Here is a picture with the mold for the bonnet.
John
Here is a picture with the mold for the bonnet.
John
In the factory where my father works they do forming for aluminum and stainless sheets like that. Most of the forms are for lawn mowers but they've also built jet engine shipping containers and some other cool stuff. I keep telling him to let his company know they could make a fortune if they could recreate the left fenders.
That reminds me, I need to ask him for some scrap stainless to tinker with.
Red
VIN 4534
Born - October 1981
Brought back to life - July 2011
Posts: 1,068
For newbies' benefit: stainless panels were not made at the Dunmurry plant, but were stamped at a Laepple facility in Carlow Ireland. Stainless sheets were already grained when they went into the presses (one of the pilot cars has a panel accidentally oriented 90 degrees off in the press -- grain runs vertically):
PilotVerticalGrain2.jpg PilotVerticalGrain1.jpg
Regarding hoods in particular: there is a myth that gas flap hoods were eliminated due to stamping problems, but in actuality they were eliminated simply because Chuck Bennington didn't like them (Dick Brown may have told employees stateside that the idea to get rid of them was his).
Bill Robertson
#5939
Last edited by content22207; 09-15-2011 at 10:52 AM.
Location: Previously Ireland, now New Jersey
Posts: 353
My VIN: 4 Seater DMC24
Club(s): (DMA)
Hi Bill,
On the dmctalk.com forum before the crash, we chatted about this before. Unfortunately it's all gone now.
Anyway, not to get into a big debate on this, but the gas-flap cutout did cause issues for Lapple, and was most likely part of the decision (along with other factors, including possibly your point about Chuck Bennington) to get rid of it.
The Gas flap was deleted by Chuck Bennington because the design was Mickey Mouse and looked feeble. It was not done for cost reduction or ease of stamping reasons.
Nick Sutton
Location: Previously Ireland, now New Jersey
Posts: 353
My VIN: 4 Seater DMC24
Club(s): (DMA)
Ok Nick, fair enough!
Posts: 1,068
The quarter panels are much more complex stampings/cutouts than the hood.
Bill Robertson
#5939
Location: Chicagoland area
Posts: 1,898
My VIN: A few, by name... DeLorean Monster Truck, DeLorean Roadster, DeLorean Hovercraft, DeLorean Limo
Club(s): (DMWC) (DCUK)
QAC in Troy, MI...Parts Notebook Details...For Reference...
A huge thanks to Chris Duvall (Parts POG) for allowing Tony Swann and myself
(and a few other typing volunteers) to enter all of the Parts data from the QAC
Notebook from the QAC in Troy, MI, into spreadsheet and database formats.
There will be a future website that will have a search function to allow anyone
to search the Parts Database, to see if their DeLorean was ever at the Troy QAC
and had parts replaced, while Chris Duvall was in charge of the Parts Inventory.
A few statistics (for now): Chris Duvall was over-seeing the QAC Parts Inventory
in Troy, MI from 08/19/1981 through 03/01/1982, and during that time, nearly
6,200 parts were used on the DeLoreans that passed through the Troy QAC.
More details and statistics to follow.
Thanks,
Rich W.
Location: Northern NJ
Posts: 8,570
My VIN: 10757 1st place Concourse 1998
I was always under the impression there were only 2 QAC's. One in California and one in New Jersey. It is news to me about MI. Were there any others? It made sense about one on each coast since most of the cars came in to the US by ship.
David Teitelbaum
Posts: 1,068
Didn't the POG's at DCS'10 say there were 5 QAC's altogether, but never more than 3 at any one time?
Bill Robertson
#5939