Servicing & Maintenance; Bodycare; Body Features - Lotus 2005 Elise Owner's Handbook Manual

SERVICING AND MAINTENANCE

BODYCARE

Body Features

Lotus are among the world leaders in the field of automotive
composite moulding design and manufacturing techniques.
Composite materials have major advantages for specialist car
bodies, and these brief notes introduce some features of the
construction and service properties of automotive composite
bodies.
The manufacturing process enables the thickness of com-
posite mouldings to be varied in order to provide efficient
structures of high strength and low weight. Composites will not
corrode, so the strength of composite components is retained
regardless of age, unless physical damage is sustained. On
the Elise, the body construction utilises several mouldings to
form a single unit for the whole of the nose and front wings, and
a second unit for the whole of the rear body aft of the doors.
These two moulded assemblies are fixed using threaded fasten-
ers to permit easy removal for access to chassis or powertrain
components, or to allow simple and economic accident repair.
Other composite mouldings include the door shells, sills, front
access panels, windscreen frame and rear bulkhead, some
panels being bonded to the aluminium alloy chassis with an
elastomeric adhesive.
Several different processes are used to manufacture the
various panels depending on the functional requirements, with
the main outer panels using an injection compression mould-
ing technique which eliminates the 'gelcoat' used on the outer
surface of conventionally manufactured composite panels. This
process provides considerably increased resistance to surface
damage from minor knocks, where a conventional composite
panel would suffer cracking of the gel coat, or a steel panel be-
come dented. If severe damage is caused to a composite panel
where the underlying structure is broken, repairs may take the
form of panel replacement, or of panel repair using techniques
where new composite material is integrated with the old to result
in undiminished panel strength.
oh_croft_InD.indd 93
93
20/05/2004 07:59:03