Thursday, December 29, 2011

Restoring the Lotus Esprit Engine Bay Cover

Although I’ve never been a big fan of the early Esprit engine cover (it looks a lot like Lotus ripped it off an old vintage boat!), it’s another piece that had to be restored. I sanded down the exterior, fixed some stress cracks, and painted it using standard Detroit automotive primer (the stuff they primer modern US cars with). It’s a semi-gloss black – the same color I used to spray both the front and rear bumpers.

The back of the engine cover was cleaned and then I re-applied a layer of heat shielding material to replace the old. The new mounting fixtures were powder coated and re-applied. The edge seal was replaced with a 1991 BMW E30 trunklid seal. It had almost the same dimensions and fit perfectly, and a lot cheaper than sourcing it from England.



3 comments:

  1. Just started this. Previous owner cut a hole in mine for a fan so have to patch it up. Thanks for the tips.

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  2. Where did you get the 1991 BMW E30 trunklid seal? I'm completing my repair and having it resprayed. There are little ties on it to keep it in place but they don't appear to be that necessary?

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  3. That is really nice to hear. thank you for the update and good luck. mustang gt drilled and slotted rotors

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