Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Hi

What is the correct colour for the cam cover for an elan S3 S/E?

Cheers

Diego

Green, according to Wilkin's book on Twin cams. What shade of green is probably another topic.

Mini engine hammertone green apparently. Which is what I found some traces of on the cover of my early plus 2 which was of the early style with the writing on both sides.

gjz30075 wrote:Green, according to Wilkin's book on Twin cams. What shade of green is probably another topic.

Has someone the paint reference of the green? Is the reference similar us the green used in the lotus cortina stripe?

My first S3 S/E, which I bought in 1984, had 'metallic' mid green cam cover, I couldn't find traces of any other paint. It could have been repainted, but it still had the chassis number written on the front of the engine (kit built) so I guess it could have been original. My current S3 and previous S3's that owned have had MOWOG green camcovers or at least traces of that colour.

I think the shade of green used on Lotus Cortinas is different. I also think that Quality Control in the 1960's was laughable and Lotus would have used paints that were 'close enough'.

This is MOWOG green

I guess we'll just have to disagree.

I suggest you re-read my original post, I'm not sure if you understood it.

The blue hammered finish was on the standard engines.

My S3 S/E dhc was sold in April '67, it was sold to its second owner in December '68, he had it till he sold it to me in 2011. The car had done 46,000 miles from new. The engine, other than the water pump, had not been apart, it still had the chassis number written on the top of the front cover - the engine had not been painted. I matched the cam cover colour to what was there originally, it looks a little dark in the photo...I guess somebody at Lotus must have painted it the wrong colour.

Does this help as to the shade?

Yes! Thanks that's it. BMC A series green. MOWOG is was on a lot of BMC stuff in the 50's and 60's,

Thanks Steve, better colour than in my dark photo.

Hi

When it became time to redecorate my 1967 +2 cam cover (lotus down each side), scraping the tatty black crinkle paint off revealed that it had been previously painted green. Not a hammer finish but flat paint in the BMC MOWOG shade of green.

Although it is not a very stylish finish I decided to repaint it in green. The lighter shade as I believe there were two shades of green used by BMC.

Mike

Story is the green paint used by Morris-Wolseley Group, MOWOG was army surplus left over from war time production, so probably there were many suppliers and shades.
It would not surprise me if the Grey ( Battle Ship grey ) has similar origins.