[erics75218]

I had Sweet Daddy D make me up an E X I G E rear sticker to replace the "Times New Roman" chrome LOTUS lettering. I also, obviously, removed the Exige from just below the original LOTUS lettering.

I thought about putting the Lotus badge on there, but I think on the Exige, the mounting position of the CHMSL forces that badge down and off center of the tail lights. It still looks good, but I think it looks a BIT crammed in.

I think this looks good, and I really like how the more modern font seems to fit the overall design of the car better anyways.

Thanks to Sweet Daddy D for hooking me up with Sweet Daddy DECALS!!

 

[chris heath]

that looks great

 

[SIIK2NR]

Good idea. Maybe try with the letters spaced a little closer together. The distance from the "E" and the light is less than the distance from the "E" and the "X" which makes the text look stretched. Overall it looks good.

 

[SweetDaddyD]

Came out good on the car. Thank you for posting a pic!

Keith

 

[erics75218]

yeah, you can play with the spacing for sure.

If I had it to do over again as well, i'd make the bottom of the "i" flat....since it's spaced out.....it no longer fits "over" the "x".

But overall I give it 9 out of 10 stars.

 

[SweetDaddyD]

They are spaced the same as the stock L-O-T-U-S letters. Perhaps inside tail light to inside tail light is a bit shorter distance on the Exige? Also the letters in the Exige style sized properly are a bit wider than the stock "Lotus" style so possibly that make make 1/4" or so difference on each end.?
The "i" is the same height as the "E" and "G" but it does have a little different perspective when kerned out. I fooled with it quite a bit and at one point had it square at the bottom. I also messed around with making the height of the X different to make it fit better. In the end with a visual the different ways what you got up there came out looking the best to my eye.

I think they look great.

 

[Ballz]

That looks really nice!

 

[Cardinal]

SDD seems to do great work. Looks good.

 

[mrcarcrazy]

Looks great. I can only imagine if I did that here. People already tailgate me to read the LOTUS on the back....then they'd really be confused...well maybe not any more than they are now, since nobody here knows what a "lotus" is.

 

[qu1Z]

Looks great.

Still waiting for my matte black lotus lettering in the mail - ordered it from keith about a week ago. Keith, while I'm in this thread - quick question for you.

Can I just put the new black lettering over my stock chrome lettering? That will save me some work in taking off the old letters... or do they not match up exactly? Thanks.

 

[SweetDaddyD]

Looks great.

Still waiting for my matte black lotus lettering in the mail - ordered it from keith about a week ago. Keith, while I'm in this thread - quick question for you.

Can I just put the new black lettering over my stock chrome lettering? That will save me some work in taking off the old letters... or do they not match up exactly? Thanks.

They should be in the mail tomorrow. I've been pretty behind since getting back from NY and the shirt buy ended up taking up a lot of time.

I'd use the old letters to line the new ones up, then hinge them, flip them up and tape them out of the way. Then remove the chrome letters, and lay the flat black ones down. I can't guarantee they won't be a couple thousandths off in a place or two from what you have now.

Also the chrome is not rated for that long a life, so people should start getting it off their 05's now. In a couple more years getting it off may not be an option anymore. In 05 I think 3 year outdoor chrome was just getting on the market. It is possible that Lotus supplier was using a 1 year chrome on the early 05's. Our cars aren't usually continuously outdoors so we'll get some extra time on that rating but still- most of them are approaching the end of their life and will start being hard to take off.

The matte black you are getting will be good for 10 years of continuous outdoor use. I'm sure you'll have yours indoors sometimes.

 

[erics75218]

getting my chrome letters was a bitch. I did no research and just started trying to get them off....probably a bad idea. My finger nails were PISSED!! eventually I used the edge of a credit card to "scrape" the letters off. The car is nice and waxed, so it slips over the "paint" with ease and no scratch, but hangs up on the letters, so it was easy. Then just a CRAPload of bug and tar remover and elbow grease...then 409 to clean it up (saw that on a YouTube video, I hope that's cool SDD) and they went on with ease.

 

[SweetDaddyD]

409 that one is new to me. I try to use rubbing alcohol as much as possible, but when it just doesn't work you gotta bring in the other stuff. whenever you use anything else to clean use rubbing alcohol to get rid of the residue before you put the decal down. Proper cleaning is the most important thing, second is using enough pressure to apply them and set the adhesive. More=better. It's called "pressure sensitive" adhesive for a reason.

 

[Thomasio]

SDD is da man for all of your graphics needs! :up:

 

[qu1Z]

Well I got my matte black lotus rear letting today!

Taking off the old chrome lettering wasn't difficult at all. First I took some blue tape and just taped next to the top of the old letters and the sides so I could align the new letters later. I used my fingernails to take them off... took about 30 minutes. Then I applied some WD-40 with a micro-fiber. Then I took another micro-fiber with soap/water and cleaned the area up and got rid of all of the goopy junk. I applied the LOTUS sticker and it looks great! Another quality product from Keith. In the end, it took about an hour to do the whole thing. I will post pics when I am near the car in daylight.

Supplies needed:

3 Micro-fiber Towels (1 for WD-40, 1 for Soap/water, 1 for drying)
WD-40
Soap/Water
Flashlight (So you can see if you got all the goopy junk off - i did it in the dark lol)
Fingernails or credit card
Hair Dryer

Thanks.