Repairing an intricate fiberglass fracture on our Lotus Elan

Update by Tim Suddard to the Lotus Elan project car
Oct 2, 2024 | Lotus, Fiberglass, lotus elan

Fiberglass breaks.

Fortunately, fiberglass can be repaired, too.

We recently had to make a difficult and rather odd repair on our Lotus Elan.

[Video: A step-by-step guide on how to repair fiberglass]

First, what we faced. On either side of the Elan’s hood sits a built-in latch catch made from fiberglass.

One of those latches was broken from the hood. We’re thinking that someone slammed the hood too hard.



So we had to go in and carefully patch the area with fiberglass resin and cloth.

The main issue lay in working in tight confines. We found that we could move the resin-soaked cloth into the correct position with a small hook. Then, while gently tamping down on the wet fiberglass with a brush, we’d use our gloved fingers to press out the air.

It took a bit of fiddling, but we were able to fix the problem and, hopefully, it holds.