Shipping Wars featuring VIN 16128 and its picky owner!

[Chris Burns]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Yi2q7xR-RCk

[Delorean Industries]

Ugh why would you bring this up. This is ancient. Let it die.

[Nicholas R]

Things like this never die! Heck, about a month and a half ago I watched the Monster Garage DeLorean Hovercraft episode from 2003. These shows never disappear.

Speaking of which, do we have a listing of links to TV shows that focus on DeLoreans? It seems like there have been a lot in the last couple years. Might be nice to have a repository, especially for any of the episodes that can be viewed online.

[DMCVegas]

Don't know of a specific database per se where the DeLorean is the focus, but here is the archive of movies and TV shows that at least show one somewhere.

http://www.imcdb.org/vehicles_make-De+Lorean.html

[BladeBronson]

What the... http://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_345587-...C-12-1981.html

[DMCVegas]

What the... http://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_345587-...C-12-1981.html

That is a modified DeLorean from the old TV show, Hardcastle & McCormick. Plot aside, one the the main stars of the show was a Manta Mirage kitcar with a Porsche 914 drivetrain. The problem was that one of the stars of the show, Brian Keith, was having a great amount of diffuclty sliding in and out of the car. So for seasons 2 & 3 they purchased a DeLorean and modified it to look like the Manta. I believe they just chopped-off the front pontoon, and cut the fenders and quarter panels. Then they grafted the fiberglass kit car sections in, and removed the side glass and cut the doors all the way up to create T-Tops.



The big question I have here though, is how did they convert the wheels to 5-lugs? Spacers? Or entirely new hubs?

Some pretty decent pictures here:
http://www.jayohrberg.com/Hardcastle_and_McCormick.html

A couple of construction photos here:
http://uniquemoviecarslasvegas.com/photos.php

That's the hero car though. There was also a stunt vehicle as well, but I think it was just a shell over a tube chassis, and not another full DeLorean conversion. Almost makes me wonder if that DeLorean stunt car chassis & drivetrain might not have been the basis for the BTTF Mark III Time machine

[rickjames8]

The big question I have here though, is how did they convert the wheels to 5-lugs? Spacers? Or entirely new hubs?

My theory, judging by how high it sits off the ground, is that they took the fiberglass body of the Delorean, and dropped it on another frame. Remember, this series was filmed at a time when DMCH did not exist, right? Sourcing parts probably was a completely different game back then.

[Lwanmtr]

I hadnt seen shipping wars..and watching that video Im glad I hadnt...lol
Really though its all a bit dramatized and any shipper is going to be fully insured with regard to any damage done to the car in transit (though it would seem that outer door seal wasnt well attached to begin with)...wonder how much insurance pays for a dirty car..lol

Ive never seen the delorean hovercraft, aside of the small shot on science channel promoting some show.

I didnt like the look of the car from Hardcastle and Mccormick when they changed it...I know why they did it..but its still a fugly car.

[DMCVegas]

My theory, judging by how high it sits off the ground, is that they took the fiberglass body of the Delorean, and dropped it on another frame. Remember, this series was filmed at a time when DMCH did not exist, right? Sourcing parts probably was a completely different game back then.

DMCH's inventory was purchased from KAPAC in Columbus, OH. Insomuch as there wasn't an online portal to order from, and some of the parts were still hidden inside of crates & bins that had never been opened since they left the factory, parts were still available back then. You could either order yourself, or have any of the many garages that serviced DeLoreans just order parts for you (which there used to be allot more).

If you click on the second link I provided, you can see a couple of images of this car while under construction. But right here is the big one to take a look at:



That clearly is the front suspension from a DMC-12. I've no doubt that the car does indeed sit a bit higher, but because it has much larger tires installed. Just like putting on a large wheel & tire package onto a truck, or especially a Jeep, that will raise the vehicle by itself. But there is a bit of an optical illusion given that the stock rocker panels have been deleted, although you can still see the underside of the body tub in the shadows. Because the DeLorean was well designed for easy ingress and egress, we tend to forget that the door sills are still much higher than regular cars, or even trucks & SUV's where they are nonexistent. So even though the bottom of the door looks to be a long distance from the ground to give the look of a high ride hight, you still have that long distance of the rockers, AND the body tub underneath.



But still, check out the wheel hub in that photo. It has 5 lugs. Was that an Esprit hub grafted onto a DeLorean by swapping Esprit hubs with custom spindles? Because if it's possible, I'll be ditching mine to switch to aftermarket wheels.

[FABombjoy]

They probably redrilled them

-Press out studs
-Weld fill existing holes (or 3 of them at least)
-Drill for 5 stud layout