DMC Dealership sign delivered today!

[dmruschell]

Update:

I removed the broken plexiglass and the piece that wasn't glued on well behind the DE. I was also able to get a good look at the fluorescent fixtures, ballast housing, and construction of the sign. My current plan is to get a friend help me lay the sign in its back and completely remove the front panel. That way, I can get easy access to the wiring and front panel. That should make refurbishing the front and wiring much, much easier. Many of the rivets holding the front panel on have already been drilled out and replaced with screws, so it should be relatively easy. I just don't want to turn it over by myself lol. I'll take many pictures once that's done so anyone following in my footsteps will have something to look at.

[Bitsyncmaster]

They do not require a ballast and you can reuse the fixture. You have to eliminate the ballast so that the bulbs themselves receive 120v.

The ballast uses about 40 watts of power in a four foot four lamp fixture. So with the old 40 watt tubes you use 200 watts of power.

With my 22 watt LED tubes I now only use 88 watts.

Some of the LED tubes say you can leave the ballast installed and just plug and play. But how much power is wasted in the ballast running LEDs I don't know.

[dmruschell]

I helped Cliff Schmucker hang his and get his working. If I recall correctly, there are either 2 or 3 different lighting zones inside. I think the "DMC," "DeLorean," and "Motor Cars" are each their own zone. it was 2010 so I can't remember for sure about the exact zones.. Surprisingly, his lighting seemed to work pretty well. We did testing to make sure it worked, and it seemed as though everything was great. With the lighting working, we went ahead and hung the sign in his workshop. Unfortunately, when we were all finished, we turned it on, and only one zone lit up; the DMC. The "DeLorean Motor Cars" did not light up at all. We couldn't figure out why because when we tested it on the ground it worked great. The only thing we could think was that when we were testing it on the ground, the sign was upside down so we could get to the bottom access panel (see the picture below of Cliff and removing the panel). When we flipped it over, something must have happened and part of the sign stopped working.

Luckily Cliff was an electrical engineer so it didn't really phase him. The pain was just that now we had to work on the sign with it 25 feet in the air using a fork lift man-basket. We swapped out the 30 year old ballasts for the fluorescent lights, and sure enough, all zones lit up perfectly. Fluorescent technology has improved since the 80s. I think the ballasts we swapped in were about 1/4th the size of the ones we pulled out, so doing so is possible. The hardest part was accessing them. I think we had to get the end panels off in order to access them. Hope this helps!

Attachment 47121Attachment 47122

Nicholas,

Do you remember how you attached the sign from above? I'm planning to mount the sign on the back wall of my garage and am debating different ways to do it. One way is to hang it form the ceiling. Most people use chains, but that also means I have to leave the top panel off or figure out a way around that. I could also leave the back panel off and use hooks or something else protruding from the wall.

The third way I'm considering is the simplest. I'd follow in Marc Levy's footsteps and not use the frame or lighting at all. The following pictures describe it more easily than I can with words.

http://www.deloreanmidatlantic.com/s.../P1010014a.jpg
http://www.deloreanmidatlantic.com/s.../P1010015a.jpg

I'd rather mount the whole sign, frame included to the wall, as I like the big, industrial look of the thick frame. But, how Marc hung his is quite simple, since there's a lot less weight to worry about supporting.

[dmruschell]

Update: I removed the side and front panels and started investigating the wiring. It shouldn't be difficult to reword. I bought four 4 foot LED bulbs made to use a T8 ballast and a ballast. Of course, I didn't measure the bulb socket lengths and none are 4 feet long. Grr. Does anyone know what size bulbs go into the fixtures in the sign? I measured 3 at 56 inches long and one at 68 inches long. Neither seem to correlate to standard sizes.

I have replacement plexiglass/acrylic on the way and will start refurbishing the sign when that is alltogether.

I also found that my sign appears to originally be a bottom-mount sign. I'm going to try and figure something out other than hanging it from a chain so that I can keep the top cover on.

IMG_4706.jpg

[acaciolo]

i was going to convert mine to leds, but i decided to keep it original with the unused fluorescents that came with it. The only thing i did was switch out the loud magnetic ballast to a new electronic one. Easy to do, no buzz, and works great.

tony c.

[dmruschell]

Update: I figured out how I'm going to hang the sign. I drilled a hole in the outer L beam where the original mounts are/would be. On the underside, I placed another L beam for extra strength and drilled a matching hole. Through both holes will be a screw eye bolt with nuts and washers on each side. Those nuts and washers will also keep the extra L beam secured in place. The L beams should want to bend in opposite directions if they're at the limit of their capability, but this setup should be overkill for the loads involved. These pictures probably give a better idea of the setup than my explanation.

IMG_4719.jpg
IMG_4720.jpg

I also figured out my lighting setup thanks to a friend who found what T12 bulbs originally went in the signs. I'll post that info and what I'm doing when I'm at my computer.

[dmruschell]

Update: The lights that came with the DMC light are T12 fluorescent bulbs with an R17d base. The R17d base makes them a bit difficult to find. 3 of them are 60 inches (5 feet) long and the 4th is 72 inches (5 feet) long. I was sent a link to the correct bulbs by a friend:

http://www.elightbulbs.com/Sylvania-...uorescent-Tube
http://www.elightbulbs.com/Sylvania-...uorescent-Tube

This allowed me to figure out what I want to do for my setup. I was able to find an adapter that allows use of a standard medium bi-pin G13 bulb with an R17d base. Here's the link to what I purchased:

https://www.prolighting.com/prolight...3-to-r17d.html

This opened up my options. There are LEDs available in the correct lengths that will fit with that adapter, but I couldn't find an LED that would still be compatible with using a ballast. I also couldn't find LEDs in the correct lengths that had one side hot and the other side neutral; they all had the different wires on one end. Not that that's a big deal, but with the color coding of the wires, it would be easier to keep track of what wire in the ballast compartment goes where if the hot and neutral were on opposite sides of the tube. So, I've decided to go with standard T8 bulbs. If they ever stop working, I can easily find replacement bulbs instead of having to make sure I get an LED that is wired the same way as the previous bulb. Standardized is good. T8 bulbs also don't flicker like T12 bulbs tend to. Some people don't notice, but it drives me nuts. No buzz is also a plus. These are the bulbs that I decided on:

https://www.lightbulbs.com/product/ge-40081
https://www.lightbulbs.com/product/ge-62573

I'll update once I get the bulbs and adapters and get everything installed.

The next step after lights is cosmetics. The acrylic panels should be arriving soon and I need to decide what black to use. I had read somewhere that they were painted a satin black, but it looks like flat black to me. I'm also debating if I'm going to try and fix the dents in the stainless or leave them.

[dmruschell]

Update: The T8 lights I ordered were too long, even though they're listed as the same size as the ones my friend said worked. I'm going to order the T12s my friend said worked for him and see if they'll fit my sign.

I did make progress on the actual sign, though. All of the plexiglass has been replaced/repaired and cleaned. Next is paint.

IMG_4736.jpg

[dmruschell]

Update: I have working lights!

After my previous update, I discovered that the DMC sign used High Output (HO) tubes. They have a different connector and are different lengths than standard tubes. So, just adapting the connector won't work; the tubes need to be designed for HO applications. T8HO tubes in the correct length exist, but I couldn't find them in stock or in packs fewer than 18. LED tubes for this application don't exist as far as I could tell. But, the T12HO tubes I posted previously were readily available.

I ordered the T12HO tubes and reinstalled the original ballast. The tubes arrived today and everything worked just as it should (including a humming ballast. I may replace it with electronic T12 ballasts in the future).

I've already started painting a few of the panels using Rustoleum matte black paint and they look great. Once I get those finished, reassembly and hanging are the last steps. IMG_4764.jpg