DMC-24: 4 seater DeLorean

[dmcjohn]

4 seater Delorean at eurofest

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[Cory W]

Wow!

(Yes, that's all I can say...I'm happily speechless)

[stevie67cars]

Excellent work John, can't wait to see it in person!

[kenny]

John,
Im disappointed you took a shortcut and didn't convert it to right hand drive and fit a twin turbo and EFI.
I hate these half assed conversions......;)

PS. You also forgot about the bling custom rims


Forgot to mention, this car also has power steering, rear anti-roll bar, upgraded brakes, custom stainless dual exhaust system (twin separate mufflers) and a few other changes along the way such as all pipework being routed inside the center tunnel of the frame rather than outside it (brakes, clutch, fuel, coolant). It was also converted from automatic to manual as part of the build process.

It is running the engine and gearbox from the Renault Alpine GTA - which is a carburetor version of the PRV.

[dmcjohn]

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[Farrar]

Brilliant job, John. I wish I were able to take a look in person. Perhaps some day. Bravo!

Farrar

[Dangermouse]

Fascinating John. Great that you got it finished before Eurofest :D

[Jacko]

John, I'm speechless! when I first heard of this project I thought ... "no way!"

This is a piece of work ... as I suspect you are. Well done! :aniclap:

[A Van]

Respect John!

[Morpheus]

I can only imagine the amount of time and energy that you poured into this project. Well Done!

[fnzen]

Great conversion! What kind of seats are those out of?

I am assumming that you "beefing" up the engine for added passengers?

Where did you end up hiding the fuse box and computer?
Sorry so many questions but that is just beautiful!

[Tamir A.]

John,

This is very cool! Nice work. :D

I'm shocked at how you were able to fit two seats without stretching any of the SS panels or changing the overall appearance of the car. Quite the impressive display of ingenuity.

I'd love to see some pics of four people in the car (probably kids in the back are easiest right?)

You would have made JZD proud, as he often sketched various ways to achieve more seating, even in the standard dmc-12 model.

http://www.entermyworld.com/cat/dhistory/collectibles/sed/dsedan.jpg
http://www.entermyworld.com/cat/dhistory/collectibles/sed/dsedana.jpg

I have one other JZD sketch I will try and hunt down that looks very similar to your finished result.

T.

PS: Enjoy the pic. attached of a "2 and 1/2" seater DeLorean I saw at Eurofest 2001. So adorable. Took this off of my web-site.

[Domi]

I wasn't at Eurofest and I regret it, so, I didn't see your car in person.
That's an awesome work you made on that car.
You repaired the only negative point I see on the DeLorean! Two seat for the kids!
You made the dream come true, congratulation!
Can't wait to see more picture on your website.

[dmcjohn]

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[dmcjohn]

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[dmcjohn]

I wasn't at Eurofest and I regret it, so, I didn't see your car in person.
That's an awesome work you made on that car.
You repaired the only negative point I see on the DeLorean! Two seat for the kids!
You made the dream come true, congratulation!
Can't wait to see more picture on your website.

Thanks Domi, glad you like it! I'll try and get the build up on the website asap.

[Domi]

It's a pity the car wasn't made as a 2+2 right from the beginning,
John

You're absolutely right!
I'd love to take a ride with my kids into the car :)
This would be possible if only the car was design like you did.

[Domi]

Thanks Domi, glad you like it! I'll try and get the build up on the website asap.

Many thanks :)

[Tamir A.]

That is such a trip to see two people sitting one in front of the other in a DMC. Crazy cool stuff.

Most of the custom D experiments occur in the States (usually by my good friend Rich W.). I'm happy to see D owners experimenting overseas like this as well. Especially when it appears that you've done such a quality job with the whole creation (the frame and fitting look excellent).

One question though, are you thinking of redoing the seats in leather/vinyl, or sticking with the cloth?

Look forward to seeing more pics.

T.

[Malevy]

Build me one? :p

[fnzen]

John,

You might want to check out the new ac units that DMCCA is starting to put in a car its compact and all electronic, no vacuum, also the WCC Delorean is going with "vintage air"

[vwdmc16]

wow again that is just bitchin! i hope to see that in person one day too! such great work too, a real quality conversion. Im really wish the regular D had that rear suspension. so much wasted space is utilized in a great way in this car. too bad i couldnt drive that and have some with legs in the rear seat.


Let us know when you start a proper convertible D.

[SIMid]

They should had made this an option than to worry about golf clubs (yes, I dont play the sport). Would love a 4 seater D and this matches my wishes!

Awesome job! Now, who's going to build a "shooting brake" D? :p

[living_the_dream]

Too bad JZD didn't get to see this. I think he would have loved to see it and know that it could have been done.

[dmcjohn]

They should had made this an option than to worry about golf clubs (yes, I dont play the sport).

Actually, you can still fit the golf clubs - the top half of the rear seats fold down making the rear seating area into a huge parcel shelf! So if it was done like this from the beginning you'd have the choice - the kids or the golf clubs. ;)

I'll get a pic of the rear seats folded down and post it soon.

John

[dmcjohn]

John,

You might want to check out the new ac units that DMCCA is starting to put in a car its compact and all electronic, no vacuum, also the WCC Delorean is going with "vintage air"

Hi Fnzen,

What make/model is DMCCA using? Sounds interesting!

Thanks,
John

[dmcjohn]

One question though, are you thinking of redoing the seats in leather/vinyl, or sticking with the cloth?


I like the cloth seats in it for the moment, but yes someday I'd like to convert to black leather. I'll keep my eye out for a set of leather Alpine GTA seats and hopefully pick up a bargain someday.

John

[Ryan]

Absolutely Amazing! Great work John.

[TTait]

Forgot to mention, this car also has power steering, rear anti-roll bar, upgraded brakes, custom stainless dual exhaust system (twin separate mufflers) and a few other changes along the way such as all pipework being routed inside the center tunnel of the frame rather than outside it (brakes, clutch, fuel, coolant). It was also converted from automatic to manual as part of the build process.

John, old thread - I just found it! Great work! I'd love to hear more about the brakes and power steering (the wife really wants power steering on her car!) Is it electric, hydraulic, or hydraulic on a electric pump? Can you say what rack you used and how much modification it took?

[DeloreanJoshQ]

Are there any pictures of what this conversion looks like from under the louvers/lower engine cover in the engine bay?

[sean]

Are there any pictures of what this conversion looks like from under the louvers/lower engine cover in the engine bay?

We've sent a request into John about it. It seems he removed them for some reason.

[Farrar]

We've sent a request into John about it. It seems he removed them for some reason.

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[TTait]

John,

You might want to check out the new ac units that DMCCA is starting to put in a car its compact and all electronic, no vacuum, also the WCC Delorean is going with "vintage air"


I asked about this today. Its the same model several DMC franchises have installed already - it uses the oem compressor and evaporator but it has a new accumulator, new condenser, heater core and enclosure under the dash. The new parts will run about $3k installed, not including the stock equipment. It's supposed to run cooler.

[dmcjohn]

Sorry guys, I'll fix the posts in a few weeks - I'm out of the country at the moment but will fix it up asap and will upload more pictures of the 4 seater, including details on the electric power steering conversion which should be available as a DIY kit for anyone interested.

Thanks for the info on the A/C units!

Regards,
John

[john 05141]

I saw this at Eurofest. I was also surprised by his work.
It was announced way in advance that the only 4-seater Delorean in the world was going to be there... and when I expected it to be in the dining room (lile the BTF car was last edition) it was not.
This man has put many hours into this car all of us wanted to see. He was in a tight time frame as well near the end. He did give a speech of how he did it this evening, but I think he deserved to have this car in the room than.

I saw it on a trailer at first at the factory in dunmurry on saturday, so I did not give it all the attention I wanted to.
Looks impressive, but I do not think it was intended to have 4 adults in the car, that might be too small for it. But hey, I'd enjoy taking both my kids with me while now there is arguing sometime who can come along with the delorean.
I liked his alloys as well.

Awesome job!!!

John

[dmcjohn]

Hi John,

Thanks - I'm glad you liked the car! Unfortunately time was against me coming up to the show and I didn't manage to have the car running. This was the reason it was not on display in the ballroom at the Europa - it would have been too risky to get the car into the ballroom without it running (and having good brakes!). I towed it up to Belfast but then unfortunately the trailer was too wide to fit into the parking garage at the hotel, so the car had to be stored at a friends house in Belfast.

Given that it was a bit awkward to manouver the trailer around, I didn't bring it out on the Friday drive, but did have it at the factory on the Saturday as you mentioned, still sitting on the trailer. It was also on display off the trailer at the Transport Museum, beside the concours cars where a few people sat in the back seat!

The back seat is not really intended for adults, just for kids like a 2+2 car. My wife fits there but she is quite small - however our kids fit in it great and have loads of room, so I'm really looking forward to taking them for a drive in it. :)

I hope in a few weeks to be able to post much better pics of the car on the Irish DeLorean website, along with a writeup on how it was built and some video's of it being driven, and I'll post an update in this thread then to let you all know.

Thanks,
John

[Domi]

Hello John,
Any update on this project?

[Citizen]

Hello John,
Any update on this project?

In additon to an update, how about providing the VIN, for the record book of course.

Thanks.

...

[dmcjohn]

Hi all,

Sorry about the long delay putting details of the 4 seater DeLorean back online. I'm able to share details of it again from now on so I'll put a build log together over the next few days.

I'm back working on the car again now after our move to the USA - one of the jobs I want to get done in the next few weeks is get the interior finished in leather rather than the existing cloth seats.

I'm considering doing a black leather and saddle brown leather mix for the interior - not sure how it will look when finished but hopefully it would look good.

I got a full set of new DMCH carpets in black on the way (the set James Espey was selling last week) - so to contrast off the black carpets - do you think saddle brown seats with white stitching would look good? Then maybe a black dash, binnacle and center console, with saddle brown again for the knee pads and parts of the door panels, along with saddle again for the headliners?

The colour of saddle brown I have in mind would be like the new mustangs, as pictured below:

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What would ye think? Any suggestions before I go ahead with this are appreciated!

Thanks,
John

[Nicholas R]

You're going to put together a 4 seater DeLorean kit when you're finished right? haha

Sounds good to me! Post pics!

[Domi]

Looks like the interior of the DeLorean prototype, good choice :)

[dmcjohn]

Hi Domi,

Yep that's my inspiration for the saddle brown! I love the interior of the prototype.

I don't know about doing a full tan / saddle brown interior though - it might be too much to have the dash done in that colour also - black dash and binnacle with black carpets should make a nice contrast. The bit I'm not too sure about is whether to do the knee pads or the center console in brown or black...

[EarlHickey]

The first link in the first post has no pix!

I can only see the three with your lovely family and yourself.

It looks great and I am eager to see it in complete detail.

Are you keeping it under wraps for publication in the glossy pages?

From what little I've seen, it looks like a front cover car to me and I await, in anxious anticipation, to see it on the net or the shiny pages.

[dmcjohn]

Sorry - keep meaning to get around to fixing this thread.

I had originally posted about the car in May last year, but then removed the post and pics later until the registration of the car was done. So, I'll repost my original text and images now and maybe the mods can merge it into the original post in this thread to put it back the way it was?

Thanks,
John

[dmcjohn]

(originally posted May 2011)

Hi all,

If you weren't at Eurofest 2011 , here are a few pics of my 4 seater DeLorean and some basic info - I'll be putting a full build diary (photos and video) on the Irish DeLorean website over the coming weeks...

I'll split this across a few posts as I can only upload 5 pics per post it seems.

It started out as a regular 81 DeLorean project car - seized engine, rusted frame, ripped and torn interior, dented panels and warped bumpers.

The conversion to a 4 seater took place over various weekends since September last year, with lots of help from members of the DeLorean Owners of Ireland - Joe Cahill, Mervyn Richardson, Conor Doyle, Ian Molloy and especially PJ Kennedy, and also my Dad and brother Maurice - without them this project would not have been possible, so thanks a million to all of them!

From September to December, the time was spent just mocking everything up to make sure it was possible. Some pics of the mockup attached...

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The chassis build was started in December, and the real build of the 4 seater was done from the time the chassis was completed (around mid-March) up until last week.

The DMC-24 has a brand new chassis - the front half is based on a DeLorean design, but was built by an Irish DeLorean owner called Mervyn Richardson. I asked Mervyn to supply the front half with a longer center tunnel section, which was no problem. Mervyn is the guy who is now manufacturing stainless steel chassis' in Ireland which were on display at Eurofest.

So, the front half was finished within a few weeks, and delivered to my friend Joe's workshop in early January, along with the rear subframe from a Renault Alpine GTA.

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The Alpine rear subframe was used to give double wishbone suspension in the rear, meaning this chassis does not have trailing arm suspension any longer, which frees up the space required to have rear seats.

Joe then designed and built the rear half of the chassis to interface with the center tunnel of the front half, and to incorporate mounting points from the Renault Alpine subframe, and did a really great job on it.

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Once the chassis was finished and powdercoated, the race was on to build the rolling chassis and modify the fiberglass body. A huge area of fiberglass was removed from the body - basically everything from behind the front seats to about halfway back the engine bay, including the original rear windscreen. This was all rebuilt with new fiberglass, to make the most of the room available with the new chassis installed. A new rear windscreen was fitted about 8 inches behind where the standard DMC window would have been.

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The end result is that the car's exterior is exactly the same as a 2 seater DeLorean - even the original louvers fit. However, it has a rear seating area with more leg and head room than a 911, effectively making it a useable 2+2 car. The project is not quite finished yet, but will be on the road soon and I'll get better pictures and video then. All that remains is to complete the wiring loom modifications and get the car registered.

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Forgot to mention, this car also has power steering, rear anti-roll bar, upgraded brakes, custom stainless dual exhaust system (twin separate mufflers) and a few other changes along the way such as all pipework being routed inside the center tunnel of the frame rather than outside it (brakes, clutch, fuel, coolant). It was also converted from automatic to manual as part of the build process.

It is running the engine and gearbox from the Renault Alpine GTA - which is a carburetor version of the PRV.

Lastly, James RG in the UK made a custom side stripe for it which I didn't have time to fit before Eurofest, but will post pictures of it fitted soon... The stripes are like the original wide black side stripes, but instead of "DMC" on the front fenders, it says "DMC24".

Any questions, let me know!

thanks,
John

[dmcjohn]

So as a follow on from my post in May - not much to report unfortunately - after the summer we were very busy getting ready for a move to the US so the car took a back seat :tongue2:

I'm getting back to the point now where I have free time again, so plan on getting the car on the road asap.

Thanks,
John

[EarlHickey]

I'm impressed. Stellar work and I'll study this several times.

I think you may look into the "2+2" designation as it seems a bit more fitting for this marvel which isn't quite a two door sedan.

Thanks for the pix and I look forward to seeing the build diary.

I'd also like to see more details of the Renault drive line goodies.

[jawn101]

Wow, that really is awesome work. I'd be interested in a shot of the engine compartment too, to see how you accomodated the strut towers in there.

Edit: or are they inside the pontoon? It's hard to tell where they ended up from the shots provided. Very interested to know :)

[dmcjohn]

The rear shock towers are partially enclosed in the pontoons, and partially in the engine bay.

I dug up a few photos to illustrate - not great photos as they were taken before the fiberglass work was tidied up and in some pics before the new fiberglass roof was done - but you can get a sense of how tall the shock towers are (necessarily so, due to the coil-over being mounted on the upper rear suspension arm, versus being mounted on the lower rear arm on a standard DMC).

First off, a pic of the shock towers while the chassis is out of the car:

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and then in the car:

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The nice thing is that although they are much taller than stock, they still just fit under the original line of the pontoon as you can see in this shot from the rear of the car:

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I intend making a piece of fiberglass to hide the shock towers in the engine bay (basically a 90 degree piece for each side to go from the side pontoon to the rear firewall).

I filmed most of the build and took hundreds of pictures, everything from getting the chassis powdercoated to cutting and rebuilding the fiberglass - so that's what I'm trying to get done in my spare time now, to get the video and pics onto a website.

Thanks,
John

[jawn101]

OK, now I see where they ended up. Very cool work on that! I imagine once you cleaned up that glass job on the pontoons you'd have no idea it wasn't stock, just like the rest of the car.

[dmcjohn]

I'd also like to see more details of the Renault drive line goodies.

These pics are from the first week or two of the build - some pics of the Renault Alpine GTA engine / transmission / rear subframe being removed from the donor car and being mocked up in a spare fiberglass body I had, to take measurements and determine if it was feasible to keep the existing wheelbase, avoid interference with the rear suspension, keep the outside of the car looking stock while having room for the rear seats. It was - just!

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[dmcjohn]

Just an update on my 4 seater DeLorean project... I'm finally nearly finished with the interior! It'll be a brown leather interior (with black dash, binnacle, center console and carpets). The front seats are Recaro LS, and the rear seats currently being built are going to match the pattern of the fronts.

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[Domi]

Looking good so far, please keep us update :)

[Lwanmtr]

Looks neat...will full size people fit in the back? hehe

[dmcjohn]

Looks neat...will full size people fit in the back? hehe

Yes, but it'll be a bit tight for adults. It's perfect for kids though - it's basically the same as any 2+2 kind of car!

[Andrew]

Awesome car! How did you find the Renault Alpine parts car? Those are pretty darn rare to start with, let alone finding one for parts!

Are you still running the Alpine sourced dual Solex carbs? If so, welcome to the Solex club! I'm running Peugeot sourced Solex systems on both of my DeLoreans. Aside from my two DeLoreans, I only know of about 2 or 3 other Solex carbed Deloreans, plus yours.

If you are still running the Solex system, you might want to pick up an extra mechanical fuel pump as they are becoming very difficult to find. As recently as 2014 it was possible to buy the correct Airtex 1436 pump via special order at Autozone or on Rockauto. By last year, I had to order a spare on Ebay from Latvia!

Andrew
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