DeLorean Reborn The rejuvenation of vin # 10084

Haven't worked on much in the last several months at all. The previous time I dug deep in to something on the car was back in September when the coolant system got an overhaul. The DeLorean has mostly sat in the garage awaiting the start of small jobs. And then it waited a bit longer.

Well the annual Celebration Exotic show is coming up, and I wanted to get a few things tackled before then. First off was the valve covers. I wanted to paint them, redo the seals which were leaking a bit and poorly done, and adjust the valves. That job has been completed, and below is a pic of the valve covers while being painted. Fully installed pictures will come later.

Second, I wanted to redo the outer door seals that have been in a box for the last year and a half. In doing that I also wanted to paint the window trim which was rubbed off in spots. The window trim is back on but the seals are still being installed. A picture of the window trim painting is also below.

That may be the extent prior to the show, but on the list to do still is painting the engine bay, touching up the front frame rust, and fixing the A/C system. The A/C has a small leak at the compressor clutch, so the compressor and accumulator will be replaced, along with the low pressure switch, and the system will be flushed/refilled.

The DeLorean Club of Florida (http://www.deloreanclubfl.com) had a tech day this weekend with a lift. Was able to get the car put up to investigate with a much better perspective than crawling around on my back like usual. Here are some pics.

Haven't really worked on the car at all over the last few months, however, we had a club tech day this weekend and I was able to get some pictures of the radiator fully reinstalled when the car was up on a lift.

I had painted all the brackets that were rusty and deteriorating, touched up paint on the A/C condenser, and had to touch up some paint on the radiator that chipped while installing. Here are the pictures of it back in place.

Finished a lot this weekend getting the radiator back into place, yet haven't had a chance to grab pictures or put together a detailed writeup yet.

However, did grab 2 pictures when I was mounting the new fans to the radiator. Here is a picture of the radiator and then a second with the new fans mounted. The fans seem very nice with the exception of black electrical tape around all the wires. Wish it was a sealed wire as I have a feeling the electrical tape will start to deteriorate.

Well I have had these low power fans from Toby @ DeLorean Parts Northwest since February and just never had the time or spare cash to pick up a new radiator. Then, toward the end of June I had an otterstat failure, and then the middle of July the otterstat started to leak (the car was not driven once the otterstat failed in June). I figured that since I had to drain the system anyway to get the otterstat fixed, now is as good of time as any to do the rest of the coolant system.

So, picked up the 3-core brass radiator from John @ Special T Auto as well as some other parts such as the new otterstat, some hose clamps, fused fan fail, etc. Ended up grabbing a NOS coolant pipe bracket from Rob @ PJ Grady to replace a crappy one in the engine bay. And finally some coolant hose from McMaster Carr.

The plan is to replace the radiator with the new 3-core, install the new coolant fans, replace the broken otterstat, replace the remainder of the coolant hoses under the car (as the engine bay was done during the valley of death teardown), replace the fan fail device with a regular fused unit, install a bleeder by the radiator (if the new 3-core doesn't have one), do some rust touchup on the front frame extension, and repaint the A/C condenser.

As for the electrical work, I am planning on getting rid of the fan fail device as mentioned above and using a fused jumper (sold by Special T Auto) but putting lower rated fuses due to the lower powered fans. I may also drop the circuit breaker down a bit. In addition, I plan on cutting into the wire that turns on the fans when the A/C compressor runs and instead attach it to the mode switch, so the fans will be on continually when the A/C is running. I dislike how they kick on and off with the compressor. Finally, I am going to replace the red LED light behind the "Cooling" text on the center console with a blue LED. The "Cooling Fan Fail" light already came on when the fans were on, so I had covered up from behind the "Fan Fail" text. It will continue to do so now and I like it like that, just would like the light to be blue instead of red.

So far I have removed the sway bar, shroud around the radiator, horns, hoses up by the radiator, drained the system, unbolted most of the radiator (lower brackets are loose) and removed the fuel closing plate. Next up is replacing all the hoses, otterstat, and then waiting for help with the radiator dropping and replacement.

As I was reassembling my door panels today after doing the window felt fix, I wanted to tackle another project. The fir trees in my door trim 'pillar' piece that runs up the rear of the drivers side door from the door panel to the head liner had worn out fir trees. Whenever the upper door panel is off, this trim piece falls right out, and is basically only held in from the upper headliner pressure and upper door panel pushing it in place.

Turns out these fir trees are not removable through the plastic, but instead in order to get to them you have to pull up on the vinyl. The fir trees in here are nothing special, the standard 'Ford' size fir trees used elsewhere on the DeLorean can be used here. Just take a dremel to them and cut off the upper connector, so all you have is a fir tree and the flat head so it looks like a T. Pull back the vinyl, remove the old fir tree, and insert the new one.

I then hit up the seam with some 3M Super Spray Adhesive and clothespinned it for several hours to dry. It is now back in place with the vinyl secured, and looks good as new. No need to worry about this piece being loose anymore.

Been busy lately and haven't had much time to work on the car. Have a feeling that a lot will be getting done in the next few months, though.

First up, something that has been on hold for a while. I have been waiting on replacing my window felt with the Ford Probe crossover part as detailed in the tech article on DMC News. According to the writeup, the crossover part is a 'Window Belt' (Ford language) from a '89-92 Ford Probe. Problem is, Ford stopped making these parts quite a long time ago. So, I called up local junk yards. No luck. Decided then to hop online and find a Probe forum with members parting out their car. Ended up at the Performance Probe boards and found a member with the piece I needed. All in all it ended up costing me $25 shipped for the two sides. Not too bad.

Now I decided to go this route for one key reason. The existing felt was falling apart and I tried the 'normal' method of using the soft side of velcro. Problem is in Florida 95 degree heat with 90 percent humidity, the glue doesn't hold. So, I tried again with stronger glue. Still didn't hold. Got tired of redoing it and just thought I would go with a part that wouldn't need glue.



These Probe pieces as seen in the photo above are much beefier than the OEM part. And, rather than felt glued to the rubber, this short pile felt seems to be merged with the rubber as one piece. No glue to fall apart now. The reason this part was chosen by the person that originally wrote the DMC News article is due to its top lip and double wiper which help it sit correctly on the DeLorean black brace which the original part was attached, and the second lip allows you to place a screw through the hole and it guards the window from being scratched.

The felt first needs to be cut to fit. I cut mine a tad bit shorter than the OEM part, as since it is thicker it cannot squeeze as easily into the window opening once the frame is bolted to the door. After cutting, bend up on the stock parts tabs and using a dremel cut them off so you just have the openings as seen below.





Now you need some small machine screws, 14 to be exact, in 6/32" by 3/8" size. You also need the corresponding nuts, and 1/2" washers. Place the screw in the lip and attach the washer and nut to the back side. What you want to do is get the felt and the washer to pinch together on the existing bracket, and allow the L top lip to hold it all in place.







When it is all done just screw it back into the door and test out your window. I am very happy with the results, it even looks better (the little bit that you can see if you peer in). Here is a picture from the top looking down at the window with the inner door panel off. The pressure it holds against the window does not affect the speed at which it rolls up or down compared to the stock part.

The reason for my window work is when the car was out of the garage it rained for several hours, and upon checking to make sure things were fine, water was found behind the driver and passenger seat. As the inner seal, roof seal, and sill seal have been replaced recently, something else had to be at fault. My toll booth seals were showing their age, and at some points peeling from the car. Assumption was that the door was filling with water (fast from the hard rain) and leaking through the vapor barrier into the car. So, some pictures below are of the replacement procedure. It was easy to do, just pop off the upper door panel, push in the tabs to remove the weatherstripping, clean the area, insert new stripping and line with weatherstripping glue. Also, its a good idea to clean the silicone between the seals and replace it nice and flat (better than from the factory)!







However, as it turns out, my leaks were not from the above seals (although I am glad I replaced them anyway, as I am sure the old seals didn't help). When the new ones were installed and a hose test was done, it appears the 'fixed' window seal was leaking on the back edge, that water was running down the inside part of the inside stainless panel of the door and right to the bottom ledge of the car, spilling out onto the carpet. I used a small screwdriver and fine tipped silicone tube and filled in the area. After letting it sit the test was done again and no leaks.

Had some problems lately with the outer toll booth window seals leaking. As I am in the process of redoing them, I found a bolt to my drivers window track extremely loose. I tightened it up and put the window up, sure enough it hopped off the track. Did some reading on the DML and didn't turn up much except one mention of the bracket sliding. Decided to pull the window to investigate further.

Pulling the window isn't that difficult, you need to remove the upper door panel and the black bracket that pushes against the window and has the felt strip. This allows the window when pushed up to slide inside the car rather than into its channel. Put the window halfway down, unbolt the window motor piece from the window (its the tubular center area with two nuts holding it in). Wiggle the bracket out, and now the window is free. Pull it up and keep working the window until you get it out.

Now the window is attached to the metal bracket which has the sliders on it that fit into the track by a slightly adhesive rubber substance. I believe that its purpose is meant more as a pressurized attachment than it is an adhesive attachment. I looked and sure enough, there are dimples in the glass that alert you to where the track should be, and mine was about 1/4" to 3/8" pushed back. This means that when the window is going up, the front hits the channel first and then the motor has to push harder to get the window to 'slide' backwards into place. This force pops the front of the window off the track. My previous owner must have had this happen and as a fix loosened the track so it flexed backwards also.

Here are some pics of the window out, as well as a closeup where you can see the round dimple in the window. There is one at the front and the back when the metal bracket is lined up properly.

I have been very busy lately and had little time to work on the car. Since the last update the DeLorean Club of Florida had their annual gathering at the Celebration Exotic Car Show. It turned out to be a big success with 18 cars in attendance, our highest record to date.

I still have plenty of stuff to do with the car, and several jobs I look to get finished this summer. Here is my 'to do' list with the status of each job...

(1) Fix A/C Leak - I have all the tools: vaccuum pump, manifold gauges, R12, freon sniffer, and I put the leak dye in the system. Need to let it sit for a few weeks and then check the car for leaks. Want to replace the compressor & accumulator regardless of where the leak is found.

(2) Replace Radiator & Install Low Power Fans - Already bought Toby's low power fans, still need to buy a brass radiator and while the system is drained replace the cooling hoses under the car as the rest of the engine bay was done during the Valley of Death rebuild.

(3) Regrain The Car - I have started playing with sanding down the stainless to give it a good grain. The previous owner seemed to just hit spots with sandpaper when he couldn't get something off, so there are marks all over the car that are not in the parallel brushed style. Looks bad. Already started on the passenger door, 60 grit paper, and I am going to step up to 80 grit and probably top it off with a blending pad/stainless steel cleaner.

(4) Remove Valve Covers, Paint, Replace Seals - Already have the seals and the paint, just need the time.

(5) Paint Engine Bay - Have the SEM Trim Black paint, also just need the time.

(6) Remove & Repaint Windshield Trim - Again, have the paint, just need time. :)

(7) Replace Outer Door Seals - Have these on hand too, waiting until the regraining is done so I don't scuff them up.