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So This is the story of me picking up my car from Mike and the Team at Midwest and driving it home to upstate NY over 900 Miles for its first ever drive. Let me start out by saying that the only reason the car was there was due to me being ripped off and having to fix a bunch of shotty work that another franchise did to my car. An honest assessment and review for that will come later. I will say that in the Future the only DMC franchise that will ever touch my car again will Be Mike and His team at Midwest. Him and Jason and the rest of the gang there are phenomenal and did a great job on my car.
The trip started out with me and a buddy driving to Syracuse and catching a red eye flight to Chicago. Mike was nice enough to drive out to the airport and take us to his shop to show me my car. When we got there the car was still having a hot start issue that was making them scratch their heads. Suzy was nice enough to give me and my buddy a ride to the holiday inn around the corner( great hotel, My hotel of choice when going to Midwest). We went and checked out a local car museum (Volo Auto Museum ). What an amazing museum, I highly recommend it. Mike and Jason figured out that my vacuum triple switch under the intake was bad and also a sensor. Suzy picked us back up and took us to the car, and Mike gave me a ride in my car for the first time ever other then me driving it in my driveway and down the block. It was cool to be in my car with it running right and realizing a dream. Mike and Jason drove the crap out of my car the week leading up to my arrival and got all the bugs worked out of it. Was pretty cool to see the dedication to the customer.
I ended up taking the rubber chicken out of my car that i had in there to make people laugh on the road and stuffed it in Jasons tool box as I was pretty sure he needed a good laugh after all the time he had spent on my car. They did a lot of stuff, mostly fixing bad work from the other franchise. But while it was there I had them do headliners, a windshield, new a pillars, alignment, wheel balance, restore the windshield wiper are, new cowl etc. they painted the trim around windshield, reset my t panel, adjusted doors, and a lot of other little things. Most work was done under the engine compartment getting things right. Mike was concerned about me taking the car on a long road trip and I said Mike best case we make it, worst case we don't, either way its going to be exciting and I am stoke either way. In all honesty people thought we were crazy....after doing the road trip I will say, That if you are mechanically inclined and are ok and fully expect to have to deal with some minor or major break down issues then do it. If you aren't then don't.
The trip started the next morning early on Saturday, we decided to stop at the sand dunes in Indiana and check those out because an uber driver told us about them. it was pretty cool and worth the stop. We made it about 200 miles or so out of Chicago when the car died at 90 unexpectedly. We coasted over to the side of the road and discovered the car had pissed a bunch of fuel out of the accumulator area. A local guy stopped and had a jack and was nice enough to let me use it to inspect and I was able to confirm the problem a pressure line to the accumulator. He recommended a tow truck guy and we waited about 40 minutes for them to show up. These guys where awesome, their shop was closed and I explained the situation to them and said look if you let me put it on a lift I will know in 2 minutes if we can fix it, and if we can it will take 15 minutes. Luckily they decided to help us and I discovered that some moron at the first franchise took the new accumulator fuel line off that came with my kit from DMC and for some reason installed some 50 psi low pressure line. Luckily of the 3 parts stores in town one had some 225 psi line and the mechanics girl friend was nice enough to go pick it up for us. She brought it back while we ate some taco bell and after about a 3 hour delay from incident we where back on the road. Those guys helped restore some faith in people. I will say that they where intimidated by car and if it wasnt for me knowing it so well and talking to them they wouldn't have touched it. (something to think about if you are going to attempt a long trip ).
After that we where back on the road and about 600 miles in the speedo quit working, i believe it to be the dust cap on the left front, no big deal. Stopped for gas before hitting buffalo and noticed an axle seal seeping, not enough to be a problem but was making a little bit off a mess. I believe the vent on the trans was gummed up. We finally made it to buffalo and spent the night. The next day I stopped into a shop and they let me throw the car on a lift to check trans level and it was full (just had to make sure)...they didn't even charge me ! it was awesome and was only a 30 minute delay. Stopped at my moms work and showed the car of to her co workers , then was on the way to Syracuse to pick up the other car. Even ran into my brother and his friends on the highway. picked up the car and made the final 2 hour journey home. Celebrated by grabbing dinner and then went and pick up my dog. The Car had made it 900 miles !
The trip experience was nothing short of awesome. Seeing peoples reactions and also realizing I was driving my childhood dream car across country after restoring it for almost a year and spending thousands of man hours working on it and a lot of money was priceless. I will say that every single stretch of highway and gas station stop was an experience. I think the trip was hours longer just from gas stations. People absolutely loose it. Sometimes I would let one person sit in the car and then end up with a line of people wanting their picture next to it. The cars celebrity is just unreal. But seeing the joy of people and kids when you let them sit in the car is absolutely awesome and is a big part of what makes owning this car so great.
Some experiences and notes:
-I need a cup holder lol
-I need a place to mount my phone
-no AC sucks
-letting people sit in car is risky a big dude ripped my left rear elbow pad thing now ill have to fix it.
-Radio was cool but having a bose speaker on dash was nice.
-cigarette lighter works but my phone charger didn't...weird ill have to look at it.
-real easy to run out of storage space, especially when you have a strut bar but haven't cut carpet to fit.
-I hit a damn teridactal bug and didn't have any windshield washer at night and was damn near blind lol.
-regular headlights aren't bright enough and brights piss people off. ( I will need to upgrade).
-first thing i did after leaking all that gas was buy a fire extinguisher at a truck stop. dont leave home without one lol
-add at least a few hours to a normal trip time because you just cant get gas. unless you flip a switch and be rude...which i have to admit towards the end the what year are you going to and where is the flux comments got old...I was tired lol
Finally if you have a Delorean, take it on a road trip...it will be one of the coolest experiences of your life !
I would like to say thanks to Mike and his Team, and really all the vendors who have given me a single part for my car, RichNYS and all the people on this forum etc who have helped me along the way to getting this car on the road.
If you have any questions feel free to ask!
Originally Posted by powerline84
