Lotus Sport Campagnolo (finished pg24) & XTR (finished pg29)

[Peachy!]

Re: Look for one Lotus Sport and two come along!

Workshop got too cold, so I thought I’d have a muck around with some ideas for the paint schemes/graphics. I played around with the "Classic Team Lotus" stuff but it didn’t really sit well with the bike tubing so instead tried some simplified designs instead.... pretty sure this is what I'll ask Gill to play with..

 

[MR OX]

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Looking superb, Love the idea for decals!

 

[Peachy!]

Re: Re:

Looking superb, Love the idea for decals!

Cheers Ox, I tried a bunch of ideas with two colour paint jobs (yellow stripes for the green & bottom half of tubes in ivory for the red) but it got too complicated and more difficult to make the bikes look like they were still related.

 

[yakboy]

Re: Re:

Looking superb, Love the idea for decals!

I agree but perhaps make the Shimano script a little smaller as it overpowers the Lotus Sport script .

 

[Peachy!]

Re: Re:

Looking superb, Love the idea for decals!

I agree but perhaps make the Shimano script a little smaller as it overpowers the Lotus Sport script .

You may be right, I’m gonna print some off and have a little play with some different sizes

 

[Peachy!]

Re: Look for one Lotus Sport and two come along!

I popped in to see David at https://www.allenchrome.co.uk/ this morning with the framesets to canvas his opinion re how we get these aluminium frames and forks back to their former glory. My original concerns regarding chrome plating were soon dismissed, David explained that although anodising normally looks dull, how shiny ‘bright anodising’ turns out is all down to the prep/polishing.
Just for fun he ran me through some of the stages involved in striping off the old anodising, so as to get back to raw aluminium but without etching/damaging the surface (like you would if doing it at home with caustic cleaner)



The frames need a quick dip to remove the old paint, then the same treatment as these forks, some serious polishing, then… I need to make decision; :?

Option 1;
Re-bright anodise, this is the “correct” way of dealing with it, but has some pitfalls, namely I can say goodbye to the captive nuts for the bottles in the frames, and no anodiser is going to guarantee that the steel tube in the forks won’t be damaged in some way, even with careful dipping. :shock: (it’s also expensive)
Option 2;
Get the main tubes powder coated, remove the masking, quick buff up of any smears, then the whole frame clear powder coated, cheap, effective and can be re-done at a reasonable price if chipped.

What do you think? Opinions anyone?

 

[yakboy]

Re:

I've used Allenchrome in the past for bits on my campervan. They are very good. Don't worry about the captive nuts. I have a professional rivnut tool you can use to replace them. You can get some very good results though if your powdercoater knows what he's doing and it's a tough finish

 

[Peachy!]

Re: Re:

I've used Allenchrome in the past for bits on my campervan. They are very good. Don't worry about the captive nuts. I have a professional rivnut tool you can use to replace them. You can get some very good results though if your powdercoater knows what he's doing and it's a tough finish

Yeah, I’ve got a good relationship with them (I think), so much better in my opinion than the platers that Bob Jackson use, but then you can't beat going in and talking face to face, which is something David is happy to do (as long as you don't twat him about) :roll:

Not too worried about the riv-nuts, I'm more concerned with the forks when it comes to anodising. :cry:

 

[Peachy!]

Re: Look for one Lotus Sport and two come along!

Here’s another Lotus (sorry only the Green Aluminium LX) going cheap on e-bay...

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Lotus-Mounta ... 3834027477

 

[The History Man]

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I’d go brg frame with yellow head tube section to mimic the racing colours.