New underbodies of carbon fibre?

[dmcnorway]

Are these now in production? How much $$$ ?

Best wishes
Stian B.

VIN # 06759

[Rich W]

Hi Stian,

Although I did not hear all the specifics from one source at the DMCH Open House,
here is my understanding of the new underbody construction. (no carbon fibre)

The new underbody is made of fiberglass and a honey-comb plastic structure that
replaces the foam that was originally used. Only the "female" part of the mold
sections are used, with the fiberglass and honey-comb plastic "sandwiched" by
a plastic sheet on the other side, forming an air-tight seal, to draw a vacuum
and inject the resin. The clear (or semi-clear?) plastic allows the fabricator the
ability to watch the resin being injected, to watch for "voids" in the injected resin.

The prototype underbody on display arrived shortly before the Open House, so
there was no time to cut any holes in the underbody (especially rear pontoon area)
or to test fit the underbody on the "rivnut hole-drilling jig", and so, there were no
panel mounting holes drilled in the underbody prior to the Open House event.

The prototype underbody appeared to be setup for "gas powered" DeLorean, but
the hand-laid front storage section could easily be swapped out with one better
setup for battery storage, like the DMCH Electric DeLorean Prototype on display.
The honey-comb plastic support could be seen on non-painted areas of pontoon.

Sorry, no time to download all my digital photos yet, but I will try to get to that
sometime this weekend, especially if it keeps raining in Chicago until the weekend.

Later,
Rich W.

[tjd]

Hi Stian,

Although I did not hear all the specifics from one source at the DMCH Open House,
here is my understanding of the new underbody construction. (no carbon fibre)

The new underbody is made of fiberglass and a honey-comb plastic structure that
replaces the foam that was originally used. Only the "female" part of the mold
sections are used, with the fiberglass and honey-comb plastic "sandwiched" by
a plastic sheet on the other side, forming an air-tight seal, to draw a vacuum
and inject the resin. The clear (or semi-clear?) plastic allows the fabricator the
ability to watch the resin being injected, to watch for "voids" in the injected resin.

The prototype underbody on display arrived shortly before the Open House, so
there was no time to cut any holes in the underbody (especially rear pontoon area)
or to test fit the underbody on the "rivnut hole-drilling jig", and so, there were no
panel mounting holes drilled in the underbody prior to the Open House event.

The prototype underbody appeared to be setup for "gas powered" DeLorean, but
the hand-laid front storage section could easily be swapped out with one better
setup for battery storage, like the DMCH Electric DeLorean Prototype on display.
The honey-comb plastic support could be seen on non-painted areas of pontoon.

Sorry, no time to download all my digital photos yet, but I will try to get to that
sometime this weekend, especially if it keeps raining in Chicago until the weekend.

Later,
Rich W.

Interesting. So will DMCH be conducting any crash testing to test the rigidity and safety of the new underbodies since they are being produced outside the original design parameters both material wise and process?

If so how many DeLoreans will be destroyed in this process? If not how does DMCH feel they can legally bring these to market without undergoing proper safety testing?

[Nicholas R]

There are ALWAYS ways to get around crash testing. Just look at kit cars.

[nofear365]

According to Stephen they are much stronger than the originals and over 250lbs LIGHTER! Should bring the overall weight down to the 2500 lbs range. Not too shabby!

I know nothing about any current testing being done...

[Rich W]

FYI - I saw this article in composites magazine at my fiberglass guy's shop.

DMC-EV-underbody.JPG

Epic Electric Vehicles (Vista, Calif., USA and Vivian, La., USA) and DeLorean Motor Co. Inc. (Humble, Texas, USA) report that Epic has been selected as the composites manufacturer for the new DeLorean Electric Vehicle (DMCEV) slated for production in 2012.

Epic and DeLorean have unveiled a new lightweight resin-infused composite body for the new DMCEV. Together, Epic EV and DeLorean worked to maximize strength and decrease the weight of this main chassis component of the DMCEV.

"It was important for the DMCEV to not just have an advanced drivetrain but to also decrease the weight and improve the safety of these new vehicles," said DeLorean CEO Stephen Wynne. "We had aggressive targets for this new body structure and Epic EV exceeded those by a wide margin. We can’t wait to provide our customers with new DMCEVs that utilize this new advanced composites technology and the fact that the original DeLorean cars can also be retrofitted with this new composite body structure further broadens the appeal," he said.

Epic EV’s new composite body designed for DeLorean is lighter weight versus the original’s, with a much increased safety factor over those built in the 1980s. This will allow for the DMCEV to add more battery capacity for greater range and provide its passengers with enhanced impact protection and durability.

"The original DeLorean was 30 years ahead of its time in the 1980s so I felt that the composites the new DMCEV uses today should also be well ahead of its time," said founder of Epic EV Chris Anthony. He added, "We have achieved 200 lb [91 kg] of reduction in weight with these new bodies through better engineering and that will make for a more advanced DMCEV. The roof crush and side impact strength is greatly improved on these bodies and I think this is a great new attribute for the DMCEV."

The DeLorean Motor Co. (DMC) acquired the original company’s name in 1995 and now owns the largest remaining original parts stock from the factory, U.S. stock and original suppliers. In addition to servicing, restoring and selling DeLorean automobiles, parts, accessories and merchandise to customers around the world, DMC also assembles cars to order, featuring parts or designs from the original DeLorean automobile, with modern engine and suspension technology.

Epic EV designs and manufactures electric vehicles for land and water and seeks to make reliable, high performance electric vehicles accessible for all.

[DeloreanJoshQ]

Interesting. So will DMCH be conducting any crash testing to test the rigidity and safety of the new underbodies since they are being produced outside the original design parameters both material wise and process?

If so how many DeLoreans will be destroyed in this process? If not how does DMCH feel they can legally bring these to market without undergoing proper safety testing?

Tim,

Many of us in the DMC community understand your open and negative sentiment towards DMC; we hear you.

I'm sorry that DMCH has wronged you and caused you so much frustration, but when I read your posts, they bring me down.

Perhaps you are in the beginning stages of starting your own Delorean shop so that you can show the Delorean community how to run a business "the right way" and make parts better,faster, and cheaper?

[TimD]

This is a topic which is very interesting to me. I work as an engineer, exclusively building high performance composite parts for the aerospace industry. From the information I've seen, this is what I can conclude:

Because of the underbody's design, carbon is simply too expensive to build for the gains you would make. That is, the structure has plenty of channels and boxing to be very stiff, with a relatively small amount of glass. If weight was #1, you could do the whole thing out of pre-impregnated carbon fabric and a pressurized cure, which would probably cost $15000 in materials and processing. Not to mention some serious design development. Carbon is more appropriate to applications which need a lot of strength from a small part.

As far as the new design goes, it right in line with industry practice, although I would have to see the locations of the cores, the loading of the body and the orginal drawings to say whether its good to go. Sandwich panels can by far provide the best strength to weight ratios.

FYI: 90% of all "Carbon fiber" auto parts I've ever seen in real life, have been 90% glass. Buyer beware...

[Mike C.]

FYI: 90% of all "Carbon fiber" auto parts I've ever seen in real life, have been 90% glass. Buyer beware...

It's very true. It's sad what gets labeled as "Carbon Fiber".