Trunk sanding and repaint

Geological formations of crud and dirt had accumulated in my thoroughly battered trunk and it was time to excavate. Removed my strut bar (steel rod goddess of handling), carpet, spare tire (still solid as a rock!), windshield wipers, window trim grill (managing to crack it slightly - shit), all the panels and plugs I could pull.







Then, as they say, I began a' sandin'.
For 4 hours...








After all that pain I replaced the panels, thoroughly taped off the car and brought out my favorite SEM trim black paint. A few even-ish coats later, I put the whole damn thing back together. Anette made me a lunch and brought it out as I often forget to eat when working on the car. She's a lifesaver.

The finished product!

Windshield trim and Engine cover paint

Still have the side trim left on the windshield to do, but I ran out of paint. The trick was many, many light coats and being well taped off.









The engine compartment didn't turn out spectacularly, but it was a big improvement, and seeing as how I'll be replacing it in the new year, it wasn't a huge deal.

GloveBox lid replacement.

With the glove box lid looking seriously ratty, I ordered a new one from Delorean.com and installed it this weekend. To get the little torsion bar out of the old lid, I used a needle to pull the separated sire ends together and slip it out the tiny hole. The actual latch has a small piece of plastic on the inside of the lid and you need to slip that off before pull the latch out of the old lid.

Obvious now, but not at the time.

Search for the Oil Leak

Been leaking a few drops of oil per night so I'm doing my best to track down the source. I brought it into my volvo specialist and they replaced both axle seals, the front crank seal and the front cam cover o ring.

Still leaking.

I've got some brake cleaner and I will be cleaning the entire engine tommorow. My hope is that it will become much easier for me to diagnose the source and deal with it with a slightly less 'shotgun' approach.

Stainless steel shifter knob

Not much to say. Looks badass, and improves the feeling of the shifter.

Door panel replacement

The Fiberboard of the driverside armpanel was completely shot, and a big contributor of rattling under power so I decided to splash out and replace it. The new panel came with 2 days via fedex in an enourmous cardboard box and I was downstairs installing it before you could blink.

Alternator belt adjustment

The worrying 'battery not charging' light blinked on last weekend and it took some scrambling to debug the issue. Many thanks to the previous owner for continuing to be very patient with all my questions. I know the belt drives the water pump as well, but was continuing to run cool. A little prodding revealed the belt was tight, but not tight enough to spin the small pulley of the new alternator.

Loosened the alternator, and swung it further out on the custom adjustment arm built to hold it on the frame. Also added a new SS bolt long enough to put on a lock washer and nut out the other side of the alternator bracket. For insurance, I added a bolt on the mounting arm immediately below to keep it from vibrating down the arm like what I believe happened this time.

Anette's dad was a huge help as well, and thank to him, I have a big-ass pry bar to make the adjustment myself if I need too again.

Stainless steel bumper letter insets

While most people recognize the Delorean, they want to be sure of it and try to read the read bumper name emboss. Tailgating all the while. These stainless steel letters look great, and improve visibility of the name, which could buy me a couple feet. Safety!









P.s Ignore the oil drips, those will soon be taken care of.

Black Mirrors, front air scoop and bumper repaint (Part 2)

Determined to keep rolling from the previous days of effort, I continued the trim work with great sucess. Almost started to rush the prep work so I forced myself to slow down and pace myself. It paid off. It's definitely not the painting that's hard work, it's the prep work.

Black trim, grill and bumper repaint. (Part 1)

Couldn't import the preffered SEM Trim Black, but did some research on Duplicolor's Trim Black and it seems like a good paint. Spent a few hours this weekend prepping the car and laying down seven layers on each area for a professional and dripless finish.

I hadn't painted a vehicle before, but after a boatload of reading about technique and prep, it was a really straightforward job. Over the next few days I'll get to the rest of the trim and lower front bumper.

Driver side door strut replacement

A limp door is a sad door, especially in the Canadian Arctic. It took a ramp up in tools from my hand, to a screwdriver, to a big ass hammer to convince the old strut to get the hell out of there, but eventually the job was done.

Popped in the new strut, kept the old one as a spare and now the door flies open and bounces at the top once. Perfect.

Window tint removal

While I enjoy being 20% cooler than everyone else, aftermarket tint is the sole item which is keeping me from passing my draconion out-of-province crappy tire inspection.

Anette and I spent a notable wednesday night carefully removing the previous owner's scratched and battered tint. Thankfully the glue and tint came off under the sweat of a couple hours labour.

Replaced driverside door seals

While the driverside door seals weren't in terrible shape, they were beginning to crumble. With cold, wet weather approaching, I wanted to take a stab at making sure no excess water was allowed to enter into the car. The passenger seals had already been replaced so I just reseated them to ensure a tight fit.

Stripped off the old outer seals, used a putty knife to scrape the old adhesive off down to the bare stainless and then re-applied with some 3M window seal adhesive. I'll be following up with a bead of black silicone caulking afterwards.

Car Imported, and driven back from United States

900 Miles and no major foulups apart from stalling the thing on the owners driveway. There's a laundry list of items to deal with (which you can read below) but none that are going to prevent me from using the car. Awesome to the max.

Index of future restoration projects

And YO, the Delorean was deliverith, and the children sang.
the steel was pure, and good and the women danced,
projects were listed and details detailed, and the men were ready.


Cosmetic Interior:

Repaint Trunk Interior
Replace A beam trim
Replace Dashboard
Replace Dashboard kneepad
Driver/Passenger side seat leather refinish(Vendor) (Info)
Cracked speedometer binnacle (Vendor?) (Info, Info, Info)
Passenger Side knee cushion recover (Vendor) (Info, Info Info)
Stick Shift Knob Replacement (Vendor)
Driver side arm brace replacement

Cosmetic Exterior:

Front/Rear Fascia repainting (Vendor) (Info, Info, Info, Info, Info)
Repaint Louvre and engine cover (Vendor) (Info, Info )
All Black trim painted with SEM Trim Black (Vendor) (Info, Info)
Regrain stainless steel panels
Repair rear quarter panels
Replace turning light tint (Vendor) (Info)
Sand Down and repaint black rear trim

Structural:

Inspect frame, treat any rust with POR15 (Vendor) (Info, Info, Info)
Replace Driverside door gas strut with lifetime warrenty one (Info)
Become familiar with underbody and study parts/shop manuals (Info)
Repair trunk connection

Electrical:

Install replacement window switches (Vendor)


Mechanical:

Replace AC Compressor Clutch (Info, Info, Info)
Diagnose small coolant leak (Info)
Replace plastic coolant bottle for stainless (Vendor) (Info, Info)