Vin 909 Restoration blog

[bttws]

Hey all, some of you know me from my electronics projects. Well time time has come for me to for me to finally get a Delorean of my very own. I got in contact with the Delorean Club of Ohio which lead me to Ken Koncelik ( I think some of you may know him ) He had a car that needed rebuilt so, over that past few months I have been traveling 2 hrs every Thursday to help out in the rebuilding. It has been a great experience and I am learning a lot about the car as it goes together.

The car is going to be a complete rebuild, so it will not be a all original. I am totally ok with that, I'm not a stock purest and will be doing some modifications to the interior anyway.
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It's a 5 speed, with black interior. Even though it's a 81 it will have a flat hood.
The frame is a referb and is no original to the car.

Part 1
The first part, put together for the rebuild.
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Part 2
The Frame, fresh paint and ready to go. The color is a little darker than stock, but that gives it character. The front crumple zone is custom made with heaver steel, so I don't need the recall brackets.

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Part 3
The suspension is starting to go on. All the bolts, washers, and pins are sand blasted and zinc coated. All the Brake calipers have been refreshed, new rotors and pads. The trailing arm bolts are new. The springs are new and lowered.
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Part 4
Transmission in, after painting. New condenser, radiator and fans (new version).
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Part 5
Starting putting the hoses and lines on. Fuel tank in. Front water pipes were in backward in the first pics, we figured it out. Transmission linkage attached
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More to come soon, We start rebuilding the engine after the new year!
-Kevin

[Dangermouse]

Congrats on finally getting one. Looks like quite the project - did it come without a drivetrain?

I would suggest moving this to the Restoration subforum, as this looks like it will be great to look back on, in years to come.

[Jonathan]

Wow, that looks great! And that frame... very nice.

Too bad you didn't have a wide open space to work on the car or a well equipped shop... sheesh, those look like dream conditions to work on that project! Good job!

[delorun45230]

Hi Kevin! Great to see the progress pics! I am currently the co-owner of 909 with Ken, but have three jobs, and never have time to help. I had the seats reupholstered in 2011, and stripped all the parts off the frame when Ken and I bought the car from Greg Crews in 2007.

Keep up the great work! We're all looking forward to seeing 909 back on the road again!

[Nicholas R]

I wont lie, I saw someone posting about 909 and it wasn't Josh, and got really confused, haha!

I cant believe this car is finally going back together!! I remember when this car showed up (in pieces) years ago at the warehouse in the enclosed trailer. Kevin how are your fiberglass skills? The body certainly needed some help in the beggining.

The frame must have recently been painted. I remember this was the frame I used to take measurements when I needed to modify my frame for the transmission swap.

So Josh/Kevin what's the final plan? I know there was a lot of talk about different options for how this car would go back together. At one point there was talk of using all of Josh/Kens damaged panels and making this a pretty badass painted car. Looks like based on the panels that this may no longer be the plan though? I remember Ken using the hood of this car to practice repairing stainless (under the guidance of Chris N.). At a different point Ken had talked about this being a very high-powered (possibly engine swapped) car. Any update or future with this? What are the other modifications you guys are thinking?

I'm excited to follow the progress of this car!

[Domi]

Congratulation on the job done so far :aniclap:

[Rich_NYS]

Looks like it's going to be an awesome machine!

[bttws]

Congrats on finally getting one. Looks like quite the project - did it come without a drivetrain?

Yep, The engine is in another area, we are going to rebuild it after the new year.


Hi Kevin! Great to see the progress pics! I am currently the co-owner of 909 with Ken, but have three jobs, and never have time to help. I had the seats reupholstered in 2011, and stripped all the parts off the frame when Ken and I bought the car from Greg Crews in 2007.

Keep up the great work! We're all looking forward to seeing 909 back on the road again!

Those seats look great.


I wont lie, I saw someone posting about 909 and it wasn't Josh, and got really confused, haha!

I cant believe this car is finally going back together!! I remember when this car showed up (in pieces) years ago at the warehouse in the enclosed trailer. Kevin how are your fiberglass skills? The body certainly needed some help in the beggining.

The frame must have recently been painted. I remember this was the frame I used to take measurements when I needed to modify my frame for the transmission swap.

So Josh/Kevin what's the final plan? I know there was a lot of talk about different options for how this car would go back together. At one point there was talk of using all of Josh/Kens damaged panels and making this a pretty badass painted car. Looks like based on the panels that this may no longer be the plan though? I remember Ken using the hood of this car to practice repairing stainless (under the guidance of Chris N.). At a different point Ken had talked about this being a very high-powered (possibly engine swapped) car. Any update or future with this? What are the other modifications you guys are thinking?

I'm excited to follow the progress of this car!

Nice to hear some of the back story of this car ( have any pictures of it before it was stripped? )
As for the fiberglass, I think Ken is going to send it to Dave up in Delaware for the fiberglass repairs.

The plan so far is to do a stock rebuild (except the springs) The panels are the ones in the pics, matching set, freshly regrained by (I can't remember, I think it was Chris)
The engine will be a stock PRV, later I might take it to Delorean Industries for some upgrades some day.

The other modifcations are my Digital Dash that I have been working on. http://dmctalk.org/showthread.php?12791-Digital-Dash-Project and taillight mods http://dmctalk.org/showthread.php?10880-Arduino-powered-taillight-project

As well as Tesla style touchscreen interface.

-Kevin

[delorun45230]

Yes! I've got an album on Facebook with 47 "before" and "during" pictures. Here are the best:
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-Josh

[88KPH]

Wow, one hell-of-a project. Looks like you will have a very nice D when its finished. Good luck.

[bttws]

Yes! I've got an album on Facebook with 47 "before" and "during" pictures. Here are the best:
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-Josh

Wow, it was quite.... rough when you guys got it

[delorun45230]

Yep...previous owner had started to restore it, after he bought it from a guy who had painted it and then been t-boned.

[bttws]

Part 6

Vin Plate
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The body has been stripped and Ken took it up to Delaware OH for some fiberglass repairs. This car was in an accident in the past and needs some patchwork. You can see some of the damage in the pics.
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Engine tear down. Ken picked the best donor engine he had, (not the original to the car) This particular engine was used for a Delorean Car Show rebuild demo about 10+ years ago. Because of this, the engine had been prevously cleaned and rebuildt. After the show, the engine sat for the next 10 or so years. We took out once piston to make sure the rings were not seized , and put it back in. According to Ken, this engine only has 16,000 miles on it. The heads were sent out to be cleaned and repaired.
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The Frame. This is almost complete minus the engine.
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The heads back from serviceing. Ended up needing to be rebuilt and plained. They look brand new now. New injector tubes too.
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-Kevin

[DMC-81]

Very cool project, and great work so far! :thumbup:

It's great to see any DeLorean being restored, especially an early VIN one.

[Nicholas R]

The body has been stripped and Ken took it up to Delaware OH for some fiberglass repairs. This car was in an accident in the past and needs some patchwork. You can see some of the damage in the pics.

Typical Josh car; not the first one that Bauerle automotive has done fiberglass work on, haha :wink:

Speaking of which, it's almost ironic that this car is currently in the frame off state, since Josh's daily driver car is also currently frame-off since he's putting a stainless frame under it! Talk about having a lot of irons in the fire...

Anyway keep it up! It'll be awesome to go back to Ken's this year and not see this guy hiding in the corner! :thumbup:

[Morpheus]

I love restoration threads like this! Keep us posted and keep up the good work!

[Domi]

Amazing job done, keep up the good work :aniclap:

[bttws]

Few months behind updating


Part 7
Had to swap bodes, and the windshield broke when they removed it to swap. So a new windshield was installed on the swapped body, which is pretty awesome. I love a clean clear windshield.

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Part 8
Few weeks later (I missed a few weeks due to work) while I was gone, Ken lowered the engine down into the frame. Did some waterproofing around the top of the door area. Painted the door hinges.
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Part 9
Prepped and painted the trunk area. Installed the doors on hinges

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Some of the other cars at the shop took priority the past few weeks, but now that they are done it will be full steam ahead on this car. Now that the weather is warming up, I can't wait to take it out for a drive!

-Kevin