VIN 2706's 20 year nap

[Drive Stainless]

Attachment 58190

Got the Car aligned today and it confirmed all my suspicions. Let me start off by saying I am not Intending to attack any specific vendor but I am gonna give my honest opinion on the cars suspension and drive-ability after a year of real world driving and testing, including a 900 mile road trip. First of all if you buy lowering springs or coil overs from a vendor and you actually objectively look at the cars suspension performance its going to drive like shit by modern day standards if you lower it for many reasons. I am not gonna get into a debate about how the Deloreans suspension was great for 80s standards....great its not the 80s anymore and I am not satisfied by that. If you lower your car to make it look like what the original design was intended for, its gonna look cool and drive like garbage because there simply is not enough adjust ability in the suspension. If you think the car drives great stock then don't read any further.

My Setup:
QA1 Coilover Kit from DS.
Ed Udings Brackets
Toby's poly sway bushings
new regular bushings everywhere else
Delorean club UK billet lowers
DMC Midwest NOS uppers
Delorean Midwest front Sway Bar
All Brand new NOS style brakes.

probably good enough for a standard owner but I am not normal I guess. drives way better then stock... but room for improvement.

QA1 setup
-Under developed. Pissed me off that I paid 1200 bucks and got 2 different color springs ( front and rear springs are different colors. something that should be disclosed to buyers, and I don't think is acceptable for something that expensive.
-I don't think the spring rate and or valving in the shocks is right for the car. Needs further development.

Hi Jimmy. Thanks for your comments about my kit. Since this is the first I've heard of your issues, I would have liked the opportunity to explain or work through the problems with you, but here we are:

1. The springs are different colors because that's the only color in which they are available from QA1 in the correct spring rate. The photos of the kit all clearly show that they are different colors: on eBay, Facebook, etc. I wish they were all the same color, but my kit was at least $150 cheaper than any other coil-over alternative. For about $50, you could powder coat those springs to be the same color.

2. The spring rates are mathematically correct based on the axle weights and QA1's formulas. QA1 does not offer any alternative valving for the shocks.

[powerline84]

There is nothing to "explain or work through". This was an honest assesment of my current suspension, not a review of drive stainless. As far as the colors I did not notice when I purchased because I bought them based off a recommendation from a friend , not facebook photos but regardless. Furthermore if powdercoating is so cheap then I would rather pay the extra 150 bucks from a vendor to get suspension that matches . Who wants to bolt different color suspension on their car....Looks amateur. I dont math to well so my review is based off driving experience. QA1 makes quality parts, they dont cure delorean suspension design.

[powerline84]

Got sick of waiting so currently making my own set of adjustable rear custom control arms with my uncle . I'll post pics when done.

[powerline84]

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1st test set made. New nos uppers from Mike and about 90 bucks in turnbuckles, nuts, and weldable inserts. Just over 200 bucks invested, and boom... camber problems solved. No waiting on vendors. Make them yourself, or have them made at a machine shop
...very easy to do and any competant machine shop that deals with circle track cars etc. Can do this.

Lessons learned

The inserts I ordered where all suppose to be smooth taper and 2 showed up with a stupid hex shape. Doesnt look the best but doesnt compromise integrity as that side was welded anyway so I didnt care. The size shown in the pic is to small . You'll either need to order bigger and mill them down or have a set made.

The inside of the tube is 1.166" if I remember right and nobody makes a weldable insert that size . My uncle said next time easier to just machine his own inserts out of solid stock instead of milling these to work.

So if you can weld and want to make your own set of these I would recommend cutting a control arm down the middle and taking it to a machine shop so they can machine you some weldable inserts, then take them home and make the control arm yourself. The turnbuckles and hardware I went with are all 3/4-16, plenty strong for this application. Or just have a local machine shop make them for you.

Stock upper arm is 8" from bushing center to center. These adjust from about 7 3/4 to well past 9 inches
Way more range then what is needed. Anyone with a lowered car like mine will need to go longer then stock anyway to fix camber issues .

Also remember you need 2 sets of left hand thread and 2 sets of right hand thread inserts and nuts so that your turn buckle will actually work and adjust out and in.


I plan on also making a set of lowers.

Once I install these on the car I'll post more pics /alignment etc.
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[powerline84]

my Uncle is a Bad Ass welder and did a great job. I was gonna weld myself but he is A bad ass Tig welder and I couldn't compete with my MIG.

[DMC-81]

Looking good Jimmy! I had a fellow DeLorean owner convert my lower links for a reasonable price, but I don't think he does it anymore. I think you can get good adjustment with one or the other, but having both perhaps gives you flexibility.

Here are before and after pics of them:





I painted them myself after the conversion.

[powerline84]

Nice !

[powerline84]

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Super happy with how these turned out. I will hopefully install them this weekend.

[Lwanmtr]

Look nice...hope the work

[powerline84]

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Well I finally got these installed and all I can say is wow they transformed the car. Much bigger driving improvment then I expected. The car feels much more planted and more predictable. Less wishy washy in the back end. At speed much less driver Input. I wish I would have done this sooner. Car drives much straighter. Best part is it only took an hour on the lift to install them . I am gonna move on to the front end now and try and do some improvements for caster .