Repainted Fascias.

Ugh...the blight of bumper scourge has been exercised from the car. Don't they look fantastic!?


Olde

.

New

Restoration projects for 2008

Wow, I got a lot done in the last six months. Here's what lies ahead.


Cosmetic Interior:

Replace A beam trim
Cracked speedometer binnacle (Vendor?) (Info, Info, Info)


Cosmetic Exterior:

Front/Rear Fascia repainting (Vendor) (Info, Info, Info, Info, Info)
All Black trim painted with SEM Trim Black (Vendor) (Info, Info)
Regrain stainless steel panels
Repair rear quarter panels


Mechanical:

Replace AC Compressor Clutch (Info, Info, Info)

Replaced engine compartment cover.

The old engine compartment cover was cracked and scorched from many years of driving, so I've just finished installing a brand new one. The grates were taken out and painted with a high temp black spray paint.

Retinted Amber Turning Signals

The dye used for the rear tailight turning signals breaks down in the sun, and mine, after many years of desert sun were bleached white. After some hunting, I found some special lens spray paint, uninstall the lights and went to town.

Re-dyed the leather seats.

Butter-smooth leather upon yon buttocks.
What was cracked, dry and nearly destroyed is now re-dyed and supple.

Before:

After:

All coolant hoses replaced

I had a couple coolant leaks I'd been tracking down for a while. One of the leaks changed from a small leak to a blowout and a very good reason to just go ahead and replace every single coolant hose on the vehicle. All of the metal connections were sanded down for a nice join, and the new hoses installed.

No problems since!

Trunk release cable replaced

Relying on my car remote to open the trunk didn't seem like a good idea, and the jury rigged manual release was no substitute for repairing the actual trunk release handle in the car. I ordered the outer/inner cable assembly and spent a wednesday night routing it back into the car around the steering column.

Hot stuff, it worked, and another peice of the car has been repaired!

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.