New member - potential new owner

[Jonathan]

Thank you for your reply.

I guess I just need to know if I'm making a good decision. I'm usually a practical person who doesn't take much financial risks. If it weren't for this opportunity and the ability to drive it for awhile I would probably never of considered a DeLorean.

The financial committee has approved the purchase .

Glad to hear you got the financial approval with your family. Be prepared to need to go back to the Board of Directors for increased funding and time allocation. Both will very likely be well underestimated. Not your car inparticular of course, all of them. "Most" new owners don't know what they're getting into until they dive in. How could you really? Not saying that's a bad thing, but dreaming about owning one of these cars and actually getting to own one of these cars are two very different things. Try to keep in mind that it is just a car when deciding on money and time and that your wife/daughter should come ahead of the DeLorean. Sounds like common sense, but it's not always that easy to put into practice.

Anywho, just one thing on your frame pic up at the driver's front wheel area. Does this look like a concern of any kind? Can't tell exactly what's going on there from the pic other than it doesn't look pristine.

Nate88 frame pic highlighted.jpg

As Dermot mentioned, frame looks ok from the pics. Your suspension components will not be a ton of fun thanks to that surface rust when you go to remove certain nuts or bolts. Swiss Cheese frames aren't great, but frame damage can be repaired or welded up right. Rusty fasteners aren't the end of the world either, but boy can they ever kick the crap out of your enthusiasm once you struggle with a few of them. As mentioned though, you have a car available to you that most others won't get the same kind of chance for. Pristine, completely rust free cars are not very common, not the ones for sale anyway. The prices will be up there though if you do find one of those of course. Just try to weigh that into your overall decision, for expectations or whatever.

[dn010]

That circled area looks like tow hook damage to me.

[DMC-SMA]

Thank you everyone who responded. I was able to take some quick pics of under the front of the car.

Would love to use these pictures as a chance to ask the experienced owners their thoughts and learn.

Should the rust not be concerning? Upper and Lower Control arms, Sway bar brushings, etc? Is all of that easy to replace and treat?

Still new to this stuff but based on what I have read, any rust has turned me into a bit nervous nelly.

Appreciate you all instructing this newbie.

Thanks!

[Nate88]

Attached are more pics. I took a close up of the damage. It looks like a rip in the frame, maybe tow hook damage as previous poster mentioned? Is this no good, bad, terrible, don't buy it? Fixable, now or later?

Rest are general interior, engine bay and a couple of the outside.

IMG_1183.jpgIMG_1180.jpgIMG_1584.jpgIMG_1574.jpgIMG_1580.jpgIMG_1575.jpgIMG_1578.jpgIMG_1579.jpgIMG_1576.jpgIMG_1577.jpgIMG_1560.jpgIMG_1564.jpgIMG_1561.jpgIMG_1563.jpgIMG_1562.jpg

[dn010]

Surface rust can easily be taken care of. Those arms and stuff like that can be taken off, sandblasted, coated, etc. When you start seeing rust holes or rust stains from the intended holes in the frame is when the fun really begins. Seeing that should make you worry about what is happening to the places you cannot see or access in your frame. With that, some people just wire brush the rust away and brush on a nice coating of rust sealing paint on it to make themselves feel better about it. The only way I've gotten rid of rust was to sandblast all the areas, do all the prep work and then paint with a good rust paint.

Nate's frame, from what I can see pictured, looks like it has mild rust and aside from that tow hook damage which is an easy fix, I don't see anything alarming.

Worry when it begins looking like this:

Would love to use these pictures as a chance to ask the experienced owners their thoughts and learn.

Should the rust not be concerning? Upper and Lower Control arms, Sway bar brushings, etc? Is all of that easy to replace and treat?

Still new to this stuff but based on what I have read, any rust has turned me into a bit nervous nelly.

Appreciate you all instructing this newbie.

Thanks!

[DMC-SMA]

[QUOTE=dn010;197721]Surface rust can easily be taken care of. Those arms and stuff like that can be taken off, sandblasted, coated, etc. When you start seeing rust holes or rust stains from the intended holes in the frame is when the fun really begins. Seeing that should make you worry about what is happening to the places you cannot see or access in your frame. With that, some people just wire brush the rust away and brush on a nice coating of rust sealing paint on it to make themselves feel better about it. The only way I've gotten rid of rust was to sandblast all the areas, do all the prep work and then paint with a good rust paint.

Nate's frame, from what I can see pictured, looks like it has mild rust and aside from that tow hook damage which is an easy fix, I don't see anything alarming.

Worry when it begins looking like this:


Thanks for the info!!

[dn010]

Later I'll try to post a picture of what it looks like now, it makes a great conversation piece.

[Nate88]

Surface rust can easily be taken care of. Those arms and stuff like that can be taken off, sandblasted, coated, etc. When you start seeing rust holes or rust stains from the intended holes in the frame is when the fun really begins. Seeing that should make you worry about what is happening to the places you cannot see or access in your frame. With that, some people just wire brush the rust away and brush on a nice coating of rust sealing paint on it to make themselves feel better about it. The only way I've gotten rid of rust was to sandblast all the areas, do all the prep work and then paint with a good rust paint.

Nate's frame, from what I can see pictured, looks like it has mild rust and aside from that tow hook damage which is an easy fix, I don't see anything alarming.

Worry when it begins looking like this:

Wow! Thank you for the visuals. I would think the tow hook damage could be repaired by cutting it out and welding a new piece of metal in?

[dn010]

It may or may not be from a tow truck hook, it kind of looks like it to me but it's really just speculation. Whatever the cause, that is an easy fix with some welding but- when the time comes, be mindful of the fuel tank and all the hoses in the vicinity.

[Jonathan]

When there was mention of "tow truck hook" damage, I immediately thought of the hooks actually on the car being damaged (which they look fine). I hadn't realized it meant some donkey tow truck driver had hooked his own chains under the front of the car and pulled hard on it causing that damage. Yea, that's a real boner move, but doesn't look too difficult to repair (for someone that knows how to do that sort of thing... not me to name at least one though).

Your car here looks really nice inside. A man after my own heart, with black interior and an automatic. Fender antenna too, but an early enough VIN that you got yourself a gas flap hood. Your car's dash and binnacle look really, really good too, so considering that and the type of hood you have, you already have a few pretty decent features that many guys consider quite important.

I looked back at your list of the work done on the car and one thing jumped out that I might want to look into further. It mentioned all the hoses were replaced, yet one of the earlier pictures you posted shows at least one of those hoses with a bit of a bulge in the middle and that to me meant it was ready to be replaced, not newly replaced. Thoughts?

Nate88 pic 2.jpg

Also, any reason you know of why the engine bay light switch is unplugged? Any other lights or switches or gizmos on the car that you know of that don't work?

The lower engine bay cover looks to be cracked over on the driver's side. Also missing a couple of the engine grille retaining strips and a couple of the seatbelt bolt covers. Neither of those are big ticket items, just thought I'd mention them for you. I look at pictures of cars a little too much it would seem... lol