2011 Lotus Touch Up Paint (4 OEM Colors)

The 2011 Lotus Vibe

Welcome to 2011, the year when Lotus was trying to convince the world it could do "refined" with the Evora while still letting the raw, unfiltered Elise and Exige have one last rowdy hurrah. While the rest of the automotive world was drowning in a sea of boring rental-car silver, we've focused on the survivors that actually had some soul. We're talking about the stealthy Carbon Grey and Starlight Black Metallic for the track rats, and for the extroverts, that punchy Medium Blue or the "look-at-me" Bright Yellow Metallic Tricoat. These cars were designed to be light enough to float, but that weight-saving obsession didn't stop at the chassis-it went right into the paint booth.

Paint Health Check

We are firmly in the Thin Paint Era. By 2011, the robots in the factory had become masters of efficiency, which is just a fancy way of saying they sprayed as little clear coat as they could get away with. On a Lotus, where every gram is the enemy, those factory coats are notoriously lean. Because these cars sit three inches off the asphalt and have composite skins, they don't just get chips; they get "star-cracked" reminders of every pebble you chased on the backroads. The clear coat is hard but brittle, and if you haven't been keeping it sealed, the UV rays are likely starting to turn that factory gloss into a dull, hazy memory.

Restoration Tip

When you're dealing with these thin-skinned 2011 models, you have to resist the urge to "blob and go." If you try to fill a deep chip in one shot, the paint will shrink as it cures, leaving you with a divot that looks like a crater. Build your layers slowly. Apply a thin layer of color, let it flash off, and repeat until you're just below the surface. Then-and this is the part people mess up-apply your clear coat in two light passes rather than one thick drop. Since the factory clear is already thin, you don't have much room to sand it flat later, so precision now saves you a headache tomorrow.