1982 Frame Off Restoration

[82DMC12]

Took the bolt out of the steering shaft but couldn't get it to separate. This maybe only comes apart as you are lifting the body off??
Discovered that there is a LOT of play in my steering rack input shaft.Attachment 67685

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You'll probably have to try and "open" the clamp part of the joint with a big screwdriver or chisel. And lots of penetrating oil. The OEM u-joints are a common failure area (excess play). New U-joints are recommended! You can slide the shaft up towards the firewall if you loosen both u-joints with everything else in-situ. I didn't say it was easy on a rust bucket like this though. Slather in anti-seize once you put it all back together.

[Ron]

This,....this is going to be interesting. I hate these old style AC lines. They are usually seized in place and the nut just rounds off. Even worse than that is...how the heck am I even going to get a couple wrenches onto these connections to loosen them??Attachment 67682Attachment 67683Attachment 67684

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Crows Foot.
...and as you probably guessed, you do not want the Evaporator tube to twist ANY whatsoever!!

[SupercoolBill]

Crows Foot.
...and as you probably guessed, you do not want the Evaporator tube to twist ANY whatsoever!!

Yeah figured. Don't want to pretzel it.

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[SupercoolBill]

You'll probably have to try and "open" the clamp part of the joint with a big screwdriver or chisel. And lots of penetrating oil. The OEM u-joints are a common failure area (excess play). New U-joints are recommended! You can slide the shaft up towards the firewall if you loosen both u-joints with everything else in-situ. I didn't say it was easy on a rust bucket like this though. Slather in anti-seize once you put it all back together.

I actually did hammer a large screwdriver in there and sprayed it all down with Kroil.

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[SupercoolBill]

You'll probably have to try and "open" the clamp part of the joint with a big screwdriver or chisel. And lots of penetrating oil. The OEM u-joints are a common failure area (excess play). New U-joints are recommended! You can slide the shaft up towards the firewall if you loosen both u-joints with everything else in-situ. I didn't say it was easy on a rust bucket like this though. Slather in anti-seize once you put it all back together.

U-joint has some play but the shaft on the steering rack is worse. It is REALLY loose!!

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[DMC-Ron]

Took the bolt out of the steering shaft but couldn't get it to separate. This maybe only comes apart as you are lifting the body off??
Discovered that there is a LOT of play in my steering rack input shaft.Attachment 67685

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As an alternative, you can loosen the upper spline clamps on the steering shaft. Sliding the shaft forward will disconnect the upper u-joint from the steering column at the firewall. I sprayed mine with PB Blaster and it slid fairly easily despite being rusty.

Ron

[SupercoolBill]

Haven't posted for a while. The wife and I own a small HVAC company and have a lot of responsibilities so we work long days which doesn't leave much time for working in the car.

That being said I have been reaching out to any local person or business that could fix our donor frame. I found one place locally that advertises on that they are experts in frame straightening. On their website is a picture of the set up they use for straightening frames. It is basically a large flat table full of slots and holes, posts around the outside, etc. So basically you lock down the frame in there then set up pull points. Ok now we are talking!!! So I reached out to them by email. I was disappointed when the owner said that he didn't think he could straighten it because he doesn't have the car "in his computer"
I told him that I have all the measurements that the frame is supposed to be. He said "That doesn't matter,...what's the VIN?"
I sent him my VIN and haven't heard back.

Then a guy I know told me that he had got in an accident with his truck once and a local guy straightened out his frame. He said the guy is an old retired guy that has been building hot rods and restoring vehicles since the 70s. He called the guy right then and there. Next thing you know we scheduled a meeting at my shop for an hour later.
So this guy looking like one of the guys from ZZ Top shows up at my shop.
He was a cool guy but he is an American muscle guy and just kept making fun of the car and how it was made. He said he could fix the frame but if I wanted it "perfect" he wasn't the guy for that. He was explaining how he would fix it and I didn't get warm fuzzies about it.
So,...probably not going to use him. I was glad I had him look at the frame. He did give me some good nuggets of information.

Basically he thought I should just sell the car for what I can get out of it and get something else.
I think the next step is to get the body off the frame and see if the rust is repairable on my original frame and go from there.


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[MrChocky]

Basically he thought I should just sell the car for what I can get out of it and get something else.
I think the next step is to get the body off the frame and see if the rust is repairable on my original frame and go from there.


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Welcome to DeLorean ownership. I've had a couple of guys tell me I should get something else; usually of course they have
some agenda, or the DeLorean is upsetting to them because it doesn't quite fit into their idea of what a car ought to be.

I'm sure your frame guy is out there; but it's going to take some persistence and probably a lot of stupid jokes.

[SupercoolBill]

Welcome to DeLorean ownership. I've had a couple of guys tell me I should get something else; usually of course they have
some agenda, or the DeLorean is upsetting to them because it doesn't quite fit into their idea of what a car ought to be.

I'm sure your frame guy is out there; but it's going to take some persistence and probably a lot of stupid jokes.

Yeah I am kind of used to it. I grew up in a town way out in the middle of nowhere population 800 and I was the only one that was into Hip Hop music and didn't like hunting, fishing, and drinking budweiser.
Then I got into going 4x4ing. Everyone else had Jeeps,...I had Suzuki Samurais. I got into antique motorcycles a few years ago. I own a 2 stroke Suzuki and a BMW air head. Everyone else in my area (including the guy that looked at my frame) are obsessed with Harley Davidsons.

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[SupercoolBill]

We worked on the car today.
I am going to start by saying this is the most frustrating project I have ever worked on so far and my wife has only helped me on one other project with me and it was much easier. It seems like every bolt is seized but not just seized. A seized bolt can be dealt with. You heat it up with a torch and get it to start moving but it these are bolted through fiberglass or embedded in plastic or right just plain inaccessible to heat up. The fasteners that are not seized have heads that are already stripped out. Then there are the fasteners that it is like "How the heck am I supposed to get to that??" Ugh....I digress.

Here is what we got done today.
-Removed the rear facia of the car (is that what it is called??)
-Removed all of the body to frame bolts except the ones inside the cabin. Those still need to be done.
-unhooked ground wires, clutch master hydraulic hose, etc.

Sounds simple enough but what has to be done to remove those things from a rusty car from 1982,.....well put it this way it took the two of us 9 hours to do that stuff. 20220101_124615.jpg20220101_125929.jpg20220101_131022.jpg20220101_131653.jpg20220101_150229.jpg20220101_162748.jpg20220101_163613.jpg20220101_171834.jpg20220101_175517.jpg

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