Lotus Europa Community

Hi, no help on the powder coating I'm afraid, but in the same boat as you albeit just the five Cosmics to refinish. Went through the same cost/benefit analysis as you did with the idea of getting them diamond cut, only to find I could have bought a new set from Cosmic (or whoever holds the IP for them now), plus I'm trying to do as much as I can, and this will be the 9th or 10th set of alloys I've refurbed, including a set of Cosmics for my Mini half a lifetime ago, so hopeful of an acceptable outcome.

Only thing I can offer which you may already know about is that you can get scotch pads for rotary sander/polishers, which I didn't know about until I watched a few YouTube wheel refurb videos for tips. Ordered a set which arrived this week so not had chance to test them yet on the spare, they are marked 3M (but came from China so who knows) and might reduce some of the sheer drudgery and fingerprint recognition fails that follow doing it manually. Will post again when I have tried them out.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/224123446309?var=522912300925

I have fitted manual over-ride earth switches to my cars. The fan is loud, so you can hear when you have switched it on. Normally only needed in heavy traffic or road works with a long wait at traffic lights.

Power was out most of the day here so I looked for something to do manually.
I have ten Cosmic wheels to refinish, six Lotus and four for TR4.
Working on just one today I am reminded how labor intensive this could be.
I used aluminum duct tape to mask off the bare aluminum areas.
I plan to soda-blast the black to bare aluminum without affecting the bright areas then buff with scratch pads.
A bit more tedious than expected but I hope the masking will hold up well enough to leave it in place for repainting.
Just doing one for now as an experiment.
Not a horrible job and I am certain I would not want to pay someone else for their time to do it either.
If this works well it should be possible to PP silver then mask for black/dark grey.
I found a shop to redo the original diamond-cut for them but the cost is the same as just buying the new reproductions!
Thinking that PP should be less cost and very durable, particularly if I do the masking.
I think PP can be masked with normal paper tape.
PP is not original of course but my plan is to DRIVE this car.
Anyone else done PP on their Cosmic's?

The otter switch has been redundant on my car since, well, probably before I got it in the 80s. The original owner of my car had fitted a dash switch and when I used the car daily in traffic I'd just flick it on if I got caught in a jam, otherwise it wasn't needed.  All that's happened in my ownership is to rewire and fit a relay in the circuit, plus of course changing the fan for a more modern unit. When I tidied up the radiator 10+yrs ago the old switch was still there but all it's doing is keeping the coolant in.

If you really do want automatic control and can't fit the OEM switch then aftermarket fans such as the Kenlow I have on the Elan came with a bulb sensor & leads which you could slide into the top hose. There is a small rubber moulding, hard to describe but mine is a sort of half circle with indentations for the wire. This sits on the alloy thermosat housing outlet and the original hose slides over the combination and seals very well. You can set the temperature you want it to come on and it also has an override switch with a light to tell you when it's on. The original fan has long since been replaced by a slimmer, modern unit but the controller is still in there.

Brian

  Got to clean up the lines in the graphics. I did it freehand and will nib sand till I get it perfect, then reclear the entire panel. I love making people bring out the magnifying glasses 😂
  I doubt this will be attached to my car but I’ll try my best to keep the JPS theme alive.
Dakazman

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