What have you done to your DeLorean today?

[MacStainless]

I get that. I'm smart enough to know that I'm *JUST* dangerous to get myself in trouble, so I try to do only minor things myself. My car literally went from "oh this has a coolant leak needing to be fixed" to "it will not start at all" literally over the course of sitting in one spot over two days. Now looking over the list of what was done (and the many phone calls my mechanic made to update me on a weekly basis) I know for sure I would've been beyond in over my head if I even tried any of what was needed. I always say you pay in time or money. I chose money so I can have a reliable D.

[Lwanmtr]

Mine has yet to travel more than 4 miles under its own power since I got it...and it needs alotta work to suspension, engine, electrical, which I know I'd bjork up somehow.

[iflights]

Installed Dave McKeen's Idle ECU microprocessor replacement. Works perfectly as you would expect from anything Dave produces. Purchased it primarily for the AC bump feature to compensate when I'm in traffic like I was several weeks ago.

Several helpful threads on the evolution of this item here in the forum.

[Jonathan]

Reached a little movie mileage milestone last night on the way home...

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[Helirich]

Reached a little movie mileage milestone last night on the way home...

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Explain?

[Ron]

Reached a little movie mileage milestone last night on the way home...

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Gotta' watch those sharp right turns!

[Mark D]

Explain?

https://www.moviemistakes.com/picture9620

[82DMC12]

I should be updating this thread more often, because it's more like "what have I done in the last month". Or I should start my own build thread.

Anyway 11596 is getting a 40-year makeover. Major updates to fuel system, suspension, brakes, basically anything that touches the frame. Long term goal is to remove the frame for some repair and possibly swap in an already-restored frame I have in storage. Short term goal is to overhaul as much as possible right now, before I remove the frame, so that when that day finally comes, I'm transferring clean, restored parts over rather than going all the BS I'm currently dealing with LOL. I hope it will reduce the down time, reducing frame swap time to a couple weeks rather than months.

So what did I get into over the last six weeks?

1. Replace fuel pump and in-tank parts with DPI Delphi pump system
2. New fuel accumulator
3. Replaced every flexible fuel line on the car with DPI 13-hose kit and other bits around the accumulator with new high pressure line
4. New spark plugs (NGK)
5. Check valve lash, new valve cover gaskets
6. Drilled out and tapped a couple of manifold bolts that broke off many years ago to restore original ground wire connection locations
7. Cleaned injectors, new boots
8. Install DPI rear coilovers. Found my rear shocks (Monroe) were basically junk that I could push in with my hands. See ya!
9. Completely tore down the front suspension down to the frame. I had good alignment and good bushings but everything here was very dirty, getting rusty, ball joint boots cracked, generally functional but looked scary. No idea on age of ball joints. Time for a total overhaul.

Front suspension work is currently in progress and almost ready to reassemble. I turned over my roll bar, front hubs, knuckles, upper wishbones, brake shields, and other brackets etc to painterdave72 who is able to sandblast and paint or powder coat at his work. Looking forward to getting these back next week. I got the old bushings and bearings pushed out by a machine shop near my house with no issue. I'm installing poly bushings in the wishbones and Superflex poly bushings in the LCA-to-sway bar mount. I bought the DPI Spec Suspension with front coilovers, aluminum LCA's, new lower ball joints, caster limiting arms, and all mounting hardware. New brackets and isolators for the front frame extension-to-ARB mounts. New upper wishbone pivot bolts, too. Not one bolt or washer is being re-used, it's all new. Brake rotors turned and cleaned. I should have the last of my bits on Friday!

Next I found the rack and pinion, which is an older Grady rebuild, has a totally-destroyed passenger side tube bushing. I tore the rack down to the last ball bearing and was glad to find zero wear anywhere so I caught it in time. Almost done rebuilding this.

While the front suspension was out I tackled the washer fluid bottle area. When I got my D twenty years ago, the only thing that didn't work was the washer fluid. It was one of my first repair attempts but gave up because I couldn't get literally ANY of the bolts out that hold the black cover over the bottle and pump. They were all froze in the spinning rivnuts. Nowdays I have a lot more experience and tools so dremel-ed off the heads, dropped the tank, ground off the rivnuts, popped them out, and will be able to put new rivnuts in this weekend. I found the washer bottle has a crack so I'll be trying to plastic-weld it with painterdave72 this weekend. New washer pump incoming.

I'm also addressing some cracked and peeling epoxy in the suspension frame area. I was able to remove most of the bad epoxy in only a couple hours using a needle scaler on my air compressor. Currently working to sand and prep the surface so I can cover in POR15 and Rustoleum top coat.

So yeah.... just a few things going on! After the front is done I'll enjoy the car for a while and then this fall I'll tear down the rear suspension for a similar treatment (also install adjustible top links so I can correct my uneven inner tire wear).

[82DMC12]

Everything about the washer fluid system on this car sucks.

When I first got my DeLorean 20 years ago, the only thing that didn't work was the washer fluid. The tank leaked and the pump didn't seem to work. It still doesn't. But I'm getting close. I couldn't fix it before because every M5 screw going into the body that holds the black cover over the tank was spinning. Now I have my suspension out and it's a good time to tackle this since I have the best access I'll ever have.

1) Cut the heads off the screws with my dremel and a cut off wheel - DONE
2) Drop the black cover and pull the tank out - DONE
3) Grind off the rivnut heads with an angle grinder - DONE
4) Pop the rivnuts out / push them into the void in the underbody - DONE
5) Get a new washer pump - DONE
6) Install new rivnuts - DONE

I ordered an M5 rivnut installer from McMasterCarr and it really worked pretty well. A bit tough to hold everything in place steady while working upside down but I managed pretty well. Most of the rivnuts are in really tight, one of them might be slightly less tight, and I had to skip one because the underbody chipped away while trying to knock out the old rivnut.

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Next I need to try to fix the crack in the washer tank. painterdave72 has a plastic welder at his work so we will give that a try first.

I also finished putting my steering rack back together - I can install it as soon as I'm done doing some POR15 on the front frame extension near the driver side mount area.

[Jonathan]

I finished the set earlier tonight. Like playing some movie mileage monopoly!!

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