VIN 5510 - Bill's DeLorean Restoration

[CyberBill]

Another long week, working at least a couple hours each night after work and 8+ hours each weekend day, and quite a bit to show for it!

Since the engine and transmission are now in the car, most of the focus was on things that connect to it. The transmission mounts and engine mounts are now torqued down. I installed the half shafts on both sides. I put on the replacement intake pipes from DeloreanGo that replace the strange collection of construction paper-based tubes. The transmission shift linkage was installed and realigned (it was off by about 3 turns). The heater core tubes (plus new valve) were installed and connected - up front I used a short piece of aluminum pipe to bridge the supply & return lines (like the heater core would) so I can pressure test, fill, and bleed the whole system before putting the body on. The rear brakes are complete and installed on both sides, including parking brakes and hard lines, and with brake pads all around - the brakes are now complete and ready to be pressure tested!!

The exhaust crossover pipe is installed, and both it and the catalytic converter have been wrapped to try and cut down on temperatures in the engine bay. I didn't realize that it would be impossible to get a bolt onto the catalytic converter from the 'front', so after struggling with it for a couple of hours I decided I will go back and weld on some studs. The PO had put bolts on and welded them, but they were in terrible shape, so hopefully I can do a

I also spent a ton of time on the cooling system. The pipe under the fuel tank on the driver's side would just NOT fit. At all. I must have tried for 3 hours. So I pulled out the old one, cleaned it up, and then used brazing rods to fill in the few pin holes - we'll see if it holds up. The old one fit easily - so on went the closing plate and all of the rest of the pipes all the way back to the engine. All new silicone hoses were installed, including the ones that connect to the water pump (but not the ones under the intake). On the passenger side, the automatic transmission cooler was installed and the overflow tank, along with the bleeder system from DPNW.

Here's an updated video! https://youtu.be/y8gSE1GjU6Y

Purchases:

• Various Nuts and Bolts - $45 - BoltDepot
• Silicone trans gasket (for later!), Angle drive dust shield, Radius arm mounting plates, olives & nuts for fuel lines - $120 - DeloreanGo

[Michael]

I can hear the excitement building in your voice during the videos. She is really looking good!!!!

[EngineerGuY]

I can hear the excitement building in your voice during the videos. She is really looking good!!!!

Right? Excitement and confidence. Amazing to see the progress through videos. Subscribed and looking forward to more.

[CyberBill]

This week was spent finalizing the frame, which is now complete!

On the cooling system, I got the bracket on the underside of the frame installed and tightened up. The transmission cooler was put into place, wrapped in the heatsink thing, and the pipes connected to the transmission. I installed the otterstat and the front bleeder from DPNW. Then I pressure tested the system, which discovered a few loose clamps, and it was able to hold vacuum pressure for well over an hour! Here's a video on this process:

https://youtu.be/91iWi-9dHOE

I also installed the catalytic converter, muffler, and heat shield, so the exhaust system is now complete! The horns were installed (and I might change them later...), and also the trailing arm brackets that were missing. The fuel system was finalized, which was basically installing the final braided hose between the filter and the distributor, plus tightening up the filter bracket and installing the evap hoses. Then the fuel system was pressure tested, and also the brakes. Here's a video showing all this:

https://youtu.be/YPk59FatIbM

Lastly, today I worked on getting the body raised up and the frame installed. I wanted to get further than I did, but I ran out of concrete blocks and had to go buy some more, and tonight we had a small gathering with our close friends before Washington goes under COVID lockdown starting Tuesday. I've got two videos on the progress so far:

https://youtu.be/TbW5S_quv1U

https://youtu.be/pbnpRUQlCc4

As of now the body is 2' in the air, the frame is below it, and I'm working on moving the blocks around so that I can lower the body down. It'll probably take two evenings after work to drop the body and start hooking things up, and hopefully this next weekend the car will be driving around the block!

[Michael]

Sure is a pretty frame!

You may need to turn your pump 180 degrees to allow the cover plate to seat properly. Also, depending on the pump used, you might need a good check valve on the feed side.

[CyberBill]

Sure is a pretty frame!

You may need to turn your pump 180 degrees to allow the cover plate to seat properly. Also, depending on the pump used, you might need a good check valve on the feed side.

Thanks Michael! Funny enough, it was faced the other way and I had to turn it to make the lines fit... and then I swapped the lines and probably need to twist it back! Feed side does have a check valve in it.

[CyberBill]

Tons of progress since the last update, the car is nearing completion and has already made it around the block once.

First, here's some videos showing the remainder of getting the body lowered:

https://youtu.be/IrFWwr2k1-Q

https://youtu.be/iCB7UIHInOA

https://youtu.be/Yc6Cp8prL64

And here is going over the first start (ok, more like 3rd):

https://youtu.be/G1u_AvNunmo

and showing the first drive:

https://youtu.be/HX8x2B5Y4_w

And the longer update video:

https://youtu.be/RQKpo1GG3PM

The body is now on the frame, with about half of the body bolts in place. The remainder of the body bolts are off just a hair, and I need to fiddle a bit with the frame to get them to line up (off by 1/8" max). Once the body was down all the connectors and things went on without issue, and all connectors were cleaned with contact cleaner and all thicker wires were cleaned up with a wire wheel on my Dremel. First attempts at starting the car failed because the starter wasn't attempting to start - eventually this was traced back to the shifter linkage being slightly out of adjustment. Once that was fixed, every start of the car has been painless. It does seem to take a few seconds to start up after the car has been off for a long time, which my current thinking is that it's losing fuel pressure over time... haven't investigated, though.

From that point, I've been hooking up all the rest of the bits and bobs on the car. The brakes were hooked up the master cylinder and bled, the parking brake cables were installed and adjusted, the horns and fans were plugged in, the steering column was put in place, and lots and lots of little things like filling the coolant and what not.

Lastly, I have also spent a lot of time over the past two weeks working on the move to our new home and shop. You can get a video of the new home to DeLorean 5510 here:

https://youtu.be/eclkQejB7g0

Coming up in the next installment I will install the final remaining items on the car, get it washed, and prepped for it's longest journey since I've been its care taker.

[DMC-Ron]

Bill,
Fantastic progress and awesome job with the work you have done on the car. I have thoroughly enjoyed watching your video progress updates. Your enthusiasm is pervasive. I get as excited as you do with your victories. Keep up the good work!

Congratulations on your new house. The shop looks fantastic.

Sincerely,
Ron

[CyberBill]

I was able to give the car a nice rinse now that it's all put together, here's a short walk around:

https://youtu.be/l9_sXQ3fVa8

Biggest thing from this last week that's visible is that the rear fascia went on permanently. That included the fascia bracket / heat shield, impact absorber, and the fascia. I decided to replace the terrible nuts in awkward places with rivnuts for almost all of the parts that go into fiberglass - which makes the job a whole lot easier. Tail lights went in - and the board has been replaced with new ones from DGO along with LEDs. The radio antenna went in the rear pontoon, as well as charcoal cannister.

I also fixed the latch and release mechanisms on the engine cover and louvers. They both latch now and the engine cover is released with the normal handle behind the driver's seat. Those have been broken since I got the car, so it's nice to finally have them 'fixed' (good enough for now, but it's using hardware store parts).

Mechanically I did get some shims on the trailing arms and got it torqued down (I was waiting for an offset wrench), I also got the rear suspension top bolts working as intended. DPI's setup is slick, but it took me a few times of putting it on before I realized what I was doing wrong (top bolt has a 'shoulder' portion that goes through the frame AND through the suspension bracket). I also got all of the body bolts in place - which took some pry bars and a little help from my wife to screw in the bolts while I pried the body into position. The angle drive has been filled with oil and lower speedo cable is in place, but I need to rig up something to keep it from rubbing on the tire during hard left turns. The O2 sensor wire was replaced (not long enough), as well, and I finally took the time to install the gas filler neck and the two other hoses and ground that go to the metal bit at the top.

A few days ago I tried to do another test drive around a slightly larger block around the house, and it did NOT go well. I drive the car down the street and took a turn going up a hill - as soon as the car starting going up, it died, then spurted to life for a second and died again. I immediate thought "Oh crap, I'm out of gas!" so with the engine off I popped it in reverse and slowly rolled backwards down the hill, then made a turn pointing back home, and luckily the engine started up and I was able to make it back into the garage. A quick trip to the gas station got me a couple gallons in a can, and that issue went away. I was then able to drive around the block a few times and honestly it feels 10x better than it ever has. Better acceleration, better brakes, better steering. I was able to drive over to the gas station and filled it up - but then, for whatever reason, the car started acting funny... sort of felt like it was running out of gas. Holding the gas pedal down and letting it rev at 2k for the two or three minutes I was at a stop light cured it, though... Not really sure what to think about that. It's very possible that I overfilled the tank. I think a few lunch-time test drives this week are in order.

Some great things to note so far - the high-idle that the car had pre-teardown seems all but fixed. It used to hold at 2.2krpm while idling and now it starts there when cold and over the course of a few seconds drops down to just above 1k, then as it warms up, drops to a but under 1k. I haven't had a long enough test to see if it gets down to ~800, but it's now within spitting distance. I was worried that the temperature gauge wasn't working, and I know now that it is - though it may be reading low. The fans do kick on, so that's also great.

Now, let's talk about some not so great things! The transmission is definitely leaking ATF. Not a ton, but it seems to drip constantly. I'll double check some things, but if needed I can make a 120 mile trip with a slow leak. My heater core lines are crushed and I need to fix them before I can get heat in the cabin. Since my drive is through Snoqualmie Pass at ~3,000 feet elevation, and the current high temps there are in the 30's, I think I probably want to fix this before the trip.... Or wear a coat. The defroster will be handy to have, though. The gas gauge is totally wrong. I'll have to pull the pump and sender from the tank and see if it's sticking or something. It reads 1/2 when at a full tank, and when I ran out of gas going up a hill, it still showed 1/4 of a tank. And lastly, the voltage gauge has me worried - it runs a bit under 13V when the car is running and the head lights and stuff are on. When I turn a turn signal on, I can actually watch the voltage 'tick' down when the light is on. I think I need to clean off a few more electrical contacts! I've got a list going of other issues that can wait, but these are the important ones.

There's just a handful of things left to do and a bunch of test drives before I'll be ready to make the trip, weather permitting.

[Rich_NYS]

Awesome, great to see you rollin'!

Sent from my LGL164VL using Tapatalk