Maintenance

I added a missing O Ring between the airbox and the air metering unit:


I replaced the tired looking lock module breaker with an updated one. I updated the electrical connections to ring terminals, and eliminated some T-Taps:


New door and hoods struts.

New Cooling Fan Breaker.

Costs:

Seal O Ring

DMC Midwest

$ 1.50

Luggange Comaprtment Struts

DMC Midwest

$ 39.95

Door struts soft lift in pairs

SpecialTAuto.com

$ 69.95

Door Lock 25 Amp Breaker

SpecialTAuto.com

$ 2.95

Cooling Fan 40 Amp Breaker

SpecialTAuto.com

$ 2.95

Ring Terminals

Menards

$ 1.00

   

$ 118.30

(taxes and shipping not included)

 

Polyurethane Sway Bar Bushings

I’m trying to reduce vibrations while driving. It was recommended to try some poly sway bar bushings.

Old bushings, new ones:


While I had the sway bar out, I POR 15 painted it:


Old paint flaking off?


Can’t tell, but it’s now glossy black:


I crossed some threads reinstalling the bolts to the sway bar in the crumble tube. I reinstalled the bolt, and it went in a little rough. Ugh.

 

Costs:

Bushings for end (set of 4): $75.00
Bushings for clamps (set of 2): $34.00
POR15: On hand

Old Radiator Sold!

I replaced my radiator last year with a newer improved all-aluminum model. My old plastic-tanked radiator was still functional. I found someone online looking for a radiator, and they were interested in mine.

Just before shipping:


Costs/Profit:

Radiator

$75.00

Paypal Fee

($2.48)

UPS Shipping

($35.19)

Profit:

$37.33


Not too much profit. I need to find a different shipping method.
The new owner said the radiator is installed and working.

Dash Mat

Even with a perfectly working R12 Air Conditioning system, the drive to Lexington in June was very hot. The black dashboard throws off a lot of heat on a sunny day. I decided to buy a dash mat. After a quick search on dmctalk.com, I found the best fitting, and best priced dash cover is from Dash Designs. They sell through eBay, search “Dash Designs Delorean.” I ordered the Grey Carpet cover on 7/26 and it showed up 8/12:



It comes with some Velcro strips to secure it to the dash board. I haven’t decided if I’m going to use them, or go another route. It fits pretty good:

The grey on black isn’t the best combination, but my interior is already mixed. Besides, I only plan to use the dashcover for warm, sunny drives.


Costs:

Dash Designs DeLorean Dashcover – $34.99 (no tax or shipping!)

Third Brake Light

I finally got around to installing a third brake light. I previously bought a corvette brake light meant to be attached to the top of the louvers. I couldn’t bring myself to drill into the louvers, and didn’t want to paint everything to match, so resold the light on eBay. I wanted a light that mounted perpendicular to the top louver, in front of the center brace. I finally settled on a 20 LED Red light bar from JC Whitney. I followed these instructions outlined in a How-To at DMCtalk. Here’s what I started with:


Pictured:

20 LED Brake Light
Automotive fuse holder
Automotive fuse kit
Electrical connectors
Blue Wire (leftover from the door launchers installation)
Black Wire (pulled from some cannibalized electronics)
Black Plastic VHS Case
Ratcheting Wire Crimpers
Utility Knife
Wire Strippers
Double sided Foam Tape

Not Pictured:
1″ Wood Chisel
Duct Tape
Electrical Tape

Here I go. I needed a bracket to hold the light bar in place. I found a VHS case would be black, light weight, rust free, and easy to work with. I used my knife, and chisel to create two brackets for the light bar:



I notched one bracket for the wiring:


I had some Molex connectors that I previously bought when troubleshooting my radiator fans. I want to be able to disconnect the light if I ever remove the louvers, so I’m using one on the light:


Using a coat hanger to feed my wires through the stainless. The coat hanger was just long enough:



Here I’ve tapped into the brake lights, with a 5 amp fuse in between . If there’s a short on my third brake light, the fuse will blow, leaving the other brake lights unharmed. And what’s a project without a little duct tape:


Grounded:


Testing, it works!


A foam taped bracket:



More foam tape:


Installed!



One downside to my wiring is the molex connector I used doesn’t fit through the “rear screen upper finisher.” Foam tape to hold the connector to the louver:


Barely visible:





Crude Photoshop job on my license plate:


I tried to photograph that I can’t even see the light in my rear-view mirror:


Costs:
20 LED Light Bar from JC Whitney: $25.99, Shipping: $8.99, Tax: $1.82
Bussman Fuse holder from Menards: $1.23
Fuse kit from Menards: $11.99

New Headlight Switch

Thursday night, I went to drive the D, and the headlight switch broke. I know the OEM switches were prone to breaking, and the supply of OEM switches was gone. DMCH had new switches made featuring an auto-off feature found on modern cars, and a LED light inside the switch. I placed the order Friday morning with DMC Midwest. To my surprise, it showed up Saturday afternoon!

I found the directions easy to read. I also found there might be some wires spliced into my headlight wires, and there wasn’t enough length to pull the wires through the console. So I pulled the wires out from behind the console, into the footwell, and cut the wires as close to the connector as possible:


The switch probably could be repaired, but I opted for a new one. Here’s my old switch and connector after removal:


After installing the new connector, installation was easy. You can see my old switch was worn, so the new one adds a little aesthetic value.


Costs:

Headlight Switch – $57.95 – DMC Midwest
Shipping – $10.93 – FedEx
Tax: $4.49

Winter Projects finished

New Parts: Radiator, condenser, cooling fans, coolant hoses, AC hoses, transmission hoses, transmission cooler, stainless nuts and bolts.

Maintenance: cleaned undercoating off coolant pipes, other parts. Removed extra transmission cooler. Removed, drained AC compressor. Converting from R12 to R134a. Painted parts with black POR-15.

I installed the passenger side AC line, so I could zip tie it to the governor wiring, and suspend it above the exhaust. I’ll have DMC Midwest do the rest of my AC work.

I’m not sure I want to add up all the costs…

Costs

Autozone Loan-A-Tool

Deposit (refunded since I returned within 30 days)

Tax

CV Clamp Tool

15.00

1.20

Coolant Pressure Tester

75.00

6.00

 

Supplier

Item

Cost

Tax

Shipping

PJ Grady

Split AC Hoses

288.35

 

13.50

DMC Midwest

Wings-B-Cool Fans

199.95

15.63

 

DMC Midwest

4 Trailing arm shield clips

1.76

DMC Midwest

New Radiator

299.00

38.29

 

DMC Midwest

NOS Condenser

195.00

PJ Grady

Auto Transmission Cooler

34.95

 

6.00

PJ Grady

Auto Transmission Hose Kit

29.95

NAPA

1-1/4 Coolant Hose

29.97

2.40

 

Name Withheld

Used Auto Transmission Hose

20.00

   

Menards

18MM Wrench

8.19

   

www.por15.com

POR-15 Starter Kit

19.80

 

6.75

Home Depot

Organic Solvent Respirator

19.97

1.92

 

Home Depot

Shop Towels

1.97

Home Depot

3 paint brushes

2.55

Home Depot

2 paint brushes

1.70

0.13

 

Ace Hardware

Stainless Nuts, Bolts

20.30

1.57

 

Ace Hardware

Stainless Nuts, Bolts

4.20

0.33

 

True Value

Stainless Nuts, Bolts

3.00

0.24

 

True Value

Stainless Nuts, Bolts

8.35

0.67

 

Dollar Store

Foil Pan

1.00

   

O’Reily Auto Parts

Castrol 20w 50 oil

14.99

2.58

 

O’Reily Auto Parts

Castrol 20w 50 oil

14.99

O’Reily Auto Parts

2 Hose Clamps

2.29

True Value

2 Hose Clamps

3.58

0.29

 

Sears

18 mm wrench

11.89

   

Sears

22 mm wrench

14.89

2.93

 

Autozone

Permatex Ultra Black RTV

6.29

0.50

 

Autozone

PAG 150 AC oil

6.99

0.56

 

Home Depot

2 Organic solvent masks

7.97

0.96

 

Home Depot

20 Nitrile gloves

4.47

 

Delorean Performance Industries

Auto Transmission Governor Clamp

13.00

   

Autozone

Coastal / 1 gal. D/M auto trans fluid

11.99

   

Pictures from Winter Projects

Winter storage: moth balls to repel mice, steel wool to keep them out.

New battery charger. I use it every few days

New garage setup. I installed the electrical outlets. Got my old stereo (gift from Junior High Graduation in ’94 – my first CD player!). Track lighting salvaged from the townhouse. I think it works well in the garage.

Rear of the car on SUV jackstands, 2×4. Wheels removed, 2x10s added to support suspension and take weight off the trailing arm busings:

Extra Automatic Transmission cooler installed by a previous owner:

Extra trans cooler lines along the frame:

They tapped into the stock cooler lines:

That shouldn’t be attached like that…

Loose trans mount bolts:

Old worn emblem removed:

Back of radiator. Stiff hoses, wrong clamps

Wrong clamps again

Brittle coolant hoses, trying to remove, ended up cutting it:

Caught coolant:

Coolant pipe with undercoating!

Undercoating!

Front of the car: Jack stands with a 2×4, wheel ramps just in case. Extra trans cooler removed!

Draining Transmission fluid:

Extra trans cooler removed:

Can’t remove this line, starting to destroy the fitting, access is impossible:

Ended up cutting it:

Drain the system more:

Coolant pipe support bracket, with undercoating!

Fascia, radiator shroud storage:

Sway bar:

Ready to be removed:

Radiator, condenser and fans removed!

Working on the radiator and browsing DMCTalk in the computer room.

Stock trans cooler, mounting bracket removed:

More coolant pipes removed:

De-Undercoating: Dollar Store Foil pan, CRC Brakleen, Solvent filtering Mask, Nitrile gloves, metal scraper, box of parts, open garage door on a cold day:

Undercoating removed from one pipe:

Undercoating gone! Picture for powder coat estimate:

Corners of fan shroud were dremeled away to mount flush with new radiator.
Fan and shroud cleaned, new stainless hex socket bolts used to mount fans. Old rusty bolt below:

New DMCH Aluminum radiator (with a drain petcock!), condenser:

Old trans fluid hose, new blue hoses and clamps, another used hose I purchased

I need a CD Clamp tool for these. Luckily Autozone loans them.

Trans cooler de-undercoated and cleaned. Can’t get this hose end off. Looks like the cooler made of brass?

Front of my car. AC lines wrapped in saran wrap. Is that ok? Going to replace the hoses anyway.

Remove old AC hoses from back of compressor:

I stuffed a shop towel in the back. Is that ok?

Breaking one of several zip ties:

I ended up cutting the end off the hose:

Got one out!

Cut the one by the accumulator:

 

Finally got the last piece of transmission cooler piping out:

AC hose above the exhaust, fuel filter. Looks like my trans governor wiring is wrapped with tape…

Got another hose out!

Currently cleaning, waiting for a warm day to POR-15 some parts…

Mulitvex Mirrors

The stock side mirrors in the DeLorean are flat, where modern day mirrors are convex. Convex safety mirrors help to reduce dangers caused by your blind spot when passing and changing lanes on the road.

Someone in my online forum got the company Multivex to give us group pricing if we ordered enough. I threw my money in. A few weeks later they arrived:

They are mounted to the existing mirrors with some strong double stick foam tape.

Before:

After:

Before I could only see the garage door, and a small portion of the wall. Now I can see a lot more of the wall.

 

Costs:

Multivex Mirrors: $74.00 (after group discount, includes shipping)