What does this writing under the car mean?

[lotos]

Saw this at the rear of the car when doing the brakes last week. Any ideas? It wasn't in a shop anywhere near that date.

[nitroman]

Definately looks like the standard writing they did at the factory. I recognize the shot as the boot. You can't even go with dyslexic here, or the European YY/MM/DD format. Maybe your factory assembly person favored a nip in the morning!

Even so, you don't see any of that initals/date info on a "Ford", do ya? They only do that at TVR & the like.

[Brit-Car-Nut]

Randy:

It looks like the writing on the new panels I bought for my rebuild. Is it possible the rear was repaired? Things under there are awfully clean and void of patina from road splash.

If they replaced the entire boot floor or the rear section, they seem to have done a good job. There is a chapter in the workshop manual describing the process of replacing the section so follow it to see if there are any tell tail signs of new adhesives or glues. I replaced 50% of my boot floor, the wheel arch, quarter panel and 50% of the rear topshell along with the rear taillamp bulkhead. I was able to match up the patina and have made it look like the original panels.

You could also do a car fax or a fake listing on eBay to see if any history suggests a previous repair.

If done correctly, that shouldn't affect much and I don't see how it would hurt resale value much either. Glassibre is easily damaged without affecting the structure or suspension.

I was impressed with the VIN sticker on the bottom of the rear bumper. That suggests the bumper wasn't replaced since those stickers don't come off easily and Lotus can't make them anymore.

Maybe someone jacked it by the boot and had to replace the floor?

[lotos]

John: I don't think it's been damaged - it's got less than 15k on the clock and has a clean Carfax/AutoCheck and shows no signs of any repairs anywhere.

Guess it's just a manufacturing note of some kind.

[Brit-Car-Nut]

John: I don't think it's been damaged - it's got less than 15k on the clock and has a clean Carfax/AutoCheck and shows no signs of any repairs anywhere.

Guess it's just a manufacturing note of some kind.

Mine has 20K and the underside was black - not undercoat, just like chassis black. The other two rear clips I have are similar to it. None is brand new clean like yours. Maybe it was damaged in transit from Lotus and Lotus US repaired it? My car has some odd parts with different VINs on them that match VINs from other NMY cars and I checked with Andy at Lotus who verified that cars were damaged getting to the US and were repaired before sale. My fuel door has the right numbers but in the wrong order - go figure. The number sequence on the door matches a different NMY car, so that is also odd. My r/s headlamp pod has the wrong VIN too.

Andy was able to find a notation on my paperwork stating that fuel doors were backordered and he thinks they "borrowed" one from a UK car so mine could leave for the US.

The underside of your car is really very clean. Anyone else have a car with a yelllow/natural finish bottom of the boot floor?

[Specky]

At first glance it looks Standard, I've seen the name before on other suff. There are a few personal idents that's spring to mind and you have one of them. They're normally initials, but this fella seems to write his name.

Sometimes the panels were identified during the bonding process as a sort of Quality Assurance check. Another set of numbers which are normally visible are inside the trunk.

Look behind the carpet above the wheel arches, one will be covered with foil to surpress interference on the radio, the other should be bare, which is where you should see a similar ident.

Another similar ident is normally found in the trunk below the numberplate insert.

I'll see if I can trawl my data base for a similar photo of the same name.

Don't take this as gospel because I haven't verified it yet, but USA car number 8 (in NMY) tub built on the 7th Oct.

TTFN

[Brit-Car-Nut]

Sounds plausable. I am not near my new panels but will take some pictures next week for comparison. I will also look at Steve M's old car's boot floor as his was a 23K car. Being all east coaust US cas, they might have been undercoated by the selling dealers whereas other regions might not do that.

[superbad]

Wouldn't virtually everyone in England cross their 7s?

[epipete]

Wouldn't virtually everyone in England cross their 7s?

No! I don't think so, it's very Continental, certainly my generation weren't educated to I don't know about the kids

[nitroman]

None of my three USA cars were undercoated black. They looked just like yours underneath.

[lotos]

The undercoating was probably a dealer-installed option to keep the fiberglass from rusting.

[tigerdog]

The undercoating was probably a dealer-installed option to keep the fiberglass from rusting.

[Rambo]

The undercoating was probably a dealer-installed option to keep the fiberglass from rusting.

That's what I thought too

[Brit-Car-Nut]

I have 3 boot sections from 3 different parts of the country and they are all coated/painted. My nmy car is from the North East and I could see undercoating being considered but the chassis is nice gray. One is Steve M.'s old body from Virginia and the other came from a California car. My NMY was sold by a dealer in Massachusetts. For Steve's and the Calif cars, I don't have that info.

My sections look like they have been painted with a semi gloss black.

I have two NEW floor pan assemblies and I will unwrap them and see how they are delivered by Lotus.

[lotos]

Guys, I was joking. Although I wouldn't put it past most dealers to try. FYI I've got a CA car so fiberglass rust is less of an issue there.

[Faraday]

Could it be £8. 7s. 10d ? Just a thought

[tomatcbl]

If it was an original Elan perhaps, but surely not in 1990's

[nitroman]

underneath (clicky)