DMC-24: 4 seater DeLorean

[Domi]

Looks like the interior of the DeLorean prototype, good choice

[dmcjohn]

Hi Domi,

Yep that's my inspiration for the saddle brown! I love the interior of the prototype.

I don't know about doing a full tan / saddle brown interior though - it might be too much to have the dash done in that colour also - black dash and binnacle with black carpets should make a nice contrast. The bit I'm not too sure about is whether to do the knee pads or the center console in brown or black...

[EarlHickey]

The first link in the first post has no pix!

I can only see the three with your lovely family and yourself.

It looks great and I am eager to see it in complete detail.

Are you keeping it under wraps for publication in the glossy pages?

From what little I've seen, it looks like a front cover car to me and I await, in anxious anticipation, to see it on the net or the shiny pages.

[dmcjohn]

Sorry - keep meaning to get around to fixing this thread.

I had originally posted about the car in May last year, but then removed the post and pics later until the registration of the car was done. So, I'll repost my original text and images now and maybe the mods can merge it into the original post in this thread to put it back the way it was?

Thanks,
John

[dmcjohn]

(originally posted May 2011)

Hi all,

If you weren't at Eurofest 2011 , here are a few pics of my 4 seater DeLorean and some basic info - I'll be putting a full build diary (photos and video) on the Irish DeLorean website over the coming weeks...

I'll split this across a few posts as I can only upload 5 pics per post it seems.

It started out as a regular 81 DeLorean project car - seized engine, rusted frame, ripped and torn interior, dented panels and warped bumpers.

The conversion to a 4 seater took place over various weekends since September last year, with lots of help from members of the DeLorean Owners of Ireland - Joe Cahill, Mervyn Richardson, Conor Doyle, Ian Molloy and especially PJ Kennedy, and also my Dad and brother Maurice - without them this project would not have been possible, so thanks a million to all of them!

From September to December, the time was spent just mocking everything up to make sure it was possible. Some pics of the mockup attached...

interior_mockup2.JPG

interior_mockup1.JPG

The chassis build was started in December, and the real build of the 4 seater was done from the time the chassis was completed (around mid-March) up until last week.

The DMC-24 has a brand new chassis - the front half is based on a DeLorean design, but was built by an Irish DeLorean owner called Mervyn Richardson. I asked Mervyn to supply the front half with a longer center tunnel section, which was no problem. Mervyn is the guy who is now manufacturing stainless steel chassis' in Ireland which were on display at Eurofest.

So, the front half was finished within a few weeks, and delivered to my friend Joe's workshop in early January, along with the rear subframe from a Renault Alpine GTA.

chassis_front2.jpg

chassis_front1.jpg

The Alpine rear subframe was used to give double wishbone suspension in the rear, meaning this chassis does not have trailing arm suspension any longer, which frees up the space required to have rear seats.

Joe then designed and built the rear half of the chassis to interface with the center tunnel of the front half, and to incorporate mounting points from the Renault Alpine subframe, and did a really great job on it.

chassis_completed.JPG

rolling_chassis1.JPG

rear_doublewishbone_suspension.JPG

chassis_rear1.JPG

rolling_chassis2.JPG

Once the chassis was finished and powdercoated, the race was on to build the rolling chassis and modify the fiberglass body. A huge area of fiberglass was removed from the body - basically everything from behind the front seats to about halfway back the engine bay, including the original rear windscreen. This was all rebuilt with new fiberglass, to make the most of the room available with the new chassis installed. A new rear windscreen was fitted about 8 inches behind where the standard DMC window would have been.

new_rear_fiberglass.jpg

fiberglass_in_progress.jpg

The end result is that the car's exterior is exactly the same as a 2 seater DeLorean - even the original louvers fit. However, it has a rear seating area with more leg and head room than a 911, effectively making it a useable 2+2 car. The project is not quite finished yet, but will be on the road soon and I'll get better pictures and video then. All that remains is to complete the wiring loom modifications and get the car registered.

interior_finished.jpg

DMC24_rear.jpg

DMC24_licence_plate.jpg

DMC24_front.jpg

Forgot to mention, this car also has power steering, rear anti-roll bar, upgraded brakes, custom stainless dual exhaust system (twin separate mufflers) and a few other changes along the way such as all pipework being routed inside the center tunnel of the frame rather than outside it (brakes, clutch, fuel, coolant). It was also converted from automatic to manual as part of the build process.

It is running the engine and gearbox from the Renault Alpine GTA - which is a carburetor version of the PRV.

Lastly, James RG in the UK made a custom side stripe for it which I didn't have time to fit before Eurofest, but will post pictures of it fitted soon... The stripes are like the original wide black side stripes, but instead of "DMC" on the front fenders, it says "DMC24".

Any questions, let me know!

thanks,
John

[dmcjohn]

So as a follow on from my post in May - not much to report unfortunately - after the summer we were very busy getting ready for a move to the US so the car took a back seat

I'm getting back to the point now where I have free time again, so plan on getting the car on the road asap.

Thanks,
John

[EarlHickey]

I'm impressed. Stellar work and I'll study this several times.

I think you may look into the "2+2" designation as it seems a bit more fitting for this marvel which isn't quite a two door sedan.

Thanks for the pix and I look forward to seeing the build diary.

I'd also like to see more details of the Renault drive line goodies.

[jawn101]

Wow, that really is awesome work. I'd be interested in a shot of the engine compartment too, to see how you accomodated the strut towers in there.

Edit: or are they inside the pontoon? It's hard to tell where they ended up from the shots provided. Very interested to know

[dmcjohn]

The rear shock towers are partially enclosed in the pontoons, and partially in the engine bay.

I dug up a few photos to illustrate - not great photos as they were taken before the fiberglass work was tidied up and in some pics before the new fiberglass roof was done - but you can get a sense of how tall the shock towers are (necessarily so, due to the coil-over being mounted on the upper rear suspension arm, versus being mounted on the lower rear arm on a standard DMC).

First off, a pic of the shock towers while the chassis is out of the car:

IMG_7160.jpg

and then in the car:

IMG_6919.jpg

IMG_7176.jpg

The nice thing is that although they are much taller than stock, they still just fit under the original line of the pontoon as you can see in this shot from the rear of the car:

IMG_7256.jpg

I intend making a piece of fiberglass to hide the shock towers in the engine bay (basically a 90 degree piece for each side to go from the side pontoon to the rear firewall).

I filmed most of the build and took hundreds of pictures, everything from getting the chassis powdercoated to cutting and rebuilding the fiberglass - so that's what I'm trying to get done in my spare time now, to get the video and pics onto a website.

Thanks,
John

[jawn101]

OK, now I see where they ended up. Very cool work on that! I imagine once you cleaned up that glass job on the pontoons you'd have no idea it wasn't stock, just like the rest of the car.