Lotus Europa Community
Lotus Europa Forums => Garage => Topic started by: Europa73 on Wednesday,October 18, 2017, 05:50:03 AM
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Hi has anyone out there restored a dash?
looking for advise on what lettering to use.
I have seen some out there that are cut out words - do these look good under the final finish?
Thanks,
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I recently did a Europa Special dash from scratch using the old water logged one as a pattern. I used the stick-on lettering from RD Enterprises after 5 coats of varnish. An additional 5 coats made the surface over the lettering smooth. It is tedious to get the lettering trimmed and positioned, but with patience, it can be done and looks good.
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My Dad and I have done his plus 2 dash. As Pfreen said cutting and lining up the words is the tedious part. We had the same sheet of labels from Rd. We put quite a few coats of clear on and the names still partly show as a bulge but we are very happy with the final result
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Many thanks,
The dash looks great!
One question - after you apply the finish coats - I know there is a slight bulge - but can you see the edge of the cut outs E.g. they still look like cut out labels?
Cheers,
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The more coats of varnish you apply the less you see the edges. I will try to take a picture next time I am over there. I might not be in the shop until the weekend though.
Ross
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much appreciated.
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The more coats of varnish with sanding between coats will eventually eliminate the raised edges of the decal.
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Here is what ours look like close up. You can see the sticker a tiny bit when really close but we had already spent a lot of time on the dash and moved on. Looks great but depending on the light and angle you can see the labels in our case.
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That's pretty smart. The switches look great, what did you do on those ?
Brian
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Lettering looks great!
Cheers
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The whole dash was apart so we painted the switches a satin black to get rid of the faded gray.