Lotus Europa Community
Lotus Europa Forums => Garage => Topic started by: RafM on Monday,May 10, 2021, 09:45:30 AM
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I'm in the process of putting my TC back together. The aluminium trims for the quarter lights and wind down windows were sent away to be stripped of the anodising layer and re-polished. This didn't work out great as the surface is quite badly pitted and now looks shiny but worse than before somehow. Has anyone had any success restoring these trims to a decent finish? I was thinking of doing a 'brushed' finish, something like a De Lorean body panel has, thanks, Raf.
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I painted mine satin black. Might not suit your taste, but I like it. I used a special aluminum primer first and it's held up well.
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quote author=SwiftDB4 link=topic=4506.msg48881#msg48881 date=1620678584]
I painted mine satin black. Might not suit your taste, but I like it. I used a special aluminum primer first and it's held up well.
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I already had the same thought, painting & lacquering them would be quite easy. Do you have a photo? I'd be interested to see the matt black, I was already thinking of going that way with the windscreen trim instead of the plastic 'chrome' effect.
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After removing the anodized finish I sanded out all the blemishes and pitted and scored surfaces by wet sanding .
It’s a process starting with 400?grit to 2000. After 800 you can put it thru a polishing pad with green rouge to check the finish quality.
It’s only been approximately 2years but still in nice shape.
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You can get them reanodized but it is very very costly. To get two small quarter widow frames done on a 1966 Shelby GT350, a much smaller overall area that Europa window frames was $1000. I polished them out to a near chrome finish and coated them with Protect-a-Clear by Everbrite. 1 800 304-0566. 5 years and no issues.
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Anodizing should not be nearly so expensive. :huh:
I had several batches of aluminum parts done in Reno for a fraction of that.
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Chrome shops in quebec are hard to find, and prices are off the wall, 2 bumpers for Europa $2,000.00 , now I know why cars have rubber bumpers.
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I had mine hard coat anodized after I polished through the original hard coat anodizing. The hard coat anodizing was $750. Polishing was another $250. Expensive!
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I already had the same thought, painting & lacquering them would be quite easy. Do you have a photo? I'd be interested to see the matt black, I was already thinking of going that way with the windscreen trim instead of the plastic 'chrome' effect.
If you're dealing with pits and a generally imperfect surface, powder coating is a pretty good option for little money.
Mine are powder coated black and have stood up well.
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Here's the 'satin ' black photo of the frames. I used 'satin black' which is between flat black and semi gloss black.