2004 Lotus Touch Up Paint (3 OEM Colors)

The 2004 Lotus Vibe

Back in '04, Lotus wasn't just a car brand; it was a middle finger to every bloated, 4,000-pound GT on the road. This was the year the Elise finally started haunting the dreams of track-day junkies across the states, joined by the razor-sharp Exige and the final, heavy-hitting runs of the Esprit. These cars were street-legal go-karts wrapped in thin fiberglass skin. While the rest of the world was distracted by early-2000s silver-everything, the only color that truly mattered for a car this light and this British was British Racing Green. It's the soul of the brand-the kind of green that looks fast even when the car is up on jack stands.

Paint Health Check

Listen, we are firmly in The Peeling Era. By 2004, clear coats were high-tech, but the way they bonded to the Lotus composite "clamshell" bodies was always a bit of a gamble. Because fiberglass doesn't dissipate heat like steel, those sharp edges on the front fenders and the rear engine covers take a beating. If your Lotus has spent a decade baking in the sun, that clear coat is likely hanging on by a prayer. The real danger is "Delamination"-once a rock chip pierces the surface, the air pressure at 80mph starts working its way under the clear, causing it to lift away from the base color like a bad sunburn.

Restoration Tip

If you spot a chip on that front clam, do not wait until next season to fix it. On a 2004 model, you need to seal the edges of those chips immediately. If the clear coat starts to lift at the edges, it'll spread across the panel like a rash, and no amount of wax will save it. When you're touching up, build your layers thin and slow. If you see "star cracks"-those tiny spiderwebs in the paint-that's the fiberglass underneath showing stress. Don't try to "blob" paint over them to hide them; clean the area thoroughly, apply your base color in light passes, and let the clear do the heavy lifting of leveling the surface.