Bumpers, horizontal panels-odd patterns, anybody see this?

[John Price]

Well my education on the Elan M100 continues. I've pretty much decided in the next few months I'll be taking the plunge into Elan ownership.

Today I went to look at and test drive one that's possibly going to be offered to me if I want to buy it.

One cosmetic issue I noticed that I wanted to ask the group here about -

On the hood and trunk lids and top of the front bumper there are raised imperfections that match the underlying support structures (look like box outlines). I was told this could be from the car sitting out in the sun for long periods of time. A repaint doesn't look like it'd fix it as these are raised areas - they'd have to be sanded or blended some way in the surrounding panel.

Has anybody here seen this before ? Is it common ? Is it easily fixed ?

Thanks,

John Price
Denver CO

[dapinky]

John,

I don't know if it is a common issue, but the same 'marks' are visible on mine.

It is only in certain lighting, at certain angles, but they are there on the bonnet (hood!).

As you say, they appear to follow the strengthening bars, and i only really notice them when i give the paint a coat of polish.

I have to admit that i'm no perfectionist, and they don't bother me at all, in fact, i forgot about them until i read your post!

My car had a partial re-paint a couple of years ago (before i got it) so i can't say if they were present before or not - perhaps someone with 'original' paint can comment on theirs????

[chrisP]

Hi John
I can't say as to what causes the lines on the panels, but I had them on the front of mine before a front end respray to get rid of stone chips, they reappeared eventually though.

Chris

[F1 LOTUS]

Some resin systems, paints and fillers (polyesters more than epoxies) continue to cure and shrink throughout their life, any section-changes and local reinforcements can lead to deformation (because of relative movement). Unfortunately there's not much can be done about this; filling, sanding and a respray will improve the surface in the short term, but the underlying structure will continue to do it's thing and the marks will eventually come back to some extent