I pulled out the passenger seat, and saw the rubbery material had broken. Sure enough, I pulled the driver’s side, and saw the same thing had happened. In fact, my driver’s seat was collapsing, helping create folds in the leather.
Passenger:
Driver:
Next year during the off season, I might send the seats to an auto upholsterer. For now, I’m using some scrap 1X8 boards, and some 2 inch foam left over from recovering some dining room chairs:
Feels a lot better all ready.
In 2008, I stripped the threads on the steering column. I had held the steering wheel on with some hose clamps, but it was still loose:
I bought a Tap and Die set from Harbor Freight (Cheap tools made in China, but hopefully I’ll rarely use them, and they will last awhile).
I finally re-threaded the M14-2.0 threads:
Got a new stainless nut at Ace Hardware. My steering wheel feels solid again!
Costs:
Metric Tap and Die Set: 64.99 (sale) plus 5.36 Tax @ Harbor Freight
M14x2.0 stainless nut: $3? @ Ace Hardware
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
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 |
Auto Transmission cooler, hoses
No Radiator:
Installing the radiator, condenser:
new hoses, por-15 painted radiator support:
Unsealed auto tran governor
With RTV:
Sealed:
Mixing some coolant:
The bottom of my passenger seat. Maybe next winter I’ll get these repaired:
Draining Oil from the AC Compressor:
New AC Hoses:
The Hollywood Blvd Theater in Woodridge was showing Back To The Future, and Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Claudia Wells and James Tolkan were guests. It figures that there is an event in my city, and my car is up on jackstands with lots of maintenance to do before I can drive it.
I stopped by Sunday afternoon to the local D owners. Note the time machine replica, second from the left:
I did not buy a second DeLorean. A local owner came over, and we did some maintenance on his car. We found a radiator fan that wasn’t working.
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…
The D briefly saw snow when I moved the car to a different spot in the garage. This will be the last time I drive the car in 2009. The car will also have major maintenance done before I drive it again.
My wife and I are proud owners of a new house with a 3 car garage. Now we can keep all our cars garaged at home, and no more paying to store the D in a friend’s garage during the winter. The third bay was sectioned off for the previous owner’s workshop. I kinda like it:
