John, being the wealthy independent business owner didn’t have the time to restore the Lotus Cortina and instead, decided to purchase a very nice car from Kansas City.For most fans of the Cortina, the Lotus version is the ultimate goal. I had always desired one and now there was an opportunity to acquire a fine example. We agreed on a price and arranged to move the car to my house. While in storage, and guarded by Raleigh the Rottweiler, the Lotus acquired a nice collection of fleas. From then on, the car was known as the “flea car”.

Once the car was moved to my house, I stripped it of everything and sent it off to the body shop. I chose this shop because they had just completed Lewis Hann’s Lotus Cortina. The paint on Lew’s car is excellent. The body shop stripped the car down to bare metal and repaired the dents. This car was a California car with little rust and in general a great shell. One of the benefits of living in California is the climate for cars. The shell was then sprayed with several types of sealing primer and two stage paint. Originally, I wanted to use a single stage paint to preserve the paint line on the green stripe. Unfortunately, single stage paint is very difficult to acquire in the Republic of California and so we chose to go with two stage paint. Basically, two stage paint relies on clear coat to seal the actual paint.

It looks great but may be nicer than the original paint. The green strip was masked before the final clear was applied and then masking was removed and clear applied again to replicate the paint line. A very nice look overall. After about 9 months in the body shop and nearly the equivalent amount of pay, the flea car returned home.

Next time: The assembly begins.