VIN 11596 Frame Swap - a rolling frame-off restoration

[82DMC12]

I'm going to document my upcoming frame swap here. You could call it a "rolling frame-off" since my strategy over the last year has been to refurbish, upgrade, or replace every single part that touches the frame... all while keeping the car as drivable as possible so that my time with the frame actually removed is minimized. I know this job will go a lot faster if I'm swapping over good, restored parts from my old frame to the new frame rather than having my car laid up in pieces for months while waiting for this or that to get refinished, machine work done, waiting for out of stock parts, etc. I have a typical suburban two-car garage which I know is more than some have done it with, but as a new dad with a baby boy (and actually married only 18 months ago!) I have family and career commitments that don't really allow me to spend tons of time in the garage anymore. At the same time, my frame needs attention so I think this rolling restoration has been going quite well so far and it's made me well-prepared for the frame swap.

My car is a 1982 with the "two-tone" (black seats/dash with light soft gray carpets) interior, manual transmission, and stock engine but with Stage 1 exhaust. I've owned the car for 22 years now (bought it when I was 18 and a freshman in college) which means I have restored and serviced MOST of the car during that time and now I'm coming around to re-restoring some parts like brakes and clutch hydraulics that I already did once!

It wasn't long after I bought my car that I learned it was one of the "black undercoated cars" - these cars were starting to experience chassis rust while sitting at the docks waiting to ship out to the USA, so the story goes that DMC employees drove the cars to an undercoating shop and sprayed everything down with this thick, tar-like coating to cover up and prevent further damage. The undercoating was mostly limited to the underside of the frame itself and the front suspension though you could find over spray and areas of it all over the fuel accumulator, water pipes, transmission area, trailing arms, etc. Unfortunately as most have learned, the undercoating was prone to trapping moisture between the undercoating and epoxy and probably did more harm than good 10 to 20 years later. Many small bolts like M6 or smaller break off easily because the undercoating just wrecked them.

I have some interesting areas of frame rust and damage which I will document later. Much of it is in the front frame extension, under the rear upper links, the engine cradle, and where the passenger side water pipe is attached to the rear frame. The fuel tank area has a lot of peeling epoxy from brake or clutch leakage prior to my ownership. The edges of frame flanges and such show separation of the thin layers. The front crossmember has a hole in it from an errant floor jack. There may be more damage than I'm aware of but generally frames rot from the bottom up so I think I have a good idea on what's going on. I think this car definitely needs the frame removed to do a good job repairing it.

At first I was thinking I would have to remove the frame and deliver it to a fab shop for sand blasting, welding and repair, galvanizing, and then powder coating. Then, last year, it became known to me that another owner about 90 minutes away had a spare frame that he had already restored and coated with gray POR15 before he picked up a Pearce stainless frame and decided to use that instead! I went over to go see the frame and we made a deal - and since then I've had it stored in the warehouse at my work.

Only two problems - the frame needs a top coat applied (POR 15 isn't UV safe) and it's an automatic transmission frame. A top coat will require some elbow grease but the auto frame isn't much of a problem. In fact just today I received my shift plate adapter that was designed by Martin Gutkowski! I sent the DXF file to Xometry.com and two weeks later had it in my hands.


68704

[SupercoolBill]

Following!

Sent from my SM-F926U1 using Tapatalk

[82DMC12]

Here's a picture of my "new" auto frame which I'll be taking home in August and sanding it with 120 grit to take the sheen off of the POR15 and rough it up for a top coat. I visited Josh at DPI a few weeks ago where we talked about frames and he suggested adding a hardening agent, about 8 drops per quart of paint (Rustoleum Smoke Gray) and then applied with a spray gun. Maybe two or three thin layers should do it. I expect I'll have to run a tap through all the threaded holes but that's no problem.

Once the frame is prepped I'm going to get two or three other owners over to my house to drop the frame out where I think I'll be able to pretty quickly strip it and re-assess what else needs to be addressed before assembly. More on that in the next update.

68706

[82DMC12]

Oh by the way, here is the hole in the frame where the auto shifter goes. It's about 2" deeper than the deck that the manual shifter sits in on a manual frame. The new plate that I got sits on top of the manual frame and is attached to the frame through the slotted holes. Then, there are three spacers stacked up over each M6 threaded hole in the plate. They are held in place with threaded rod that I'll buy from Belmetric. Then, the manual shifter is attached to the threaded rod on top of the spacers. The spacers are each 1/2" thick so with the plate installed, there's the 2 inch difference.

You still need to drill out a hole for the crossgate cable and you have to slightly bend the frame flange in the transmission area to make room for the shift lever. Looking forward to getting this fitted!

6870768708

[SupercoolBill]

Looks awesome. I'm jealous. I was supposed to be putting a deposit on my frame but communication has stopped between the seller and me so I am not sure if he got a better offer or what.

Sent from my SM-F926U1 using Tapatalk

[Helirich]

Sub’d

[82DMC12]

My rolling frame-swap started last fall with a full front and rear suspension refurbishment. I had not had to do much with the suspension in my 20 years of ownership except for replacing the sway bar front bushings when I replaced my radiator many years back. All of my bushings were in good shape. The previous owner of my car had just been through a full brake rebuild before I bought the car so aside from adding stainless brake hoses and maybe a set of front pads, I had not had to do much with the brakes either. I'm embarrassed to say I probably only flushed the brakes twice in 20 years. So, it was time to do a full rebuild again.

Once I had the brakes and suspension removed, I sent the calipers, rear hubs, horn brackets, and all other brackets and hardware including suspension pivot bolts and washers to DMCMW for plating. They have a great partner nearby who cleans the parts and yellow-zinc plates everything. So you send a bunch of dirty crap and a couple weeks later you end up with this:

68713

For the rear trailing arms, I delivered them to a machine shop who put them in the oven and hot tank cleaned them to get the old epoxy off. I then treated them with POR15 degreaser, Metal Prep, and then two coats of Grey POR15. I used a long small brush on a stick to paint the inside of the arms. Same machine shop cleaned the rear carriers which are bare aluminum (no epoxy). I had them press out the old rear bearings and install a set of new SKF bearings and then press in the outer axle. I painted the carriers with POR15 as well so they would match the arms.

68714
[ Trailing arms after machine shop cleaning and POR 15 degreaser and metal prep. Rear lower links restored and ready to go! ]

68715
[ Trailing arms after painting with POR 15 ]


68716

[ Rear hubs with new bearings, painted with POR 15, and new outer axle nuts ready for installation ]



The lower links were refurbished by painterdave72 who is another local Kansas City owner. He powder coated the arms and pressed in new OEM-style rubber bushings.

[82DMC12]

Not much to report at the moment however I have set aside September 3 - 11 as vacation time at work so I can do the first half of the frame swap. I'm going to try to get three or four friends and other owners over to my house to help lift the body off the frame, roll out the chassis with engine, then use a cherry picker (going to buy a Harbor Freight hoist) to lift out the engine, separate the trans from it, and mount the engine to a stand which I already own from the first time I pulled out the engine. Then during that week I plan to strip all the parts off the old frame and assess what gets re-used, and what gets replaced.

Prior to all this, though, I need to finish prepping my new frame. I may have mentioned it's already been coated in POR15 gray, but it doesn't have a top coat on it. I've had about a 50/50 response from other owners and body shop guys who say the frame needs a top coat. The debate is because the frame isn't directly exposed to the sun and it's garage-kept. However I've heard enough stories about the POR15 getting "chalky" from UV that I think I want to top coat it. Maybe UV bounces in ways that visible light does not?

Anyway, I talked to a local body shop because I was thinking I could rough up the frame myself in the garage and then deliver it to a shop to get a top coat like Rustoleum Smoke Gray sprayed onto it. But then this guy I talked to, who restores Chevelles, dune buggies, etc told me about POR15 2K Urethane which they advertise as an industrial top coat. It's UV-resistant, 2-part catalyzed, clear, and chemical resistant so a fuel leak or brake fluid leak won't wreck the finish. And, it can brushed on so I wouldn't have to take the frame anywhere. I'm really leaning towards this option unless I can find a good reason why not.

Looks like I will be bringing the frame home (it's currently in storage at my office warehouse) sometime in the next two weeks to get started!

68777

[82DMC12]

I've been doing a bit more research and prep on my top-coat project for the frame. I called POR15 tech support and got some good advice on using the 2k Urethane. They suggested thinning it a bit with the POR15 Solvent (or xylene) and brushing it on. It will leave brush marks at first but ignore them and it will thin out as it dries. They said it's best to put a very thin later on and don't keep going over it to try to get the brush marks out. It all works out in the end. Guess we'll see!

I need to scuff the frame first with a red scotch brite pad. I grabbed one from the auto paint store that carries the 2K and tried it out on my frame. It took very little effort to take the gloss off the current layer. I'm sure I could do the whole frame in less than 2 hours by hand.

Anyway, the plan now is to bring the frame home in a couple weeks, get it in the garage, scuff it up, put the top coat on (still haven't decided between clear or another layer of light gray 2K Urethane), and then chase all the threads with taps and cutting oil. Then I'll test fit the new shifter plate and drill the hole for the crossgate cable.

Here's a picture showing a scuffed spot in the center. The frame is dusty from my work warehouse so I'll pressure wash it before working on it in my garage.

68787

[82DMC12]

Two weeks until Frame-Out Day!

I've been gathering up the last of my tools required for the big day including:

Harbor Freight 1 ton engine hoist (snagged for $199 on sale)
https://www.harborfreight.com/1-ton-capacity-foldable-shop-crane-61858.html

QTY (4) scissor jacks
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004PX8BC2?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

QTY (4) wheel skates which I think I'll need to line up the chassis with the body when re-installing
https://www.harborfreight.com/2-piece-1500-lb-capacity-vehicle-dollies-67338.html

I still have an engine stand from the last time I had the engine out and a couple furniture dollies which will help with moving frames around during the tear-down and build-up process.

All I need now are QTY (2) 4x4 8 foot wood beams and about QTY (40) 8x4x16 concrete blocks. Might also get an air impact gun to aid in fastener removal. Why work hard when you have power??

Later this week I plan to bring my new frame home to my garage and next weekend I'll scrub it with red scotchbrite, rinse it off with plain water, let it dry outside, and then bring it back in for a coating of the POR15 2K clear urethane top coat I mentioned earlier. I think I'll do one coat on the whole frame and two coats on anything you can see from under the car which will help with rock chips.

Only other snag I have at this point is the car is not actually DRIVEABLE due to a leaking slave cylinder. I've been waiting on a rebuild from PJ Grady but the cores took a long time to get plated. They are now en route to me so sadly I'll have to put the new cylinders in just so I can take it to a shop to get the A/C evacuated. Then bring it right home and drain the clutch LOL. Ah well. A waste of a quart of clutch fluid I guess.

Stay tuned, things start to accelerate now!

[82DMC12]

Big day today!

I suppose this is the first day of my frame swap. I've been storing the frame in the warehouse at my office since spring 2021. Today a couple coworkers helped me load it up onto a rented flatbed pickup from Home Depot (the kind that you can rent for $19 the first 75 minutes) and we brought it home to my house and parked it in the garage on a furniture dolly.

The frame weighs around 240 lbs but two people can fairly easily pick it up and maneuver it. I am going to want to flip it upside down sometimes while working on it though so I'm planning to use my engine hoist and a nylon strap to assist with picking it up, flipping it over, and setting it back down again.

I also have some new parts received today - a clutch master cylinder and a clutch slave cylinder, both rebuilt by PJ Grady which I actually want to get put in this weekend. Hopefully I can also get at least one coat of the 2K Urethane brushed onto the new frame so it has plenty of time to cure before I start moving the frame around while installing new parts on it.

68826

[82DMC12]

Day Two of my frame swap....

Last night I started scuffing up the frame in preparation for applying the top coat. It also gave me a chance to check the work of the guy who restored the frame in great detail. I like what I see, the POR15 was sprayed on and while it sometimes transitions from a gloss finish to having a bit of a rough feel, the POR15 is very well applied and solid. The front crossmember has a stainless plate welded to the bottom and then covered in POR15 - I can only detect it by using a magnet. I like that it reinforces an area on my own frame that is in very bad shape (floor jack pushed up and broke through the middle trapezoid section). The only issues I see are a couple of extremely minor spots where the frame was probably on the floor and scratched the POR15 back to the metal, and a few drips/runs that would interfere with fitment of other parts. A wire wheel on an air powered die grinder flattens them no problem. I have a few ounces of gray POR15 remaining from last year (yes it is still liquid!) so no issues doing a bit of touch up to the base coat.

Today I was able to get some more red scotch brite pads (best to get them at auto body paint shops) and alternated between using my blue blending pad handle for large flat areas and then just free-handing a piece of pad in the corners and small areas. I tended to do a cross-hatch pattern with the handle and swirls with the free pieces. I probably went through about 20 of the large pads.

After that I assembled my 1-ton Harbor Freight shop hoist and then used that to help flip the frame over so I could scuff up the bottom. Then, I bungee-tied a furniture dolly to the rear of the frame so I could wheel it out of the garage and halfway down the driveway so I could rinse it off with the garden hose and wash mitt. Once back in the garage I did my touch-ups and then drilled out a few small holes in the frame that the paint that filled in slightly when it was done a few years ago. I also ran a 1/2" bit through the front suspension attachment points so that I'm sure there isn't any paint in the tubes. I know I'll have to run a tap through all the threaded holes as I attach parts but that was to be expected.

Tomorrow I should be able to get a coat of top coat on the bottom of the frame. I'll have to wait for it to cure before I can flip the frame over again and do the top which I'm less concerned about overall.

68832

68833

68834

68835

[82DMC12]

Day 3 -

Today went as well as I could have hoped. My goal was to top coat the underside of the frame as well as the sides and anything else I can easily reach without flipping the frame over. The 2K Urethane is mixed 3 parts Urethane ("Part A") and 1 part Activator ("Part B"). The paint shop gave me a stack of clear paint mixing cups which I had to learn how to use by watching this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwxs_lgNGaM

They worked perfectly and I mixed up only about 2 oz of paint at a time because the pot life is not very long. I wanted to make sure I had even viscosity the whole way through so it made sense to work in small batches. The urethane brushes on very nicely and it was easy to tell what I had painted and what I had not by using a strong LED work lamp. After about three hours I had painted everything I could so after clean-up I called it a day. About six hours later I came out to check on it and the first section I did was drying nicely with only a bit of "finger drag" while touching the surface.

I only bought the 1-quart kit because the paint shop assured me I could paint the whole frame with it - I think they are right. I've only used less than half of the product but I'm probably 70% finished already. Goes to show how thin the urethane spreads when applied.

68840

68841

68842

68843

[82DMC12]

Day 4 -

I came home from work and found the frame was dry enough to flip over so I could get on with top coating the top side of the frame. The shop hoist came in handy as a very strong third arm to lift it up, roll it, and drop it back down onto a furniture dolly (just realized I need to buy another one for rolling around my old frame at some point....). An hour later I was done brushing it on and admiring my work. I found one chip on the bottom edge that I will have to repair but that's OK because I do have a few oz of gray POR15 leftover. The trick here is to sand down the surrounding area until it is feathered out, clean it well with degreaser, brush a bit of POR 15 metal prep on it if you have any, and then once that dries, brush the POR15 over the spot. Might take two or three thin coats to build it up to the same thickness as the surrounding area.

My list for the week leading up to this weekend's frame-off party is:

1) Need QTY (2) 4"x4" x 8 ft posts which the body will rest on for the next month
2) Need QTY (40) 4x8x16 flat cinder blocks which will be slowly added as the body lifts off the frame
3) Need to do as much as possible in regards to draining all fluids and disconnecting "stuff" from the old frame. There's a great checklist here (https://dmctalk.org/showthread.php?14602-How-To-Body-and-Frame-Separation-Checklist) that I will use as a guide and I will also update it with anything I find that was missed, or any good advice I have that others can learn from. I might also make a Google Drive version of this so others can download it and print it , already formatted, in the future.

Looking at the checklist, I see no issues because I have already addressed literally every point on there at some point in the last 20 years! The only wild card will be if any of the body bolts are hung up or won't spin out.

Here's a picture of the frame as it stands last night as well as the chip that needs touch up.

68849

68850

[82DMC12]

Day 5

Not much done yesterday because of work-family-car balance. I looked at my auto-to-manual adapter plate and checked to make sure the slotted holes line up. All good. I'll have to order some M6 threaded rod once I know exactly how long I want it. That's what holds the spacers and shifter to the adapter plate.

Moved the DeLorean on skates towards the center of the garage so I can start the process of draining fluids and disconnecting everything. I might have time tonight to get started on this. In the meantime, trying to follow up on parts orders that are pending so I can prioritize what gets done next week while I'm off work.

68857

[82DMC12]

Day 6

Only a couple more days before I have 11 days straight free to work on this thing, but only two days before the "frame out party". Might as well get started a bit early. Tonight I removed the seats and trailing arm shields. Drained out most of the gas tank using a battery-powered transfer pump (was going to put the gas in my wife's car but of course she just filled up today). I then drained a good amount of coolant out by opening the radiator petcock drain as well as removing both rubber coolant connections near the transmission. I know there is still coolant in the heater core and the engine block but we'll get to that eventually.

I also used a Motive power bleeder to drain and blow out all four brake lines.

I've started to make a list of all fasteners I will be replacing. I like to use Belmetric.com. So far they have everything I've needed and the prices and shipping is fair. McMaster Carr would be another option of course. I'll be replacing every nut, washer, and bolt that I remove from this car. I've already done this with everything suspension related (well, actually I sent a lot of those fasteners out to get cleaned and re-plated) so there isn't THAT much more that needs to be replaced in terms of the frame. I'll probably replace all the hardware that holds the transmission casing together though.

68858

[DMC-Ron]

Andy,
That's a heck of a beam. I assume you measured to insure you have the required clearance.

Keep up the posts. This has been fun following along.

Ron

[82DMC12]

Andy,
That's a heck of a beam. I assume you measured to insure you have the required clearance.

Keep up the posts. This has been fun following along.

RonHaha oh yeah. That last photo is ultra wide angle from up high so probably skews dimensions too. And the car is high up on jack stands. I estimate the body must be no higher than 32" off the ground to get the chassis out as per this video:

https://youtu.be/j-AmAyELV8s

That's only like 2.5 feet taller than the car is, anyway and I have plenty of room getting my Q5 SUV in the garage.

Will post actual measurements after this weekend, that's when stuff gets good!

Sent from my Pixel 6a using Tapatalk

[Helirich]

This is going to be a good thread during those eleven days! Wish I was closer. Would be fun to give you a hand.

Good luck.

[82DMC12]

This is going to be a good thread during those eleven days! Wish I was closer. Would be fun to give you a hand.

Good luck.

I wish! I'm trying to include some local owners in the Frame Party. Should be a good time!

[82DMC12]

Day 7

Not a lot of progress on the car ITSELF today but I had to get some ducks in a row prior to Frame Drop Day. I had to work until noon and I'm on Daddy Duty as of 6:00 PM

Stopped by Harbor Freight to grab another furniture dolly and some orange hand cleaner. Menards for some Shop Towels (6 pack of course). Walmart for water, gatorade, and soda for the Frame Party. Picked up BBQ at Oklahoma Joes for dinner for the wife and I.

Actual car stuff done this afternoon:


Removed the center console
Removed the four body bolts along the center tunnel as well as the seat belt latches.
Remove radiator fan shroud
Removed lower speedo cable from angle drive and lambda counter and then pushed it up into the driver floor inside
Drained engine oil and manual trans oil and dropped it off at Autozone


That's about it. I still need to get 15 more bricks and two 4x4 beams. Tomorrow gets serious as it's my first day of vacation and I should be able to get a ton done uninterrupted!

[82DMC12]

Day 8

This was a big day and about halfway through I knew I was at a point of no return. I printed off this checklist and put it in a clipboard:

https://dmctalk.org/showthread.php?14602-How-To-Body-and-Frame-Separation-Checklist

I intentionally followed it in order and made sure every move I made was already documented, and if not, I wrote it in the margin. I probably found a half dozen other disconnections or other warnings / recommendations as I went. I'll be updating that checklist with more detail and sharing it with everyone eventually.

The whole checklist went remarkably smooth, scary in fact, but not really surprising since virtually every point in the list I've already touched or worked on in my ownership so I knew that it will, indeed, come apart! And I had the tools needed to do it.

The only part I could not get was the smaller pipe that attaches to the evaporator simply because there was very limited access for wrenches. I can't remember how I did it before. Luckily I was able to disconnect the sight glass downstream and that avoided the issue for now.

I had silicone plugs and caps of various sizes from Amazon which came in real handy to plug off stuff I don't want to get dirty or moisture inside.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07HFZLYYC?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08GPJJRY5?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

I started at about 7 AM and was finished around 3AM. The only thing I did not do was removing the rear bumper and the engine cover since I wanted extra hands to assist me with it. Note that the engine cover doesn't have to come off but I'm going to have another owner in Kansas City help with refinishing it while I have the time.

Here's the sight glass junction I removed while the aluminum pipe above it stayed on the evaporator pipe. Debating if I should remove it to change the o-ring or just let it sit there undisturbed! I obviously had it off a few (maybe 7?) years ago so it's definitely not damaged or anything. Thoughts??

68874

[Helirich]

I’ve not seen a sight glass on a car before. It looks just like one on a walk-in freezer at my wife’s restaurant. Is that something you installed? I suppose the wet/dry indicator is toast. I still like them.

[82DMC12]

I’ve not seen a sight glass on a car before. It looks just like one on a walk-in freezer at my wife’s restaurant. Is that something you installed? I suppose the wet/dry indicator is toast. I still like them.

Good point, not sure if it's toast or not. It came from John Hervey because that is the air conditioning kit I installed a few years back. To be honest if it's toast I don't really care as long as the switch still works!

[82DMC12]

Day 9

FRAME PARTY DAY!!

First of all, I want to thank the following super cool owners and friends who helped make today happen - painterdave72 (David Hudgins), Matthew Mangels and his son Elijah, Alvin Erhart and his son Johnny, Joey, and my wife for baking the cookies!

Today went extremely well and the process was straight-forward and well-planned for mostly thanks to Andy Orton's excellent youtube video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-AmAyELV8s

We basically did EXACTLY what is shown in this video and had zero issue lifting the body off and rolling out the chassis. We used EXACTLY 40 4x8x16 hollow concrete bricks ($1.27 each at Sutherlands) and two 4x4x8ft wood beams. I debated getting 10 ft beams for extra width but it turned out that 8 foot is very doable and what I would recommend if working in a home garage where you need to minimize lost floor space during the restoration.

What to do with the bricks and beams when I'm done? Not sure. This like 1,400 lbs of brick which took 4 trips in my SUV to pick up so I'd rather someone just come get them when I'm done. I'm sure I can get rid of them fast-ish on Marketplace.

Anyway everyone arrived around 9:30 AM and we pretty quickly went to work removing the fascia and then disconnecting the shift linkage and crossgate from the transmission so we wouldn't have to monkey with it topside later on. By 11 AM we were ready to lift the body up. I shared the Andy Orton video with everyone on our facebook chat a few days prior so they had an idea of we will do. We had one man on each corner manning a scissor jack and about three people walking around and spotting to make sure nothing is getting caught. Generally we lifted up together as a team, turning the jack three revolutions before stopping to confirm all is good. As soon as we could add a new brick to the support stack we did so. We had to let the body back down to the support stack four times so we could add another brick under the jack to get more vertical lift. And back and forth we went until we had the beams under the body (making sure not to hit the M6 studs sticking down to secure the trailing arm shields) and then lifted high enough to get the shift lever and radiator rolling underneath and out. I think we had the chassis out by 12:30 PM.

After a pizza break the next task was to lift out the engine and transmission from the old frame. We had to do that in the driveway and thankfully there was cloud cover most of the time or it would have been a hot, sweaty ordeal. It took a couple hours to remove the exhaust from the engine (DMCH Stage 1 installed about 15 years ago) and then a bit longer to remove the transmission mounts from the transmission and frame. After that, the engine came out fairly easily but at an odd angle because I didn't have a load leveler for the hoist.

At that point it was mid afternoon and about time for most to get back home. We pushed the hoist and drivetrain into the garage and then pushed the old frame back under the body after removing the radiator and shifter.

Only casualties that I can see so far is a scratch on my water pump pulley and the little finger on the throttle that hits the full throttle switch came off of the spool but I think I can solder that back on no problem. I'd call that a success!

https://youtu.be/7pbMs8lQfrs

68875

68876

68877

68878

68879

68880

[82DMC12]

Day 10

Might not look like I got a ton done today but I really did. First, I got the garage organized again and my tools and cleaned and put away where they belong.

Then I took apart the radiator/fans/condenser so I could assess my leaking radiator. It's a DMCH radiator only about 7 years old but there's a very tiny seep somewhere near the petcock but behind the fan shroud. I took it apart but didn't see any obvious leak besides coolant exactly where I thought I'd find it. However I did see the mounting stud and square captivating thing on the same side is bent quite a bit. Looking at the radiator bracket, that's also bent. I know I didn't strike anything but maybe it was already bent and I tightened the radiator down to match the bent bracket. And that put stress somewhere in the radiator in that spot. Anyway, I'm bringing it in to a radiator shop tomorrow for an assessment.

Next, I tried to find a transmission jack for rental - no one open today on Labor Day. Also the muffler shop I wanted to go to to get my Stage 1 exhaust separated from the muffler was also closed (we couldn't get it apart even with a torch but I know those exhaust guys know exactly what to do). That will be first thing tomorrow.

Then, I decided to chase all the threaded holes in the new frame. I made a list as I went so I'll make a google doc to share with everyone. The only threads I didn't get to was the two SAE holes - the seatbelt mounting hole and the rear upper control arm hole. I don't have standard taps so I'll have to grab them tomorrow.

After that, I rolled the old frame out halfway from under the
car and removed all the rest of the internal parts - the accumulator, shift linkage, and crossgate cable. No big surprises there but the shift linkage needs to be powder coated badly.

Finally, I started to actually DRESS THE NEW FRAME. I put all the frame clips I had into the frame but have some questions... The driver side pair of vacuum pipes are different sizes and it doesn't seem like the white twin clips I bought will work for them, so I need to check with the vendors on that. I attached the heater cores pipes (new NOS) so that was pretty cool. I also have some new NOS fuel pipes so I set them down on my old frame to double check and make sure they are correct. I have new olives and swivel nuts so everything on the fuel side will be new but I'm re-using the vacuum pipes because they don't really go bad. Also very big and expensive to ship.

I have a big order on the way from DeLorean Industries but until then, I still have PLENTY to do.... stay tuned tomorrow. Need to drop off exhaust, parts for powder coating, get a transmission jack, drop off radiator, and then probably drop the fuel tank out and start assembling fuel pipes.

68881

68882

[Helirich]

Good point, not sure if it's toast or not. It came from John Hervey because that is the air conditioning kit I installed a few years back. To be honest if it's toast I don't really care as long as the switch still works!

The sight glass is still useful even if the wet/dry part doesn’t work. When operating, it should not have any bubbles.

On you blocks, technically you should have not stack them that way. You would probably done better (safer) to get ordinary 8x8x16 blocks and stack them with holes vertical. But I’m sure your fine with the weight of the body.

Great work so far! Very exciting!

[82DMC12]

The sight glass is still useful even if the wet/dry part doesn’t work. When operating, it should not have any bubbles.

On you blocks, technically you should have not stack them that way. You would probably done better (safer) to get ordinary 8x8x16 blocks and stack them with holes vertical. But I’m sure your fine with the weight of the body.

Great work so far! Very exciting!

Yeah, I don't know. I was at the lumber yard looking at them and trying to decide if I should get the solid blocks or the hollow blocks. The hollow blocks sure are a lot easier to maneuver. I tried to Google it and it looked like they could hold something like 1300 PSI. I'm sure it's technically not correct but it seems to be ok.... So far!

[Helirich]

I’ve heard the best way to stack blocks is vertical holes with a piece of 3/4” plywood between each block. But again, you don’t really have much weight on your blocks.

Are you going to make the back cross tube removable? I understand a lot of people do it and it makes remove/install the engine much easier. I’ve not seen pics, but I think they just have it bolt on with a couple pieces of angle iron. Seems like it would be easy for you to do it now. I don’t think the “non stock” issue would bother most people. You could probably do it somewhat “stealth”.

[82DMC12]

Day 11

Today was a good day. I started out by rounding up all the parts I want to get powder coated so they can head on off to David Hudgins and he can get working on them. Parts to refinish include:



Both shift levers that go inside the frame (black)
Bracket that holds the crossgate cable to the transmission (cadmium yellow)
Both front radiator lower supports (cadmium)
Both front extension recall brackets (black)
Both rear fascia mounting brackets (black)
Three brackets that attach to the rear of the transmission and hold shift linkage / crossgate stuff as well as the little one on top that holds the clutch line to the transmission case (cadmium)
Mounting plate for the starter (black)
Two water pipe support brackets (cadmium)
The NLA "transmission cooler bracket" that goes onto the passenger side of the frame - now that was a bitch to take apart but I saved it (cadmium)


That's about it. There are no other brackets or small metal parts suitable for coating in this project that I haven't already done.

Next I took the radiator to a local shop to get an assessment on repairing it. They will get it to by next week.

Then I rented a transmission jack and in about 30 minutes I had the transmission separated from the engine and lowered to the floor level. Easy job with the right tools. I then used my new air impact gun to remove the bellhousing and end cap from the transmission (saving the 5th gear detent spring and ball of course).

The bellhousing has to go to a machine shop to get the clutch slave M7 mounting bolts removed - the heads snapped off. Also I found my clutch fork retaining piece is broken, so I'm on the hunt for a new clutch fork.

Does the ball come off of the bellhousing? I didn't mess with it too much.

Then I finished chasing the seatbelt bolt threads (SAE 7/16-20!) and then got about halfway through the SAE 1/2-20 rear upper link threads before I realized I need a much longer tap to do it, and a bottom tap would be best. So maybe I'll find it at Grainger or if not I'll order it online. But then I'll have every thread on the whole frame chased.

Tomorrow I will split the transmission open and give it an inspection. The casing is going to go to a vapor honing service to get refinished. Tomorrow I'll also remove the clutch and replace the rear main seal (leaking).

68887

68888

68889

68890

68891

68892

68893

[82DMC12]

Day 12

Today started out with a call from the machine shop asking to confirm the correct thread for the bellhousing holes which contained the broken clutch slave screws. The threads are M7 x 1.0. They said the studs were tough to get out and they need to helicoil them. Makes me glad I didn't attempt to drill them out myself. Not long after they called and said it was done and I can come pick it up. But, first I wanted to get the flywheel off so I could have them machine it.

So, I sat down in front of my engine still hanging from the hoist and started to remove the clutch. Very easy with an air impact. Insert the clutch alignment tool, then remove the 6 allen cap screws holding the clutch on. The clutch came off and I was surprised (pleasantly?) that the clutch looks almost brand-new. There is tons of friction material and I'm inclined to re-use it if I can just source a new throwout bearing and pilot bearing.

When I withdrew the clutch, I was surprised to find the pilot bearing actually ON the alignment tool! Very odd, I was expecting to have to use a slide hammer or the "bread trick" to get the pilot out of the flywheel. This made me wonder if the bearing was just spinning in there... I see the bearing says CHINA on it. This was probably supplied with the Centerforce clutch but I can't be sure. Anyway, I set everything off to the side, zip off the flywheel, and head to the shop.

Once at the shop I informed them of the 0.020 step required on the wheel. We looked at the wheel and found... no step at all. The flywheel is flat all the way across from perimeter to center. Two shop guys came over to look and they agreed, wondering if I could be correct. We went on their computer and found the DMCH Knowledge Base article that mentions the step. We decided to wait a bit until I could sort this out.

On the way home I picked up anaerobic sealant, some GUNK foaming engine cleaners, and that Permatex gasket remover with the brush on the end of the can.

While driving I spoke with Toby Peterson whom I remember mentioning on the forums about the step. He agreed this was strange and was surprised my clutch was not slipping. After some debate we agreed that the best action is to "reset" everything back to factory by adding the step and replacing the clutch with a new Valeo kit. That way we know everything is exactly as it should be. It could be that the last shop that had my transmission out removed the step.... who knows. I don't like throwing away this Centerforce clutch but I don't know if it will work properly once put back together either with or without the step. Sometimes stuff works until you touch it, then you re-assemble it and it dies shortly after. I don't want that.

Once home, I wheeled the engine out to the driveway and gave the rear main seal area a good degreasing and scrub down so I can work on that task.

While that was drying I opened up the transmission which came apart no problem at all really. I was watching Nick Roedl's excellent Youtube series where he shows how to open the transmission. Mine is suspected to be leaking from the case halves due to the last shop, albeit nearly 20 years ago, using orange RTV instead of anaerobic sealant. So, I want to re-seal the transmission and get the casing media blasted. I got the differential and two shafts out pretty easily as well as the reverse gear. All I have left are the selector forks which are a bit scary because you need to tap out all of the roll pins and then try not to lose the detent balls and springs. That will be tomorrow!

68899

68900

68901

68902

68903

68904

68905

68906

[Mark D]

I'm following along and find the updates with the clutch and trans to be really interesting. I'm sure you're already aware, but when you go to reinstall the selector shaft roll pins, you'll want to add a reinforcement pin inside the standard pin. It's common for the 2nd gear roll pin to shear off, and it's an issue on my own car that I've yet to fix in my 15 years of ownership.

The main symptom is a mushy feel when downshifting from 3rd to 2nd gear as the selector slides past the pin, and then uses the spring on the other side to engage 2nd.

[82DMC12]

I'm following along and find the updates with the clutch and trans to be really interesting. I'm sure you're already aware, but when you go to reinstall the selector shaft roll pins, you'll want to add a reinforcement pin inside the standard pin. It's common for the 2nd gear roll pin to shear off, and it's an issue on my own car that I've yet to fix in my 15 years of ownership.

The main symptom is a mushy feel when downshifting from 3rd to 2nd gear as the selector slides past the pin, and then uses the spring on the other side to engage 2nd.Great minds and all that. I have two sets of new roll pins with smaller backup pins. Finding that I don't already have those installed makes me feel like this transmission disassembly project is definitely worth it.

Sent from my Pixel 6a using Tapatalk

[82DMC12]

Day 13

Today was cut short due to Daddy Duty. At about noon I got a call from the wife saying our son has a fever at daycare and needs to be picked up. So, I only got to work on the car this morning but I did good stuff that keeps the project moving along.

First I got to work on pulling out the rear main seal. No problem at all, especially when you've got power (air impact). The rear main LOOKS pretty good but I'm suspicious of the bottom surface of the seal house which was only sealed with black RTV. I think the corners may have been leaking.

I had a good call with Rob Grady where we discussed some of my observations over the last couple of days and gave me some reassurance all is well, though I continue to dive deep into this drivetrain!

I then set on to fully strip the transmission casings of all moving parts so I can get them vapor honed by a Rolls Royce shop in Independence, MO. There are two key challenges to removing the selector forks

1) You need to tap out all of the roll pins in order to remove the parts on the bars. Not that hard to do but you MUST have a 6mm punch (not common in sets, I bought it on Amazon) for the bigger pins.

2) There are springs and balls for the detents under each bar. The reverse one will pop out if you remove the reverse switch and then pull on the bar (found that out the hard way). The others will come out BUT you have to rotate the bar so that the ball can't push into the detents anymore and then slowly remove the bar while getting ready to catch the ball that's about to fly out. I did this by wadding up some bubble wrap and covering the area with one hand while pulling the bar out with the other. Nothing was lost!

The end cap is harder to do. There's a spring that captivates four half-bushings and the spring is too stiff to pull back with your fingers to expose the bushings. Rob says there's a special Renault tool for this but I was able to do it by progressively compressing coils with zip ties. It took about 45 minutes but I got it done. Then, you have to punch out the roll pins through the back of the housing by first removing a small M7 plug - and that's punch-out tube. Pretty neat. Also, I made great use of a couple of blue plastic body pry tools that I got in a set at Harbor Freight. This stuff is very easy to marr but the plastic tools will let you pry away without damage.

Anyway, got it all apart and headed out to the vapor honing shop.

What else.... Oh yeah, I got a pack of 50 M5 aluminum rivnuts from McMaster Carr. I'll be using these to attach stainless pipe clamps and DPI DOT brake hoses to the frame rather than using those crap plastic clips.

Also picked up my flywheel, newly machined - this time with a step!

68907

68908

68909

68910

68911

68912

68913

[82DMC12]

Day 14

Today I felt like, and it looked like, I got a lot done!

First thing this morning is I took my DMCH Stage 1 exhaust in to a muffler shop to try to get the cats and tail pipes separated from my Magnaflow muffler. Way back in 2005 I bought the first Stage 1 which was mild steel headers, etc and coated with Jet Hot coating. I'm in the middle of trying to get the system refinished under lifetime warranty by Jet Hot but it's not looking good. If they won't do it for free, I can pay a kingly sum to have them recoat them at a goodwill discount. Unfortunately I am not sure the pipes will separate. The kid at the muffler shop used acetylene to heat it cherry red and the damn thing won't spin apart. He didn't want to damage it so he asked if he could wait until Monday when the owner is back. I said sure.

Next I go to work on my rear main seal. I have a new double-lip from Grady via Ed Uding and all of Rob's good advice. I have a new paper gasket and new M7 allen screws for the mounting plate. Hylomar AF on both sides of the paper gasket, then anaerobic between the plate and lower crankcase, using a q-tip to make sure the sealant went all the way into the corners. Then torqued slowly and evenly in random sequence until I hit 13 lbs. That should do it!

After that I decided it was time to make my new frame look more like a car. I disconnected the driver side suspension as a complete unit once it was free of the tie rod end and the sway bar. This proved to be too heavy and cumbersome to install as a full unit so I ended up removing the coilover to aid installation. I just didn't want to separate any ball joints. I ran a long 1/2" drill bit through both frame-bolt tubes and checked to make sure my bolts slide freely in and out before installing. Slathered the bolts in copper anti-seize and Energy Suspension polyurethane bushing grease all over the bushings. Good stuff.

Next I added the sway bar but I can't actually get it completely attached to the front frame extension because there's not enough weight pushing down. I just have it attached by the front bolts (allen head) for now.

After that I decided to top it all off with the rack and pinion. Took only about 30 minutes to pull it out of the old frame and pop it into the new one. Sure is easy when nothing is in the way and you can free open space from above! I just rebuilt the rack last fall so of course it looks great and the tie rod ends only have like 200 miles on them.

I had some more time before I had to wrap up for the day so I started to get into installing some M5 rivnuts which will hold clips for retaining the DeLorean Industries Premium brake line system. These are all DOT black flex hoses that match the DPI fuel lines most people have. This kit came with no instructions but it's pretty self-explanatory. All the fittings are included and most of the parts are pre-installed to each other so it's quite clear what is what. I put a few of the clips in and then started loose-fitting some of the hoses for the front end. This kit looks great and I'm looking forward to seeing it finished.

Not sure how much I'll do tomorrow since it's the weekend, my wife's off work, and I think she needs some family time. So might be a couple days before the next update.



68915

68916

68917

68918

68919

68920

68921

68922

68923

68924

68925

[82DMC12]

Day 15

Got a bit more done today than I expected I would.

First I spent some time inserting some more rivnuts and getting the routing of the DPI DOT brake system down. This kit is great and I can't wait to seal everything up.

Next I installed the DPI stainless steel front frame-body spacers. One of mine fell off during the frame drop and rather than clean up that rusty old thing I decided to replace them. The DPI set is great, exactly the same fit as the old ones. Just rough up the mated surface with 80 grit sandpaper, die grind off all the old adhesive from the body, clean with lacquer thinner, 80 grit on the body, then apply Pilo Grip (same product that DPI uses on the roof boxes) with the 2-plunger mixing gun to the body plate. Next, press it to the body and secure in place with a M10 bolt, washers, and nut. Thanks to Josh for loaning me a Plio Grip gun!

After that I removed the fuel tank from my old frame (it only, practically, comes out the bottom), removed all the old foam, then gave it a good scrub with Mr. Clean, water, and a nylon brush. After rinsing there was still some stubborn stains and adhesive so I scrubbed it some more with red scotchbrite. That did the trick. Left it out in the sun to dry and then later in the day applied the new fuel tank foam kit and then installed in the new frame. Then I realized there's no way to put the new water pipes in because I can't get the frame high enough to slide then downward then tilt them up to the underside of the frame. I had to remove the tank, pre-fit the water pipes, then pop the tank back in. I have it pretty close but might need to make some adjustments later.

I ended the afternoon by test-fitting my refinished fuel tank closing plate with just a couple of bolts to make sure everything is lined up halfway decent.

Things are really moving fast now!

68931

68932

68933

68934

68935

68936

68937

68938

[Helirich]

Things look like you’re moving fast. Have you been keeping track of actual hours? Have you ever been involved with a “body off” restoration?

[82DMC12]

Things look like you’re moving fast. Have you been keeping track of actual hours? Have you ever been involved with a “body off” restoration?

Sorry, I have not been keeping track of hours. I'd have to go back and count hours on the suspension last year which was also many days of work. I'm glad I took a week off right after pulling the frame out to knock out a big chunk of heavy lifting but also prep - there's a lot of stuff that has to go out for powder coating, blasting, refinishing, count up hardware that has to be replaced, etc.

No experience prior for this exact job (frame off) but I've been an owner for 22 years and wrenched on my car myself the whole time. Learned a lot the hard way! I've also been watching other frame off blogs and studying/preparing for this for quite a few months leading up to today! Preparation is key. Also not sticking to a budget....

[82DMC12]

Day 16

I didn't do too much on Sunday since it's the Lord's Day (Chiefs football) and it was time to do some family stuff. We went out to breakfast, played with my son, and did some house chores. It can tough balancing work/family/hobbies and I can be guilty of working too hard at something and forgetting to relax. I don't really have a deadline and I have a full four weeks to go before I am taking another week off to put the body back on the frame and do all the re-connections, fluids, alignment, A/C recharge, etc. So, I have plenty of time and no need to hide out in the garage forever. Now that I'm back to work I will probably transition to wrenching a couple hours in the mornings before I need to get ready for work, that way I keep evenings open for family stuff.

I got a lot accomplished last week and I would estimate I am about 70-75% done with the frame build-up. It's really taking shape now that I'm working on fuel pipes and vacuum pipes and the associated clips that hold it to the frame. I got all the pipes roughed-in so I can confirm routing and orientation. I am about ready to fully install the fuel lines however I found that the FIR TREE INSERT 106984 which is what you connect the accumulator hoses to, the new pair of them I received have dry-rotted o-rings. I guess they are 40+ years old. I reached out to the vendor for advice on replacement o-rings but I suspect I will just bring them to NAPA and have them help me match up new ones from the big kits they have. Once I have them, I can cinch up all the new swivel nuts and olive fittings to the associated male joints and clip it all in place.

The vacuum pipes from my old frame are fine, they just needed to be scrubbed with some lacquer thinner on a towel to remove grime, then polished with a red scotchbrite pad to remove some grit and corrosion. Ready for another 40 years I suppose.

I was scrolling Facebook last night and saw that the company I dropped my transmission casing off at did a tiktok video showing how they refinished it for their own social media. Check it out here:

https://www.tiktok.com/@scurzon01/video/7142203769823055150?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1

Can't wait to build this transmission back up! The sooner the better or else I'll forget how it all went together LOL

Other than that, I transferred my fuel filter over to the new frame. I also dry fit most of the rest of the DPI DOT brake hose system. I still need to install a few clips but it's really taking shape and I'm really appreciating the quality of this kit. The hoses you see in the picture of the rear part of the frame will be clipped to the bottom edge of the frame but then loop UP over the transmission mounts before taking off through the stay in the frame towards the trailing arms. They are just sitting loose right now.

What's left? Well, off the top of my head:

1) install flywheel and new clutch
2) Build up transmission and replace clutch fork boot and fork ball dust seal, new axle seals, new o-ring for the differential pre-tensioner
3) roll out the old frame so I can take measurements for where to drill the hole for the crossgate cable
4) Get all my refinished brackets and such from David Hudgins (ready this week)
5) Get radiator back, hopefully repaired (should be this week)
6) Transfer over rear suspension from the old frame
7) torque motor mounts once I get a new braided ground cable (motor to frame)
8) Make a decision on the exhaust system. It's currently being look at by the exhaust shop. I'm afraid it will cost so much to take it apart and ship it to get refinished on my own dime that I could just replace the whole exhaust system for nearly the same price. Ugh. Definitely going stainless next time.

I also want to do a pressure test of the fuel system once the engine is mounted but before installing under the body. I will have to make an electrical connector (weatherpack compatible) that I can plug in to the fuel pump, fused, with a switch, that I can run off my car battery to test my work installing the fuel lines. No way am I putting the body back on again without checking for leaks on the frame pipes!

68942

68943

68944

68945

68946

[82DMC12]

Day 17

Not a lot of time yesterday to fool around in the garage. I did pick up my transmission casings from the vapor honing company and MY GOD they look great!! it's shame it will stuck under the car forever.

My plan yesterday evening was to reassemble the transmission tail cover but I didn't get very far before I decided that my freshly-cleaned external levers and such could really use a re-plating. They were covered in crud and I cleaned them in a bucket with Simple Green and a couple different nylon brushes. This removed the gunk but I couldn't bring myself to put it back together without re-plating since I've already come so far. Might as well go all the way. So I texted the only cad plater in Kansas City and they said it will be $125 min order per lot. So I figured if I'm paying that I should get my money's worth. I ended up removing a bunch of stuff to get plated including:



External transmission shift levers and crossgate pivot
All three engine cam end covers
Timing Scale (took photos to get the positioning correct when I'm done!!!)
Weird bracket thing that the idle motor attaches to on the intake manifold
Fuel filter bracket
A few misc fittings and such for the clutch piping
Crankshaft pulley which is already sleeved - I will have to ask if they can do this or not without messing up the sleeve


I'm bringing this stuff over to the plating company this afternoon and they said 5 to 7 business days so I guess I won't be putting the tail cover together for a bit. In the meantime I can certainly put new axle seals into the transmission and then re-install all the gears and selectors. That will help clean up some of the clutter in the garage.

I also mounted the engine to a stand so I could fold up and wheel the hoist out of the way for a while since I'm tired of stepping around it!

Daddy Duty tonight so I don't think I'll get anything else done today. David Hudgins is done with all my powder coating so I should be able to pick that up tomorrow and get going on installing that stuff!

Exhaust is done being separated (only $50!) so this week I'll figure out what to do there.

Big hardware order from Belmetric is out for delivery today so that should also keep me pretty busy.

68947

[Helirich]

That transmission sure turned out nice!

[82DMC12]

Thanks! Wait until I get it built back up with new yellow zinc hardware, cadmium plated external shift levers, powder coated cross gate brackets, a new clutch fork and fork boot! Hopefully get going on building the transmission in the next day or two.

[Helirich]

Thanks! Wait until I get it built back up with new yellow zinc hardware, cadmium plated external shift levers, powder coated cross gate brackets, a new clutch fork and fork boot! Hopefully get going on building the transmission in the next day or two.

When you get all that done, I would like to display it on my coffee table. (My wife might not agree)

[82DMC12]

When you get all that done, I would like to display it on my coffee table. (My wife might not agree)

Mine either, at this point! I'm getting the side eye whenever I escape to the garage in the evenings so I'm trying to work on this for a couple hours each morning instead LOL. Should be able to wrench away on the weekend too!

[82DMC12]

Day 18/19

Not a lot done the last two days because of work and Daddy Duty. However, I did the following:

1) Received in a nice big order of fresh clean hardware from Belmetric. Nuts, bolts, washers, etc mostly in yellow zinc but a few in stainless (mostly washers) and a bit of silver zinc. In fact I already placed a second order due to arrive tomorrow and working on, perhaps, the third and final order for this project.

2) Cleaned up the threads on my motor mount studs. Opted not to replace them due to age and looking quite seized in the casting. Not interested in cutting them out, so running a die over them with some quality cutting oil is good for me.

3) Started to test fit my shifter with adapter plate. There's a bit of filing required on one edge where it's coming in contact with the shift lever, however I can't tell how far I back I need to file it until I have the shifter mounted and the levers attached. For now I'm lightly filing all the way back but I have a feeling I'll be taking away more material once the shifter is actually in place and getting adjusted. Too bad, hard to say if the file is imperfect or if the laser cutting didn't do it quite right. Anyway, I am more than capable of filing a bit of aluminum, so we'll get there. Also did my first cursory look at how the shifter will be mounted in the frame. I need to roll the old frame out so I can take some measurements of the shifter deck and where the shifter sits in relation to the front edge of the shifter tub. I want to get that distance exact on my new frame so I can minimize the need to make shift rod adjustments. Once I know that spacial relationship, I can trace my own frame where the auto shifter tub is and figure out how much frame material to cut out to make room for the shifter action.

4) Called the radiator shop - they haven't had a chance to look at my radiator yet.

5) Planning to pick up my extricated exhaust tomorrow

6) Picked up a bunch of powder coating work done by David Hudgins. It looks great! A few pieces in a cadmium color and a few pieces in gloss black. I mounted the front frame recall brackets and the radiator brackets today. I can mount a few more parts once my next Belmetric order is in.

68954



68956

68957

[82DMC12]

Day 20

Last night I started matching up new hardware from Belmetric with old hardware I've got bagged up in ziplocs. As I removed parts, I bagged them up and put a piece of paper in the bag with the description of where the old hardware came from. That made it easy to record size, thread, and length in a spreadsheet which eventually turned into a hardware order. I am not reusing any hardware at all and I'm upgrading everything to 10.9 hardened variety wherever it was originally 8.8. All flat washers are upgraded to stainless steel. I also put longer bolts into the fuel tank on the leading edge where it goes over the front crossmember since the original bolts were shorter and prone to cross-threading.

This morning I started to reassemble the transmission. First I tapped in new axle seals. They are packed with red grease and smeared Hylomar AF around the sealing face. I then tapped them in with a PVC arbor tool I made which is the same diameter as the seal. Let me just say that it's a lot easier to tap these in when the case is on a bench with no differential installed!

Next I started to install the selector shafts and roll pins. Pretty easy job here except getting the detent springs and balls under the shafts was a bit tricky. I ended making a tool out of a wood dowel to help hold the ball down while I slid the shaft over it with my other hand. Took a few tries but eventually got everything seated.

All I have left for the selectors is to install the 1/2 roll pins with the second small strengthening pin inside of them. After that I will check differential pre-tension with a spring scale and spring so that I can set the adjusting nut and latch it down. Once that's done I will have to wait to seal the transmission and finish the tail cap once my cad plating is back and new conical washers come in next week.

I got a call from the radiator shop yesterday who claim my radiator is almost totally blocked up inside. I don't know if I believe them because I did run water through it from the garden hose before bringing it over so I wouldn't have green coolant leaking out into my car. It seemed to flow... OK? when I did that. Not sure that I trust them but at this point I'm just going to replace the radiator so that I can forget about the leak on it and move on. Maybe I'll have someone else look at it once this project is finished so I can keep a spare or sell it on to someone else.

68964

[Helirich]

Is there any chance someone put orange antifreeze in it? That stuff does not mix with green and globs up. I bought a generator that someone did that to. A major pain to clean out.

[82DMC12]

Is there any chance someone put orange antifreeze in it? That stuff does not mix with green and globs up. I bought a generator that someone did that to. A major pain to clean out.

Nope, that did not happen - I replaced the radiator myself and maintained it ever since. Not sure I really trust this shop. Guess I'll find out more when I go pick it up.

[82DMC12]

Day 20, continued

I had some time after work to mostly finish up the main case and shafts for the transmission. I had to tap the outer race for the differential bearing back into the driver side of the casing. It came out during cleaning, perhaps from the heat. It was not damaged so it wasn't much trouble at all to pound it back flush with a block of wood. Then I tapped back in all the roll pins which are a bit of a puzzle challenge since they do have to be done in a certain sequence. It made most sense to tap in the outer small pin first, that way I could slide the selector fork and spring away, mostly, and only deal with about one coil of spring to hold back. Once that was in (and it has to be tapped in so that about the same amount is sticking out both sides in order to properly retain the spring on the rod), then I tapped in the larger one behind the fork. That held in the fork in place so that I could tap in the middle pin. THEN I tapped in the smaller backup pins into the two smaller pins to reinforce them (so they are double thick). It was a bit squirrely fighting the spring but I got it quick enough. Plastic pry tools helped a lot.

Then I was able to set into the case the primary shaft, outer shaft, and differential. I ran it through the different gears to make sure everything is turning smooth and no gears are hitting the pins. Looking great!!!

About all I had time for, after that, was to go to NAPA and get some new o-rings for the fir tree adapters which the fuel accumulator hoses clamp onto. I got NOS fir trees and the included o-rings were dry-rotted. The vendor didn't have a solution saying they checked and the rest are also dry rotted. I'm sure the o-rings are metric but I was able to find some that are pretty close in the huge o-ring kits that they have behind the counter. I took two sizes and then spent more time deciding which to use once I got home. I ended up using the ones that are a bit tighter fit so they don't hang up or squeeze out when inserting the fir tree into the pipe fitting. I smeared a small amount of red rubber grease on each o-ring and then applied a bit of hylomar on the threads for the swivel nuts. I then tightened the nuts up and set them in place on the frame. Maybe tomorrow I'll be able to finally snap in all the fuel lines.

Next project, I think, is to finish clamping down the DPI brake hoses in the rear part of the frame. Then I'll start prepping my engine for a new exhaust system. Stay tuned on that!

68966

68967

68968

68969

68970

68971

[82DMC12]

Can't edit my post but I said something confusing regarding hardware orders and new washers. I said I was replacing "all" washers with stainless when I really meant all non-critical washers like the fuel filter mounts, passenger water pipe mount, driver side otterstat pipe mount, etc. Any screw subject to a torque reading or where it could crush due to structure, weight, suspension use, etc are 10.9 yellow zinc steel washers.

[82DMC12]

Day 22

I finally had most of the day to work in the garage and I got an incredible amount done. First of all, I wheeled out the old frame to the driveway, got it on jack stands, and took off the rear tires. I then disconnected the hard brake lines from the trailing arms and calipers, and then removed the trailing arms. No trouble at all with 19mm air impact and of course I installed Toby Tabs last year so everything is nice and slick, easy to remove. No stuck bolts. Once the arms were off I supported the rest of the suspension with a floor jack and then removed the two bolts and disconnected the coilovers from the shock tower so I could remove the suspension as a full unit. I then jacked it up into place on the new frame and boom boom done. I had both sides suspension installed except for final torque in about 2 hours.

I then finished stripping off everything else I need from the old frame which included my A/C lines, SS braided clutch line, and the black fuel hoses in the accumulator area. I installed the accumulator hoses to the fir tree inserts but not to the accumulator since I want to see where the gear shift levers end up first.

I took a few measurements on the old frame in regards to how the shifter sits so I can replicate it on the new frame. I have to cut the auto shifter deck and I think the easiest way to do that is with a dremel but I need to get a 90-degree adapter so I can use my cutting wheels like an angle grinder. I ordered it on Amazon so I'll have that tomorrow. I hope to get the shifter installed next week.

Next I set my coilover height to the same level I had it on my old frame (11 threads showing in front and 18 threads showing in the rear). I transferred over a couple of black rubber water hose pieces and hose clamps and that's about all that was left. I then swept the garage under suspended body which felt great to do some clean up. Lastly I dropped the old frame down onto furniture dollies, took a bunch of photos of it for my FOR SALE ad (see the parts for sale section!) and then pushed it back under the body.

Lastly I did some more work installing brake lines only to get hung up a bit on the passenger side with a clearance issue. Looking closely, I think my car actually has a driver side lever installed upside down on the passenger side.... The passenger side lever is NLA so maybe this was someone's creative solution?? Needs more investigation.

Until then.... enjoy some progress pictures!


68973

68974

68975

68976

68977

68978

68979

68980

68981

68982

68983

68984

68985

68986

[82DMC12]

Day 23-26 of my Frame-Out Restoration

First of all, I made a little video before I got started so you can see what I'm up to this week.

https://youtu.be/KKeKXGLPYfM

I'm going to combine the last few days into one post because not much happened until today. First of all, on Tuesday I received my new clutch kit from Toby Peterson at DeLorean Northwest. It's a Valeo kit and it comes with a new throw out bearing and a new pilot bearing. Normally he would also include gaskets for the rear main seal but he gave me a credit on them since I just installed new gaskets a few days back.

Then, I got the call that my cadmium plating is done. That stuff turned out great! It's not cheap these days but it will be the finishing touch on a lot of stuff you might see, or might not see, when this project is all done. But now I know there is some protection against corrosion on the parts. Maybe my favorite part to get plated was the timing scale. It really looks the part now, considering it used to be a rusty illegible mess.

Today I had time to get a bunch of stuff moving though, starting with rolling out the chassis to the driveway, then rolling out my engine on its stand (CAREFULLY - this stand scares me a bit when it goes over a crack and bounces a little!!!!) and then crack open the block plugs. They came out with a nice snap but I've had them out before so no worries. I then hooked up my garden hose and filled the block from the right-side water pump hose that usually connects to the pipe under the header bottle. This allowed water to fill the block and then run out of both plugs simultaneously. There was maybe a teaspoon or two of white gritty corrosion that came out, but by the time I was done it looked clean as a whistle. I left the plugs open to let everything dry out while I search for my new plug gaskets... somewhere.... in my rubbermaid bins of spare parts.

After rolling the engine back in (precarious!) and then rolling the chassis back in, I got to work on the transmission. I wanted to get the differential nut adjusted because that has to be done before setting in the shafts and sealing the case. I didn't have the special tool for turning the nut adjuster but that was not necessary since I was able to get it set properly by just tightening it with a hammer and punch. Would have been better to use a brass drift but I don't have one. No damage though. I set the pre-tension to about 12.5 newtons. This is done by wrapping string around the differential, torqueing the casing completely with all the M8 and M10 screws/nuts, and then attaching the other end of the string to a spring scale. As you pull on the differential with the string and spring, you read the force needed to make it turn. Pretty neat.

I would have opened the case up again and set the shafts in, sealed it up, etc BUT I decided to replace the M10 bolts too... I can't put it back together with all new everything except them!! So, another Belmetric order was placed.

After that I started working on the frame cut-out for my manual shifter. This turned out to be a bit too heavy a task for the dremel so I ended turning to my sawzall and angle grinder, and with a lot fussing about with different angles I was able to get a good start on the cut-out. It needs tweaking but I got most of the material out of the way.

Here's a few photos!

68996

68997

68998

68999

69000

69001

69002

69003

[82DMC12]

Day 28

Today was one of those days where I had great plans to get SO MUCH done but then I hit a brick wall. All turned out OK in the end, but... well here's what happened.

I thought first thing I would take a look at my new front frame harness (NOS from DMCMW) and snip off the fuel pump / fuel sender plugs so I could convert them to weather pack connectors to match up with my DPI fuel pump. First thing I realized was the fuel pump power wires are about 12 gauge while the sender wires are closer to 14-16 gauge. And thus, the smaller female weather pack connectors I had in my stock were not going to work for the 12 gauge wire unless I also soldered it. I didn't like cutting corners so I spent an hour driving to a remote NAPA that actually had some in stock. So there goes my morning. But, I did get the wires crimped properly and looking great.

Next, I wanted to totally finish my transmission up which means sealing up the two cases, attaching the secondary shaft bearing plate, fitting 5th gear and the selector, then installing the tail cover and the bell housing. I had been messing around with the transmission for a few days so I thought I had everything figured out so it would be a breeze. I checked my differential side shafts and levers one more time, laid down my anaerobic sealant, dripped a bit of green loctite 609 on the bearing faces on both sides, and then watched Nick Roedl's awesome videos to make sure I was setting it up correctly (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsdP_BCMZTE). I guess the one thing I wasn't understanding was the reverse gear. I thought I had it, tested the lever after setting the case down, seemed to work, and then set to work torqueing all the bolts. When I was done, I checked my shafts and differential only to find that in neutral, my differential was locked up. WTF. I couldn't come up with any explanation other than the reverse gear was not set onto the selector correctly. FFFFFF........... Well I ended up taking the case apart and then spent at least 2 hours scraping off semi-cured anaerobic and retaining compound which was MUCH harder than you would think. Neither acetone nor lacquer thinner will remove the anaerobic. I had to use a combination of fresh razor blades, red scotchbrite, and elbow grease to clean everything back to surgical room perfection, then learn how to set the reverse gear without sealant before I was confident enough to lay down the anaerobic one more time.

In the end, I got it.

So that was my whole afternoon and early evening.

I had a bit of time to set in the secondary shaft's bearing retainer plate and get 5th gear set up. Tomorrow I'll torque the 5th gear nut with red loctite and then finish up attaching the tail cap and bell housing.

69011

69012

69013

69014

69015

69016

69017

[82DMC12]

Day 32.... I think?

I was glad to get most of the transmission stuff done over the weekend but a bit annoyed that I didn't have new hardware for the tail cap. I had those M8 bolts in my order spreadsheet but I must have skipped that line when I actually placed the order. So, in the pursuit of perfection, I ordered the bolts on Sunday and they are now out for delivery (Wednesday). That means I can totally finish the transmission tonight.

In a frustrating turn of events, I learned that the shift plate adapter I had made is NOT going to work as-is (this is the plate pictured in the very first post of this thread). I tried to mount the shifter only to find that it would be located so far aft in the shifter cavity that the cross gate cable cannot possibly work (not enough adjustment in the cabin-side end of the cable). Simply cutting the plate is not quite the answer either because then the slots are far forward enough where they introduce other problems like only being able to use three of four mount holes. On further discussion with the creator of the autocad file, we made some adjustments to the file so that a new version of the plate SHOULD work. I send that file off to Xometry.com so I should have that in my hands early next week. I also made some measurements and a hand-drawing to accompany the first unusable plate and I dropped it off at a machine shop to have them modify it. I will have to use two alternate mount holes but that's not really a problem as long as the critical dimensions (front of cavity-to-center of M6 shifter mount hole) are followed. This is a set back for sure but I think on the plus side I will come up with a part that is much better and helps other easily do the auto-to-manual conversion.

In other news, yesterday I replaced the front main seal. I had replaced this once already maybe 15+ years ago but since I have the engine out, now's a good time to do it again. The old seal came out easily with a seal puller. I cleaned the hole in the timing cover with acetone, then smeared some The Right Stuff (gray) on the outside of the seal. I thought I'd have to use a piece of PVC to drive the seal in, but it actually was not too hard to push in with just my thumbs. I pushed the seal into place so it's flush with the bottom of the bevel. I let it sit for an hour and then I oiled up my freshly cadmium-plated (and previously sleeved) crankshaft pulley and put it in place. I am not going to torque the crankshaft nut down yet because I ordered a flywheel lock tool on Ebay. I'll have that Friday so hopefully this weekend finish up that and then put the clutch in.

So, what's left? Fortunately the pile of parts surrounding me is getting smaller. Off the top of my head:



Finish bolting up the transmission tail cap, bell housing, and bracketry, reverse switch
Receive new Xometry shift plate and machine-shop-modified shift place. See which one works better, and finally mount the shifter and linkage.
Drill hole for cross gate cable (had to buy a right-angle drill for this due to access issues but I was able to find a used Dewalt that works with my MAX batteries for pretty cheap on ebay)
Install cross gate cable into frame
Mount up flywheel and clutch
Install new exhaust studs (Grady special kit)
Install transmission to engine and drop the pair into the new frame
Adjust shift linkage and cross gate
Mount up radiator and condenser (new radiator from DPI incoming)
Install new headers, cats, and muffler
Couple of bits here and there regarding brake lines
Connect up fuel lines and do a pressure test with the car battery so I know the hard fuel lines are not leaking
Clean up ends on the evaporator (body-side) and replace A/C o-rings (green) wherever we took stuff apart, install new accumulator (probably better to do this after the body is back onto the frame)
Install new heater core hoses (body side) 5/8" Gates Safety Stripe from RockAuto
Finish up any trim-out (water pipes, electrical, etc) in the engine-side of the frame
Replace front frame wiring harness (requires opening the washer reservoir tank cover)
Install axles


Then I think I'm ready to drop the body back down... then of course all of the body bolts, wiring connections, clutch line, brake line, flush fluids, add oils, coolant, bleeding, etc.

Here's a picture of the shift plate sort-of installed but definitely not usable - the shifter is mounted too far backwards (and if even you adjusted the linkage to accommodate it would never work in the center console!)

69018

And a few more progress pictures...

69019

69020

69021

[Helirich]

Your attention to detail is fantastic! I would be scared to drive it in the rain even though it’s probably better protected than 99.9% of the Deloreans out there.

On your cut out at the shifter. You really should have drilled the corners first and cut to the drill hole. I doubt there’s any real problem because that plate reinforces it, but I would still go in there with a die grinder and round out the corners. It eliminates stress risers.

I loved the video.

[82DMC12]

Your attention to detail is fantastic! I would be scared to drive it in the rain even though it’s probably better protected than 99.9% of the Deloreans out there.

On your cut out at the shifter. You really should have drilled the corners first and cut to the drill hole. I doubt there’s any real problem because that plate reinforces it, but I would still go in there with a die grinder and round out the corners. It eliminates stress risers.

I loved the video.

Yeah good advice and I think I have to go in there again and make some more adjustments. It's super tight in the cavity and my angle grinder barely fits, and only for certain cuts. I just picked up the modified plate this morning at the machine shop so I'll find out tonight if it 1) does the job, and 2) requires further frame cutting. This plate is a bit messy but I believe the critical dimensions are correct and the holes are where they need to be. I have a new, cleaner plate being cut by Xometry.com right now which might work even better.

I'll be sure to do more videos from now on!

69026

[82DMC12]

Day 33

Last night didn't go so well!

I came home from work excited to get the end cap and bell housing onto my transmission. I had new paper gaskets and was going to dress them with a small amount of anaerobic sealant (some debate if this is necessary or not). Anyway I thought I did a great job, which of course takes time and patience, and proceeded to install the caps with all brand new yellow-zinc plated hardware. I was about done and this thing was looking like a million bucks, like it just rolled off the French assembly line. I had been separating parts into zip locks and labeling the bags so I would know what goes where, for example, one bag had the 5th gear detent stuff in it, another one had the reverse switch, a ball, and a spring. I turned the transmission onto its side so I could install the reverse switch.

For some reason, I was thinking there was supposed to be a spring and ball in that hole just like the 5th gear detent. In fact I remember exactly what happened when I took the transmission apart the first day I had it off the engine. I had the case split open and I was working out how to get the selector bars out. I removed the reverse switch so I could set the case flat on a piece of cardboard. I pulled on the reverse bar and suddenly I heard a "dink-dink" and saw a detent ball rolling out of my garage. Of course I was horrified and jumped up and grabbed it before it was lost. I think the spring was under the case so I thought the ball and spring were under the reverse switch.

That's why those parts were bagged up together.

Well it turns out the ball and spring are INTERNAL and not external to the transmission. After some quick research and a Facebook post, I was convinced there must be a blind hole facing towards the reverse bar and that's where these parts came out. After getting quite mad at myself, I buckled down and proceeded to destroy my beautiful work and remove the bell house, end cap, 5th gear nut which I had just installed with loctite, and split the case open, all while getting my hands covered in partially cured anaerobic. Just terrible. Funny thing is, this time I had the transmission open in about 30 minutes and already had the spring and ball inserted where they belong. This is actually pretty treacherous though because if you pull the reverse bar OUT, even with the reverse switch installed, the ball will let loose inside the transmission. I don't think this is possible once the two cases are back together because the reverse gear can't move backwards so far along the primary shaft. I will check into that some more tomorrow. But for now, I have the detent working properly and I'm just waiting for new paper gaskets before I can put the case back together for hopefully the FINAL time.

In other news, I got a used Dewalt 90 degree drill on ebay so I can drill the cross gate hole in my frame. There's not enough access in the cavity to do this with a traditional drill.

I also picked up the shift adapter plate from the machine shop and it is SO CLOSE. It will locate in the correct position now and the deck height is correct! Unfortunately I didn't have them rout the rear slots out quite far enough. Looking at the cad file for the second plate that just shipped from Xometry, I don't think that one will have long enough slots either. So, I guess I will take both plates to the machine shop on Monday to have them route them backwards another half inch. THEN I should be in business and I can finally mount my shifter and get on with the cross gate cable and linkage. Very exciting!

See a video of the plate progress here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5NFYlYL6gw

And finally here are a few other progress pictures. The first two show the reverse switch detent, and then the reverse rod detent spring hole which is actually under the rod (the reverse rod is pulled out as far as it will go without releasing it from the lever).


69027

69028

69029

69030

69031

69032

[Helirich]

Wow, that’s depressing! But it is nice you got it sorted so quick. That kind of thing makes me drop everything and leave the shop for a couple days.

[82DMC12]

Wow, that’s depressing! But it is nice you got it sorted so quick. That kind of thing makes me drop everything and leave the shop for a couple days.

It was getting late and I was debating if I should just call it and go to bed. But I also know how I am and I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep, PLUS I didn't really want the loctite and anaerobic to cure overnight because that would just make things worse. So, nothing to do but just dive back in. Anyway, by now I have everything cleaned up again, two tubes of anaerobic on the way from Amazon, a pair of paper gaskets getting delivered tomorrow, and I decided to replace the hardware again because it's so cheap and faster than cleaning cured anaerobic out of the threads of the first set of hardware. I don't want the torque setting to be affected by dirty threads, plus the conical washers are really only good for one or two uses before they go flat. Belmetric sells the conical washers (belleville washer). $25 in hardware is no big deal. I have a big pile of old hardware at this point that I will probably sent out to get cleaned and re-plated when this project is done.

I am going to try to lay a thinner bead of anaerobic this time to help avoid getting adhesive on the hardware.

Maybe after all this I will eventually become the transmission expert!

[82DMC12]

Day 36

Not a big update over the weekend due to Daddy Duty all day Saturday (wife at work on a 12 hour shift) and then Sunday was kind of busy with family stuff and we had some friends over for dinner. I had a bit of time during the afternoon to attack a couple of other issues on the DeLorean in the front body area. First of all, I decided to replace my front frame harness because the old one was feeling a bit crispy and it had a lot of that insidious undercoating on it. Now's the time to get rid of it I think. I got a NOS harness and replaced the fuel pump and fuel sender plugs with Delphi Weather Pack connectors earlier in the week. This weekend I pulled out the washer bottle cover and cleaned up the three connectors in there (one pin on the front harness plug was pretty gray-corroded) , replaced the foam on the washer bottle tank, and buttoned it back up but only after having to replace three M5 rivnuts and new, longer screws this time so they grab sooner. Now it's a quality repair!

While I was in there I used my angle grinder to remove two M6 screws and rivnuts from the body which hold the fan shroud in. They've been spinning for 20 years so now's the time to fix them. McMaster Carr to the rescue!

I spent a bit more time cleaning up my transmission case faces since my hardware for the main case is being delivered today so I can FINALLY finish the transmission. That will be a bit accomplishment.

Lastly I used this nylon brush attachment for my compressed air die grinder to clean up the surfaces of my heads for the exhaust gaskets. This thing works pretty well to remove dirt, light aluminum corrosion, and other crud from the metal without actually removing metal like a wire wheel attachment would. Pretty cool. I got it on a whim at O'Reilly Auto Parts. I know in the picture below the head doesn't look perfect but it's actually pretty smooth. Most of the discoloration is just that. Or it's some corrosion that the gaskets will take up.

69034

69035

69036

[82DMC12]

Day 37

Less than two weeks to go before my target date of putting the body back onto the frame. I think I can do this! Still waiting on a couple of parts but I believe they are now enroute.

Big day yesterday though. I finally got the transmission completely built back up. And this time with a reverse detent! I did confirm that with both halves together, it's not possible to pop the reverse detent ball out since the reverse selector will jam up the bar before it can come out far enough to lose the ball and spring behind it. Good to know.

I spent an hour re-checking my differential pre-tension and decided to tighten it up just a smidge to about 12 newtons.

Once again, I cleaned all the surfaces with acetone, applied anaerobic sealant in a thin bead on the differential-side case, applied loctite 407 to the bearing faces, and set the shafts back in. A thin smear of anaerobic on the other case including where the through-bolts go through, set the reverse gear to the rear of the case, and set it back down onto the diff case. No turning back now! Blue loctite on the outer bearing plate bolts and red loctite on the 5th gear nut (and staked with a punch). Thin bead of anaerobic on both sides of the paper gaskets and torqued to spec. I was glad to finally be able to assemble all my outer shift lever parts that just got a few cadmium plating. The garage floor is starting to have less parts strewn about!

When installing the PJ Grady sleeved axles, I put a bead of hylomar AF on the splines on the outboard side of the roll pins and then faced the open side of the pins outward to help prevent oil leaks.

Next job? Finish up some minor parking brake stuff so I can put the rear wheel back on and then roll the chassis outside so I can turn it out. I want the engine-side in my garage first so I can eventually get the engine and transmission installed into it.

69038

69039

69040

69041

69042

69043

[82DMC12]

Day 38

I'm finding it's pretty nice to work in the garage in the morning before work and before the others are awake. Nice and quiet and no interruptions!

But first - last night I had some questions about the amount of play in the input shaft after rebuilding the transmission. I remembered that there was some play in the shaft before disassembly but I didn't measure it or make a video. So, I did make a quick video and confirmed with PJ Grady that the play you see here is normal:

https://youtube.com/shorts/cFJEIamJbCc?feature=share

This morning I set my sights on finishing up any engine work so I can dismount the engine from the engine stand, transfer it to my cherry picker, then lower it down to the ground so I can line up the transmission and mate them again.

Remaining engine work:

Finish cleaning up exhaust side of heads and chase M7 exhaust stud holes
Mount the flywheel
Mount the clutch
Torque crankshaft pulley nut


I got the exhaust prep done this morning without much trouble. Luckily I have a M7 plug tap which isn't ideal for blind holes but good enough for the exhaust studs since they don't thread in all the way. I installed a set of PJ Grady coated stainless studs with copper anti seize by double-nutting them with a washer in the middle. Worked great. I think that's how I did it last time 15 years ago and no issues with them the whole time.

After that I turned back to the transmission and installed the clutch fork, new dust boot, release bearing, and the new PJ Grady rebuilt / brass sleeved slave cylinder. I packed the ball stud boot with "Grady Goop" which is 50/50 red grease and anti-seize. I also put some on the bell housing tube which the release rides on and the input shaft splines.

The new clutch fork is one of the DMCH reproduction forks. Everything went together smoothly and looks great.

Next - dismount the engine from the stand and install the flywheel, clutch, and lock the flywheel so I can torque the pulley nut. THEN.... engine to trans and drop it into the frame!

69049
69050

69051

69052
69053

[82DMC12]

This morning I had enough time to get my engine off the stand and hang from the hoist. Using a couple of flywheel lock tools I got on eBay, I was able to hold the crankshaft in place while torquing the crank pulley and installing the flywheel. The flywheel is freshly machined and has a 0.018" step (recommended by Toby Peterson). The new Valeo clutch went in perfectly. I tapped in the pilot bearing with a 1 1/8" deep socket and used a couple drops of loctite 609 bearing face compound.

Nice little job for this morning and my next task is to mate the transmission up to the engine!

69055

69056

69057

69058

[Helirich]

69052


Love that picture.

[82DMC12]

Day 40

Last night I was able to mate the transmission back up to the engine! This is not too difficult when you have plenty of room to work. I debated renting a transmission jack because that is what I used to get the transmission off the engine, but the only place I know in Kansas City that rents them is like 40 minutes on the other side of the city and I would probably have to go into work late / leave early to get it and return it. I wondered if I could get it done by dropping the cherry picker nice and low and adjust the angle with my load leveler. Then basically just roll the transmission up to the flywheel on a wheel skate. Well, that is exactly what I did and it worked perfectly.

I was able to set the angle of the engine once both parts were right up against each other by comparing the flywheel angle to the edge of the bell housing. Once that is pretty close, I was able to slip the nose of the input shaft into the clutch / pilot bearing and roll the transmission forward until the dowels were pretty well lined up. Then I threaded all four bell housing mounting bolts a few threads to keep either side from rolling. Once that was done I able to fine tune the engine height and angle again before pushing the transmission completely up to the engine. I had to put the transmission into gear and turn both axles a few degrees to get the shaft splines lined up. Cinched the four bolts together and then cut my zip ties on the clutch fork (holding the release bearing backwards into the bellhousing so it doesn't get out of place). Perfect!

Next I installed my DeLorean Industries remote clutch bleeder to the slave cylinder, then unscrewed the two bottom transmission mount bolts one at a time in order to put my black powder coated shields onto them. All that's left now is to install the starter and the hall effect mounting plate on the opposite side. Then I think I can drop this thing into the frame!

This morning I stopped by the machine shop and picked up my auto-to-manual adapter plates. We made enough modifications to ensure they will work and I should be able to easily get the manual shifter installed in the correct location in all three dimensions. Now I just have to drill my cross gate cable hole and install the linkage!

69063

69064

69065

[SupercoolBill]

Day 9

FRAME PARTY DAY!!

First of all, I want to thank the following super cool owners and friends who helped make today happen - painterdave72 (David Hudgins), Matthew Mangels and his son Elijah, Alvin Erhart and his son Johnny, Joey, and my wife for baking the cookies!

Today went extremely well and the process was straight-forward and well-planned for mostly thanks to Andy Orton's excellent youtube video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-AmAyELV8s

We basically did EXACTLY what is shown in this video and had zero issue lifting the body off and rolling out the chassis. We used EXACTLY 40 4x8x16 hollow concrete bricks ($1.27 each at Sutherlands) and two 4x4x8ft wood beams. I debated getting 10 ft beams for extra width but it turned out that 8 foot is very doable and what I would recommend if working in a home garage where you need to minimize lost floor space during the restoration.

What to do with the bricks and beams when I'm done? Not sure. This like 1,400 lbs of brick which took 4 trips in my SUV to pick up so I'd rather someone just come get them when I'm done. I'm sure I can get rid of them fast-ish on Marketplace.

Anyway everyone arrived around 9:30 AM and we pretty quickly went to work removing the fascia and then disconnecting the shift linkage and crossgate from the transmission so we wouldn't have to monkey with it topside later on. By 11 AM we were ready to lift the body up. I shared the Andy Orton video with everyone on our facebook chat a few days prior so they had an idea of we will do. We had one man on each corner manning a scissor jack and about three people walking around and spotting to make sure nothing is getting caught. Generally we lifted up together as a team, turning the jack three revolutions before stopping to confirm all is good. As soon as we could add a new brick to the support stack we did so. We had to let the body back down to the support stack four times so we could add another brick under the jack to get more vertical lift. And back and forth we went until we had the beams under the body (making sure not to hit the M6 studs sticking down to secure the trailing arm shields) and then lifted high enough to get the shift lever and radiator rolling underneath and out. I think we had the chassis out by 12:30 PM.

After a pizza break the next task was to lift out the engine and transmission from the old frame. We had to do that in the driveway and thankfully there was cloud cover most of the time or it would have been a hot, sweaty ordeal. It took a couple hours to remove the exhaust from the engine (DMCH Stage 1 installed about 15 years ago) and then a bit longer to remove the transmission mounts from the transmission and frame. After that, the engine came out fairly easily but at an odd angle because I didn't have a load leveler for the hoist.

At that point it was mid afternoon and about time for most to get back home. We pushed the hoist and drivetrain into the garage and then pushed the old frame back under the body after removing the radiator and shifter.

Only casualties that I can see so far is a scratch on my water pump pulley and the little finger on the throttle that hits the full throttle switch came off of the spool but I think I can solder that back on no problem. I'd call that a success!

https://youtu.be/7pbMs8lQfrs

68875

68876

68877

68878

68879

68880Just trying to get caught up reading though your thread. This pretty much the same way I got my body off the frame also. It is a bit nerve racking. I bought a set of four RV jacks and never ended up using them. I just used my two large floor jacks with some blocking. Lift one side of the car up to set another set of blocks in, scoot over to the other side, do the same.

Sent from my SM-F926U1 using Tapatalk

[82DMC12]

Day 43

First of all, I'm going to do more video updates, so here you go!

https://youtu.be/k0NAIge1n6Q

Steady progress and moving forward! This weekend I was able to mount the engine and transmission into the frame! Quite the milestone. First, I nearly forgot to bash in the first rib on the passenger side of the engine "Y" just in front of the trailing arm mount. If you look at a manual frame. you'll see the flange is bent inwards to make room for the crossgate pivot. On an Auto frame, the flange is straight. It would be pretty hard to bend it with the transmission in place so a few whacks with a hammer and I think I have enough room. Of course that damaged some of my POR15 on the edge so I had to touch it up. Looking good now.

Dropping the engine and transmission was pretty simple especially with the flexibility that a load leveler gives you. I was able to dip the transmission downward to clear the frame "V", then go back and forth between dropping the unit an inch, then leveling it out a bit, dropping a bit further, leveling again, etc until everything lined up quite well. I put some antiseize on the inside surfaces of the new motor mounts and the engine dropped right in. The transmission mounts are another story and an exercise in frustration. Here's the trick:

Assemble each mount so the mount is attached to the rubber and the frame-side frame is on the rubber, but loose.
Attach the three-point side of the mount to the transmission completely and tighten down
Finally, attach the M8 bolts through the frame into the rubber-side mount.

Any other sequence will make you mad.

Anyway, got that dropped in, took the engine stand apart and stowed back in the basement, and folded up the crane and pushed it into the garage of the garage.

I HAVE SO MUCH MORE ROOM NOW

After that, I turned my attention to the shifter and my twice-modified shift plate adapter. I think we are good now in regards to three-dimensionally locating the shifter. I had to cut out some more material in the bottom of the cavity with my sawzall and angle grinder to make room for the fore-aft movement of the shifter. I don't know how far forward or backward the shifter goes in practice but I have enough material removed now where I think I can hook it up and see where I land.

Tonight after work I'll roll the old frame out to the driveway again so I can take final measurements of the shifter location and, more importantly, exactly where to drill the hole for the cross gate cable. I'm not working on anything else on this frame until the shifter and linkage is installed and working.

69074

69075

69076

69077

69078

[Helirich]

Enjoyed the video. I think I heard you say you had the stock starter. I believe you must remove the oil filter to replace it. The new starters are shorter and you can get them out without disturbing the oil filter. Something to consider.

Thanks for posting.

[82DMC12]

Enjoyed the video. I think I heard you say you had the stock starter. I believe you must remove the oil filter to replace it. The new starters are shorter and you can get them out without disturbing the oil filter. Something to consider.

Thanks for posting.

Well I wouldn't mind removing the oil filter as long as the starter comes out without removing the exhaust header! I fit the header loosely just to make sure my positive cables aren't in the way, but I didn't try to remove the starter with the header in place. I'll have to check that. I'm already know you cannot remove the factory starter with the DMCH Stage 1 exhaust - I did try to do it once and no luck. Not sure about the DPI exhaust which I am fitting this time around. It's something to consider.

[82DMC12]

Day 44

The shifter is (mostly) installed and working!

https://youtu.be/Rdyoqukykck

There is a small amount of rub between the frame cutout and the shifter itself, this was due to my attempt to use the lower left threaded mounting hole in the frame to mount my shift adapter to. I don't think it will be possible to use that hole without eliminating the rub, so I am going to cut a bit more material out there and then drill a new hole in both the adapter plate and the frame to secure the lower left corner. No big deal. But, then it will smooth as butter.

I got the shifter installed and then set up the cross gate which was not too difficult to do. I probably just got lucky getting the cable adjusted almost correctly the first time and then perfectly the second time. I have all five forward gears and reverse working normally!

Everything is assembled more or less but I am going to take it apart again for lubrication and final adjustments. Then, I don't have much left to do.

Here's my new list of outstanding work required:



Mount up radiator and condenser (new radiator from DPI incoming)
Install new headers, cats, and muffler
Couple of bits here and there regarding brake lines
Connect up fuel lines and do a pressure test with the car battery so I know the hard fuel lines are not leaking
Clean up ends on the evaporator (body-side) and replace A/C o-rings (green) wherever we took stuff apart, install new accumulator (probably better to do this after the body is back onto the frame)
Install new heater core hoses (body side) 5/8" Gates Safety Stripe from RockAuto
Finish up any trim-out (water pipes, electrical, etc) in the engine-side of the frame
Install axles


Wish I could take a day off work this week and just bang it out. Oh well. I have all next week off for vacation so I'm looking at a mid-week target for dropping the body back down onto the frame!

[Helirich]

Well I wouldn't mind removing the oil filter as long as the starter comes out without removing the exhaust header! I fit the header loosely just to make sure my positive cables aren't in the way, but I didn't try to remove the starter with the header in place. I'll have to check that. I'm already know you cannot remove the factory starter with the DMCH Stage 1 exhaust - I did try to do it once and no luck. Not sure about the DPI exhaust which I am fitting this time around. It's something to consider.

I have the DPI exhaust and can confirm the starter can be changed without removing the header.

Edit, the new starter. Not sure about the stock one.

[82DMC12]

I have the DPI exhaust and can confirm the starter can be changed without removing the header.

Edit, the new starter. Not sure about the stock one.

Thanks! I ordered the O'Reilly starter (Ultima) mentioned in another thread. I'm going to change the starter while I'm in here. Would suck to need a new starter and have to remove the header to get it out.

[82DMC12]

Day 48

Wow what a week! I've neglected posting just as things are getting exciting! I guess that's because I've really been on a roll and too exhausted to do anything but eat, sleep, give the family some attention, and wrench on the car.

So where did I leave off? I think I was about to do the fuel pressure test. That went perfectly, and here's what I did:



wired up a weather pack connector to interface with the existing DPI fuel pump connector
Connected ground to my car battery
Connected +12 to, first, from the battery a 10 amp fused wire holder, then do a simply on/off toggle switch
Turned on the toggle switch to start the fuel pump and after three or four seconds I could hear everything circulating


The fuel pressure tested revealed NO leaks so I continued to let the pump run for about 20 minutes. Then turned it off, checked again for leaks, and later in the day ran it some more. With that confidence, I felt OK putting my fears to rest regarding the hard pipes leaking.

Next I installed the new DeLorean Industries radiator and fan system to my existing aftermarket parallel-flow condenser. This was done with the aid of four small 3/8" thick spacers between the radiator and condenser so they won't touch. The whole unit then was mounted to the stainless radiator supports and then to the last two stainless hard water pipes and new water hose connectors. No issues with any of this, it all went together really nicely however I did cut down two of the rubber hose connectors as they were really so long that it made assembly (and in the future, disassembly) too difficult.

Moving to the back of the car, I completed some rewiring of the alternator and starter solenoid wiring. Many many years ago I had "fixed" some crispy wiring using subpar connectors and a lot of sticky electrical tape. This time I cut it all out way up the harness and repaired it correctly with marine heat shrink butt connectors, proper wire, insulated terminals, and more heat shrink tubing all wrapped up under two layers of Tesa tape. I also added an insulated dust cap to the positive terminals on the alternator to help keep it clean.

Lastly, I installed the Gen 3 DPI Spec Exhaust system to the engine. Both headers with new gaskets, then the left cat, then the muffler slides over it, then add the right cat and center the muffler. I did not tighten the muffler yet because I want to make sure it is centered perfectly and at the right angle before I do that. Also I test fit one tail pipe just to see what it looks like, then wrapped it up again to wait until it can be the finishing touch.

[82DMC12]

Here are a few pictures showing how I hooked up my fuel pump test. Also, I have been converting every external plug on the car to Delphi Weather Pack connectors. One thing I found interesting is the white plug on the firewall is two-pin with a red wire and a black wire. Then, the plug it goes into on the engine harness, is black wires with black/blue wires. Weird to see that wiring color change on either side of the plug. I found a couple threads on DMCTalk where others have asked about this so I know it's not just me!

69107

69108

69109

69110

69111

[82DMC12]

Those of you who know me, know that I am a few days behind on this blog but I'm going to try to keep up!!

After successfully testing the fuel system, it was time to do some finishing touches to the frame including:


mount up the new heater core metal pipes that run along the frame
Complete some wiring updates
Dial in the cross gate cable
attach the A/C hoses and connections


Regarding the metal pipes, a long time ago my plan was to restore the frame like-OEM all the original pipe clips. Then I read some other blogs and chatted with other smart owners (particularly Daniel Haney in CO) and I was convinced to look into using stainless pipe clamps that go over the pipe rather than under the pipe and clipping it in. The stainless clamps are generally screwed into the frame using M5 rivnuts and appropriately-long M5 screws. Daniel was even kind enough to send me all his spare clamps and hardware which I was able to pick through and figure out what I wanted to use. I definitely wanted to clamp down the heater core pipes because the black plastic C-clips SUCK SUCK SUCK. They are so bad, they hold the pipe well enough but keep popping out of the frame. I guess you could epoxy them in but it was even easier to just use some SS camps. I slightly drilled out one of the black-clip mounting holes so I could insert the rivnut without drilling new holes in the frame. Worked great. In the end I ended up only clamping the pipes in the rear and the front with thin foam between the pipes and frame to reduce vibration where they come close to the frame. The middle clamp was not going to work because it interfered with A/C hose fitment (more on that in a later post at the appropriate time!). You can still get to both clamps with the body on the frame so theoretically I can now replace the heater core pipes without lifting the body.

Wiring updates - I replaced / fixed any and all crispy connections especially at the alternator and starter. As mentioned before, I replaced the whole front frame harness. I also updated every exterior wiring connector to Delphi Weather Pack connectors. That includes fuel pump and sender plugs, both fan plugs, the blue-yellow wire plug under the ignition resisters, the reverse switch harness, the lambda ground reference (eliminated that black plastic connector), and the white/red to black blue/black plug behind the engine. On the body side, I cleaned all the connections with wire brushes, emory cloth or sand paper, or a dremel, whatever was easier.

A/C connections were no trouble at all, really. I had a kit of all the green o-rings that I might need and I treated them and the threads with Nylog Blue A/C thread and o-ring sealant. Everything went together well and I zip tied the long A/C hoses into place on the side of the frame.

Regarding the cross gate, I have it dialed in really well, however the cable itself is a bit stiff at the ends of travel (as the inner cable reaches its limit, it feels gummy). I see the sheath has split in a couple places so I am sure it's all grimey or rusty inside. Maybe it worked fine before but now it's in a slightly different position and it's rubbing internally somewhere. I took it out of the car and tried to lubricate it and it's better but not perfect. End result is if you are using the shifter lightly, sometimes it won't pop into neutral if you flick the shifter out of 1st or 2nd. It goes 90% out of the gear but then hangs up cocked to the left. I don't like it so I'm going to replace the cable but DPI is back ordered on them until December (improved cable with kevlar inner jacket). I'm on the list :-)

Here's a picture of the clamp I used (slightly modified in a vise) as well some radiator porn.

69122

69123

69124

69125

[Helirich]

Beautiful!

Carry on.

[82DMC12]

Last thing to do on the chassis was to add the new DeLorean Industries SPEC Gen 3 exhaust system. Previously, and for the last 15 years or so, I had DMCH's Stage 1 original system which was steel exhaust coated by Jet Hot. I swapped out the raspy Flowmaster muffler for a Magnaflow muffler with zero regrets and it really sounded and looked great. I liked how the exhaust went way downward and then wrapped back up - got a lot of compliments on the street and at car shows. Unfortunately the Jet Hot coating began to fail and I was getting pinhole rust spots especially on the cat sections. Strange because the car rarely sees water or rain and it's stored in my garage. I reached out to Jet Hot who, at first, said they would honor their lifetime warranty and do a free re-coat however when it came down it, I was unable to produce a receipt proving they did it since the coating was done while still in DMCH's possession, hence why I would not have a receipt. I called DMCH and they tried to find paperwork but it was so long ago and many accounting systems later that they couldn't help either. Apparently not many still have this system because the coating failure was common and it was often replaced with a stainless version.

Jet Hot was willing to do a re-coat at my expense less a discount which would have been around $1,000 after shipping back and forth.

Well I ended up selling the Stage 1 to someone else which partially funded the new DPI set which looks and sounds great! The fit and finish of this kit is A++++ and I think it's totally worth the money. It comes with really nice copper gaskets for the cat-header connection and the triple manifold gaskets you cut with a tin snips. No room, really, to torque the exhaust nuts so I just made them "snug" thinking I will check them again after getting everything hot and cooling down once I can finally start the engine.

I have Grady's custom exhaust stud set (short side inserted into the heads). The exhaust came with new gaskets. I cleaned the head surface first with a nylon ball brush on my air powered die grinder, then shined it up with red scotchbrite before wiping down with acetone. The passenger side header went on easily with plenty of clearance however the driver side is a tight fit, in fact I ended up removing the studs from the head before setting the header in place to avoid getting anything scratched up. I am unsure if the DPI studs are shorter and would allow easier installation/removal.

At the same time I fit a new Eagle Premier starter even though my original Paris Rhone starter was doing fine. I had that PR starter rebuilt quite a while back, maybe even 20 years ago now. No issues BUT it's so big that you cannot remove it without removing the exhaust header. I decided "now is the time" so I got the starter from O'Reilly Auto (Ultima brand). Here is the part # - R612473B

After attaching the driver side cat to the header, I slipped the muffler over it, and then added the passenger side cat. Using a tape measure I centered the muffler in the frame. Oh and I also put a film of anti-seize on the sleeves.

And that was the final touch! I then went around and re-checked all my brake lines, brackets, wiring, etc and make sure I didn't forget to tighten anything. I ended up dicking around with the cross gate some more and also working on the bell crank for the shift levers. I lubricated it with a combo of red grease and copper anti seize. The nut under it was tightened well with a star washer between the nut and frame and blue loctite on the threads. I'll be sure to check it again after the first test drive.

Finally, I wiped the frame and everything else down with some Tub-O-Towels and waited for some help to come around so we can roll the chassis back under the body!

69134

69135

69136

This picture is prior to doing any wiring repairs and improvements. I ran the wires through the cloth sheath and clamped it to the engine using an M7 screw and rubber-insulated pipe clamp. I also painted the oil pressure sender with gold engine enamel later that day!



69137

In this picture above, I was unsure if the flanges would touch since the copper gasket has a ring in it. I texted Josh and he said NOPE just snug it up and the copper will seal.



69138

[82DMC12]

Here is a video showing the state of the chassis at this point in the restoration!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDiZPgDdz08

[Helirich]

In this picture above, I was unsure if the flanges would touch since the copper gasket has a ring in it. I texted Josh and he said NOPE just snug it up and the copper will seal.]

I never had any sealing problem, but I did have one of the bolts fall completely off on a long trip. It just kept getting louder. Lol. I pulled into a Lowe?s and got a new bolt. I think I put stainless lock washers on all of them also. Been good ever since. Could be you just need to re-tighten after 50 miles.

[82DMC12]

I never had any sealing problem, but I did have one of the bolts fall completely off on a long trip. It just kept getting louder. Lol. I pulled into a Lowe?s and got a new bolt. I think I put stainless lock washers on all of them also. Been good ever since. Could be you just need to re-tighten after 50 miles.

Did your kit come with lock washers? Mine actually did not, I assume it was an oversight in the packing department but I was texting another owner and he confirmed he had lock washers.... so I just ran to the hardware store and got some. I'll be sure to check them again after a few drives.

[Helirich]

Did your kit come with lock washers? Mine actually did not, I assume it was an oversight in the packing department but I was texting another owner and he confirmed he had lock washers.... so I just ran to the hardware store and got some. I'll be sure to check them again after a few drives.

I honestly don?t recall. It might have come with the star lock washers and I replaced them with heavy split washers. I figure they ?dig in? more. Probably after a few hundred miles, they aren?t moving. I want to say this is no dis to Josh. That exhaust is a work of art. I would really like another to put on my coffee table. (Not sure how the wife would react)

[82DMC12]

47 days after lifting the body off of my old chassis... READY TO PUT IT ALL BACK TOGETHER!

painterdave72 (David Hudgins) came over after work to help with the heavy lifting. We rolled the chassis out into the street and took a few pictures, then turned it around and pushed it up the driveway and lined it back up under the body.

Before removing the chassis, fellow owner Alvin Erhart had the great advice to mark the floor with painter tape and a sharpie so I could find the centerline of each wheel when reinstalling everything. This was good advice so that we could get it "pretty close" in two dimensions before lowering the body back down.

When rolling back into place, you must be careful to ensure the radiator can go under both wood beams and then the gear stick has to clear the rear beam. The gear stick is probably 3 inches taller than the radiator is when everything is installed. This required us to lift the beams and body further than the level everything had been sitting for the last one and a half months. We went back and forth from front to back, simultaneously lifting the body further up 5 cranks at a time.

Once we were in place, we reversed our efforts and lowered the beams back to the outboard brick towers, then turned our second outer towers inboard so that they were directly under the corners of the body tub. Then we moved the jacks to those towers and lifted the body high enough to slide the beams out.

During the last few weeks I had noticed my rear beam had a crack in it but it didn't go all the way through the wood. This was unsettling, plus the 8 foot 4x4 beams were really the minimum length possible so my jacks were on the extreme outer edges of the beams during lifting and dropping. If I ever had to do this again, I would use FOUR beams while the body is at rest and I would use 10 foot beams to reduce the stress on the wood.

From here it was pretty simple - just remove a brick from the low tower, drop the body down to the next brick on the high tower, move the jack to the lower tower, then lift up slightly to slide the high tower brick out, and then drop it down again. Repeat repeat repeat. All while checking to make sure nothing gets hung up or pinched. Not much can really happen for the first 3/4 of the drop however I kept a close eye on the A/C dryer hose (dryer not installed but the hose can get stuck on the upper A-arm) as well as the vacuum lines, fuel lines, and engine harness since they have to make their way above the lip in the body. You also want to make sure the positive battery cable is laying on top of the passenger side trailing arm and you might as well feed it back into the body once you have the opportunity to.

As we got closer to the body resting on the frame, the next challenge was making sure the frame was truly centered under the body. We used the front shock tower holes in the trunk as a visual guide for the front and the horizontal body bolt holes in the pontoons as a rear guide. On my car, two washers go between the frame and body pontoon so visualizing that distance made it easy to decide if the frame has to be shimmied to the side. Once the body was all the way down, I found the A/C hoses on both sides were getting pinched between the body and frame. This is because I had zip-tied them to the frame flange which is really unnecessary and just makes it harder to get everything where it needs to be as the body goes down. I cut the zip ties and re-positioned the hoses while lifting the body up another inch to get it just right.

Also, lots of laughs when we realized I left the seatbelt bolts threaded into the frame....

It took about 3 hours but we had everything lined up nicely and I got all the body bolts back in except the driver side front tunnel bolt which was a bit off. However by the next morning as everything settled I was able to get it in.

My pointed-tip bolts were in generally poor condition so I didn't reuse them. Instead I got new M10 bolts of the correct lengths from Belmetric (standard type bolt with silver zinc plating). I put a bit of anti seize on each bolt and didn't have any trouble getting them to thread into the square captive nuts.

At this point that was PLENTY for the night so Dave took his leave and I retired into the house for dinner and a beer or two :-) Needless to say, I was VERY relieved to have all bolt holes lining up and my body no longer up in the air.

69140

69141

69142

69143

69144

69145

69146

69147

69148

69149

69150

[Mark D]

I'd leave off the lock washers in favor of a distorted thread/oval toplock, or spiralock type locking nut.

In theory split lock washers sound like they would help prevent the nut from loosening, but in practice they do almost nothing.

From your photos it looks like Josh may have updated the latest generation of his kit to include locking nuts. If they don't spin on freely by hand then they are probably locking type nuts. Oval toplock nuts usually have indentations where the upper threads were pressed from an O to an 0.

https://www.mcmaster.com/locknuts/nut-type~locknut/locking-type~distorted-thread/

[82DMC12]

I'd leave off the lock washers in favor of a distorted thread/oval toplock, or spiralock type locking nut.

In theory split lock washers sound like they would help prevent the nut from loosening, but in practice they do almost nothing.

From your photos it looks like Josh may have updated the latest generation of his kit to include locking nuts. If they don't spin on freely by hand then they are probably locking type nuts. Oval toplock nuts usually have indentations where the upper threads were pressed from an O to an 0.

https://www.mcmaster.com/locknuts/nut-type~locknut/locking-type~distorted-thread/

Mark,

The included nuts are not of the locking variety at all. They spin on freely. I put a lock washer on both sides.

I think the Stage 1 exhaust I used to have included the distorted nut type you linked to.

I will have to check but I think the bolts are M10. Would you use the high strength type nut that you linked to? Zinc plated steel class 10.

https://www.mcmaster.com/locknuts/nut-type~locknut/locking-type~distorted-thread/high-strength-steel-top-lock-distorted-thread-locknuts/

[Mark D]

I looked through what McMaster has listed and I'd probably go with the high strength (class 10) zinc plated you linked to. Just double check the thread pitch of the bolts to make sure you're getting the correct nuts. They come in 1.5 and 1.25 thread pitch.

Looks like they also have a flanged version as well, although they have a wider than standard flange so there might not be clearance.

https://www.mcmaster.com/right-hand-threaded-locknuts/locking-type~distorted-thread/metric-high-strength-steel-distorted-thread-flange-locknuts-class-10/

[Mark D]

One other option you may want to consider is 316 stainless bolts. They're not as strong as steel, but they won't rust.

On my E46 BMW I replaced a bunch of studs with these SS bolts because I was tired of cutting off nuts and dealing with corrosion. That car has 370,000 miles on it now and I haven't broken any of the exhaust bolts yet.


Bolts (you may need longer or shorter length):
https://www.boltdepot.com/Product-Details.aspx?product=22121


Matching nuts:
https://www.boltdepot.com/Product-Details.aspx?product=23023

[SupercoolBill]

47 days after lifting the body off of my old chassis... READY TO PUT IT ALL BACK TOGETHER!

painterdave72 (David Hudgins) came over after work to help with the heavy lifting. We rolled the chassis out into the street and took a few pictures, then turned it around and pushed it up the driveway and lined it back up under the body.

Before removing the chassis, fellow owner Alvin Erhart had the great advice to mark the floor with painter tape and a sharpie so I could find the centerline of each wheel when reinstalling everything. This was good advice so that we could get it "pretty close" in two dimensions before lowering the body back down.

When rolling back into place, you must be careful to ensure the radiator can go under both wood beams and then the gear stick has to clear the rear beam. The gear stick is probably 3 inches taller than the radiator is when everything is installed. This required us to lift the beams and body further than the level everything had been sitting for the last one and a half months. We went back and forth from front to back, simultaneously lifting the body further up 5 cranks at a time.

Once we were in place, we reversed our efforts and lowered the beams back to the outboard brick towers, then turned our second outer towers inboard so that they were directly under the corners of the body tub. Then we moved the jacks to those towers and lifted the body high enough to slide the beams out.

During the last few weeks I had noticed my rear beam had a crack in it but it didn't go all the way through the wood. This was unsettling, plus the 8 foot 4x4 beams were really the minimum length possible so my jacks were on the extreme outer edges of the beams during lifting and dropping. If I ever had to do this again, I would use FOUR beams while the body is at rest and I would use 10 foot beams to reduce the stress on the wood.

From here it was pretty simple - just remove a brick from the low tower, drop the body down to the next brick on the high tower, move the jack to the lower tower, then lift up slightly to slide the high tower brick out, and then drop it down again. Repeat repeat repeat. All while checking to make sure nothing gets hung up or pinched. Not much can really happen for the first 3/4 of the drop however I kept a close eye on the A/C dryer hose (dryer not installed but the hose can get stuck on the upper A-arm) as well as the vacuum lines, fuel lines, and engine harness since they have to make their way above the lip in the body. You also want to make sure the positive battery cable is laying on top of the passenger side trailing arm and you might as well feed it back into the body once you have the opportunity to.

As we got closer to the body resting on the frame, the next challenge was making sure the frame was truly centered under the body. We used the front shock tower holes in the trunk as a visual guide for the front and the horizontal body bolt holes in the pontoons as a rear guide. On my car, two washers go between the frame and body pontoon so visualizing that distance made it easy to decide if the frame has to be shimmied to the side. Once the body was all the way down, I found the A/C hoses on both sides were getting pinched between the body and frame. This is because I had zip-tied them to the frame flange which is really unnecessary and just makes it harder to get everything where it needs to be as the body goes down. I cut the zip ties and re-positioned the hoses while lifting the body up another inch to get it just right.

Also, lots of laughs when we realized I left the seatbelt bolts threaded into the frame....

It took about 3 hours but we had everything lined up nicely and I got all the body bolts back in except the driver side front tunnel bolt which was a bit off. However by the next morning as everything settled I was able to get it in.

My pointed-tip bolts were in generally poor condition so I didn't reuse them. Instead I got new M10 bolts of the correct lengths from Belmetric (standard type bolt with silver zinc plating). I put a bit of anti seize on each bolt and didn't have any trouble getting them to thread into the square captive nuts.

At this point that was PLENTY for the night so Dave took his leave and I retired into the house for dinner and a beer or two :-) Needless to say, I was VERY relieved to have all bolt holes lining up and my body no longer up in the air.

69140

69141

69142

69143

69144

69145

69146

69147

69148

69149

69150I noticed my 4x4s sagging in the middle after a while so I ended up putting a pipe stand under the middle of each 4x4.
I agree that two softwood 4x4s is not strong enough.


Sent from my SM-F926U1 using Tapatalk

[SupercoolBill]

What about regular SS nuts and bolts with thread locker?

Sent from my SM-F926U1 using Tapatalk

[Helirich]

What about regular SS nuts and bolts with thread locker?

Sent from my SM-F926U1 using Tapatalk

Not sure how hot those get. Most thread locker has a temp where it releases.

BTW, 82DMC12, that last post is fantastic!

[82DMC12]

Dave and I put the body back on the frame on a Wednesday, and thankfully I still had Thursday and Friday off so I could get to work putting everything back together. You'd think it would be no big deal from here on out, but that's never the case.

The day prior, as we were pushing the chassis around, Dave noticed that one of the lower threads on my driver side coilover was contacting the inside of the LCA. I thought it was due to no weight on the frame and many of the suspension bolts are not tightened yet (wanting to do this with the weight on the body on the suspension). Anyway, the next day I looked at it again and realized I had the spacers swapped inside the LCA (there is a small one and a large one). So, I had to address that right away which took about 2 hours to partially disassemble and put back together with surgical cleanliness.

Then, I started to work on the brakes. First thing I wanted to do was to reconnect the parking brake cables so that I can lock the rear wheels now that everything is on the ground again. I don't need the car to get away from me out the driveway. This was fairly easy to do once I remembered how to route the cables, however the passenger side was a bit difficult to set up due to the new DPI brake line system I'm using. The AN fitting for the caliper is taller than stock so it will contact the parking lever if it's at the most relaxed position (lever fully up against the caliper). The trick is to use the two nuts on either side of the bracket so you can pull the cable backwards, thus pulling the lever inboard so it "stops" at a position that won't hit the brake pipe. This took a few minutes to kind of figure out but it didn't take long to get the parking brake adjusted properly once again.

Now, it was time to flush and bleed the brakes. First thing I did was remove the brake master cylinder since I wanted to bench bleed it. I was dismayed to find fluid inside the bore and in the recess of the brake booster which I had just refinished last fall. This brake master cylinder (DMCH repro) was a new cylinder but it had been sealed in plastic for a few years and sitting on my shelf. Previously I had a Saab BMC which was great but the plating was worn off and I had just recently shipped it off to PJ Grady to get rebuilt. Unfortunately things move slow these days in the cylinder rebuilding world so my good cylinder was not back yet. Well, that sucks.

Then I turned to the clutch master cylinder. I am now using a one-piece clutch line from DPI which converts the clutch master cylinder to an AN fitting that works with the one piece line that goes all the way back to the clutch slave. Both the slave and master are freshly rebuilt from Rob, however I could not for the life of me get the clutch master to bleed out. Just a splittle of fluid was coming out of the output. I tried a lot of things including jacking up the rear of the car, using a vacuum bleeder, using a Motive power bleeder, nothing was freaking working. Finally I took the cylinder out of the car so I could try to bench bleed it, only to find that the cylinder is cracked! So, I have replacement on the way there, too..... so much for my hydraulics!

Oh... and then I found the throttle cable finally started to come apart as I threaded it through the throttle stop. Damn! I guess it's time for another parts order.

69156

69157

69158

69159

[82DMC12]

By Saturday I had pretty much finished hooking everything up in the engine area and front frame area. Including:



Brushed the old anti seize out of my steering column intermediate shaft and u-joints (Darryl Tinnerstet system) and re-applied fresh, then easily slid the steering back together
Hooked up the fans, horns, front frame ground
Installed a new A/C accumulator and new green o-rings all around, double-checked all A/C connections and made sure it is sealed up and ready for a vacuum and charge
Installed lower speedo cable
New inner throttle wire
Zip tied various hoses, harnesses, etc into ideal locations and out of the way of danger
Pressure tested cooling system and found only one leak after 24 hours - that heater take-off from the driver side head. Tightened the hose clamp with a ratchet and now dry.
Routed engine harness, main vacuum, and other bits in an ideal way


At this point it appears I could try to start the engine and bleed the coolant! And so I installed the battery and after triple checking I had the correct amount of oil in the engine, gave the key a turned and it fired right up!!

I let it run for about 30 seconds until I could see a bit of something burning off on the passenger side near the exhaust. I assumed this was just anti seize from the exhaust studs burning off but I figured I can't be too careful so I shut off the engine - and as I turned the key to off, the starter was still running!

Hmm. Well the best thing to do at this point was to disconnect the battery and then try to figure out how this could be happening. I had a similar problem happen once after doing starter wiring maintenance last year where one of the big positive wires was positioned well enough away from the small stud, and the small stud wore a hole in the heat shrink, causing the positive cable to bridge the solenoid and keep it engaged.

That was not the case this time, however I found conflicting information about how to wire up a new-style starter. One document I had from DMCNW said to put both red/white and blue/yellow on the same small terminal, which is what I did. Then, on DMCTalk, I found a photo showing the red/white on the small terminal and the blue/yellow on the big black terminal that goes into the starter casing. I cut the small ring terminal off and had to go Autozone to get a 5/16" ring terminal. I crimped and heat shrank that terminal on and then re-installed. I started the car again, and this time no after-run issues. This time I let the engine heat up enough to get the fans running (those DPI fans sound STRONG) and then I bled out the top of the radiator (DPI bleed kit) and the thermostat housing (DPNW kit). Once these seemed OK I stopped the engine and let it cool down for the night.

The next day I topped up the reservoir and repeated the bleeding process. I think I have it pretty good now!

What else... well I cleaned up the driveway by bringing my old frame, the bricks, and wood beams out to another owner's farm about 90 minutes from my house. He was kind enough to offer to let me store the frame there until I sell it, and he said he'd take those construction supplies off my hands if I don't want them anymore. That took a full morning but by then I was ready for a break anyway.

Before packing the frame up, I took a video showing all the details of it so that a buyer might be fully informed as to the condition. You can watch that video here:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlP-ZYsg2FY

Time for some family time.

Oh, and here was my view out the bedroom window the day after putting the chassis back under the body.

69164

[82DMC12]

Looks like I'm behind on my blog again! Let's see if I can get us caught up.

Since my last update, I've pretty much buttoned the car back up including


Bought a new spare tire to mount on my rim. The 42 year old Goodyear was worthless anyway!
paint the seatbelt mounting hardware and install it
use spray adhesive to attach the carpet back up to the center tunnel
Reinstall the center console
Install the rear fascia
Install the refinished engine cover and adjust hinges/latches
Install DPI exhaust tips to the muffler now that the bumper is on so I can center everything
Run the engine up to temp a couple times and triple check cooling system bleed status. Looks good in the garage anyway - fans are coming on just past the first line on the temp gauge and they run for a few minutes before cycling off ; engine temp is holding steady
Install a new inner throttle cable (DPI supplied part) because my old one, which I replaced once like 20 years ago with hardware store cable wire, was too frayed at the throttle end to move smoothly
Shampooed carpets and reinstalled the seats


I'm still waiting on a good brake and clutch master cylinder set, so unfortunately the car is not mobile.

Other than that, I've been working on the air conditioning. About 8 years ago I replaced the whole A/C system with a kit from John Hervey which has worked fine but if I am going to do any updates to it, now is the time to do it.

I decided to upgrade the Sanden SD5H14 compressor (5 piston) to an SD7H15 (7 piston compressor). I received the compressor from an online Sanden distributor and installed it last week. I also bought a vacuum pump from Harbor Freight so I could vacuum the system down and make sure I have no leaks. At that point I wasn't sure if I wanted to recharge the system myself or let an expert do it, but I'm glad I bought the pump because it revealed a couple issues.

First, I found the low pressure switch was leaking at the accumulator. Interesting to note that I replace the o-ring for the switch but it appears if you tighten the switch too far, it will leak at the threads. If you back it off half a turn, it stops leaking. I suppose the o-ring gets pinched or something if you go too hard on it.

Once I knew I had no leaks and I was holding great vacuum for an hour, I decided I might as well try to charge it up. This revealed further issues, namely that the alleged high pressure switch I have in my car from Hervey doesn't seem to be a HP switch at all, in fact it seems to be a second low pressure switch based on the operating range printed on it. After further investigation, I seemed I was not able to find a replacement switch that will fit the hub I have which is already of questionable value since the sight glass doesn't really work. So, I decided to replace the high pressure line between the condenser and evaporator with a new line from DPI and have a new high pressure switch set up included. This would then eliminate the high pressure relief valve that was integrated into my hub.

What should be a simple solution to this is not so simple - I was going to replace the back on my compressor with one that has the HPR built into it. I bought a QD head for the compressor (https://coldhose.com/collections/sanden-compressor-heads/products/sanden-qd-rear-compressor-head?variant=35532191957152) only to find after installation that my high pressure main line will not mate up to it because the fitting size is slightly too small.

I called the supplier and they told me the QD head is model-specific so it's not surprising that it doesn't fit the same as the QC head already on the compressor. I called Sanden to see if they have a QD head with HPR and they told me that these days no one is really using a HPR because it would vent the freon out to the atmosphere (which apparently some people have a problem with!). They said these days the high pressure switch is relied on to do the job and if it didn't work, there is often a heat-sensitive fuse installed that would turn off the compressor if the high pressure got too high (and hot).

So, at this point I haven't made a decision how to move ahead on this. I guess the newer hoses from DPI and other vendors use a bit different connection adapter to the head so the HPR is still integrated in the head but the lines will mate up. I am not going to replace my hoses over this, though. I could also buy a new "condenser adapter" 110527 which would have a provision for a relief valve if I really wanted it. At this point I'm inclined to go without the valve at all and just make sure I have a functioning high pressure switch. The Sanden tech said the HPR is kind of a joke anyway because it's usually set for like 400 PSI and by then the compressor is already damaged.

A few more progress pics -

69184

69185

69186

69187

69188

69189

69190

69191

69192

[82DMC12]

Here are a few pictures of the refinished engine cover. I added new stickers which I attached with some heat-resistant spray adhesive. The Emissions sticker and the Negative Ground sticker probably would have held by themselves but the NOS vacuum diagram would not release from the backing even with a heat gun. I decided to leave the backing on and adhere the backing to the engine cover. I used a 3M spray adhesive. I finished up the job with new bump stops from Chris Miles.

69193

69194

69195

69196

[82DMC12]

Not much new this week!

I was going through some older photos to see if I missed anything. I had the seats out and noticed that I was missing the plastic outer trim piece for the driver seat. I never noticed this until I compared the passenger side to the driver side. I was able to find a nice used trim piece from Ed at DMC EU (the part is NLA). The "N4" screws that are used are also NLA but I was able to find some #8 black machine screws at the hardware store that worked perfectly fine. I did have to use a dremel to enlarge the round hole that the rake adjustment knob goes onto. I don't know why that would need to be done but perhaps my seat is a bit off after getting foam and leather surfaces replaced many years ago. Maybe that's why the trim piece was missing/ left off. Anyway, I was able to massage it and get it all to work as it should.

I also took the time to install the DPI fuel injector clamp set. Here's a pro tip - don't drop any of the stainless clamps between the distributor and the intake runner - you'll have a bad time. All good now though!

The rest of my AC parts have shipped so I should be able to get it all back together and possibly charged next week but I might wait until spring because I'd rather do it on a hot-ass day when ambient temp is closer to a hot summer day so I can better monitor the head pressure. We'll see what happens.

69198

69199

69200

[SupercoolBill]

Not much new this week!

I was going through some older photos to see if I missed anything. I had the seats out and noticed that I was missing the plastic outer trim piece for the driver seat. I never noticed this until I compared the passenger side to the driver side. I was able to find a nice used trim piece from Ed at DMC EU (the part is NLA). The "N4" screws that are used are also NLA but I was able to find some #8 black machine screws at the hardware store that worked perfectly fine. I did have to use a dremel to enlarge the round hole that the rake adjustment knob goes onto. I don't know why that would need to be done but perhaps my seat is a bit off after getting foam and leather surfaces replaced many years ago. Maybe that's why the trim piece was missing/ left off. Anyway, I was able to massage it and get it all to work as it should.

I also took the time to install the DPI fuel injector clamp set. Here's a pro tip - don't drop any of the stainless clamps between the distributor and the intake runner - you'll have a bad time. All good now though!

The rest of my AC parts have shipped so I should be able to get it all back together and possibly charged next week but I might wait until spring because I'd rather do it on a hot-ass day when ambient temp is closer to a hot summer day so I can better monitor the head pressure. We'll see what happens.

69198

69199

69200I have the same injector retainers. Probably overkill but they are really nice.

Sent from my SM-F926U1 using Tapatalk

[SupercoolBill]

Here are a few pictures of the refinished engine cover. I added new stickers which I attached with some heat-resistant spray adhesive. The Emissions sticker and the Negative Ground sticker probably would have held by themselves but the NOS vacuum diagram would not release from the backing even with a heat gun. I decided to leave the backing on and adhere the backing to the engine cover. I used a 3M spray adhesive. I finished up the job with new bump stops from Chris Miles.

69193

69194

69195

69196Nice!
Looks great!

Sent from my SM-F926U1 using Tapatalk

[SupercoolBill]

Looks like I'm behind on my blog again! Let's see if I can get us caught up.

Since my last update, I've pretty much buttoned the car back up including


Bought a new spare tire to mount on my rim. The 42 year old Goodyear was worthless anyway!
paint the seatbelt mounting hardware and install it
use spray adhesive to attach the carpet back up to the center tunnel
Reinstall the center console
Install the rear fascia
Install the refinished engine cover and adjust hinges/latches
Install DPI exhaust tips to the muffler now that the bumper is on so I can center everything
Run the engine up to temp a couple times and triple check cooling system bleed status. Looks good in the garage anyway - fans are coming on just past the first line on the temp gauge and they run for a few minutes before cycling off ; engine temp is holding steady
Install a new inner throttle cable (DPI supplied part) because my old one, which I replaced once like 20 years ago with hardware store cable wire, was too frayed at the throttle end to move smoothly
Shampooed carpets and reinstalled the seats


I'm still waiting on a good brake and clutch master cylinder set, so unfortunately the car is not mobile.

Other than that, I've been working on the air conditioning. About 8 years ago I replaced the whole A/C system with a kit from John Hervey which has worked fine but if I am going to do any updates to it, now is the time to do it.

I decided to upgrade the Sanden SD5H14 compressor (5 piston) to an SD7H15 (7 piston compressor). I received the compressor from an online Sanden distributor and installed it last week. I also bought a vacuum pump from Harbor Freight so I could vacuum the system down and make sure I have no leaks. At that point I wasn't sure if I wanted to recharge the system myself or let an expert do it, but I'm glad I bought the pump because it revealed a couple issues.

First, I found the low pressure switch was leaking at the accumulator. Interesting to note that I replace the o-ring for the switch but it appears if you tighten the switch too far, it will leak at the threads. If you back it off half a turn, it stops leaking. I suppose the o-ring gets pinched or something if you go too hard on it.

Once I knew I had no leaks and I was holding great vacuum for an hour, I decided I might as well try to charge it up. This revealed further issues, namely that the alleged high pressure switch I have in my car from Hervey doesn't seem to be a HP switch at all, in fact it seems to be a second low pressure switch based on the operating range printed on it. After further investigation, I seemed I was not able to find a replacement switch that will fit the hub I have which is already of questionable value since the sight glass doesn't really work. So, I decided to replace the high pressure line between the condenser and evaporator with a new line from DPI and have a new high pressure switch set up included. This would then eliminate the high pressure relief valve that was integrated into my hub.

What should be a simple solution to this is not so simple - I was going to replace the back on my compressor with one that has the HPR built into it. I bought a QD head for the compressor (https://coldhose.com/collections/sanden-compressor-heads/products/sanden-qd-rear-compressor-head?variant=35532191957152) only to find after installation that my high pressure main line will not mate up to it because the fitting size is slightly too small.

I called the supplier and they told me the QD head is model-specific so it's not surprising that it doesn't fit the same as the QC head already on the compressor. I called Sanden to see if they have a QD head with HPR and they told me that these days no one is really using a HPR because it would vent the freon out to the atmosphere (which apparently some people have a problem with!). They said these days the high pressure switch is relied on to do the job and if it didn't work, there is often a heat-sensitive fuse installed that would turn off the compressor if the high pressure got too high (and hot).

So, at this point I haven't made a decision how to move ahead on this. I guess the newer hoses from DPI and other vendors use a bit different connection adapter to the head so the HPR is still integrated in the head but the lines will mate up. I am not going to replace my hoses over this, though. I could also buy a new "condenser adapter" 110527 which would have a provision for a relief valve if I really wanted it. At this point I'm inclined to go without the valve at all and just make sure I have a functioning high pressure switch. The Sanden tech said the HPR is kind of a joke anyway because it's usually set for like 400 PSI and by then the compressor is already damaged.

A few more progress pics -

69184

69185

69186

69187

69188

69189

69190

69191

69192Is that amplifier just for the subwoofer or does it also power mids and highs?

Sent from my SM-F926U1 using Tapatalk

[82DMC12]

Is that amplifier just for the subwoofer or does it also power mids and highs?

Sent from my SM-F926U1 using Tapatalk

That amp is just for the sub (Kicker L7 8" solo baric). I have a Zapco 4-ch and powers my dash speakers, front kick panel speakers (add on), and the new 6" round rear speakers.

69203

[82DMC12]

All right all right, got a couple more parts in and buttoned up the A/C once again this weekend.

I replaced the "Hervey Hub" on the high pressure side with a new kit from D-Ind which contained a standard white orifice tube, a new high pressure hose to connect to the evaporator and then run to the condenser, and a high pressure switch that screws into the new fitting on the condenser-side hose. It also comes with new wrapped wiring that joins the original wires at the firewall with a WeatherPack plug. Very nice and definitely an upgrade! Now I have a high pressure cut-out switch which I was surprised to find I was lacking before.

To install the hose, I had to remove the accumulator again just because the access to the fittings is so poor in that area, plus even if I were able to barely get a wrench on, it is not so easy to get the fittings started in that small space. Pain in the ass but maybe I'll never have to go in here ever again.

Good think I changed out the orifice tube. It was much dirtier than I expected. DPI recommended going back to the original style basic orifice instead of the variable orifice that Hervey sold so I did that. I blew out the evaporator with compressed air and there was nothing but oil in it.

One thing I like about the DPI hose is I didn't have to tap the orifice tube completely into the evaporator like I did with the old hose. The ID of the fitting on the DPI hose is slightly larger than the Hervey hose fitting was so I only had to get the o-ring on the orifice past the interior crimp and then tapped in maybe half an inch, then the DPI hose slips over the remaining front of the orifice tube. That should be good insurance if I have to remove the tube again and it gets stuck.

Currently vacuuming the system down now. It's probably too cold out (30F) to get a good charge in my garage so I'm thinking I'll probably have to wait until spring or an unseasonably warm day to actually fill it up. I'll be glad to just confirm no leaks at this point.

So, what else is left?


Waiting on clutch master cylinder to get rebuilt
Waiting on brake master cylinder to get rebuilt
Charge A/C
Add on the front radiator shroud but I didn't want to do that until I was sure I was done messing with A/C hoses
Flush and bleed brakes and clutch once the cylinders are in
Final routing and zip-tie hoses, wiring etc.
Final cross gate adjustment (might still have to replace the cross gate cable though)
Wheel alignment


Not much else I can do until cylinders come in so I think I'll start zip-tying and buttoning down the final resting place of a few hoses and wires.



69204

69205

69206

69207

69208

69209

[Bitsyncmaster]

That orifice tube looks really bad. I would recommend you flush your system.

[Ron]

That orifice tube looks really bad. I would recommend you flush your system.
Absolutely!!!

[82DMC12]

Absolutely!!!

I'm open to suggestions. Doesn't a good flush require an A/C charge machine like at a shop?

[Ron]

I'm open to suggestions. Doesn't a good flush require an A/C charge machine like at a shop?You can rent-to-buy a kit from places like Autozone (Link (https://www.autozone.com/diy/climate-control/how-to-flush-your-cars-ac-system)).
I wouldn't do the new parts (never the Accumulator/Receiver Dryer).

FWIW- It looks like someone may have performed a 134a conversion without flushing the R12 type oil, once upon a time.

[82DMC12]

You can rent-to-buy a kit from places like Autozone (Link (https://www.autozone.com/diy/climate-control/how-to-flush-your-cars-ac-system)).
I wouldn't do the new parts (never the Accumulator/Receiver Dryer).

FWIW- It looks like someone may have performed a 134a conversion without flushing the R12 type oil, once upon a time.

This car did have the R12 converted to R134a a LONG time ago. In fact it had to be recharged a couple times before I broke down and replaced literally everything except the evaporator about 7 years ago. It held charge and worked well ever since then. That's why I was surprised to see how bad the orifice was. Can't believe there could be much dirt anymore at this point. I put an SD7H15 compressor in now and took out the SD5H14 that I originally put in 7 years ago. The oil in the SD5 looked good but a bit orange. Replaced the oil obviously with the new compressor.

[Ron]

This car did have the R12 converted to R134a a LONG time ago. In fact it had to be recharged a couple times before I broke down and replaced literally everything except the evaporator about 7 years ago. It held charge and worked well ever since then. That's why I was surprised to see how bad the orifice was. Can't believe there could be much dirt anymore at this point. I put an SD7H15 compressor in now and took out the SD5H14 that I originally put in 7 years ago. The oil in the SD5 looked good but a bit orange. Replaced the oil obviously with the new compressor.If they didn't change the oil, that's where the black probably came from (mixing of some oil types), "black death". It will coat things and catch particles while fowling up lubrication. I'd flush the system (minus accumulator, capping it off meanwhile). Then add the recommended amount oil, new. Nothing to loose at this point but a few bucks for peace of mind...

FWIW- That's not dirt, it can't get into a clean, tight system. It's probably wear particles from the compressor and/or black death.

[82DMC12]

If they didn't change the oil, that's where the black probably came from (mixing of some oil types), "black death". It will coat things and catch particles while fowling up lubrication. I'd flush the system (minus accumulator, capping it off meanwhile). Then add the recommended amount oil, new. Nothing to loose at this point but a few bucks for peace of mind...

FWIW- That's not dirt, it can't get into a clean, tight system. It's probably wear particles from the compressor and/or black death.

Black Death - that doesn't sound good! Unless you can flush the system with everything in place, I doubt the old shop way back when did a flush. I bet all they did was change the compressor oil.

[Ron]

Black Death - that doesn't sound good! Unless you can flush the system with everything in place, I doubt the old shop way back when did a flush.
...
You can do that, but then you would replace the accumulator. That would be OK....You just don't want the accumulator exposed to moisture in the air, etc. (except for the time it takes to mount it, followed by a evacuation, asap).

[Bitsyncmaster]

I flush a system by filling or pumping a solvent through. Pull hose ends off the compressor and cross over hose at the accumulator and flush the condenser that way. Fill at the compressor end and collect the solvent at the cross over hose end. Blow air through it after the flush. Then do the evaporator filling at the compressor end and collecting the solvent at the evaporator end. Replace the accumulator. If your compressor is new it should be fine and with the correct oil.

[SupercoolBill]

You have all new stuff except your evap and condenser right? I don't see a need to flush the whole system. That orifice inlet screen was really dirty!

Sent from my SM-F926U1 using Tapatalk

[SupercoolBill]

The system flushes I think are alcohol based so they quickly evaporatorate leaving no moisture or residue.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20221113/34e552a179a7e90841f2d20fc0d11821.jpg

Sent from my SM-F926U1 using Tapatalk

[82DMC12]

You have all new stuff except your evap and condenser right? I don't see a need to flush the whole system. That orifice inlet screen was really dirty!

Sent from my SM-F926U1 using Tapatalk

New condenser 7 years ago. Literally the only thing I never replaced was the evaporator. I THINK I flushed it out, somehow, with something, when I replaced everything else but I didn't have that pressurized kit.

I'm guessing it's Black Death from old R12 oil.

[82DMC12]

I was working on the A/C a bit more last night and come to find that my low pressure switch is definitely an issue with leakage. It worked OK until I took everything apart for the frame-off so perhaps it was damaged somehow. I'm going to order a new low pressure switch and green o-ring for it then try to vacuum again.

I was not particularly satisfied with my gauge readings when trying to hold a vacuum. It seemed to indicate I may have a leak somewhere, with the gauge falling from 30 to 20 inches after about 30 minutes, but then it held 20 inches for about four hours - until I screwed the low pressure switch back in - then I lost all vacuum within an hour. The initial drop could be the gauges.... could be temperature change in the garage... could be a leak. I guess a micron gauge is the correct tool to really monitor vacuum. Prior to replacing the high pressure hose (which required removing the accumulator), a few weeks ago the vacuum held better. So I think I'm going to pressurize with nitrogen and check for leaks that way before doing anything else with the A/C. I might not be able to do any more A/C work until spring so I'd like to know I'm leak-free and at least charge with nitrogen so the system isn't empty all winter.

I already have the manifold gauge set, so adding a nitrogen purge is not difficult. I have a 20 cu ft nitrogen tank at work which I just got exchanged for a full bottle ($35) and I ordered a regulator for it off Amazon which will connect to my yellow hose on the manifold set. I watched some videos and it looks like 150 PSI is typical for leak detection. Should be able to hear a small leak, and could use foaming water to detect micro leaks.

69210

69211

[Bitsyncmaster]

HVAC guys use nitrogen to find leaks because they pressurize the system to max pressure and then use a soap spray to check or find leaks. For my home system he pressurized to 400 PSI and found the leak in the attic evaporator pipe. The first guy used a sniffer and could not find any leaks (he was a new tech, the owner's son).

For our cars I would use 300 PSI.

[82DMC12]

HVAC guys use nitrogen to find leaks because they pressurize the system to max pressure and then use a soap spray to check or find leaks. For my home system he pressurized to 400 PSI and found the leak in the attic evaporator pipe. The first guy used a sniffer and could not find any leaks (he was a new tech, the owner's son).

For our cars I would use 300 PSI.


300 PSI, really? I saw a couple references to 250 PSI possibly damaging stuff on the low side.

[Bitsyncmaster]

300 PSI, really? I saw a couple references to 250 PSI possibly damaging stuff on the low side.

If you loose the cooling fans you will get 300 PSI on the high side. The low side should have the same rated component as the high side. Yes maybe a 40 year old hose may not hold but then it should be replaced.

[82DMC12]

If you loose the cooling fans you will get 300 PSI on the high side. The low side should have the same rated component as the high side. Yes maybe a 40 year old hose may not hold but then it should be replaced.

I'm just worried about the evaporator!

[Helirich]

One thing I will mention, I have found many gauge set hoses leak. What I often do is put a ?block off? valve on the end of the hose. Vacuum the system out and shut the valve. Wait however long you want, than vacuum the hose out again, shut the pump off and open the valve. Since the system is much larger than your gauge set, it will still go down if there?s a leak.

On the micron gauge, it is best, but I have never found a system that doesn?t go down with a micron. It?s not necessary a leak, it can just be stuff evaporating.

[82DMC12]

One thing I will mention, I have found many gauge set hoses leak. What I often do is put a ?block off? valve on the end of the hose. Vacuum the system out and shut the valve. Wait however long you want, than vacuum the hose out again, shut the pump off and open the valve. Since the system is much larger than your gauge set, it will still go down if there?s a leak.

On the micron gauge, it is best, but I have never found a system that doesn?t go down with a micron. It?s not necessary a leak, it can just be stuff evaporating.Thanks for the input. Got my nitrogen tank ready to go, new low pressure switch and o-ring on the way, and will have a regulator and some big blu spray on Thursday. Hopefully this weekend I can try pumping it up and see what I find.

Sent from my Pixel 6a using Tapatalk

[82DMC12]

Weekend update!

I got a new low pressure switch and green o-ring. The new one is different from the one I received from Hervey so many years ago and seems to fit MUCH better on the accumulator. I can tighten it by hand until it stops and it doesn't feel squishy at the end and there are no leaks at that point now.

I did get my regulator and nitrogen tank however the regulator has a 1/4" flare connection on the output and it appears what I need for my yellow R134a hose is 1/2" Acme M. That is the flare-like fitting with the long flat end on it, just like the Schrader valves off the compressor. I tried to find something locally that would work to convert the fitting but no luck. I suppose this issue doesn't come up if you have a commercial automotive HVAC machine. I think they came up with these fittings just to discourage DIY'ers but I'm not easily deterred.

The only solution I could find is this thing, which I would have to screw onto a brass 1/4" nipple that threads into the regulator:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000LQN6HM/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I ordered it and will have it tomorrow.

I still wanted to see if my low pressure leak was fixed though, and I had a couple ideas as to how to do a better job measuring vacuum integrity of the A/C system. After installing the switch, I pulled a vacuum again for 90 minutes, then closed all the valves on the gauge set and removed the gauge set from the compressor.

This morning I came back out to the garage and hooked up the gauge set, but left the schraeders closed at the compressor. I pulled a vacuum on the gauge set first, then closed the manifold valves and turned off the pump. Now my manifold is under vacuum but not connected to the car's A/C system (yet). I let this sit alone for 10 minutes to confirm I'm not leaking out of the gauges. I lost a tiny bit, like half an inch of vacuum. Good enough. Now I opened my schraeders so that the vacuum in the car could equalize with the vacuum in the gauges. My theory is if the car is leaking vacuum overnight, the gauges would drop. They did not. So, I feel pretty good that my system is actually tight now.

I made a video which I'll post up on the How To section demonstrating this:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CXDIynB5cw

I still plan to pressure test with nitrogen though because first, I want the experience of it, and second, I'll make a video demonstrating that technique as well. Thirdly, since it's too cold to recharge the A/C this winter, I'm going to fill the system with maybe 50 PSI of nitrogen so that there isn't any moisture sitting in there over the winter.

[Bitsyncmaster]

Good idea to keep a nitrogen charge in it but you should probably pull the connector off the low pressure switch so your compressor can't run without the refrigerant which carries the oil around the system.

[82DMC12]

Good idea to keep a nitrogen charge in it but you should probably pull the connector off the low pressure switch so your compressor can't run without the refrigerant which carries the oil around the system.

Wise and prudent!! Good idea.

[82DMC12]

I now have a functioning nitrogen test system for my A/C.

Parts:


Harbor Freight R134a manifold gauge set: https://www.harborfreight.com/r134a-ac-manifold-gauge-set-58776.html?_br_psugg_q=manifold
Harbor Freight 1 stage vacuum pump: https://www.harborfreight.com/25-cfm-vacuum-pump-61245.html
Betooll Nitogen gauge and regulator: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01IJI04XW?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details
Mastercool #82634 1/4" female flare to 1/2" ACME-M (this connects the yellow hose on manifold gauge set to the nitrogen regulator output): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000LQN6HM?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details
Brass 1/4" MIP x2" nipple (Menards or any hardware store)
Brass 1/4" FIP x 1/4" male flare adapter (Menards or any hardware store)
20 cu ft nitrogen tank (available at welding supply stores)


Now I'm able to both draw sufficient vacuum for recharging and pressure-test the system with nitrogen to ensure there are no leaks.

Currently pressurized to 225 PSI for the last 24 hours with no pressure loss. Since we are now in winter in Kansas City I am going to leave the system full of nitrogen until spring so I can get a really good charge into it.

I'll make a video this weekend showing how I am using the nitrogen since I don't see anything like that in the HOW TO section!

69242
This is the elusive ACME-M fitting. Notice how it is like a flare fitting but has a flat tall tip on it. It's the same fitting you find on your high and low pressure lines for testing and charging. I could not find this at any HVAC stores in Kansas City, had to order online.




















69243





Betooll brass nitrogen gauge set. Hard to believe it's only $30. I've used gauges that are $300 and they aren't much better. Excellent value for the DIY'er.
















69244










Harbor Freight gauge set. I initially tested at 150 PSI then after 4 hours of no leaks bumped it up to 250 PSI.










69245



New Sanden SD7H15 compressor

















69246

[SupercoolBill]

Perseverance pays off! You'll have some ice cold AC next summer. [emoji41]

Sent from my SM-F926U1 using Tapatalk

[82DMC12]

Happy New Year! I guess it's time for an update.

It's certainly winter in Kansas City now and while I do have an attached garage that makes car work feasible and comfortable, I do try to avoid any work that requires the engine running. An open garage door will make things cold in a hurry.

Essentially I have three primary things that still need attention:

1) Waiting on brake master cylinder
2) Waiting on clutch master cylinder
3) I do appear to have an A/C leak somewhere

Regarding points 2 and 3, I waiting on rebuilt, sleeved, and plated hydraulics from PJ Grady. Worth the wait but things are slow these days. As a result, the car is not drivable (no brakes or clutch!) so I can't do much as far as testing the transmission, test drives, or getting an alignment. But, as I said, it's winter and while we don't have much snow most of the time, it's still cold and I don't feel like getting stalled or stuck somewhere during testing when it's cold. Maybe in a couple of weeks I'll get these parts in.

As far as the A/C leak, it does look like I am bleeding nitrogen over many days once I have the system pumped up to maybe 250 PSI. I bought a spray bottle of Big Blu and sprayed all over the joints and fittings but I can't find the leak. I have not yet sprayed down the whole condenser because I doubt that's the issue and it will be messy if I can't rinse everything off afterwards (sticky and soapy too). I don't THINK it's the evaporator because I had no trouble getting the fittings apart and I was very careful not to bend anything, treating it like a Tiffany lamp. Of course I replaced all the o-rings that I exposed to the air while working on the frame-off with new green rings and Nylog goop. I ordered new schraeder valve cores because hey, they are practically free, and maybe that's where my leak is. Haven't installed them or tested yet though. I also bought some UV dye , glasses, and lamp so once it warms up I could just charge the system up with R134a and see if I find the glowing leak. Certainly frustrating but I know I'll figure it out eventually.

Other than that, I got a few more parts powder coated or painted including my horns so now literally every single part in my undercarriage is restored, plated, replaced, or powder coated. It looks brand new everywhere you look!

Well, till next time....

[82DMC12]

Finally a bit of success!

I've been trying to find this A/C leak and I definitely found *A* leak - here's to hoping it's the only leak.

I replaced the Schrader valves in the high and low pressure lines at the compressor and then ran my vacuum. The vacuum holds ok-ish in that after 24 hours I had dropped from about 30 inHg to 27 inHg. Not bad because there could have been temperature changes or other stuff boiling off. So, I then recharged the system with nitrogen. This time it didn't last long before I could swear a heard a faint hissing sound once I got to 250 PSI. It was definitely in the compressor area so I kept feeling all over with my fingers until sure enough, I heard the sound change at the underside of the high pressure hose crimp. It seems like if I touched the crimp, not even putting pressure on it, it would change sound. I sprayed Big Blu all over once again and this time started to get some bubbles where the metal pipe comes out of the crimp. Not long after, I found if I moved the rubber hose at the crimp, it would leak very obviously. So, I have a bad crimp. Maybe it was damaged during the frame off. I don't know. But, I will now be replacing both main A/C hoses with EZ-Clip hoses from DPI. Really, it's unlikely I have any other leaks in other components, but since I have one bad crimp, there could be other bad crimps so rather than just put a new end on, I'm going all the way and changing them out.

It's just too bad I didn't do this when I had the frame out!


https://youtube.com/shorts/3QY2lgYLfvc?feature=share

[Helirich]

Glad you found your leak, but I have to say your order of doing this is backwards. You do the nitro pressure test first. That way, if it does leak, your not bringing in new contamination. The nitro will also ?sweep? the system as you let the pressure out. The vacuum should not be a leak test. It?s just to evacuate the system before charging.

[82DMC12]

Glad you found your leak, but I have to say your order of doing this is backwards. You do the nitro pressure test first. That way, if it does leak, your not bringing in new contamination. The nitro will also ?sweep? the system as you let the pressure out. The vacuum should not be a leak test. It?s just to evacuate the system before charging.

Well, that's what I was trying to do. Just vacuum the system so I could charge it. I never wanted to get into this nitrogen stuff but I had to do it because I wasn't holding vacuum. I get what you're saying but since I had no A/C leaks prior to the frame-off, I didn't expect there to suddenly be leaks. Anyway, it's been a fun (?) learning experience and I'm glad I have the tools now to do it myself rather than pay someone else who doesn't know this car a fortune to get it working.

[82DMC12]

I just received some of the last parts I need - rebuilt and sleeved clutch master and brake master cylinders! Rob Grady (PJ Grady) provides this service and the work is well-regarded as a bullet-proof solution for the hydraulics. These two cylinders join my newly rebuilt clutch slave cylinder (also massaged by Rob) to create the Holy Trinity of DeLorean Hydraulics!

I promise to flush the brakes and clutch every two years from now on!

I'm a bit busy this week with Daddy Duty but I think I'll have time this weekend to at least make an attempt at installation and hopefully even finish bleeding both systems. And then... I think the car will be roadworthy again??

Just a couple more parts on order for the A/C and I hope to be able to address that system in the next couple of weeks as well.

69425

[82DMC12]

BIG DAY TODAY!

MY CAR RUNS

Well I knew the engine ran but I hadn't been able to move the car under its own power - until today!

This weekend I was able to install both hydraulic cylinders - the PJ Grady sleeved brake master cylinder and clutch master cylinder. First I gave both cylinders a triple coat of Clear Ceramic engine paint which should help protect the finish and make it easy to clean and wipe off the cylinders seasonally.

The brake master was up first. I bench bled it in a vise until I was sure it was pumping well without any bubbles. Then I greased the large seal on the end of it with red rubber grease and fit it up to the refinished brake booster. Next I attached the DPI brake lines and torqued the banjo bolts with copper washers (these are not OEM style). I then topped up the master cylinder reservoir and hooked up my Motive Power Bleeder. Going around to each wheel in order, I make two circuits bleeding the brakes and flushing the new lines really well, free of bubbles. No problem at all.

Next it was time to install the clutch master. I hate this job because it's hard to hold the bolts inside while tightening the nyloc nuts outside the car but I did replace the bolts with allen head bolts which made the job a lot easier. I was actually able to hold the ratchet inside the car (with extensions and a single swivel) while tightening the nylocs outside. First I bench bled the cylinder to confirm it is pumping (first one a few weeks ago was defective due to a crack) but this one is working perfectly. After mounting the cylinder I connected the reservoir hose and the DPI single-piece braided hose (same material as the popular fuel injector hoses). I was able to do some bleeding solo but it wasn't until the wife came home and gave me a hand that I really knocked it out. I have a remote bleeder (DPI) and I find it easier to use from above the car rather than below. I had to get under the car to reinstall it to it's mounting stay and while I was underneath I adjusted the driver side coolant pipe which required slightly loosening two hoses. Before, the pipe was hanging down too far but now it's nice and flush to the frame.

After that I decided I wanted to test the clutch with the engine running to make sure there's no surprises before I get the car off the jackstands. I started the engine and put it into first, second, then third and I thought I heard a rattling when I dropped the clutch. I got out and found quite strange sound at the driver side rear hub. It sounded like something hollow knocking. It only did this while the wheel was spinning. It was far louder on the driver side than the passenger side. In fact it was so clear that it couldn't have been coming from inside the transmission, it really sounded like something at the hub. It turned out that the thin wheel spacer which is held on by the single Philips screw was loose and allowing the brake disc to rattle as it rotated. Whew, easy fix. Checked the passenger side and that one was a bit loose too but not as bad.

At this point I checked the air pressure in all four tires and refit the wheels and dropped the car back to the ground. Started the engine, put it in reverse, and crept backwards but not enough to leave the garage and into the driveway. I put it into first and slowly crept forward, making sure I can move both directions LOL and that the brakes are working. After I was sure of things, I backed all the way out and let the car sit in the driveway running while I swept up and put some tools away. 10 minutes later everything looked good so I took it up and down the street once before parking it in the garage again.

Everything seems fine! No rattles or shakes or unexpected behavior. The new clutch engages in a different place than my old centerforce clutch did so that might take some getting used to.

What's next? Well, I need to put the steering wheel back on straight. Then recheck all the hydraulics tomorrow for leakage. Check fluid levels again let it run long enough for the fans to cycle on and off. I need to zip tie and tuck some hoses and wires for clean routing and make sure nothing is going to get snagged or rubbed. After that, I think I can go get an alignment. Otherwise, the only other thing to do is finish up the air conditioning. I decided to replace both main hoses so I'm waiting on those.

Feels good, man!

Oh here is a picture of the master cylinder after fitting it and bleeding -

69433

[Helirich]

BIG DAY TODAY!

Feels good, man!


I bet it does! Congrats!

[82DMC12]

Moving along once again.

I got the car in the middle of the garage with the intention of doing a couple easy things including giving the car a wash! As you can imagine, it's quite dusty and grimy from the frame-off and all of the sanding, grinding, drilling, etc that took place as part of that. Didn't quite have time to do the wash yet but maybe tonight.

Another quickie job should have been to center the steering wheel as best I can before getting the alignment so it's at least close. I have had the wheel off a couple times before, first time was with a steering wheel puller (a fiasco in itself), second time I did the air chisel version which worked perfectly. This time it didn't really want to come off and I dinged up the threads on the nut that holds the wheel on. No problem getting the nut off, but it's not threading back on easily. I put it on enough so I could chisel again and get the wheel off so I can get a better look at the column threads. Thankfully I did get the wheel off and the column threads are good but might need a tiny bit of filing on the tip. The nut is M14 1.5 but it's a special kind of jamb nut so I'll put it on my list for my next parts order. I cleaned the threads well and applied some cutting oil before working the nut back and forth onto the shaft a few times and now it works pretty well.

I also went to the gas station to fill up my 5 gallon jerry can with fresh gas (non-ethanol 87). Transferred that to the gas tank so the normal ride height is set. I want to make sure I'm positive about where my coilovers are set before I go get an alignment. I want the gaps even in the arches but not so low that I can't get my low profile jack and a wood block under the crossmembers.

I need to do a bit of research on alignment shops in Kansas City. The last one I went to was very attentive about doing a good job and let me hang out in the shop while they did it, but I didn't like that they didn't have a drive-on alignment rack. Instead they did some hokey shit where they lifted the car up on a four-point lift and then put metal stands (with swivels for the wheels) under the wheels which they then lowered the car down onto. It seemed very unsafe and the floor was uneven which I think screwed up the alignment on the passenger side rear tire. Gonna find someone else this time.

[82DMC12]

It was a very busy weekend being on Daddy Duty but I did get a few little things done.

1) Checked torque on DPI header exhaust stud nuts. The exhaust has had a couple of heat cycles now so I wanted to make sure the gaskets are sealing tightly. During my last test drive I did hear a slight whispery tick under load that I had never heard before so I assumed it was exhaust. All the nuts were able to take at least another half turn before they felt "tight". The copper gasket that seals the headers to the cats took a bit more torque too.

2) Reinstalled all trim pieces except for the radiator shroud. I can't put that on until I replace the A/C hoses that run back to the compressor.

3) Installed Toby Peterson (DPNW) Wings-A-Light H4 LED headlamp set. I bought these used off of the DeLorean Facebook parts for sale group. I've had Sylvania Silverstars mounted in the buckets for probably almost 20 years now. They never burned out. But, they really are not bright enough for confident night driving anymore. Maybe they've lost some power or maybe I'm just spoiled by LED headlamps in my Audi.

The H4's were easy to install, relatively speaking, but there is a slight wiring change you have to make to the factory low-beam plug. The wire change is noted in the instructions and all it is you have to remove the three wires from the plastic receptacle and re-insert them in the new configuration.

As you can see, the new headlights are BRIGHT! The first picture below the Silverstars are still in the low beam position and the H4's are illuminated in the high beam position. Second picture is the H4 low-beams only.

69438

69439

[82DMC12]

Here's another good improvement I made this weekend. A couple months ago I finally replaced my original spare tire with a modern Continental space saver spare on the DMC rim. Well, I recently learned I have no idea where my original jack or tool set is. I may have left them at my last house in the garage. Oops.

Turns out I have four scissor jacks left over from the frame off. These are Big Red brand which I have seen at Menards but I bought them on Amazon. They are really nice because they have a pretty flat jacking surface and a large footprint. I've lifted the car numerous times, safely, with them.

I was glad to see one of the jacks fits just right in the jack compartment. It's somewhat wedged in so it's not going to slide around. The crank and a lug nut wrench fits perfectly in the spare tire strap. All I need now is a bag I can put a flat tire in. Good to know that if I needed the spare tire, I have everything I need to change it on the side of the road. Otherwise, why carry it?

69440

69441

69442

69443

[Timeless]

3) Installed Toby Peterson (DPNW) Wings-A-Light H4 LED headlamp set. I bought these used off of the DeLorean Facebook parts for sale group. I've had Sylvania Silverstars mounted in the buckets for probably almost 20 years now. They never burned out. But, they really are not bright enough for confident night driving anymore. Maybe they've lost some power or maybe I'm just spoiled by LED headlamps in my Audi.

As you can see, the new headlights are BRIGHT! The first picture below the Silverstars are still in the low beam position and the H4's are illuminated in the high beam position. Second picture is the H4 low-beams only.
I'm spolied by Taycan and other cars I own with awesome LED headlights. I installed a set of Holley Retro Bright headlamps last year and they are PERFECT. So bright, OE look, correct beam pattern. (photo is pre-eyebrow repair)
69449

[82DMC12]

I'm spolied by Taycan and other cars I own with awesome LED headlights. I installed a set of Holley Retro Bright headlamps last year and they are PERFECT. So bright, OE look, correct beam pattern. (photo is pre-eyebrow repair)
69449

Very nice. The Retrobrights do seem to be the best option available today. If I were buying new I would probably just fork over the cash for the Holleys. I did get this DPNW set for a song so I'm happy enough!

[Timeless]

Very nice. The Retrobrights do seem to be the best option available today. If I were buying new I would probably just fork over the cash for the Holleys. I did get this DPNW set for a song so I'm happy enough!
That's good - they look great.

[82DMC12]

Well, not a whole lot going on lately as I work through the last couple of systems that are not quite 100% - brakes and A/C

Brakes - unfortunately I had an issue with the master cylinder so that's going back out to be addressed. In the meantime I have re-installed my spare repro master so that I can keep the car mobile. I really do want to get an alignment done so that is something I'll try to schedule in the next couple of weeks.

A/C - custom hoses are ordered and just waiting for them to be shipped

Until then, the car is just hanging out in the garage!

69461

69462

[Henrik]

... once I got to 250 PSI.

Just a small word of caution. The low pressure side of the A/C system, the evaporator especially, is not intended to ever see that kind of pressure. Worst case, on a really hot summer's day, let's say 120 F, the corresponding pressure for R134a is about 170 psi. Don't wanna pop that evap...

[82DMC12]

A/C parts are now en route so I should have time to run all the hoses this weekend and do another pressure test!

In the meanwhile, I've been working on some small projects, one of which is addressing the sockets for my front turn signals. I recall from years back that these sockets were getting sketchy and when I put the headlights in, I found the driver side turn signal socket had a broken tab, which made the socket unable to securely latch into the lens. I decided to do a little upgrade here by purchasing a pair of 1157 sockets from NAPA (Echlin LS6253) which are a good match for the lens however you do have to shave off one tiny tab on the side of it. Easy to understand once you see it. There is a rubber boot that protects the back side of the connector on the DMC socket so you can remove that and install it onto the NAPA connector. I also took the time to upgrade the old 3-pin plug to a Delphi Weather Pack plug. One of my projects has been to replace every exterior plug with a Weather Pack plug so these two plugs get the same treatment.

One interesting thing I found was after carefully wiring in the new socket, the bulb worked in reverse. When the parking lights are on, both filaments were illuminated instead of just one. And, when you turn on the turn signal, it blinked double-time as if the bulb was blown. I checked continuity on all wires and all was OK. Double-checked which wire is for what (two post connectors and one socket ground, and it was wired exactly like the original socket. I reversed the two +12 wires at the Weather Pack plug and reinstalled - now it works. So, I can't explain that one. But it does work now!

As you can see my headlight buckets and headlight frames need some attention. I'll be getting these blasted and powder coated perhaps next winter when I plan to also refinish the facias again.

69473

69474

[82DMC12]

Got some garage time last night and started to install the new DPI A/C hoses!

I am replacing the main lines that run between the frame and body. The pressure side goes from the compressor straight along the driver side to the top of the condenser. The low pressure side goes from the compressor and crosses over the top of the transmission, through the frame hole that the heater core lines run through, and up the the passenger side to the accumulator.

This DPI system is great, actually it is EZ Clip by Eaton and DPI makes it easy by providing the correct hose lengths and sizes, all the correct fittings, cages, etc. Save you a lot of time doing research (which I did a lot of).

Here is a video showing how it works and it's all you need to watch in order to know how to make the fittings ends - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKExoJPH9NQ

So, not only can you cut the hoses to length yourself and get the perfect tuck and run, but you put the fittings on yourself. Another HUGE advantage here is the new hoses are significantly narrower than the original, and later replacement, barrier hoses. I am replacing Hervey-supplied Parker Futura barrier hoses which I was able to install without lifting the body off the frame but it was NOT easy. I remember it took hours of pushing and tugging. These new hoses took less than 30 minutes!

I found it easiest to just cut up the old hoses as I went. I was able to fairly easily tug the driver side hose out from the front of the body but the passenger side hose was thicker and pinched between the body and stainless heater core pipes. I had to use a razor blade to slice the hose lengthwise a few times so that it could collapse while I tugged on it from the rear of the car. Eventually all was free and I was already fishing the new lines through. I plugged the new hoses will silicone plugs so they don't get dirty while working.

Following the video, I made the front two connections easily.

I am holding off on the compressor connections for a moment while I wait for an adapter to arrive on Monday that will convert my SD7H15 compressor pad connection to the EZ Clip screw-on fittings at a 90 degree angle. That way I can cut the excess off the hose before making my connections cleanly.

I also have to finish wiring up my passenger side turn signal with the new socket and Weather Pack connector.

Next up I got the DPI battery tie-down kit. My old straps are rotten and finally fell apart while doing the frame-off. The new kit uses velcro and includes new mounting brackets and hardware. Should have time to do that this weekend!

69495







New DPI / EZ Clip fittings that go to the compressor. I need an adapter for each fitting that will go from threaded female o-ring to GM-style pad fittings. I found the adapters at acparts.com (thanks Ricky!)

You'll need a #10 and a #8 o-ring for these fittings. The pad side on the compressor uses #10 o-rings.












69496










Comparison of the Parker Futura barrier hoses (top) and the DPI Danfoss hose on the bottom.










69497







After lubricating the fitting with AC oil, pushing it into the hose, and adding the cage, you squeeze these two clips together which hold the hose to the fitting's two o-rings. You use a special tool for this (DPI loans the tool out if you need it!!). Easy work, wish this stuff was around last time I changed out my DeLorean A/C stuff.

[82DMC12]

OK, turns out the DPI battery tie-down is actually nylon straps going through a spring-loaded tensioner. I said it was velcro in the last post but once I got it out of the bag I see I was incorrect!

Super easy install - four M6 nyloc nuts on the outside of the car to remove, withdraw the old strap brackets (mine had no buckles anymore), vacuum out the compartment, and install the new ones. They are stainless so will last forever. I'm thinking I will actually put a bit of RTV under each exterior washer to make sure it is waterproof. It's a very high quality set and the price reflects it.

I also updated my other front turn signal and installed a weather pack connector for it and then replaced the lighting harness cable clips and stainless hardware that goes into the body.

I don't really have anything else to work on at the moment until Monday when my A/C adapters arrive!

69501











Old battery-acid damaged straps









69502










New strap kit installed. The other wires you see to the right of the battery are for the stereo system. I'd love to replace that section of carpet however it doesn't seem to be available anymore.

[82DMC12]

Back at it with the air conditioning last night!

I received my pad-to-female o-ring 90 degree adapters yesterday and test fit everything, cutting the main lines to the proper length and then installing the EZ Clip ends to them. What a breeze!

I then installed a new #12 o-ring on the Accumulator-to-compressor connection and a new #10 o-ring on the top condenser connection. Lubed with Nylog and tightened up. Same with the connections on the back of the compressor and the o-rings on the main lines. Finally, once again, able to do a pressure test!

I filled the system up to 200 PSI, let it sit for about 30 minutes to make sure it appears my high pressure gauge was holding steady, then closed all connections and removed my gauges. I put them back on this morning before work and found no change in pressure. I will leave it alone until tonight and if it's still OK I'm going to call it a day and press on.

With that good news, I then went about installing the radiator duct back to the car. This is such a finicky piece of junk made worse by using a non-OEM parallel flow condenser with connections a bit closer together than OEM. Last time I just jammed the duct up in there but I want to be better this time around. So, I made a couple measurements and used a coping saw to cut longer notches out on the driver side of the duct so the new A/C lines can come out without contacting the duct. I smoothed it all out with a sanding wheel on a dremel and then finally got it installed which also involved loosening up each radiator bracket one at a time to get the duct on top of them. I hope I don't have to remove this duct again for a very long time.

I have also scheduled an alignment with a good shop about 5 miles from my house. I've gone for a few test drives but didn't feel comfortable hitting highway speed or getting too far from home without the duct installed or a proper alignment. This will be a big step to finishing up this frame-off project!

69508






Test fitting the EZ Clip hoses and the orientation of the 90 degree adapters so I can clear the oil fill cap and not interfere with the dipstick. And make it look good cosmetically, of course.








69509









Hoses clamped and in final position. I don't like the OEM plate that holds the adapters to the compressor, it seems like the pressure is a bit uneven on the inner (pressure) fitting. The adapters came with a new plate but it needs to use an allen cap screw to fit to the compressor. I need to get a different screw to thread into my head so I might be replacing this.









69510








Another view of the final routing. I will be tucking the hoses up to the sway bar using two-sided velcro tape.











69511






Radiator duct re-installed and notched for my condenser lines.











69512







Passenger side duct fits fine








69513





Will be replacing the five nuts and washers that go on the grill with stainless hardware









69514






Gauges hooked up once again with nitrogen in the system








69515









So far so good, holding 200 PSI










69516







I will be using some leak detection dye when I recharge the system later this week.

[82DMC12]

Nitrogen is looking good so I'm hoping to recharge either Friday or this weekend. I disconnected the hoses from the back of the compressor one more time this morning so I could try to install the retaining bracket that came with my adapters. It would provide a bit more even pressure on the back of the adapters compared to the OEM bracket. Unfortunately, the intended way the bracket should be installed doesn't work in my situation because in order to clear the oil filler spout, I need the high side adapter turned in a way that interferes with the bracket design. For some reason there is a square part in the center of the bracket which prevents you from turning the adapters 360 degrees. Pretty stupid. I flipped the bracket around and tried to use a longer bolt but that didn't work either - the other side of the backet is not planed flat enough. Oh well, back to the original bracket. I filled up nitrogen one more time to make sure it's still sealed up. Unless there is a problem, I shouldn't have to remove these hoses again.

I also installed some brighter reverse lamps. I switched to LED's for all of my lights except the turn signals but I found the superbrightLED 1156's to be too dim for any actual night time back up illumination. I had bookmarked these LED's as a brighter option and finally ordered and installed them today. BIG difference!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01H54SP6O

69518




This is the 90 swivel adapter I'm using for the SD7H15 compressor. As you can see, the retaining bracket has a square section in the middle that prevents you from spinning the adapters 360 degrees. The back side of the bracket is counter-sunk so the allen screw would be fully set into the other side. Unfortunately it's not perfectly flat on the back side so it can't be flipped over and reliably used to retain the adapters. I could have a machine shop plane it and rough up the back though.... hmm.






69519









New 1,700 lumen 1156 bulb in my hand, Superbright LED mounted on the board. Big difference. The superbright looks cheap.










69520










The new bulb also has a lens facing outward to help focus the light.










69521





New bulb on the left, old superbright bulb on the right. The phone camera doesn't really do it justice. The old bulbs were worthless for actual illumination of your surroundings!

[82DMC12]

Not just a big day today, but a HUGE day! Today was Alignment Day!

I've been on a handful of progressively longer test drives until I was confident that all systems are working properly (except A/C which needed a charge but does appear leak-free), no overheating, fans are working, clutch and brakes are good, and no surprises. The chassis has felt darty and a bit goofy but I figured an alignment would take care of that since everything was mostly just "slapped together" in the sense that I tried to keep the suspension settings the same as they were on my old frame so it's at least "close". Sometimes I just had to eye-ball it. I put three shims per side on the trailing arms.

I made an appointment with a family-owned shop that I had brought the D to before when I needed the A/C recharged after changing all the hoses out a few years back. They have a good reputation and they remembered the car, also saying "no problem" when I asked if it would be all right for me to hang out on the shop floor so I can show the tech working on the alignment a few things regarding the additional caster and camber control.

Once they had the car pulled in and on the rack, they let me come out and talk about the alignment settings (I brought the service bulletin with all the details in it) and I went over the Toby Tabs and how it all works. The tech had not seen a DeLorean before but understood perfectly what needed to be done. They had a Hunter unit which of course already has all the stock specs loaded into it.

All went well, we ended up putting 6 shims on the driver side and 4 on the passenger side. Lots of camber adjustment in the rear due to the lowered coilovers but we got back to -0.75 degrees. The SAI was virtually zero which the tech said is almost unheard of, suggesting that the frame must be very square and free of twists or damage.

On leaving the shop, it was a fantastic sunny Friday morning so I went for a cruise, enjoying a car that once again FEELS RIGHT. An alignment made a big difference in making the car feel like a car and not just a janky project!

I made sure to take a few under chassis photos while we were under there.

69529

69530

69531

69532

69533

69534

69535

[glockworks21]

Looks great Andy. Nice work.

[82DMC12]

The punch list is getting smaller and of course I have now started to work on other little projects.

Since the last update, I managed to get the A/C vacuumed and then charged up enough to operate however the ambient temperature remains pretty low in Kansas City. I know it is a bit under charged at the moment so I will be checking it again on the first "hot" day we have this spring. However, the compressor is kicking on and functioning, blowing very cold air out of the dash at idle. I added about a tablespoon of UV dye so I can monitor any leakage but the system does appear to be tight now.

After the alignment, the car is driving very well and I will continue to experiment with different dampening settings on the coilovers.

I met up with David Hudgins at the Plaza in Kansas City last weekend which was the longest drive I've been on since the body went back on the frame!

The next morning, I was going to check something in the frunk when I tried to pull hood release and found it to be loose with no tension - however the release cable was still attached on both sides. The trunk would not open! It seemed like something had come apart at the latch but of course I could not see what was happening because the hood was still closed. I do have a backup cable installed but that did not seem to be working either. I tried both rattling the hood up and down while pulling on either cable, pushing down on the center of the hood, etc. but no luck. Rob Grady showed me a photo of a bent wire he uses to sneak in under the hood and manually pull the release. I tried to make one similar but working blind with the experience of The Master was a frustrating experience.

Finally I decided to remove the headlights and disconnect the hinges from the front of the car, and then lift the hood up from the front. This also required disconnecting the hood courtesy lamp, the quarter panel ground braid, and the hood struts (from inside). Once I had the hood lifted up a bit I could see that the clevis rod had fallen out of the latch lever. I was able to use a broom stick to manually move the lever and free my hood. Note that this is a very risky and dangerous method and I don't recommend it. Very easy to damage the hood or the fascia via the hinges. Personally I was not too opposed to doing this because I was actually going to be restoring my headlight buckets, frames, and hardware later this year anyway. How the clevis rod came out, I'm not sure, but I was not able to find the cotter pin! I must admit it's possible I did not put the cotter pin back in place when I installed my backup cable. Maybe? I'm not sure. My backup cable was still attached to the lever however I underestimated how much effort was needed to pull it. It's possible the backup cable would have worked if I had pulled even harder but I was worried about breaking it. I am going to look at the backup cable routing and how to use it better in the future.

I installed a new cotter pin and all is well again.

The hood is still off the car as I have now removed all of the head light brackets and adjustment hardware, the hinges, my grill logo, and both wiper arms and dropped them off with Hudgins to get them cleaned up and powder coated. All new hardware for everything is also ordered from Belmetric.

69543





Hood after disconnecting the hinges from behind the headlights.









69544




This is what I found once I got the hood up. The U-shaped puller was not connected to the lever anymore and the clevis rod was laying on my carpet. No clevis pin or cotter pin found, though!





69542







Only shot I have of the old rusty headlight brackets and buckets. Getting powder coated now!








69541








The release wire should look something like this but it was really tough to judge how deep to make the downward bend. Once I got the hood off, I did confirm that the wire *WORKS* if only I had the right angle and bends to it. I am going to re-bend it now that the hood has been freed and practice using it!

[Helirich]

Your car certainly looks good underneath! That business with the hood is scary. I need to look into a backup cable.

Thanks for posting.

[82DMC12]

Your car certainly looks good underneath! That business with the hood is scary. I need to look into a backup cable.

Thanks for posting.

Yes, that damn hood latch can be a show-stopper especially if I had been out of town. No way easy way to get gas into the car if you don't have the gas flap.

Regarding the backup release cable, I know I had tested it when I first installed it and I was satisfied it worked. However this time the loop quickly came uncrimped while I was tugging on it and then I was afraid I would break the cable on the latch side, and I didn't know if I would need it to get the hood open at some point. By the time I got the hood off the car, I could see the backup was still connected and it probably would have worked if I had wrapped it around a wrench or something and tugged hard. Part of the problem is the backup was routed into the driver foot well. This means the cable has to go behind the steering column and poke around around the inertia switch. It's an awkward place to pull and it gets friction from other things in the firewall.

I am considering drilling a hole and adding a grommet in the clutch access cover, then feeding a backup cable through there which would be accessed by the wheel well. This would be a more direct pull and possibly easier to use. There is also a method where you can loop the backup cable around the driver side hood bump stop so you can pull on it from outside the car. That would also work.

Anyway, I am going to make sure this is bulletproof and never happens again!!

[82DMC12]

A couple weeks now since my last update - but life is good!

What have I been working on? Well I am now at the point where I am working on many small projects/issues in the pursuit of perfection.


The headlight buckets, brackets, grill logo, hood hinges, and wiper arms have all been re-finished and reinstalled
Toby's Wings-A-Light LED quad headlight set installed
Dorman headlight adjusters installed and new springs
hood aligned and bump stops re-installed with black RTV
New hood release backup cable installed, this one is longer and has a couple other changes I prefer. Confirmed working!
New Bosch beam wipers installed


All of those items wrapped up my hood release debacle and headlamp refurbishment that resulted from it.

69593

69594

69595

69596

69597

[82DMC12]

Back to back updates because I wanted to close out the last chapter....

I believe I can finally say that my frame-off / frame-swap is complete. I am no longer working on any projects or outstanding issues related to the frame replacement project, or any of the other rabbit holes it took me down!

If I had to say there is anything at all remaining, it is that I have an intermittent cross gate cable issue where sometimes the shifter is butter-smooth, other times it feels like the shifting is a bit notchy or "off" but I am still able to get all gears at all times. I am not going to make any further adjustments unless it gets worse because I do plan to replace the crossgate cable as soon as DPI has a new one back in stock. However that's not stopping me from driving the car.

Other issues addressed lately:


Accidentally installed the passenger side fender stay upside down so my passenger side front tire was rubbing it at full-lock, only noticed when reversing out of my garage and into the street. Rooking mistake (as per Rob Grady). Flipped it over today and of course everything is good now.
Low pressure switch on the accumulator is new but the plug was flakey. I cut the plug off and installed insulated flag terminals directly to the spades. No issue now.
Finished charging the A/C
Zip tied various hoses, fuel lines, etc out of danger's way particularly in the fuel accumulator area so they don't hit the shift levers or bell crank.
Re-fastened all three knee pads better than before, this was a source of squeaking during driving
Cleaned up connectors on the blower motor for the HVAC
Hooked up +12 cable for my stereo system and adjusted settings back to how I like them, set up bluetooth, applied silicone spray to the retracting antenna
Replaced A/C idler pulleys / bearings with new DPI set
Replaced shift boot and frame with DPI stainless boot frame and a new leather boot from redlinegoods
Added a short hose extension to the A/C drain tube, this allows the water drip to the ground rather than dripping onto the frame and fuel tank plate first
Replaced header bottle boil-out hose with a longer hose zip tied to the passenger side rear quarter stay, this will allow coolant to blow out under the car instead of onto the frame/ rear fascia / exhaust
Checked dwell and made a slight mixture adjustment
Replaced a couple of electrical spade connections at the ignition resistors


And of course as any DeLorean owner knows, the punch list is never ending. However, I am now at a point where the car is totally drivable (even took it to work the other day), looks phenomenal, and is absolutely more reliable both mechanically and electrically than ever in my ownership. The remaining items on my punch list are either cosmetic or tiny details.

After all this work, it's very strange standing in the garage looking at the car on a Saturday afternoon and feeling like there's nothing else for me to work on right now!

I'm really looking forward to enjoying the car this driving season and, of course, showing it off at both DeLorean events and local events!

[Helirich]

Congrats! You deserve it.

Thanks for posting.

[82DMC12]

Congrats! You deserve it.

Thanks for posting.

Thank you! I drove the car to work on Friday and today and it's running beautifully. Really a joy to drive! I won't leave this thread though. It will turn into my ongoing restoration blog. Here are the items currently on my punch list:


Re-check AC charge on a hot humid day
Get louvers repainted / touched up
Driver side kneepad brace is missing, need to replace it
Re-install trailing arm shields (going to polish them up a bit first)
Change transmission fluid (maybe middle summer / after 1000 miles)
Get headlights aimed properly
Slight clicking from driver side, seems to be angle drive related
Check steering rack again, passenger side inner tie rod seems loose
Clutch pedal squeaks a bit but doesn't appear to be leaking, continue to monitor
Monitor transmission, the diff adjusting nut had a slight seepage after a test drive (one small bead of fluid hanging from the bottom of the casing). Wiped it clean and it hasn't reappeared though.
Replace cross gate cable when a better one is available (DPI)
Monitor a possible washer fluid leak when the tank is totally full
Get fascias refinished again (25 years after the last time)

[Timeless]

Love this thread. Interested in your fascia repaint progress as I would like to repaint my original paint late '81 fascias in the near future. My plan is to utilize the DMCH paint codes.

[82DMC12]

Love this thread. Interested in your fascia repaint progress as I would like to repaint my original paint late '81 fascias in the near future. My plan is to utilize the DMCH paint codes.

Thinking back, I believe I had the rear fascia repainted shortly after I bought the car. I will have to go back into my receipts and see which paint code they used. I think there are two different colors of gray that were used? Based on this photo, does anyone know if I have the "early" paint or the "late" paint? I don't really care what I'm "supposed" to have (11596), I just like the color and want to keep it this way.

69599

[82DMC12]

I've been driving the car back and forth to work on nice days and everything is working great. I've also been doing a few small updates and projects here and there.

First of all I replaced the hood emblem with an NOS emblem. It wasn't totally necessary but it's an icing on the cake kind of thing. Here is what I did:

The emblem edges are not parallel to any other edges on the hood or fascia so you have to be creative with a method to make sure the new one goes where the old one was. I did not want to use a marker because I also intended on re-brushing the SS under the emblem.

I used wide painter tape to trace the top and side edges, using tape much longer than needed, this way I could remove some of the tape for the re-brushing but then use the outer edges of the tape to lay NEW tape over it, reestablishing my guide lines.

1. Set tape onto the hood as described, and extra tape on the fascia to protect it while re-brushing
2. Using a heat gun on LOW and using a plastic body pry tool, heat the edge of the emblem while constantly moving the heat gun, until you can slide the pry tool under the edge.
3. Continue heating the emblem in sections, just enough to get the tool to slide further and further with each new heated section. Eventually the emblem will lift away.
4. Remove the old adhesive as best you can with heat gun plus pry tool, then rags and mineral spirits, and finally with a razor blade if needed (No it did NOT scratch the SS)
5. Remove the tape directly above the emblem and about half of the tape on either side of it. This will allow you to rebrush the body where the emblem was.
6. Using a sanding hand block with 120 grit wrapped around it, move the block in one direction only using light pressure from half way up the hood downward to the edge of the fascia, continue until all trace of the old emblem is gone. Feather by doing a few passes, lighter and lighter to the left and right so it blends.
7. Follow the same sequence with the gray blending pad and handle for blending the body
8. Clean the area well with windex and towels, allow to dry completely
9. Overlay new tape over what remains of the old tape, there should be sufficient tape to re-establish the guide lines for the new tape.
10. Now that you have a new piece of tape for the top and sides of the emblem, you can lay the new emblem in exactly the same place as the old emblem on nice freshly brushed stainless.

69605






Here is the tape job after re-graining and getting ready to put the emblem on. The emblem goes under the crosswise tape, between the two parallel strips.









69606







Done! Easy 45 minute project.

[82DMC12]

Another day driving the DeLorean to the office - doesn't get any better than this. Fixed two issues this week - 1) Sometimes I had a clicking sound coming from the driver side of the car which was rhythmic with wheel speed, stops when the car is stopped, and doesn't change while braking. I recently had my original angle drive rebuilt by Grady and I replaced the lower speedo cable. I also put some tape on the white plastic adapter cap and put fresh grease in the lambda counter. Despite all of this, there is still a bit of a bounce to the speedo needle. I was thinking the clicking was speedometer related. Turns out it was actually my driver side parking brake cable end making slight contact with stick-on wheel weights. I had the wheels re-powder coated and balanced last year but didn't notice the issue right away since I had so much other stuff going on with the restoration. I was able to correct the issue by slightly bending the parking brake lever downward and also by holding the cable end more perpendicular to the disc while tightening the M6 locknut. This provided about 3mm clearance, and I am now click-free once again.2) I replaced all of my fuses and changeover relays as preventative maintenance since they were pretty much all 20+ years old. I found new Bosch relays from FCP Euro, a Bosch Lambda relay on Amazon (yep), and replaced all the fuses with genuine Japanese Bussman fuses. My breakers are already updated to Cole Hersee higher amp breakers and my fan relay is replaced with a quality three-way fused jumper. After replacing the relays, I started the car briefly, checked my A/C, fans, headlights, etc to make sure they work, then turned the car off and headed inside. The next day I was driving the car and it seemed quite sluggish off the line until about 3,000 RPM when it "woke up" and felt normal. No misfires or anything but it felt like I had four under-inflated tires. I got home and after the car cooled down I pulled the plugs, which I was going to do anyway, and all looked perfect. I then put my dwell meter on only to find new needle movement at all, as in, no signal on the orange wire. I also noticed the car was idling/smelling rich. I found the green wire that the lambda relay plugs into within the receptacle had come loose and been pushed down so that it could not make contact. This caused the lambda ECU to have no power and thus no control over mixture. After checking the connections again and bending the lock tab out, I had a solid connection and perfect idling again. This is the second time I have had female spades on a relay get pushed down and cause trouble. I think this is a common issue with our cars!

[82DMC12]

Not a lot to report this week, however I did address a few small issues, and of course, found a couple new ones!


Replaced terminals on the idle microswitch, I had replaced them a long time ago with straight female spade connectors but now that I have an insulated flag terminal crimper I replaced them with the correct terminals. Confirmed proper operation of the switch by checking the black/green wire at the idle ECU. All good.
Added a missing bracket to the driver side outer knee pad, this helps to stiffen it up and reduce squeaks/rattles
Put some silicone spray on the electric radio antenna
Detailed the engine bay and washed the car this morning to get it ready for a car show next weekend
Identified a rattle this is mostly heard when the car is cold and warming up, it was coming from the engine bay area. I thought it might be the louvers or T-panel rattling but it turns out it is the engine cover. If I push down on the center rear of the cover between the hinges, the rattle goes away. I had the engine cover refinished and I think it's been rattling ever since. I will have to spend more time figuring out exactly what rattles, it might be the cover stay. The nice thing is once I get that rattle fixed the cabin will actually be pretty quiet.
Had a great afternoon drive this weekend pushing the car harder and winding it up on city streets and just generally having a great time. Turned the rebound up one setting on both front and rear, I think the front is on 6 and the rear is on 5 but I will double check and post here. The car feels so solid, it's great.
Only stand out issue is the loose passenger side inner tie rod. I was going to wait until winter to pull the rack out and look at it but I think I will do it sooner rather than later. It's really kind of annoying on the interstate but not so noticeable on city streets. The steering wheel has maybe 2 to 4 degrees of play - either the plastic cup or washer is damaged, or I don't have the two inner tie rod nuts tightened in the correct location to put the right tension on the joint. If I get lucky, I can fix it in an afternoon.
Got my parking brake brackets clear-coated with clear ceramic so they don't rust again


69636




This morning I washed the car and did a quick engine bay detail with Aero 303 Protectant










69637







Met up with David Hudgins for coffee on the Plaza in Kansas City this weekend









69638









Duplicolor Clear Ceramic sprayed over plated parts helps keep them from rusting or flaking too quickly, I spray this stuff on a lot of parts before installing them. It also makes the parts easier to just spray off or clean with a cloth.

[Timeless]

Identified a rattle this is mostly heard when the car is cold and warming up, it was coming from the engine bay area. I thought it might be the louvers or T-panel rattling but it turns out it is the engine cover. If I push down on the center rear of the cover between the hinges, the rattle goes away. I had the engine cover refinished and I think it's been rattling ever since. I will have to spend more time figuring out exactly what rattles, it might be the cover stay. The nice thing is once I get that rattle fixed the cabin will actually be pretty quiet.
My engine cover hinges are original and causing cover rattling over brick paver roads & small road imperfections. Tightened the hardware but that only lasted a couple months. I have a new set that'll be installed soon.

[82DMC12]

My engine cover hinges are original and causing cover rattling over brick paver roads & small road imperfections. Tightened the hardware but that only lasted a couple months. I have a new set that'll be installed soon.

I had my engine cover over with another owner and he riveted a thin aluminum strip to the back side of the cover so that it doesn't flex anymore when it is open. Excellent upgrade, and invisible after re-painting the whole cover. I'll have to check my hinges but I think they are OK. I believe my issue is the prop rod/stay might be rattling while the cover is down. Should be easy enough to figure out.

[Bitsyncmaster]

I had my engine cover over with another owner and he riveted a thin aluminum strip to the back side of the cover so that it doesn't flex anymore when it is open. Excellent upgrade, and invisible after re-painting the whole cover. I'll have to check my hinges but I think they are OK. I believe my issue is the prop rod/stay might be rattling while the cover is down. Should be easy enough to figure out.

I've been wanting to do something similar to my engine cover. I always see it flex when I open it. Just have not decided to use fiber glass or another support like riveting metal.

[Timeless]

I had my engine cover over with another owner and he riveted a thin aluminum strip to the back side of the cover so that it doesn't flex anymore when it is open. Excellent upgrade, and invisible after re-painting the whole cover. I'll have to check my hinges but I think they are OK. I believe my issue is the prop rod/stay might be rattling while the cover is down. Should be easy enough to figure out.
My factory prop triangle assembly was deleted the day I got the car - installed the DMC louvre support. I like the alum strip idea and also DPI has an engine cover support which I'm sure you're aware of.

[82DMC12]

OK, here is reinforcement strip I had added to the engine cover. As you can see, it was riveted in and then the whole cover was painted to help it blend in nicely. It's just a thin strip of aluminum.

69640

69641

[82DMC12]

I was out of town most of this week so no DeLorean updates until this weekend. I went to a car show on Saturday and had a great time but also got a bit sunburnt LOL.

When I was driving to the show, I noticed my speedometer was not working! Dang it. This morning I took the wheel off and found my plastic cup is OK, the Grady Angle Drive remains OK, and I could spin the lower speed cable from the wheel well. But, when I put the tire back on, still no speedo. Took the tire off again, and this time took the lambda counter out and found it also to be working perfectly smoothly (freshly greased, too). The upper cable was also working with no binding. Well, it turns out the inner cable for the lower speed cable snapped straight in half. No binding or twisting, it just cracked right off. This was a cable from DMCMW installed about 2 years ago but surely under 1000 miles on it. Since there doesn't seem to be unraveling or damaged to the angle drive or adapter cup, I am going to chalk it up to a materials defect. I can't find any cause for the break since everything else is working smoothly. I think the cable was routed correctly in the wheel well and yes I do have the speedo guide installed.

I think I am going to replace the upper and lower cables as well as the lambda box with a new one-piece cable from PJ Grady.


69642

69643

69644

[82DMC12]

One more update for the weekend. I have topped up the A/C now that it's a hellish 90F in Kansas City already. I think it might be slightly undercharged but I'm going to roll with it and see how it goes. Honestly it was working really well with only about 24 oz in the system (R134a) but I added about 5 more oz to bring it up to approximately 29 oz. The low pressure switch is cycling the compressor off at 20 - 25 PSI which I read somewhere is correct for an R134a pressure switch. High pressure is a bit low (maybe 20 PSI low) compared to the chart I'm using but I really don't want to overcharge.

I'm getting about 35F vent temps during testing (fan speed on low) and my accumulator isn't frosting up so I know I'm damn close. I think I'll just drive with it for a while and see how it goes in real life driving.

[DGI]

Great thread. Read it from beginning to end.

Car looks amazing and hope you enjoy it for (at least) another 20 years!

[SupercoolBill]

One more update for the weekend. I have topped up the A/C now that it's a hellish 90F in Kansas City already. I think it might be slightly undercharged but I'm going to roll with it and see how it goes. Honestly it was working really well with only about 24 oz in the system (R134a) but I added about 5 more oz to bring it up to approximately 29 oz. The low pressure switch is cycling the compressor off at 20 - 25 PSI which I read somewhere is correct for an R134a pressure switch. High pressure is a bit low (maybe 20 PSI low) compared to the chart I'm using but I really don't want to overcharge.

I'm getting about 35F vent temps during testing (fan speed on low) and my accumulator isn't frosting up so I know I'm damn close. I think I'll just drive with it for a while and see how it goes in real life driving.Sounds like it is working pretty great. Like you said, I wouldn't mess.with it.

Sent from my SM-F926U1 using Tapatalk

[82DMC12]

Great thread. Read it from beginning to end.

Car looks amazing and hope you enjoy it for (at least) another 20 years!That is some epic dedication! I salute you, sir!

Sent from my Pixel 6a using Tapatalk

[82DMC12]

Speedometer is now working properly again, thanks to Rob Grady.

Since I had already invested in a rebuilt Smiths angle drive, I didn't want to throw it all out and go speedbox yet since the speedo cables are really pretty cheap to replace. I elected to buy a one-piece cable that replaces the upper, lower, and Lambda box. Rob sells these and knowing they are quality, made-in-USA, is what you want to hear.

Received it today and less than hour later I already had it fit and driving around the block. No more low speed speedo needle bounce which I've had forever, less moving parts, less friction and resistance, and hopefully a lasting repair.

69649






Photo of the cable Rob took for me prior to shipping











69650






Lambda counter removed and cable routed up and over to the dash. I have it attached to the lambda box bracket with 2-sided velco tape, which also holds my backup hood release up and out of the way.

[82DMC12]

I've got a couple projects to work on over the next few days.

1) Washer fluid tank has a pinhole leak in a section where it has already been repaired. Another owner and I fixed some major cracks in it with black plastic weld and it amazingly worked quite well however we might have gotten the weld a bit thin in one spot. We are going to try again this weekend! If that doesn't work, I'll just get a new tank from Ed.

2) Looking forward to pulling my steering rack out again and getting the inner tie rod ends set up properly. It sounds like I didn't get the passenger side one under the correct pre-tension so I have a loose joint there. It is noticeable at highway speed. Rob Grady is sending me new cups and springs, and this time I'll set the pre-tension with a spring scale. Should be a nice afternoon project (but then have to get another alignment!)

3) I have a very slight transmission leak on the driver side where the axle comes out. While rebuilding the transmission, I replaced the axle seal, inner o-ring, and differential nut o-ring. I also have sleeved axle yokes. Fortunately there are no leaks actually on the axles, but the differential nut is leaking. I wanted to confirm this 100% so I used a UV lamp and glasses to check and sure enough, you can see gear oil coming out of the threads. I actually found the correct tool to remove/adjust the differential nut so I'm planning to mark the nut, count turns, and apply Hylomar AF to the threads this time. That will definitely seal it up. Might get to that this weekend too.

These are currently top priority before I go back to addressing other cosmetic things.

69666






Here you can see a thin bead of gear oil pooled under the diff nut. It's hard to see with a work lamp, but a UV light easily reveals the leak. Gear oil appears to be opaque white under UV lamp. The color difference is very pronounced if you have the tinted UV glasses on too (my phone camera doesn't pick it up like that).








69667








Snagged this Kent Moore tool for adjusting the Renault differential nut on ebay for almost nothing. Might be willing to loan this tool out to other owners once I'm done using it.

[82DMC12]

Today I decided to see if I can fix the differential adjustment nut leak referenced above. I received the adjustment tool, bought 4 liters of gear oil, and got to work. First I drained the "old" oil out - actually less than 500 miles on it since I put the transmission back together but I was planning to drain it anyway to make sure there wasn't anything I should worry about. After that, zipped out the allen screw bolts that hold my axle in with the air impact, withdrew the axle, then tapped out the roll pin that holds the axle yoke onto the axle stub. After removing the yoke, I got a better look at the diff nut and held the tool up to the nut to make sure it will work. All good.

I set the parking brake so I was sure the differential would not turn at all while working.

Next I took a paint pen and marked the three teeth that are touching the lock clip. I checked the lock clip to see that it was actually pretty much centered over the middle tooth. I could also mark the clip if I felt it was necessary so I could get the nut in exactly the same place it was.

Then I removed the nut while counting revolutions - it was about 8.4 revolutions to remove the nut from the transmission. Once on the bench, I cleaned the threads and laid a thick bead of Hylomar on them. After waiting a few minutes and letting the Hylomar run a bit, I reinstalled the nut using the tool and putting it right back where I found it.

Reinstalled the axle and refilled with fresh gear oil. I think I was done in less than one hour.

Test drive went great, no gear whine and so far no sign of leakage. Will continue to monitor!

69674








Diff nut castles / teeth marked so there's no question where the clip goes again. Could also mark the clip on either side of the gold M8 screw to get it exactly correct.












69675








Diff tool fits inside the ring and is driven with a 1/2" ratchet












69676









Diff nut removed, o-ring already replaced 300 miles ago. Cleaned the threads. Now would be the perfect time to replace the lip seal if required.











69677









Bead of Hylomar applied.











69678






Fully re-installed and now ready for the axle.

[SupercoolBill]

I've got a couple projects to work on over the next few days.

1) Washer fluid tank has a pinhole leak in a section where it has already been repaired. Another owner and I fixed some major cracks in it with black plastic weld and it amazingly worked quite well however we might have gotten the weld a bit thin in one spot. We are going to try again this weekend! If that doesn't work, I'll just get a new tank from Ed.

2) Looking forward to pulling my steering rack out again and getting the inner tie rod ends set up properly. It sounds like I didn't get the passenger side one under the correct pre-tension so I have a loose joint there. It is noticeable at highway speed. Rob Grady is sending me new cups and springs, and this time I'll set the pre-tension with a spring scale. Should be a nice afternoon project (but then have to get another alignment!)

3) I have a very slight transmission leak on the driver side where the axle comes out. While rebuilding the transmission, I replaced the axle seal, inner o-ring, and differential nut o-ring. I also have sleeved axle yokes. Fortunately there are no leaks actually on the axles, but the differential nut is leaking. I wanted to confirm this 100% so I used a UV lamp and glasses to check and sure enough, you can see gear oil coming out of the threads. I actually found the correct tool to remove/adjust the differential nut so I'm planning to mark the nut, count turns, and apply Hylomar AF to the threads this time. That will definitely seal it up. Might get to that this weekend too.

These are currently top priority before I go back to addressing other cosmetic things.

69666






Here you can see a thin bead of gear oil pooled under the diff nut. It's hard to see with a work lamp, but a UV light easily reveals the leak. Gear oil appears to be opaque white under UV lamp. The color difference is very pronounced if you have the tinted UV glasses on too (my phone camera doesn't pick it up like that).








69667








Snagged this Kent Moore tool for adjusting the Renault differential nut on ebay for almost nothing. Might be willing to loan this tool out to other owners once I'm done using it.Did you have to use special oil in your transmission or put an additive in it in order for it to illuminate with a UV light?
We have a UV kit for locating leaks on air conditioning systems but we have to shoot stuff into the system.

Sent from my SM-F926U1 using Tapatalk

[SupercoolBill]

Today I decided to see if I can fix the differential adjustment nut leak referenced above. I received the adjustment tool, bought 4 liters of gear oil, and got to work. First I drained the "old" oil out - actually less than 500 miles on it since I put the transmission back together but I was planning to drain it anyway to make sure there wasn't anything I should worry about. After that, zipped out the allen screw bolts that hold my axle in with the air impact, withdrew the axle, then tapped out the roll pin that holds the axle yoke onto the axle stub. After removing the yoke, I got a better look at the diff nut and held the tool up to the nut to make sure it will work. All good.

I set the parking brake so I was sure the differential would not turn at all while working.

Next I took a paint pen and marked the three teeth that are touching the lock clip. I checked the lock clip to see that it was actually pretty much centered over the middle tooth. I could also mark the clip if I felt it was necessary so I could get the nut in exactly the same place it was.

Then I removed the nut while counting revolutions - it was about 8.4 revolutions to remove the nut from the transmission. Once on the bench, I cleaned the threads and laid a thick bead of Hylomar on them. After waiting a few minutes and letting the Hylomar run a bit, I reinstalled the nut using the tool and putting it right back where I found it.

Reinstalled the axle and refilled with fresh gear oil. I think I was done in less than one hour.

Test drive went great, no gear whine and so far no sign of leakage. Will continue to monitor!

69674








Diff nut castles / teeth marked so there's no question where the clip goes again. Could also mark the clip on either side of the gold M8 screw to get it exactly correct.












69675








Diff tool fits inside the ring and is driven with a 1/2" ratchet












69676









Diff nut removed, o-ring already replaced 300 miles ago. Cleaned the threads. Now would be the perfect time to replace the lip seal if required.











69677









Bead of Hylomar applied.











69678






Fully re-installed and now ready for the axle.It's really great to see high quality pictures of these parts since I haven't taken my transmission apart yet.
So is it safe to say that the o-ring on the nut is supposed to keep it from leaking but doesn't really do the job?

Sent from my SM-F926U1 using Tapatalk

[82DMC12]

Did you have to use special oil in your transmission or put an additive in it in order for it to illuminate with a UV light?
We have a UV kit for locating leaks on air conditioning systems but we have to shoot stuff into the system.

Sent from my SM-F926U1 using TapatalkI'm not sure about all gear oils, but I first heard about this from someone who uses the Red Line gear oil. He told me if you use a UV light with the UV glasses that gear oil will be much easier to see. I use standard Valvoline 80w90. I tried it with the UV light and glasses I got for finding air conditioning leaks and sure enough it is very helpful. The gear oil looks bright white against anything that it is on. It's so much easier now to figure out exactly where a leak is coming from. I think part of what helps is it eliminates reflections and shininess from the oil. My cell phone can't really pick it up but when you're under the car you will be amazed.

Sent from my Pixel 6a using Tapatalk

[82DMC12]

It's really great to see high quality pictures of these parts since I haven't taken my transmission apart yet.
So is it safe to say that the o-ring on the nut is supposed to keep it from leaking but doesn't really do the job?

Sent from my SM-F926U1 using TapatalkThat seems to be exactly the problem. Rob Grady did tell me that the factory o-ring doesn't seem to leak but if you start messing with it, suddenly it does leak. I had replaced the o-ring when I had my transmission apart last year but I also had a leak in that general area that I had not diagnosed this carefully prior to that. I've always had really good experience using hylomar so I'll continue to monitor it but I'd be pretty damn surprised if it leaks the same way now.

Sent from my Pixel 6a using Tapatalk

[82DMC12]

It was a good weekend and knocked off a few more things from the punch list.

I started Saturday off with a nice morning drive and went to a great little car show at the Kansas City Auto Museum where they let me park in the main section instead of the side parking lot because "we don't usually get to see these!"

More driving around on Saturday and no hiccups. No leaks from the diff nut so far. I'm going to consider this a success.

Next I RTV'd the washers and studs for the DPI battery tie down brackets. I want to make sure those holes in the body are waterproof.

After that I reinstalled my washer fluid tank after repairing a small pinhole leak in the section that was already fixed once last year. So far that seems to be holding.

Next I replaced my parking brake brackets with a set that I had replated and three coats of duplicolor clear ceramic paint.

Lastly I took another look at my driver seat back that keeps popping out in the upper corner. This seat back was rebuilt by an interior shop probably 20 years ago. It appears the problem is the upper bracket is not lined up perfectly and as a result the outer corner stays in place but the inner corner keeps popping out. There is no easy way to fix this because you would have to remove the black covering in order to replace the rivets. I'm considering getting a piece of metal that I can rivet to the bracket that will act as an anchor to keep that corner in place. More on this soon I think.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20230522/d2bfd527c683bde0cfd57725523fb953.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20230522/e9182388fab1b87dfb9716958913071c.jpg

Sent from my Pixel 6a using Tapatalk

[SupercoolBill]

It was a good weekend and knocked off a few more things from the punch list.

I started Saturday off with a nice morning drive and went to a great little car show at the Kansas City Auto Museum where they let me park in the main section instead of the side parking lot because "we don't usually get to see these!"

More driving around on Saturday and no hiccups. No leaks from the diff nut so far. I'm going to consider this a success.

Next I RTV'd the washers and studs for the DPI battery tie down brackets. I want to make sure those holes in the body are waterproof.

After that I reinstalled my washer fluid tank after repairing a small pinhole leak in the section that was already fixed once last year. So far that seems to be holding.

Next I replaced my parking brake brackets with a set that I had replated and three coats of duplicolor clear ceramic paint.

Lastly I took another look at my driver seat back that keeps popping out in the upper corner. This seat back was rebuilt by an interior shop probably 20 years ago. It appears the problem is the upper bracket is not lined up perfectly and as a result the outer corner stays in place but the inner corner keeps popping out. There is no easy way to fix this because you would have to remove the black covering in order to replace the rivets. I'm considering getting a piece of metal that I can rivet to the bracket that will act as an anchor to keep that corner in place. More on this soon I think.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20230522/d2bfd527c683bde0cfd57725523fb953.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20230522/e9182388fab1b87dfb9716958913071c.jpg

Sent from my Pixel 6a using TapatalkThe problem with making stuff look perfect is that anything else on the vehicle then looks horrible.
I have heard of this happening with guys that installed an SS frame. Next thing they end up is replacing everything on the car with SS parts[emoji857]. The more you do the more you find that needs to be done. Then there are those parts that just aren't available in SS....uh oh...now what?[emoji53]

Sent from my SM-F926U1 using Tapatalk

[SupercoolBill]

It was a good weekend and knocked off a few more things from the punch list.

I started Saturday off with a nice morning drive and went to a great little car show at the Kansas City Auto Museum where they let me park in the main section instead of the side parking lot because "we don't usually get to see these!"

More driving around on Saturday and no hiccups. No leaks from the diff nut so far. I'm going to consider this a success.

Next I RTV'd the washers and studs for the DPI battery tie down brackets. I want to make sure those holes in the body are waterproof.

After that I reinstalled my washer fluid tank after repairing a small pinhole leak in the section that was already fixed once last year. So far that seems to be holding.

Next I replaced my parking brake brackets with a set that I had replated and three coats of duplicolor clear ceramic paint.

Lastly I took another look at my driver seat back that keeps popping out in the upper corner. This seat back was rebuilt by an interior shop probably 20 years ago. It appears the problem is the upper bracket is not lined up perfectly and as a result the outer corner stays in place but the inner corner keeps popping out. There is no easy way to fix this because you would have to remove the black covering in order to replace the rivets. I'm considering getting a piece of metal that I can rivet to the bracket that will act as an anchor to keep that corner in place. More on this soon I think.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20230522/d2bfd527c683bde0cfd57725523fb953.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20230522/e9182388fab1b87dfb9716958913071c.jpg

Sent from my Pixel 6a using TapatalkSee? And a while back we talked and you said you had nothing left to do on your car. [emoji38]

Sent from my SM-F926U1 using Tapatalk

[82DMC12]

The problem with making stuff look perfect is that anything else on the vehicle then looks horrible.
I have heard of this happening with guys that installed an SS frame. Next thing they end up is replacing everything on the car with SS parts[emoji857]. The more you do the more you find that needs to be done. Then there are those parts that just aren't available in SS....uh oh...now what?[emoji53]

Sent from my SM-F926U1 using Tapatalk

It's true. There was nothing WRONG with my other brackets. But they looked like crap next to everything else! How can I show off properly otherwise???

[82DMC12]

See? And a while back we talked and you said you had nothing left to do on your car. [emoji38]

Sent from my SM-F926U1 using Tapatalk

I have an ongoing punch list that I maintain in Google Keep. Anything I see or think about, I add it to the list so I don't forget. Then, when I have nothing better to do, I look at the list and see if there's anything I could knock out and cross off. Here is what remains:

DeLorean Punch List



Louvers repainted (actually in process right now)

Aim headlights (just haven't gotten around to it since I don't drive at night much)

steering rack, passenger side inner tie rod is loose, 5-7 lbs pre-load when pulling on the tie rod ends, 3-5 lbs pre-load on the pinion.

Refinish facias next year

Get inside doors for re seal /check rattle and new vapor barriers

Hood hinge and weather seal replacement (remove hood again, probably refinish the trunk area fiberglass)

Driver seat back popping out (need to modify bracket so it stays under the frame)

engine cover rattle - intermittent, only when cold

[Timeless]

The problem with making stuff look perfect is that anything else on the vehicle then looks horrible.
I have heard of this happening with guys that installed an SS frame. Next thing they end up is replacing everything on the car with SS parts[emoji857]. The more you do the more you find that needs to be done. Then there are those parts that just aren't available in SS....uh oh...now what?[emoji53]
Powder coat original/used/crusty components if it can be applied to component in need.

[82DMC12]

I meant to post this a while back - here is a printable Body - Frame Separation Checklist. I used the original list provided here: https://dmctalk.org/showthread.php?14602-How-To-Body-and-Frame-Separation-Checklist but then as I went along with it on my clipboard, I added notes, clarification, and additional items I found that needed to be disconnected.

Hope it helps anyone out there who is about to do a frame-en-dectomy!

Feel free to email me if you find any mistakes and I will correct it.

69689

[82DMC12]

This week I received new cups and springs for my inner tie rods from Rob Grady. This was my next project - set the pre-tension on the inner tie rods correctly since last time I I had the rack apart (about a year ago) I didn't realize there was a "trick" to setting it properly. When I tightened the two large silver nuts that keep the tie rod on, I had set it so there was no play in the rod, but turns out you actually have to turn it a few turns tighter than that. You actually can use a spring scale to set the correct tension, which is what I did this weekend.

The rack came out easy, considering I just installed a few months ago during the frame swap. U-joints were easy to slip apart and the rack came out no problem. This time I used a red paint pen and marked the pinon and first U-joint so I could attempt to keep the wheel straight when I was done.

I checked the pre-tension with my spring scale and there was essentially zero tension since the tie rod was fairly floppy and hanging down. it measured 400 grams.

Snipped the zip ties holding the passenger side boot on and slid the boot off the rack tube, draining as much gear oil as I could into a paint mixing measuring cup. I wanted to make sure I replaced about equal amount that comes out.

I drilled out the pin on the two nuts and backed everything apart so I could remove the inner tie rod, clean it up, and change out the cups and springs. On reassembly, I kept tightening, and then checking, the tension required to lift the tie rod from horizontal into an arc. My target was 2.25 to 2.5 kg which is about 5 lbs of tension as per Rob Grady. This means the spring is getting slightly compressed, and when I was satisfied with the tension, the tie rod would stay in place no matter where I set it. Fortunately on both sides, the pin holes for the nuts lined back up again so it was easy to drive new pins in and finish up.

Those who have done this rack removal job will understand when I say it took me at least 45 minutes of cussing to get the driver side rubber bushing oriented correctly and installed.

I was lucky enough to get the red paint matched up and my wheel is straight just as before - but now, there is zero play in the steering wheel and my rack feels nice and tight once again! Successful job and learning something new.

As for my alignment, logic suggests I have SLIGHTLY more toe-in now since both tie rods were tensioned inward. I will get the toe checked real quick at the alignment shop sometime in the next couple of weeks, then I can repaint the tie rod ends black so they don't get rusty.

69694












Pre-tension before servicing the tie rod - basically zero, just the weight of the rod end.








69695








Another view of checking the tension. I held the tube in place on the ground while lifting up on the tie rod with my other hand and checking the constant force needed to keep the tie rod moving in an upward arc. 2.25 to 2.5 kg is good tension.

[SupercoolBill]

This week I received new cups and springs for my inner tie rods from Rob Grady. This was my next project - set the pre-tension on the inner tie rods correctly since last time I I had the rack apart (about a year ago) I didn't realize there was a "trick" to setting it properly. When I tightened the two large silver nuts that keep the tie rod on, I had set it so there was no play in the rod, but turns out you actually have to turn it a few turns tighter than that. You actually can use a spring scale to set the correct tension, which is what I did this weekend.

The rack came out easy, considering I just installed a few months ago during the frame swap. U-joints were easy to slip apart and the rack came out no problem. This time I used a red paint pen and marked the pinon and first U-joint so I could attempt to keep the wheel straight when I was done.

I checked the pre-tension with my spring scale and there was essentially zero tension since the tie rod was fairly floppy and hanging down. it measured 400 grams.

Snipped the zip ties holding the passenger side boot on and slid the boot off the rack tube, draining as much gear oil as I could into a paint mixing measuring cup. I wanted to make sure I replaced about equal amount that comes out.

I drilled out the pin on the two nuts and backed everything apart so I could remove the inner tie rod, clean it up, and change out the cups and springs. On reassembly, I kept tightening, and then checking, the tension required to lift the tie rod from horizontal into an arc. My target was 2.25 to 2.5 kg which is about 5 lbs of tension as per Rob Grady. This means the spring is getting slightly compressed, and when I was satisfied with the tension, the tie rod would stay in place no matter where I set it. Fortunately on both sides, the pin holes for the nuts lined back up again so it was easy to drive new pins in and finish up.

Those who have done this rack removal job will understand when I say it took me at least 45 minutes of cussing to get the driver side rubber bushing oriented correctly and installed.

I was lucky enough to get the red paint matched up and my wheel is straight just as before - but now, there is zero play in the steering wheel and my rack feels nice and tight once again! Successful job and learning something new.

As for my alignment, logic suggests I have SLIGHTLY more toe-in now since both tie rods were tensioned inward. I will get the toe checked real quick at the alignment shop sometime in the next couple of weeks, then I can repaint the tie rod ends black so they don't get rusty.

69694












Pre-tension before servicing the tie rod - basically zero, just the weight of the rod end.








69695








Another view of checking the tension. I held the tube in place on the ground while lifting up on the tie rod with my other hand and checking the constant force needed to keep the tie rod moving in an upward arc. 2.25 to 2.5 kg is good tension.Good job. I was going to rebuild my rack but ended up just buying one of D-Ind. Bullitproof rebuilt racks instead when I bought my pile of stuff in person there.
Kind of glad I did since it is taking for...ever to get anything done on this.

Sent from my SM-F926U1 using Tapatalk

[82DMC12]

Good job. I was going to rebuild my rack but ended up just buying one of D-Ind. Bullitproof rebuilt racks instead when I bought my pile of stuff in person there.
Kind of glad I did since it is taking for...ever to get anything done on this.

Sent from my SM-F926U1 using Tapatalk

Well you'll have a great rack out of the box. I've had fun taking mine apart and putting it back together but I had to do it twice because I didn't know any better. Steering is no joke and it's really a safety thing too. Nice thing about a DeLorean is the steering is fantastic, only downside is a wide-ish turning radius. Power steering not needed at all as long as the car is moving.

[82DMC12]

Well I haven't driven the car for a few days due to busy life (got a new 20'x12' deck installed on the back of the house!) and rain during the day, but I forgot to post a picture of my louvers after getting them refinished. They look great and now I see in the picture it's time to give the car a wash again. Dusty!

Also glad to say there are no leaks found after fixing the washer fluid bottle and the diff nut. I should scrub the floors in the garage now that I'm not dripping onto it anymore....

What's next?

Get alignment checked again and then paint the tie rods with black POR15
Maybe same shop can check my headlight alignment. I did my best to get it lined up on the garage door but I'm sure a pro will do a better job
stitch the top hole of my leather shift boot so it stays up and under the shifter ball (got a leather sewing kit on Amazon the other day)
Fix driver side seat back that keeps popping out


If I can get those small issues fixed this year that would be great. Everything else I want to do can wait until winter or next year.

69700

[82DMC12]

Drove the DeLorean to work today. Finally some nice weather with no storms predicted. I was able to really enjoy the tightened up steering now on my 20 minute commute. This car is feeling and driving better than it ever has in my 23 year ownership.

Currently running my coilovers (DPI SPEC QA1's) at 7 in the front and 8 in the rear. Feels great, will have to check on the interstate next where before I was getting some porpoising-like bounce on some stretches.

There is a rattle in either the louvers or the engine cover after we adjusted them a couple weeks ago. Will look at it again soon.

69710

[FLUX @88]

Drove the DeLorean to work today. Finally some nice weather with no storms predicted. I was able to really enjoy the tightened up steering now on my 20 minute commute. This car is feeling and driving better than it ever has in my 23 year ownership.

Currently running my coilovers (DPI SPEC QA1's) at 7 in the front and 8 in the rear. Feels great, will have to check on the interstate next where before I was getting some porpoising-like bounce on some stretches.

There is a rattle in either the louvers or the engine cover after we adjusted them a couple weeks ago. Will look at it again soon.

69710

looks great Andy

[82DMC12]

looks great Andy


Thank you! Maybe after I give it another wash and do a barkeepers friend job on it I'll get around to taking some nice beauty shots. Been a very long time since I did that.

[SupercoolBill]

Drove the DeLorean to work today. Finally some nice weather with no storms predicted. I was able to really enjoy the tightened up steering now on my 20 minute commute. This car is feeling and driving better than it ever has in my 23 year ownership.

Currently running my coilovers (DPI SPEC QA1's) at 7 in the front and 8 in the rear. Feels great, will have to check on the interstate next where before I was getting some porpoising-like bounce on some stretches.

There is a rattle in either the louvers or the engine cover after we adjusted them a couple weeks ago. Will look at it again soon.

69710B-E-A-utiful.

Sent from my SM-F926U1 using Tapatalk

[82DMC12]

A couple times a year I pull my spark plugs out and give them a check. I've done it twice this year so far since a couple years ago I had some issues with sooting, and then with hot/lean ashing. Once I found that, I did a tune up and used a smoke machine to correct any vacuum leaks, replaced the O2 sensor and fuel filter, really dialed in the dwell, and also stopped using NGK plugs and went back to Bosch Copper. This time I also did a compression check since I had all six plugs out anyway.

I'd say my combustion looks fantastic, and the compression is very strong for a 41 year old PRV. These plugs have about 750 miles on them. Based on what I'm seeing I don't think I need to check them again until next year.

69730

69731

[Timeless]

Any specific issue with the NGK? I'm using Autolite XP103 per DPI recommendation and they seem to be doing well.

[SupercoolBill]

A couple times a year I pull my spark plugs out and give them a check. I've done it twice this year so far since a couple years ago I had some issues with sooting, and then with hot/lean ashing. Once I found that, I did a tune up and used a smoke machine to correct any vacuum leaks, replaced the O2 sensor and fuel filter, really dialed in the dwell, and also stopped using NGK plugs and went back to Bosch Copper. This time I also did a compression check since I had all six plugs out anyway.

I'd say my combustion looks fantastic, and the compression is very strong for a 41 year old PRV. These plugs have about 750 miles on them. Based on what I'm seeing I don't think I need to check them again until next year.

69730

69731What are you getting for compression readings?

Sent from my SM-F926U1 using Tapatalk

[82DMC12]

What are you getting for compression readings?

Sent from my SM-F926U1 using Tapatalk

I wrote them in sharpie next to each corresponding spark plug.

[82DMC12]

Any specific issue with the NGK? I'm using Autolite XP103 per DPI recommendation and they seem to be doing well.

The NGK 2238 TR5 that is commonly recommended and sold by some vendors was giving me a rougher idle. Also turns out that NGK uses a different heat scale than Bosch does. A TR5 is more like an "8" in Bosch-speak. So, the TR5 is a hotter plug. When I pulled the plugs out, they were noticeably running hot. I got rid of them and put the Bosch Copper in instead and IMMEDIATELY the idle smoothed out.

I have to blame the plug because I had already smoke tested the engine for leaks, dwell set correctly, timing perfect, no advance, blah blah. Bad experience, don't recommend them.

Never tried the Autolites, I know some use them.

[SupercoolBill]

I would use Bosch because I have brand loyalty to them and because the fuel injection, distributor, etc. is Bosch. But that is just how my brain works.
Somewhere I have a cool picture that I took of a Bosch ignition. It was on a motorcycle at a local automobile museum. It was a 1910 or something like that. Pretty amazing.

Sent from my SM-F926U1 using Tapatalk

[SupercoolBill]

What are you getting for compression readings?

Sent from my SM-F926U1 using TapatalkAhhhh gotcha

Sent from my SM-F926U1 using Tapatalk

[DMC-Ron]

A couple times a year I pull my spark plugs out and give them a check. I've done it twice this year so far since a couple years ago I had some issues with sooting, and then with hot/lean ashing. Once I found that, I did a tune up and used a smoke machine to correct any vacuum leaks, replaced the O2 sensor and fuel filter, really dialed in the dwell, and also stopped using NGK plugs and went back to Bosch Copper. This time I also did a compression check since I had all six plugs out anyway.

Andy,
What is the exact part number for the Bosch plugs. Do you happen to have a purchase link?
Ron

[82DMC12]

Andy,
What is the exact part number for the Bosch plugs. Do you happen to have a purchase link?
RonThe original plugs were Bosch HR6DS, the S means silver. These are long out of production and hard to find.

The Copper version is just about as good and you can usually find them on eBay. Search for Bosch HR6DC.

Here's a set I'd jump on if you're in the market -

https://www.ebay.com/itm/166019355728

Chris Miles usually has some in stock too, contact him and he can sell you some.

Personally I have a dozen spare for the future since I think these are also out of production.

Sent from my Pixel 6a using Tapatalk

[AugustneverEnds]

Too rich for ya? https://www.deloreango.com/us/bosch-silver-tipped-spark-plug-same-as-oem.html

Yeah definitely too rich for me!

[82DMC12]

Too rich for ya? https://www.deloreango.com/us/bosch-silver-tipped-spark-plug-same-as-oem.html

Yeah definitely too rich for me!Yeah.... No thanks. Lol.

Sent from my Pixel 6a using Tapatalk

[FLUX @88]

Thank you! Maybe after I give it another wash and do a barkeepers friend job on it I'll get around to taking some nice beauty shots. Been a very long time since I did that.

I think it's time then with all the work and hours put into it! Some great shots are needed!

[82DMC12]

Hey, it's been a couple weeks since my last update. I actually had my car at the alignment shop for nearly a week while they waited for their best tech to come back from illness and then get caught up on some other cars before they could actually work on mine. That was a bit frustrating but the results are in. Looks like the alignment is about as good as possible, the only thing I could do even better is to add camber adjusting front upper control arms, but honestly they aren't too far out and the tires will rot away before they wear out anyway. I haven't had a chance to drive on the interstate yet but I think it will be a smooth ride now that the rack is sorted out and the alignment is spot-on.

I also had them align the headlights since I had replaced all the hardware and powder coated all the brackets and buckets. I didn't really have a good reference when I reassembled everything so I left the alignment up to them. This morning I washed the car to get shop dust off of it and I re-installed the black headlight trim finishers.

Next job? I'm going to sand down the tie rods and paint them with black POR 15 so they aren't scratched up from alignment guys using vise grips on them!

69809


69810

[SupercoolBill]

Yeah it is a bummer that it is a flat rate for an alignment at most shops. Especially when everything was close to being fine, nothing was seized up, etc.
I don't understand why they didn't put some flat spots on the tie rods so that they could be adjusted without getting all knurled up.

Sent from my SM-F926U1 using Tapatalk

[82DMC12]

Yeah it is a bummer that it is a flat rate for an alignment at most shops. Especially when everything was close to being fine, nothing was seized up, etc.
I don't understand why they didn't put some flat spots on the tie rods so that they could be adjusted without getting all knurled up.

Sent from my SM-F926U1 using Tapatalk

Yeah that would have been nice - if they had put flat spots in then Lotus could have claimed they "added lightness"! Oh well. I don't expect to need to visit the alignment rack again for a very long time.

[82DMC12]

Well it's been about three weeks since my last update but not really too much to add!

I ended up taking the car back to the alignment shop because the steering just felt kind of funny afterwards. The more I drove it, the more I didn't like it. The issue was the return-to-center was not very pronounced and I felt like I had to "put" the wheel back into center coming out of a corner. It would mostly slide through your fingers as you straighten out but then it needed a little more nudge to get straight. It's not like it was notchy or anything, it just felt overly stiff which I now believe was caused by tire scrub and perhaps uneven caster. The toe was also 4/5 of the recommended amount.

I decided the car was a bit too low for my taste so I raised it about 1/2" on all four corners and make really damn sure the frame was squared up and parallel to the ground. Then I loosened the front sway extension screws and took the tension off the LCA's by loosening the DPI caster limiting arms. Then with the weight the of car on the suspension, tightened everything back up so that the caster is back to a neutral, stock position.

Back to the alignment shop it went and this time I think we got it pretty good. The steering feels a lot better now.

This morning I replaced the tie rod end nyloc nuts (M10 x 1.25 fine thread) because I had removed them too many times for the nylon insert to work very well. That's a hard nut to find locally so I got them from Belmetric along with some other hardware to round out my home backup hardware kit.

That's about it for now. It's been really hot the last two weeks, like 95 deg or more and high humidity so I don't really like having the car sit out in the parking under the sun like that. That's what a daily driver is for. Now today it's finally 71F but strong chance of rain. Figures!

Oh yeah, I also painted the tie rods with gloss black POR15 now that my alignment adventures are over.

69871

[82DMC12]

Two months since my last update, but all that really means is all is well, all systems are working normally, and nothing really to report. I've been driving the D to work here and there as long as the weather looks good and it won't get baked in 100F sun in the parking lot. Now that fall seems to officially be here I might be drive it a little more often for errands or to the office. I am very busy with work, travel, and being a dad to a 2 year old but I did make time to attend a car show that turned out to be super cool.

The story, in brief, is that a local "country-club-ish car club" reached out to me and asked if I would be interested in showing my car at a somewhat private, roped-off event. I said sure, sounds more interesting than the usual empty parking lot hangout. It wasn't until the night before that I received tickets in my email for "Kelce Car Jam" - this is a charity event held by Kansas City Chiefs Tight End Travis Kelce (yes, 2x Superbowl winner, 4th most receptions by a TE in history, future HOF'er and current NFL superstar being Mahomes' #1 pass target). His foundation "87 & Running" provides opportunities to inner city kids in Kansas City particularly in automotive-related fields.

Travis wanted to do a block party, BBQ, and car show this year and I'm told he specifically wanted a DeLorean at it. So that's where it started.

Word first got out when Travis was on his brother Jason Kelce's podcast "New Heights" where he hyped up the car show and said the car he is most looking forward to seeing is the DeLorean, being a big BTTF fan as a kid.

I did the show and it was a ton of fun, got to meet the man himself, got a signed football, and photos of him in my DeLorean went viral on the Chiefs facebook page, instagram, and tiktok. No doubt also fueled by Taylor Swift attending Sunday's game and being spotted with Travis after the game cruising in his Chevelle and shutting down a restaurant with other teammates.

Enjoy the pics!

70058



70051

70052

70053

70054

70055

70056

70057

[Timeless]

Awesome! :cheers1:

[Ron]

+1 :thumbup:

[Helirich]

Very nice!

[SupercoolBill]

I feel like this is the story of child growing up and becoming a successful adult only it is a car. So cool. Congratulations man!

Sent from my SM-F926U1 using Tapatalk

[FLUX @88]

looks great Andy!

[82DMC12]

I haven't had to do anything at all to the car for the last few weeks, in fact I've just been enjoying the drive as I have the time. My punch list is pretty short right now but one of the items I wanted to knock off was to re-check the correct position of my timing scale for the crankshaft pulley. I removed it to get it re-plated a year ago and while I took good photos, I wasn't convinced it was perfectly aligned, in fact for all I know it was off a bit from the beginning.

I started out with a fuel injector flow test because a couple years ago I had an injector with a bad pattern. I wanted to make sure it was still working better, and I was glad to see all cylinders are getting nearly identical volume of fuel.

I also bought a set of PJ Grady's silicone spark plug wires a while back so I wanted to remove the mixture unit to install those, and of course it's only five more minutes to take the intake off once you're that deep. So, I dug in and probably only 30 minutes later I was staring in my valley once again. Sure is an easy job once you've done it a couple times and have a good system (and of course everything installed with anti-seize and new hardware every time). I was glad to see the valley was bone dry and there was only a little bit of dust to suck up with a vacuum.

Following the Volvo manual, I was able to rotate the crankshaft using the alternator pulley nut (injectors removed and A/C belt slackened) and watch the distributor rotor until I knew the engine was close to Cyl 1 TDC. Then I removed the access plug behind the water pump (same plug as the oil drain plug and two crank case coolant drains) and fit an M7 screw with washer on it into the hole and slowly rated the crank until the screw fell into the hole. The screw I used is actually the same one that runs though the W pipe into the throttle body. I moved the crank back and forth a little bit to make sure I was perfectly centered and found my timing scale was off a couple millimeters. Not much but I'm a stickler for perfection.

While I was in there I swapped out the plug wires and pressure-tested the cooling system to 15 PSI. I actually found both 90 degree hoses to the water pump were slightly loose so I went around and tightened up all the hoses clamps. I guess after a few heat cycles they have settled in.

New intake and cold start o-rings (coated with red rubber grease) and new W-pipe paper gaskets (dry) from my own parts inventory. New wave washers for all the hardware. New M12 copper crush washers for the fuel inlet/return. Got everything wiped down and reinstalled, did a fuel pressure leak test, and then started the car. Love to see it start on the first crank. I shouldn't have to go into the valley again for a long time but since it's so critical to catch any leaks early, I will continue to do an annual inspection for peace of mind.

70100
Fuel injector flow rate test. First I checked to make sure there is no leakage with the RPM relay jumped. Then I depressed the air flap about 1/3 of the way for 45 seconds to get a good volume in each mason jar.

70101

Each jar is numbered with the cylinder it corresponds to so they don't get mixed up later. A 23/64" drill bit will make a perfect hole for the injector to slip into.


70102
The best way to measure volume would be by weight on a food scale, but since visually they all looked pretty damn close I didn't bother with it.

70103
70104
70105
70106

[82DMC12]

Well the driving season is coming to close, even in Kansas City where we have pretty mild winters. I expect I'll be able to take the car out here and there so it never really goes into true hibernation like it did when I lived in North Dakota. I've been making the most of the nice fall weather and driving to work frequently with no issues whatsoever. But, there's always something to work on.

First, early this spring, last time I had my center console out, I swapped out my gear shift boot for the one sold by Redline Goods, a Polish company. I just wanted to see what the quality was like, plus I wanted the leather cover for the parking brake boot they sell. The leather is actually very nice quality, thick, and stitched well in the same OEM style. They have many customization options if you want to add colored thread or whatever but I like stock. I got it glued to a DPI stainless steel boot frame. The only problem with it is the top hole near the ball is too big to be retained by the flange built onto the shift rod. So, the boot falls down a bit unless you come up with a way to cinch it up, which is exactly what I did. I bought a leather sewing kit on Amazon and made a few stitches around the top so I could close the hole up , then added a fresh M8 washer, nut, and then finally the ball. Works and looks perfect now! A pity you have to do this but I do think the boot is great and quality stuff.

Next, I wanted to review my throttle linkage because in discussing with another owner, it occurred to me that I was sure if I had optimized my linkage rod length so that the throttle plates are exactly perpendicular in the throat at full throttle. I removed the W-pipe and found that no, they were not opening quite far enough so I removed the rod and lengthened it until the plates were totally perpendicular when the throttle is on the full throttle stop. Then I shortened the rod just slightly so that there is some pre-tension on the quadrant at idle, helping to close the throttle and contact the idle switch. Then I had to readjust the throttle cable length and finally the two curb idle screws. After a couple test drives and re-adjustments I was happy that everything is as good as it gets.

Finally, this week I bought a H3R 2.5 lb Halon fire extinguisher for the car. I briefly considered mounting it on my subwoofer box behind the driver seat but finally decided to hell with that, I can actually leave it on the floor behind the seat because it's perfectly secured there in my normal driving position. If I ever have a taller person drive, I would temporarily put it between the passenger seat and the door sill.

7015970160
701617016270163

[SupercoolBill]

Awesome. Some day I'll get there.

Sent from my SM-F926U1 using Tapatalk

[82DMC12]

Today's afternoon job - added an aluminized heat sheath to one of my positive cables. I am going to add a couple more but I needed to order a couple different sizes. This one is 1/2" inner diameter which worked to slide over the cable that goes from the bulkhead connector to the alternator. This cable runs under the starter and touches the lower engine cradle before running up to bulkhead. Because of the chance of abrasion and proximity to heat I thought it would be good to protect it. The next one I need to do is the cable that goes from the jump start post to the starter, which runs pretty close to my header but is secured well enough where it won't touch. This one has a flag terminal on both sides which would not fit through a smaller sheath so I ordered DEI #10404 for that purpose. Maybe get to install that one later this week.

Thanks to Rodolfo for the idea!

70165 70166

[82DMC12]

Work and family stuff, Thanksgiving, parents visiting, etc has been keeping me busy, but thankfully the weather is not a factor. It's 50F today and should also be nice until the weekend so I'm still trying to get some drive time in.

A couple weeks ago I gave the seats their twice-annual cleaning and conditioning. This year I used Griots Garage Leather Care spray to clean the leather, and then used P&S Double Black Leather Treatment and Conditioner. I'm really happy with how the seats turned out - the Leather Care spray is so nice to use every couple of months to remove dust and freshen it up without leaving any residue. The Treatment and Conditioner (first time using) really soaked in nicely and didn't leave any residue either with leaving a semi-gloss deep black look.

I also installed a switch alignment plate I've been sitting on for a while. I finally got tired of my replacement windows switches sometimes dragging on the edge of the console. This plate lifts them up a couple millimeters so they stop interfering. Worthwhile modification!

Then, this week I picked up my louvers from David Hudgins who did a really nice refinish of them. They have a nice texture that wipes clean and doesn't snag lint from my wash mitts or dry towels. I spent some extra time last night adjusting the gaps and latches and it's really working and looking great.

Oh yeah, and the car starts cold better than ever after my injector swap noted above.

I have a set of front dash speaker spacers on the way from Steve Bano who kindly 3D printed a set for me. I decided I need them because my Kicker speakers tweeter is touching the dash and pushing up a bit. Need to get that fixed before it damages the dash.

Nothing else really to do right now though I think I'll be going into the doors this winter for a refresh and check up. No issues really but my driver side escutcheon doesn't fit well, my doors lack vapor barriers, and I'm going to use some black neoprene tape to replace some old gray insulation tape I used on the door trim edges twenty years that doesn't look quite right.

70232

7023370234


702357023670237



70238

[SupercoolBill]

I like the third brake light.

Sent from my SM-F926U1 using Tapatalk

[82DMC12]

I like the third brake light.

Sent from my SM-F926U1 using Tapatalk

Thanks, me too. it's pretty stealth but it's bright and does the job. I didn't install it, it was there when I got the car. I was told by the PO that it's for a Corvette but I have no idea what year or model. I think it's just a generic part myself. It looks pretty damn 90's to me. The power is tapped from the passenger side taillight harness.

[Timeless]

Thanks, me too. it's pretty stealth but it's bright and does the job. I didn't install it, it was there when I got the car. I was told by the PO that it's for a Corvette but I have no idea what year or model. I think it's just a generic part myself. It looks pretty damn 90's to me. The power is tapped from the passenger side taillight harness.
It looks like a C4 Vette brake light.

[82DMC12]

It looks like a C4 Vette brake light.

Maybe it's an aftermarket version of it. I did a fast search and found this photo of a C4 - that light is lot deeper with a triangular slant behind it.

70239

[Bitsyncmaster]

Here is the C4 on my D. It is a metal case and the lens is not curved.

[82DMC12]

Here is the C4 on my D. It is a metal case and the lens is not curved.

Mine is plastic and more rounded case, not as deep. I'll see if I can get some numbers off of it if anyone is interested. A quick google search and a search on Summit Racing didn't turn it up.

[SupercoolBill]

Yeah I'd be interested. Although I may just attach an LED strip in there for a third brake light.

Sent from my SM-F926U1 using Tapatalk

[WHO1DMC]

Since we're on the subject. I have had these on my car for about 5 years with no problems. They cost about 23 bucks for the pair with 36 led's per unit. I stuck them to the underside of the top louver. I've not even had a problem with the supplied adhesive or bulbs. I like them kinda hidden, l just don't care for the on top look.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/254913881739?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=xckHoACsT7q&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=5dtl1tmeRXO&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=EMAIL



Dave B.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20231216/cef2b669681b52d61add83685fb629e7.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20231216/d5b2be2142958bb96a4471e612ef4952.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20231216/86892d11a7111d07544a4f9c16c0b071.jpg

Sent from my SM-G991U1 using Tapatalk

[FLUX @88]

I was thinking of adding a 3rd brake lamp however only thing holding me back is running the wire and hiding it as best as possible. Did you guys who installed them do a good job at that?

[82DMC12]

I was thinking of adding a 3rd brake lamp however only thing holding me back is running the wire and hiding it as best as possible. Did you guys who installed them do a good job at that?I ran mine inside the passenger side louver buffer strip. The wire is stiff enough where it pretty well just goes straight along the underside of the louver until it gets to the edge. You don't see it from inside or outside the car unless the louvers are up.

Sent from my Pixel 6a using Tapatalk

[SupercoolBill]

I ran mine inside the passenger side louver buffer strip. The wire is stiff enough where it pretty well just goes straight along the underside of the louver until it gets to the edge. You don't see it from inside or outside the car unless the louvers are up.

Sent from my Pixel 6a using TapatalkYeah, I am thinking the only other way to run it would be to drill a hole into the fiberglass near the right side louver hinge. Then, somehow fish it through from there down around the rear window and into the wiring section on the right side.

Sent from my SM-F926U1 using Tapatalk

[WHO1DMC]

I was thinking of adding a 3rd brake lamp however only thing holding me back is running the wire and hiding it as best as possible. Did you guys who installed them do a good job at that?Here's my installation of the light I posted above.
I used this video from Delorean tech for the wiring. This video shows how to put the wires down this hidden channel in the fender.
https://youtu.be/QAirOxDd7HU?si=MIXU9U5j93c5jO9D



Dave B.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20231219/c2fedc6f445bbaf52dd0cb893739d3bb.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20231219/453eb2a35ad389062ae0174d2e310f06.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20231219/63bc6ae61f378957d91e6353c9dfaf2f.jpg

Sent from my SM-G991U1 using Tapatalk

[Helirich]

There is a thread on this.

https://dmctalk.org/showthread.php?2216-How-To-Install-a-3rd-Brake-Light&highlight=brake+light

It would be kind of nice if you guys would copy this stuff over to it for those that search and find it. I have my lights, but if they break, I might want to switch to one of these. But I’ll never find them in this thread.

[82DMC12]

Oh darn. I came out this weekend over the Christmas break to do some detailing on the front suspension (probably won't drive much this winter so wanted to wipe off last year's grime) and found a little puddle on the floor under the engine. On further investigation I found it to be coolant, with a small pool of it sitting on a casting fin on the water pump, and shining a light upwards I see the weep hole is leaking. Looks like I'll be doing a water pump job! I won't complain too much though because this PJ Grady pump lasted nearly 22 years and survived a minor overheating incident two years ago, removal and re-installation when I did the frame off, and certainly not regular-enough coolant changes (which I swear I will start doing from here on out!). Actually I'm looking forward to the swap out because I know everything is so easy to remove now - I just took the intake off like a month ago! And I replaced the three pump mount bolts last year. Should be an easy job this time!

70257

[SupercoolBill]

Oh darn. I came out this weekend over the Christmas break to do some detailing on the front suspension (probably won't drive much this winter so wanted to wipe off last year's grime) and found a little puddle on the floor under the engine. On further investigation I found it to be coolant, with a small pool of it sitting on a casting fin on the water pump, and shining a light upwards I see the weep hole is leaking. Looks like I'll be doing a water pump job! I won't complain too much though because this PJ Grady pump lasted nearly 22 years and survived a minor overheating incident two years ago, removal and re-installation when I did the frame off, and certainly not regular-enough coolant changes (which I swear I will start doing from here on out!). Actually I'm looking forward to the swap out because I know everything is so easy to remove now - I just took the intake off like a month ago! And I replaced the three pump mount bolts last year. Should be an easy job this time!

70257That sucks. Are you using the special coolant that everyone recommends? Waterless coolant maybe?

Sent from my SM-F926U1 using Tapatalk

[82DMC12]

That sucks. Are you using the special coolant that everyone recommends? Waterless coolant maybe?

Sent from my SM-F926U1 using Tapatalk

I've only ever used regular green coolant mixed 50/50 with distilled water. I flushed out the block with a garden hose when I had the engine on a stand last year and I was able to get some thin white chips of scale out. I probably changed the coolant 4 or 5 times in 24 years which may not have been enough. My entire cooling system is new now - new stainless pipes, hoses, radiator, etc so maybe this is a good time to do a follow-up flush and then hope it lasts after this one.

[SupercoolBill]

I don't know...could just be a fluke. Sometimes things just fail. I shake my head when I see someone pull a car or truck (not a delorean) out of a barn that it's been parked in for 20 years, put new fuel in it, and they are daily driving it with no issues.
I swear some of this is just dumb luck.

Sent from my SM-F926U1 using Tapatalk

[82DMC12]

I don't know...could just be a fluke. Sometimes things just fail. I shake my head when I see someone pull a car or truck (not a delorean) out of a barn that it's been parked in for 20 years, put new fuel in it, and they are daily driving it with no issues.
I swear some of this is just dumb luck.

Sent from my SM-F926U1 using Tapatalk

Coolant is strange, it definitely has a way of leaking if it's not moving around regularly and changed according to directions. Either eating up a pipe, rotting a hose, leaking through small tolerance areas (weep hole), creating scale, whatever. It's the fluid that sneaks up on you.

[SupercoolBill]

I had a buddy that had coolant leaking out of the weep hole on his car so he plugged it and thought that he fixed the issue [emoji38].
I was like "Dude that is just where it comes out when the seal fails."

Sent from my SM-F926U1 using Tapatalk

[SupercoolBill]

Day 13

Today was cut short due to Daddy Duty. At about noon I got a call from the wife saying our son has a fever at daycare and needs to be picked up. So, I only got to work on the car this morning but I did good stuff that keeps the project moving along.

First I got to work on pulling out the rear main seal. No problem at all, especially when you've got power (air impact). The rear main LOOKS pretty good but I'm suspicious of the bottom surface of the seal house which was only sealed with black RTV. I think the corners may have been leaking.

I had a good call with Rob Grady where we discussed some of my observations over the last couple of days and gave me some reassurance all is well, though I continue to dive deep into this drivetrain!

I then set on to fully strip the transmission casings of all moving parts so I can get them vapor honed by a Rolls Royce shop in Independence, MO. There are two key challenges to removing the selector forks

1) You need to tap out all of the roll pins in order to remove the parts on the bars. Not that hard to do but you MUST have a 6mm punch (not common in sets, I bought it on Amazon) for the bigger pins.

2) There are springs and balls for the detents under each bar. The reverse one will pop out if you remove the reverse switch and then pull on the bar (found that out the hard way). The others will come out BUT you have to rotate the bar so that the ball can't push into the detents anymore and then slowly remove the bar while getting ready to catch the ball that's about to fly out. I did this by wadding up some bubble wrap and covering the area with one hand while pulling the bar out with the other. Nothing was lost!

The end cap is harder to do. There's a spring that captivates four half-bushings and the spring is too stiff to pull back with your fingers to expose the bushings. Rob says there's a special Renault tool for this but I was able to do it by progressively compressing coils with zip ties. It took about 45 minutes but I got it done. Then, you have to punch out the roll pins through the back of the housing by first removing a small M7 plug - and that's punch-out tube. Pretty neat. Also, I made great use of a couple of blue plastic body pry tools that I got in a set at Harbor Freight. This stuff is very easy to marr but the plastic tools will let you pry away without damage.

Anyway, got it all apart and headed out to the vapor honing shop.

What else.... Oh yeah, I got a pack of 50 M5 aluminum rivnuts from McMaster Carr. I'll be using these to attach stainless pipe clamps and DPI DOT brake hoses to the frame rather than using those crap plastic clips.

Also picked up my flywheel, newly machined - this time with a step!

68907

68908

68909

68910

68911

68912

68913Did you remove the outer races of your differential carrier bearings before having you case halves blasted?

Sent from my SM-F926U1 using Tapatalk

[82DMC12]

Did you remove the outer races of your differential carrier bearings before having you case halves blasted?

Sent from my SM-F926U1 using TapatalkNo I didn't. The rest of the bearing was still on the differential. When I got the case halves back I just cleaned them really well before reassembly.

Sent from my Pixel 6a using Tapatalk

[SupercoolBill]

No I didn't. The rest of the bearing was still on the differential. When I got the case halves back I just cleaned them really well before reassembly.

Sent from my Pixel 6a using TapatalkOkay. Yeah there are some small passageways that go in behind there. I think I am going to seal mine off as good as I can before blasting then clean really good after.

Sent from my SM-F926U1 using Tapatalk

[82DMC12]

Hey guys,

Since my last update, I did go in for another valley dive and swapped out my water pump. My last one came from PJ Grady and lasted 22 years so I replaced it once again the same model hoping for another 2 decades of service.

Going in to the valley is a breeze these days, you get pretty good at it after you've been in a couple of times. First I drained the expansion tank and the pipes below it by opening my radiator bleeder and letting it drip into a bucket. I have a DPI radiator which does not have a petcock on the bottom so I could have used a couple different methods of draining the coolant down including removing a lower coolant hose but since I just changed the antifreeze a year ago this time all I needed to do was drain down below the water pump. I also removed the driver coolant drain from the block which expelled quite a bit more coolant. At this point I knew I was drained out to the heater return hoses so I proceeded with removing the old water pump. Only about a cup of coolant spilled out into the valley when I removed the back hoses.

Next I removed my water pump back from the old pump so I could clean it up and transfer it to the new pump. I used a die grinder attachment which is like an orange plastic brush to clean the old gasket off of the water pump back. I love this attachment because it's not abrasive enough to gouge aluminum but it will certainly scrape off any gasket material or adhesives. Once the back was surgically clean I laid a thin bead of Hylomar AF on the back, set the new gasket on it, laid another thin bead on the gasket, and then torqued the new M7 bolts to the water pump. This sat overnight until the next morning I came out to install the pump. New thermostat and gasket, new hose clamps, and new 90-degree hoses for the pump and I was ready to refill the coolant. Filled it up with 50/50 green and distilled water, it took exactly 2 gallons mixed to refill. I then put my cooling system pressure tester on it and pumped it up to 16 PSI. It sat like that all day while I ran some errands and I came back finding zero leaks and still holding the same pressure. I then moved to the front of the car and opened my radiator bleeder hose and let the air hiss out until some coolant came out, now I knew the radiator was "mostly" bled out.

At this point I started the engine with the radiator cap off, opened the heater, and ran it for about 5 minutes to make sure everything had circulated in the block and heater. I topped up a bit more, then put the cap on and started the engine again with the heater running. I do have a thermostat bleeder hose (Toby's kit with a ball valve added) so I left that open while I waited for the thermostat to open. It may have had a air pocket in it because the temp gauge went about halfway up with no thermostat opening or fans coming on. The outlet side of the pump was still room temp. I opened the throttle a bit and held it open at 2,000 RPM for about 30 seconds until suddenly the outlet hose heated up and the air pocket must have been forced out. After a few minutes I bled the radiator up front again, then close the thermostat bleeder ball valve. Engine temp was normal, fans coming on, job well done.

With that job past me I drove the car to work a couple times enjoying some unseasonably warm weather.

What's next? Well I have an improved rebuilt brake master cylinder I'm going to install as well as change the brake pads because I think they may have been fouled out from zinc paint getting on them. They are cheap so what not? Good time to throw them on. Hopefully I'll get to that this weekend.

Then, I'm going to take my door panels off and give the inside of the door a good look-see and make sure everything is moving smoothly. There are a couple of door rattles so I'm hoping to find the source as well as change out my inner door wipe seals.

70302








I like this plastic die grind attachment, it's great for cleaning gasketing surfaces including exhaust manifold surfaces where a wire brush could remove metal material. This orange thing is quite safe and still effective.











70303






Water pump mostly installed, just getting everything lined up. I didn't remove my Y-pipe this time (replaced the o-rings under it a couple years ago), so it was best to put the rear hose joint with both hose clamps loosely on it on the pump, then push the pump onto the Y-pipe. I then screwed in the three mounting bolts snug before making final adjustments to the rear hose, and then torqued the pump bolts followed by tightening the hose clamps. This way the hose was just right and not under tension after installation. I use red rubber grease on every coolant hose to give it some lubrication for correct centering and placement.






70304









Another view of the rear of the pump with the 90's installed.










70306








Just about finished, only need to install the fuel injection once more.

[82DMC12]

One more thing I did that weekend was to rebuild the mode switch. This is the second time I've done it in 24 years. My switch was leaking some vacuum especially when trying to get it in the OFF position. I had a mode switch kit in my bins so I took the time to put it in. I know some people are able to remove the mode switch without taking the center console out. I was going to try this but it seemed too difficult considering I have an aftermarket radio and all the associate amp wiring. So, once again the center console came out and I pulled out the switch.

This time I followed general guidance of using a bit of contact cement on the back of the rubber maze and then a light coating of Vaseline on the front of the maze. I also used some contact cement to hold in place a cut up piece of business card that slid under one of the copper tracers to give it some more tension against the rotating switch. I had a problem with this tracer getting a bit loose and periodically losing contact with the rest of the switch. The business card keeps it from pivoting and provides a more positive connection. I checked everything with a multimeter before re-installing. Another job well-done and now no more hissing from the switch!

70307

[Timeless]

What's next? Well I have an improved rebuilt brake master cylinder I'm going to install as well as change the brake pads because I think they may have been fouled out from zinc paint getting on them.
Where did you get the brake master from? Curious who sells the 'best' one on the market as I've heard bad things about reproduction units.

[82DMC12]

Where did you get the brake master from? Curious who sells the 'best' one on the market as I've heard bad things about reproduction units.


I had PJ Grady sleeve my brake master, clutch master, and clutch slave a LONG time ago. No problems with them until probably 15 years later my slave started to leak. While doing my frame-off I sent them all back out to get freshened up again. We had some issues finding seals for my Saab master cylinder (larger bore and 50/50 bias) but it finally all came together so I'm taking my spare repro master cylinder out and putting my Saab back in. I guess you can still find the Saab units on ebay if you need a core.

[82DMC12]

Yesterday I got the brake updates done. I started by sucking out the fluid from the master cylinder reservoir with a mityvac. Then I removed the front calipers and old pads and hardware, then compressed each piston in with a C-clamp pushing against a paint stick on both sides so it won't mess up my finish on the calipers. I replaced the front pads, and then set about removing the old master cylinder.

The master cylinder I've been using while waiting for my rebuild is a spare repro master cylinder that I bought for another owner while working on his car but he ended up not needing it. I kept it around "just in case" and I was glad to have it. However when I removed it from the booster I could see the inside of the booster was wet, in fact enough fluid was in the well that it ran down the booster and onto the fuel tank. Maybe I removed this thing not a moment too soon.

I then set up the new cylinder with the reservoir installed in my vise and used a couple of old brake pipes cut up to direct the output back into the reservoir so I could manually bench bleed the cylinder. I've used these pipes for this a few times and they are getting kind of ratty. I had to use teflon tape to keep them from leaking or drawing air in but I was satisfied with the bleed job.

I laid numerous old towels and rags under the booster area in case I spilled any fluid, and quickly installed the master cylinder, full of fluid.

It was then that I found what I thought was a full 32 bottle of brake fluid was actually half used. Damn! I ended up driving out to a speed shop in Independence MO to pick up two cans of ATE 200 Dot 4 fluid.

Once the master was installed I went to the rear brakes where I wanted to swap out some braided lines for SS pipe. I had to remove the calipers to do this so I ended up changing the pads and greased everything back there too. Once installed, I used a Motive power brake bleeder to flush all the lines out and refill with the ATE fluid. Even though I had no bubbles passing through the bleeders, the brake pedal still felt a bit soft, so I went old-school and zip tied my clear hose to the bleeder, put the other end into a mason jar submerged in an inch of brake fluid, opened the bleeder, and then pumped the brakes sharply a few times. I took video with my phone so I could see what happened and sure enough at each corner I got a bit more air out. Maybe the master still had an air pocket. Anyway, now the brake pedal is good and hard.

All that's left is to bed in the brake pads.

70312





Bench bleeding setup. I protect the finish on the master cylinder with paint stir sticks. I painted the master using VHT engine paint and then Duplicolor Clear ceramic. Baked in an oven at 200F for one hour.









70313







Motive power bleeder hooked up. I don't fill the tank with fluid since I rarely use it. I just use it to compress the air in the reservoir and then I have to be careful that the reservoir doesn't empty as I go around to the calipers and bleed them out.












70314







This makes it really easy to bleed the brakes. I keep the hose submerged in fluid. You can easily see the bubbles flowing through the tube so you know when you're done. Below is a video I took showing the additional bubbles I got out by doing the "one man bleeder" trick. Basically you just zip tie the hose to the bleeder so it doesn't fell off (and makes it air-tight), put the other end in a jar submerged in fluid, crack open the bleeder, then get in the car and pump the brakes. Push the brake pedal medium-hard to the floor, then slowly release. Repeat a few times and you'll surely get the rest of the air out, resulting in a nice hard brake pedal.














https://youtube.com/shorts/wI65ls1Slxs

[82DMC12]

70315


































































This damn reproduction master cylinder (G1 version with DMC stamped on it) was leaking out the bore and into my booster. It was not dripping down the booster until I removed the cylinder. The outside of the piston and retaining clips were all wet with brake fluid. I quickly wiped this up and let it dry before installing the new master cylinder. Just another one of those situations where the original part is better than the new part, especially if you get it rebuilt with a brass sleeve and better seals.

[82DMC12]

70316

































































Since Castrol GT-LMA and even Castrol Synthetic Dot 4 seem to be NLA, I decided to use ATE 200 Dot 4. This fluid is well-known in the BMW and Audi service shops and have also been recommended to me by a couple of vendors (well one of them might be an ex-vendor...). It can be hard to find but you can order it online or maybe find it at an import speed shop like I did.

[82DMC12]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wI65ls1Slxs

[82DMC12]

Whew, I guess it's been a while since my last update.

Well the brakes are fine with no leaks and a nice hard pedal. I'm not sure I'm satisfied with the braking performance though. The pedal is hard but the brakes just don't have the bite that I feel like a modern car has. I could be wrong but I think the brakes used to be stronger years ago, almost as if they now have a slight fade all the time. I did bed the brakes in really well (smokin'!!!) and they are OK, they are not unsafe, but they could be better. I might look at getting EBC Red pads, or maybe even consider a big brake kit in the future. I'm going to just run with what I've got for a while anyway.

[82DMC12]

Next thing I got into was opening up both of my doors and giving everything a good refresh. Last time I was in the door panels was at least 20 years ago. Since then I had started to have a couple of little rattles and I knew I had not replaced my shredded vapor barriers. If I am going to drive this car more often and possibly go on multi-day trips, I want to make sure I'm waterproof.

So, I got inside the passenger door first and everything was more or less in order. I replaced the inner wipe seal with the upgraded PJ Grady seal which was a huge improvement in quality. I cleaned all the electrical connections and lubricated the latches with silicone spray. New vapor barrier adhered with butyl tape - that was very easy to use, much better than any liquid adhesive. New fir tree clips and I reinforced the A/C vent frame before putting the lower arm rest back on.

[82DMC12]

70367






One of the first things I noticed when taking everything apart is these two stacks of washers under the door latch bracket. They are not in the parts manual but I confirmed with Rob Grady that most cars have a few washers acting as shims right here. I had three on the passenger door and none on the driver door. I decided to add two to the driver door since I was having issues with my escutcheon lining up and hoping that would make a difference.













70368






I found a few sources of rattles....








70369







Driver door had no screws or washers here!












70370




Many of the threaded holes were messed up from using sheet metal screw and other odd hardware. I was able to re-tap most of them and use the correct hardware again!

[82DMC12]

70371



One of the first things I did was tape up the edges of the stainless inside the so I would not cut myself. I used blue duct tape. Then I removed all of the old crappy velcro from the inside of the door skin which helps keep the glass from getting scratched. Well, much of this velcro was long gone and it had actually scratched my driver door drop glass. I decided to replace the glass (more on that later). I cleaned up the old adhesive and then applied about 2 feet of soft velcro 2-inches wide to the door. Heavy duty stuff and won't fall off.












70372







Next I decided to replace the driver door glass divider. My old one was gouged from either a rock or vandalism and it was really scratched up inside from careless drop glass removal decades ago. This is a HELL JOB and I don't recommend it unless you really need to replace it. There's a seal that goes inside the divider which is extremely hard to replace and get into the window again. I had to use weatherstrip adhesive to secure it to the divider channel before anything else.







70373



Then you have to lay the seal and help it form a U-shape. I used paint stir sticks since they were the exact width needed to help mold it into shape. Where it turns in the corners, I had to use a tiny bit of superglue to hold it up to the divider wall. Then I worked it onto the glass over the course of probably 30 minutes using spray soapy water and two thin credit card to keep the seal from folding under the fixed glass. Lots of other maneuvering and cussing and I finally got it riveted in.












70374






This is the outer wipe seal, which I also attached with weatherstrip adhesive and clamped it overnight.