Two Rescued Deloreans from a long hibernation

[tylka]

I am new to Deloreans and this forum, but I plan to start visiting a lot more due to recently acquiring two Deloreans from a friend. One is an early 81 model (Will post number later once I write it down) and the second is a Dec. 81 1982 model (VIN 10903). The 82 had been fitted with a Turbo kit at one point in it's life and the almost destroyed in a roll over accident. I believe the right person could return this car to the road again, but it would take a whole lot of work and dedication. The 81 model will be the one I focus on getting back on the road because it would require the least amount of work. I hope with the information found on DMCTalk and other sources that I can get this car going again. My name is Matthew and I am located in middle TN and I look forward in participating in the forum.

[Michael]

If you ever find yourself close to Kingsport pm me!

Oh and welcome!

[Dangermouse]

Welcome Matthew

you should find all the info you ever need on here, and if you can't find it, just ask.

And we'd love to see pictures of the cars when you get a chance too.

[tylka]

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Here are the two cars. The 82 (wrecked one) is number 10903 and it has the Intercooled, water/alcohol injected turbo system on it. It has a 160mph speedo and showing less than 9k + miles on the odo. It must have been a wild ride in its day with hand painted pinstripe and blacked out taillights. It is an automatic.
The 81 is number 00879 and has 1175miles on the car. It was wrecked in the front but almost completely repaired. It is a 5spd with black interior, which would be the one I get back on the road. I am very excited about the cars, but know both are going to be a lot of work. The 82 will probably be sold later on because it is more of a project than I would like to tackle.

Thanks for the comments so far and Michael I am in Sparta Tn, so I don't believe we are too far away.

[Michael]

I think you are right in focusing on the nicer one. The rolled car is pretty much a parts cache for you at this point and when you get what you need off it, sell the rest to fund the resto project.

[Dangermouse]

I have to say, for a car that has been rolled, it looks in remarkably good condition.

Any chance of a better shot of the turbo engine in the 82? It looks like an Island set-up, but it's hard to say.


Make sure to save that sweet period turbo badge :)

[Domi]

First of all, welcome to the forum ;)
Those are really cool project cars :)
I really hope you'll be able to save one of them, if you don't buy both of them.
Please keep us update, and thanks again for sharing your pictures :)

[Henrik]

I have to say, for a car that has been rolled, it looks in remarkably good condition.

I was thinking the same.

[Morpheus]

Congrats, and welcome to the forum!

[Mark D]

Welcome! Looks like you have lots of work (and fun!) ahead of you, congrats on the purchases and hope you find the help you need here to get at least one of those back on the road.

I think I've only ever heard of one other DeLorean being involved in a roll over accident so it's pretty cool to see the photos. With such a low center of gravity and wide stance it takes a lot to flip over a DeLorean.

[Jonathan]

Welcome to the wacky world of DeLorean ownership.

That 10903 rollover car isn't the same car as the one in the (debunked) TAB failure rollover story, is it?

http://www.dmcnews.com/Techsection/rollover.html

[Rich W]

Welcome to the wacky world of DeLorean ownership.

That 10903 rollover car isn't the same car as the one in the (debunked) TAB failure rollover story, is it?

http://www.dmcnews.com/Techsection/rollover.html

I agree with the current condition of the rolled car's underbody. It was either repaired well or swapped out.

It's not the same roll over.

Dave Swingle, myself and Gary (Dave's son) disassembled the rollover car (debunked TAB failure) and that
underbody was significantly damaged at the A-pillars and the leading edge of the roof section. After it was
completely disassembled, it was deemed to not be reasonably repaired (including the proper tolerances).
The passenger door seems to be damaged in a similar way (and amount of damage) to roof and B-pillar.

Since there are "spare doors" on the other trailer, they may have been purchased with another donor tub.

[vwdmc16]

Awesome, would love more pictures!

[Andrew]

Congrats on the purchases and welcome to the world of DeLorean ownership!

Between the forums, shared knowledge and available options for improving the car's reliability and performance, it is truly an exciting time be a Delorean owner.

Having brought 2 Deloreans back from the dead, I can attest to how much of a rewarding experience it can be. While these cars can turn into money pits, they don't need to be. It really all depends on what your goals are. Do you want an all original show car, a car with all the modern amenities, a higher performance example, a reliable driver, etc?

I'll gladly share any information that I have.

A few relevant questions are as follows:

1. Do you have both titles? If so what is the status?
2. Are the engines seized?
3. How are the frames? (The crumple tube and the engine cradle tend to be problem areas.)
4. What extra parts did the cars come with?
5. When was the last time the cars ran?
6. What parts are broken / damaged / missing?

I agree that the early vin car appears to be the best prospect for restoration. However, don't write off the 1982 as a parts car yet just either. If the structural damage is limited, it might be able to be return to drivable status at a reasonable cost with some second-hand take-off parts with minor imperfections. (Which is a great way to save money when restoring one of these cars to a "presentable driver" status.) Personally, I find a certain sense of added freedom to drive and enjoy a car that was brought back from "parts car" status.

I encourage you to take and post as many pictures as possible of both cars.

Congrats again,

Andrew
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[tylka]

More pictures of the 82 turbo car. The windshield frame and some of the front fiberglass work underneath were repaired, but not much else was done to the car. I have not checked the motor to see if it is locked up or not, but the oil is clean and from being stored inside like the 81, it should be free.
The 81 motor turns over, but there are a lot of parts that I will need to replace from it sitting so long before I even think of trying to fire it up.
I will have to purchase an ignition switch/lock for the 81 because it did not come with keys. I am hoping the museum can provide me with keys and I can possibly have the ignition keyed back to original.
Lots of work, like most of my cars. I only hope I get to drive one sometime in the future. I will definitely be asking a lot of questions and glad this forum is here for the resources including the people.
Thank you in advance.

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[Michael]

Unlike any turbo intake have ever seen on a DeLorean, granted I haven't seen that many. Looks like someone fitted some universal/home made kit to it.

[DMCMW Dave]

Unlike any turbo intake have ever seen on a DeLorean, granted I haven't seen that many. Looks like someone fitted some universal/home made kit to it.

Definitely a home-brew turbo set up. I've seen a few, this one looks pretty unique.

[Dangermouse]

These cars must have been sitting since the 80s with so few miles on them.

This will be fascinating to watch them being restored. Keep us posted, and thanks for the photos.

[David T]

The turbo is not the BAE or the Island set-up. It is a one-of. If it were mine I would probably remove it. That is assuming that car is even worth trying to fix. With all of that damage it may be beyond repair. It is going to need a sh-tload of parts and labor.

[FABombjoy]

Good lord. A pre-turbo, pre-intercooler water injection system? Someone knew just enough to be dangerous.

I had one of those VW metering head hats at one time - it too big. There must be something interesting filling the gap.

Would love to see a pic of the turbo & muffler piping on this one.

[David T]

After looking at the pix a little more I realized whoever did the turbo install did it much differently than either the BAE or Island installs. Both the BAE and Island did "Pull-Through", ie, the turbo is AFTER the mixture unit. On this car the turbo is BEFORE the mixture unit and pushes pressurized air INTO the mixture unit after going through what looks like an intercooler on the left pontoon. Also looks like a cruise control unit and B/A on the left side in front of the intercooler. On the right side looks like some kind of control unit and a coolant recovery bottle. Under the front the whole front crumple zone is missing. Because the motor had a turbo on it you must suspect that it may have blown the pistons. A compression test (if it even turns over) will tell you. As for the auto trans, that turbo probably flogged it. Pull the pan and see how much friction debris is there. Let's add it up
Damaged body
Frame missing front crumple zone
Possible blown motor
Possible ruined auto trans
All glass gone
Not much to work with if you want to fix this one up. I say use it as a parts car to get the other one going and sell what's left.

[Michael]

The bottle you refer to is probably a water (or alcohol if he was really adventurous) resivoir for the injection system.

[FABombjoy]

After looking at the pix a little more I realized whoever did the turbo install did it much differently than either the BAE or Island installs. Both the BAE and Island did "Pull-Through", ie, the turbo is AFTER the mixture unit. On this car the turbo is BEFORE the mixture unit and pushes pressurized air INTO the mixture unit
The blow-through routing is one of the few check marks in the "Good" column for this "design". Assuming it collected more than a few hundred miles anyway.



The bottle you refer to is probably a water (or alcohol if he was really adventurous) resivoir for the injection system.
They probably used blue windshield solvent. Its usually around 20% methanol, as cheap as distilled water, and won't freeze. Not as much tuning required vs a hotter mixture of 50/50 meth/water.

Keeping it it atomized upwards through an intercooler the stock intake, now that I'd like to see.

I would love to post-mortem this engine. It would be like The Thing when they bring in the burned up Norwegian station creature.

[David T]

You could be right, that could be for the Water/Meth injection and not a recovery bottle. Still has the plastic header tank too. Or maybe he did use the windshield washer tank! Because the car has low mileage the motor and trans may still be OK. Must have been a wild ride! It is rare that a Delorean rolls over. Usually happens by hitting a curb sideways so you have to check all 4 wheels and the suspension for damage. I guess the inertia switch and roll-over valve worked, no fire!

[Andrew]

BHCC would sell the turbo car as a $10,000.00 project car...Perhaps they could combine it with the roll cage baja DeLorean :-)

[Michael]

Think I found the turbo origins. The intake looks very similar
49349
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[Dangermouse]

Funny how that popped up on facebook just after this thread started :)

Here are the attachments for those with normal eyesight ;)

http://dmctalk.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=49351&d=1488978579


http://dmctalk.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=49352&d=1488978581


DMC Only
Saugus CA

[Dangermouse]

This seems to have been marketed by a Harry Ward, who contributed a few articles to DeLorean World back in the 80s. His car starred in Vol 4, Issue 4 with the same turbo arrangement and the picturs in the above ad are the same car as in the DW article. However I don't believe 10903 is his actual car, unfortunately.

He was reported as being DOA member #17 ! and that HL Ward Machine Products made aerospace parts for the Space Shuttle and the B1 bomber

Maybe Dave S or Rich W know who he is/was and where his car might be.

Performance figures from the article:

7lbs boost
Calculated HP - 200HP
0-60 measured at 6.7 seconds
Top speed (actual) 140

[Rich_NYS]

I'm totally going to buy that & put it on my car.

[FABombjoy]

This seems to have been marketed by a Harry Ward, who contributed a few articles to DeLorean World back in the 80s. His car starred in Vol 4, Issue 4 with the same turbo arrangement and the picturs in the above ad are the same car as in the DW article.
If only we could buy the DW backissues as PDF. Would make finding these sorts of treasures easy! :D

I'm curious about the ducting for the intercooler. Service-wise it seems like kind of a nightmare position to mount it.

It looks a little better with the proper metering head adapter. Would be neat to see what this kit is supposed to look like when installed.

[FABombjoy]

I'm totally going to buy that & put it on my car.
We just need to mod that 2100 for blow-thru and you'll be golden :D

[tylka]

I will try to get some pictures of the turbo underneath this weekend. I'm surprised the ad for the turbo kit was found. I was wondering who marketed the kit. The one bottle mounted in the engine compartment is for the water injection and it is controlled by an Edlebrock controller. The car also has a pump installed to oil the turbo after shutdown, which is located on the drivers side corner of the engine compartment.
It would be neat to find out where this car originated. I tried to look up the pinstripe's name on the rear of the car and the only place I could find was a paint shop in Texas.

[Will F.]

I don't understand why all Delorean turbo kits were not blow through. Simple install. The CIS auto metered the extra air coming in. This is the way I always envisioned doing a turbo to mine if I go the route.

Will

[FABombjoy]

I don't understand why all Delorean turbo kits were not blow through. Simple install. The CIS auto metered the extra air coming in. This is the way I always envisioned doing a turbo to mine if I go the route.
I think there was concern about leaning out as the pressure differential across the metering plate starts to equalize under boost. The one advantage to draw-thru that you don't need a recirc or BOV so you save some cost there.

From what I've seen, most stock K-Jet turbo cars place the metering head pre-turbo but that would be challenging with our intake design. Air would have to leave the meter, feed the turbo, and then come back from the turbo to meet the throttle body. The BAE & Island kits feature some primitive engineering so it's not surprising that they never pursued a blow-thru design.

Legend even experimented with draw-thru on some of their early prototypes but switched to blow-through and used some creative vacuum switches and the CPR for enrichment.

Nowadays you could use a digital WUR and accomplish the same thing and tune it via software.

[Dangermouse]

It would be neat to find out where this car originated. I tried to look up the pinstripe's name on the rear of the car and the only place I could find was a paint shop in Texas.

The DeLorean Museum has original sales info for many, but not all cars.

http://www.deloreanmuseum.org/info-on-your-vin.html

May be a starting point.

[David T]

It looks like Mr Ward was very active back in the 80's. I wonder just how many turbo kits he managed to sell, this is the first one I have seen. I went back and looked at my old DW's and yes, that's IT! He also sold some other products too. Probably most of them wound up on the West Coast to local owners. In those early issues BAE and Island also advertised and those seemed to have become the most popular turbos kits. While the Ward kit had an intercooler he was pushing things at 7lbs boost! At 6 lbs and no intercooler you will blow out the pistons pretty quickly.

[Dangermouse]

In another co-incidence, I was just reading the July 2016 issue of C&D which featured the "New" water injection system on the new twin-turbo'd BMW M4 GTS, said to add ~60HP, just from the lower temps from the water injection

http://www.m-power.com/_open/s/editorial.jsp?id=3375&lang=en

"First production Road Car" to have this feature apparently.

Also costs $135k and has a titanium exhaust. Titanium !

[Christian Dietrich]

I would remove the T roof and doors to see how bad it really is. From the pics it dont look that bad?

Sent from my SM-N920P using Tapatalk

[vwdmc16]

"First production Road Car" to have this feature apparently.

Also costs $135k and has a titanium exhaust. Titanium !


The first Turbo street cars, the Corvairs had a primitive water injection system too, alcohol injection.

Also titanium exhaust isn't that rare, C5 corvette Zo6s had titanium cat back exhaust in 2001.

[Andrew]

Any updates on this project? It would be great to see pictures of the restoration car. :-)