Listen to your parents. (I know, easier said than done at times!) When our customer's mom told him not to sell his father's 1984 Lotus Esprit, he listened. To honor his parents, he is taking the time to restore and revive this beautiful vehicle. Being in storage for quite some time, the paint needs a little work in places, but we were able to add a partial matte black wrap to the roof, deck lid, window louvres and window posts.

For those new to the Lotus name, the Lotus Esprit sports car was built in the United Kingdom between 1976 and 2004. As a company, Lotus has a tradition of beginning all model names with the letter "E", and that's how this design became known as the Esprit. This 1984 model is considered third generation. Although Lotus revealed a new generation of the Esprit in 2010, production of the updated, futuristic design never came to fruition. Luckily, there are well cared for gems like this one still on the road.

We loved watching this beautiful car roll into our shop. Although it was raining a bit, it didn't take long for us to dry it off and clean it up!

This view of the car shows the roof, deck lid, window louvres and window posts before being wrapped.  

When our client first approached us with the project, he wasn't sure how much of the vehicle he wanted wrapped. It can be difficult to picture how a partial wrap will look, and he felt more comfortable starting small and adding as he went along. We gave him an estimate range, showing him what the maximum cost would be. We came up with a plan to start the wrap, and he stayed in our shop so he could watch the process and decide what he wanted to add and when he wanted to stop.

We started with the roof. Because of the Esprit's design (and rear window louvres), we didn't have an easy way to reach the roof to install the partial vinyl wrap. Lucky for us, our scaffolding was the perfect size to roll around the vehicle. This gave us a working platform right above the Lotus where we could reach all areas of the roof while keeping weight off of other parts of the vehicle. Brilliant!

We couldn't ask for a more perfect fit! With four sets of hands, we gently rolled the scaffolding over the Lotus so that we could begin the roof installation.

Once the roof was complete, we began the installation on the deck lid and rear window louvres. With the engine location in the rear of the vehicle, the vinyl settled nicely since the car had just been driven and was still nice and warm. 

Here's a shot of Felix doing what he does best! Felix = Perfection!

This photo shows the completed roof and deck lid before we started placing the wrap on the window louvres.

We added the final bit of vinyl to the window posts. The addition of the 3M Matte Deep Black vinyl to the window posts brought the entire look together. At this point, our customer was more than thrilled at the way his car looked. We have to admit that we were too! Nothing more was needed to make this 1984 Lotus Esprit look fantastic.

Beautiful, isn't it?! If you quickly scroll up to the photos at the top, you can see what a difference the matte black wrap makes on this classic car.

We hope to see this vehicle again as it continues to be restored to its original condition. It's nice to know that this car has been in our customer's family from the beginning. We hope our customer has many years ahead in it, fulfilling the wishes of his parents and keeping his dad's memory alive. 

If you have something special in your life that needs a little vinyl update, contact us today to see how we can help. For vehicles, we can install color change wraps or custom graphics that create exactly the look you want. You can reach us at (615) 595-6564 or by clicking on the link below. We look forward to hearing from you!