Automatic Transmission Decal - Early vs. Late

[Deric]

Hello,

Newcomer here -

I am slowly working on restoration of my D and one area I got to recently was the Decal for the A/T. I ordered a replacement from DMC and the one that I received has the "outline" around the letters similar to the late A/C fascia decals. The decal in my car appears to be original and does not have an outline around the letters. I see a lot of replacements for the A/C decal but I'm wondering has anyone ever seen a replacement decal for the A/T that looks like the early version without the outline? It looks cleaner to me and my preference would be to have both the A/C and A/T style of lettering match. Here are 2 examples I found online of the different decals...

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Thanks!

[Shep]

Welcome aboard! :race:

That second pic: I don't know if it's an intentional BTTF easter egg of not, but "Who the hell is John F Kennedy?" is one of my favorite lines. Damn that's such a good idea and only costs a buck too. Hats off to whoever did that.

Anyway, back to your decal: often they would change a part and it would be slowly phased out of production for one reason or another, sometimes (HVAC panel) very haphazardly. It was more of a "grab what's on the top" methodology, but sometimes they would make a point to exhaust the supply so there would be a fairly defined cutoff point. Owning one of the earliest cars by an active member (before they figured out all the stuff they were getting wrong), mine does have the one on the first pic, and it's always annoyed me to not be able to know what gear I'm in when it's dark. I actually didn't even know they changed this at all, but it makes complete sense as to why they would. I've often wished it was easier to figure out what gear the car is in so an LED backlit panel would be easier to make, or even a dash indicator of what gear you're in, but it involves running wiring to an area I don't like and that's enough to turn me away from that project. Too cramped in there.

Someone might be up for a trade, but your best bet is to return the one you got and grab one off a parts car or an auto-to-manual conversion (there's a couple going on, paging @Josh for the one I know off the top of my head), I don't know if they have your part though. There was a guy on here for a while, eagle-co94, who was parting out a car entirely. It was a manual, but I caught wind he had another, I don't know if it's an automatic or not. There's a few parters out there though, might be worthwhile posting a "wanted" ad on the "DeLorean Parts for sale/wanted" subforum we have here.

I would wonder -- but don't recommend until others weigh in -- if the silver ink is perhaps removable in a way that wouldn't touch anything else? I would definitely try to source one first though. Way easier.

Best of luck! :)

[Deric]

Thanks for the thorough response! I really appreciate it. Yeah I guess I will keep searching. If I can get it off without it completely disintegrating I may try to scan it in and make one myself, but the disintegration is the reason I was looking in the first place. I don’t mind the black so much, I kind of like the blackout look. But I think you do make a valid point and maybe I should just replace the decals with the outlined versions so they match and for visibility sake. I found it pretty interesting that after digging around in this site for a while and the internet at large I really couldn’t find any mention at all of this decal being different, whereas there is a lot of information about all 5? versions of the a/c panel. I guess with this being an A/T specific decal it’s kind of under the radar for the majority of owners.

[Michael]

It would not suprise me to see that this decal has been repoped by DMCH and the outlined version was the design they went with.

[Shep]

Agreed, they generally repro the latest version only of stuff, unless an early version is more readily available (I think the ashtray is an example as it's cross-referenced, could be wrong on that one). Or if they find a completely different cross reference entirely and upcharge it from the price they pay (mirror switch).

[DMC5180]

Welcome aboard! :race:

That second pic: I don't know if it's an intentional BTTF easter egg of not, but "Who the hell is John F Kennedy?" is one of my favorite lines. Damn that's such a good idea and only costs a buck too.

Last time I checked, that Kennedy will only cost you $0.50. [emoji57]



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[Shep]

I thought that was a full dollar when I wrote that, oops, you're right, that's a half dollar coin. Crap and I had two laying around too growing up that fascinated me, I should have known that one too.