous discussions on the subject, I can't find a definite answer about the original colour code for the silver paint on the sills! Greatly appreciate some advice....
Thanks

Title: Re: Silver sills - colour code
Post by: Pfreen on Thursday,March 04, 2021, 03:35:41 AM

I believe the sills were originally done using the fiberglass gelcoat resin with silver flake sparkles in it.  That was popular in the 60's and 70's on dune buggys. 

I could not figure out how to do that, so I sprayed the sills with rattle can (Rustoleum) silver glitter paint.  It takes some practice not to get streaks.  I then followed with 2 part Spraymax clear.

I think it looks close to original, but my car's original sills were quite dingy looking.

Title: Re: Silver sills - colour code
Post by: TurboFource on Thursday,March 04, 2021, 04:51:47 AM

Do you have a pic of how they turned out?

Title: Re: Silver sills - colour code
Post by: Pfreen on Thursday,March 04, 2021, 05:09:05 AM

I will take one and post.

Title: Re: Silver sills - colour code
Post by: BDA on Thursday,March 04, 2021, 05:41:46 AM

I had the body shop spay mine in silver using the largest metal flakes they had.

Title: Re: Silver sills - colour code
Post by: cwtech on Thursday,March 04, 2021, 05:57:20 AM

You could check with sign/printing shops that do vinyl graphics or wraps.

There are many durable vinyls in metallic or metal flake patterns.

Title: Re: Silver sills - colour code
Post by: Pfreen on Thursday,March 04, 2021, 06:03:29 AM

Here is a photo of my sill.

Title: Re: Silver sills - colour code
Post by: TurboFource on Thursday,March 04, 2021, 12:15:42 PM

Looks good to me!

Title: Re: Silver sills - colour code
Post by: EuropaTC on Thursday,March 04, 2021, 11:07:26 PM

Quote from: cwtech on Thursday,March 04, 2021, 05:57:20 AM

You could check with sign/printing shops that do vinyl graphics or wraps.

There are many durable vinyls in metallic or metal flake patterns.

That's a great idea, very simply to replace when it picks up too many stone chips and far easier than respraying. And if you don't like it you can simply peel it off !

Brian