My Illuminated engine bay...Hope it's not too ricey

[Michael]

I spent some of my day off today revamping my engine bay. I removed my painted engine cover plate and cut another one this time leaving it unpainted. After a lot of soldering and measuring it's ready to be installed! The lights are waterproof and encased in a thick silicone which would make them pretty heat resistant. I thought about placing a strip of blue under the throttle shield, and on each side(hidden of course) but that's a pretty hot place to put led lights even if they are heat resistant and that would mean a lot of wiring to keep it all hidden. This setup is all contained on the air cleaner housing, and all wiring will be contained to 2 wires which will plug into the cover switch. This keeps with my normal methods of modification of being quickly and easily reversed...to go stock, just take the air cleaner off and replace with the factory unit. I still have to hide the wires and splice them into the hood light switch, but I couldn't resist wiring it up just to see the results:

First a before pic:
http://dmctalk.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=5674&d=1317520573

Today's work:
http://dmctalk.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=17201&d=1363044567
http://dmctalk.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=17204&d=1363044567
http://dmctalk.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=17203&d=1363044567

[Ryan S.]

Wow!!! That looks amazing. I wish I can do that to my car.

[pezzonovante88]

I must say that I much prefer the old style. Sorry man! But hey, whatever floats your boat!

[Silverbullet]

Ah.... I like them both... SWEET!

[Michael]

Thanks all.

It's odd.... When I first got the air cleaner housing I didn't care much for the clear look which is why I painted it. Now it's 3+ years later and I just want to try something different this year since I will be going to the cruise ins at a later time(too busy during the daylight hours). I may relocate the "DMC" label to the side of the housing leaving the window free. Just like my headlight blackout covers, I liked them for a bit but grew tired of them and decided my car had enough "style" points without the blackout covers, so back to stock it went. Truth be told the headlight blackouts made the car look too 80's, when in fact it's a 70's era car design.

Maybe by this time next year I will be tired of it and cut a new cover and put it back the way it was. That's the beauty of "reversible" mods, Tastes change and nothing is permanent.

[Dangermouse]

While not a huge fan of the blue light part, I really like the white light air cleaner. As you say, moving the rectangular label off it may clean it up some more.

Was the previous one also plexiglas but painted on one side? Could you take a sheet and paint the inner surface and then etch the DMC logo into it, so that only the logo glowed?

Or vice versa - etch the logo on the reverse and just paint that etched part so the logo is black?

Just my 2c

[Michael]

Was the previous one also plexiglas but painted on one side? Could you take a sheet and paint the inner surface and then etch the DMC logo into it, so that only the logo glowed?


The previous cover was painted the same color as the fascias and painted from the reverse side, followed by a coat of black to prevent light bleed. The stainless label kit(not shown in the first pic) was applied last year. The etching only works if the plexiglass is illuminated from the side, much like LISA plastic. You could however mask a "DMC" logo out, paint the plastic from the reverse side, them remove the mask leaving only the "DMC" illuminated from the light....might make for a nice effect. There are a lot of different ways to go when you have illumination PLUS a clear blank slate so to speak. I even considered frosting the clear part form the reverse, but I thought I would try a clear view into the extreme complex innerworkings of the air cleaner approach.

[Ryan S.]

Michael,
Is that air cleaner unit from John H? Did you make/modify the light or is it something that anyone can buy?
Would appreciate if you can share your installation details. Looks pretty sick!!! I am adding this to my to do list.

[Michael]

Michael,
Is that air cleaner unit from John H? Did you make/modify the light or is it something that anyone can buy?
Would appreciate if you can share your installation details. Looks pretty sick!!! I am adding this to my to do list.

Yes on both accounts. Good luck getting anything from special t, this was the last thing I will ever buy from him. I bought It unfinished at a discount so I had to clean it up and grain it, as well as put a lexan cover in. The lights are a breeze to install. I will finish it either tomorrow night or Wednesday and when I have it apart I will snap a few pics showing the lights I used and how they went in.

[Ron]

I thought you were banned on Mondays???

[Fluxat88MPH]

Kinda looks like what I did to mine several yrs back. It's a never ending process Michael! 17218

[Jacko]

Yes on both accounts. Good luck getting anything from special t, this was the last thing I will ever buy from him. I bought It unfinished at a discount so I had to clean it up and grain it, as well as put a lexan cover in. The lights are a breeze to install. I will finish it either tomorrow night or Wednesday and when I have it apart I will snap a few pics showing the lights I used and how they went in.

Michael, I just got an air cleaner from Special T (ordered on Monday, got it Wednesday). It was complete but there was no instructions. I assume the lower part of the stock air cleaner is used ... how does that go together? Love your engine bay. I should get my car from DPI in a couple of weeks and it's supposed to have the blue light package. I hope it looks as good as yours!

[Michael]

Kinda looks like what I did to mine several yrs back. It's a never ending process Michael! 17218

That looks great! I see we had the same ideas on how to handle the PVC problem with the new air cleaner, and to trim up the intakes wit a metal plate. I don't think I will go the route of the glowing coolant hoses(looks cool though), but I may do a throttle shield like yours in the near future. I'm getting ready to go finish mine up, decided to do the blue lights surrounding the engine after all so a bit more wiring is needed.


Michael, I just got an air cleaner from Special T (ordered on Monday, got it Wednesday). It was complete but there was no instructions. I assume the lower part of the stock air cleaner is used ... how does that go together? Love your engine bay. I should get my car from DPI in a couple of weeks and it's supposed to have the blue light package. I hope it looks as good as yours!

Yes the air cleaner uses the bottom of the old unit. You should have received nuts with large washwers to pinch both units together. Mine was welded up wrong and 2 of the rods did not have enough thread cut on them so I had to use spacers. I'm going to cut them tonight and cut more threads on the rods as well so I can loose the spacers. Funny you mention DPI, I remember seeing a small blue light on one of his engines and that's what planted this illumination bug about a year ago. I will take a few pics of mine apart so you can see how the lights are wired in place.

[Fluxat88MPH]

That looks great! I see we had the same ideas on how to handle the PVC problem with the new air cleaner, and to trim up the intakes wit a metal plate. I don't think I will go the route of the glowing coolant hoses(looks cool though), but I may do a throttle shield like yours in the near future.

You can obtain those SS throttle shields ar delorean car show web site.

[Michael]

Finished her up tonight. I decided to go full illumination so some extra care was needed to hide the side lights out of sight as well as hiding the wiring. I spent as much time making everything look tidy as I did on the lights themselves. Everything is wired into the engine light circuit, so it only comes on when the cover is up. I still have to install a wiring plug for the air cleaner so I can remove it without moving any wires but that can wait for a warmer garage. The air cleaner is not as bright as it seems, I didn't have the right light in the garage so the camera gave me a slower shutter to expose the whole engine, making the air cleaner look too bright. In person it looks really nice.

Last year I said I was done with the car, it was perfect and just the way I wanted it....OK Now I'm done!

http://dmctalk.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=17242&d=1363222612
http://dmctalk.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=17241&d=1363222602
http://dmctalk.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=17240&d=1363222591

[Dangermouse]

Ok, I want to take back my previous comment.

I didn't care for the single shot of blue in the Before picture (looked out of place imho) but with the After it looks like a more indirect light source reflecting off your engine and that combined with your clean shiny stainless components really works. Very nice !

[BTTF-1]

Wow! Great Job!

Sweat!

ED:lockdance::thumbup2::thumbup2::lockdance:

[Michael]

Thanks all, I'm pretty happy with the results. I think I kept it classy with going to far to the rice side.

I forgot I had used a lot of my blue lights on another project(Millennium Falcon fully lighted...but more on that later), and I did not have enough to complete the engine bay. I had 2 choices, wait 10 days until I could get some more from China, or go to Walmart and get some from the automotive section at a high price. I of course went to Walmart and got 2 feet. Then a thought occurred to me...do I really want to put something on my car sold at Walmart? Thoughts of dash mounted compases and skull shifter knobs popped in my head. Anodized tire stems, double bladed wipers, and lime green wiring loom seemed like a short trip from where I was at right now. I decided if I couldn't get the look I wanted I would take it all off and go back to just the clear housing.

Fortunately it gave me the look I wanted. A soft backlight on everything to show off the clean engine bay at night.

[Domi]

Nice engine compartment!
I really like the way you illuminated the air filter, and to put the stainless plate on the side instead of the top of the clear platic is looking really nice!

[DashEight]

That looks Great!:thumbup: Very nice Work!

[Jacko]

Michael, how visible are the blue lights in daytime?

[Michael]

Michael, how visible are the blue lights in daytime?

In sunlight...no not really visible at all...the bulb strips are hidden so only the glow is seen. At night or in a darkened garage it's almost blinding, so it should be just perfect in a night setting at a street light location. The pictures shown are in my garage with all the lights on, I have five 4' shop lights so it's a well lit garage.

[Fluxat88MPH]

Start a thread about the Falcon. I'm a huge SW fan, had been tossing around the idea of adding .ore lights to my Falcon.

[Jacko]

Michael, the rectangular DMC label on the airbox ... is that stainless and where did you get it.

Still loving your engine bay.

Thanks:wave2:

[Michael]

Michael, the rectangular DMC label on the airbox ... is that stainless and where did you get it.

Still loving your engine bay.

Thanks:wave2:

Thank you!


The label is part of the stainless label kit Tamir sells: http://www.entermyworld.com/store/stainless-steel Perfect for the DeLorean owner who has just flat run out of crap to do to his car :) You get a choice of the small label(shown on the new bay pic) or the large label which is shown in my pre modded pic. I wanted both as I knew I would probably change my mind about the air box cover in the future so I paid an extra 10 bucks for both label choices. They all have held up very well. I wasn't sure if they would being exposed to all the heat in the bay, but nothing has even offered to come loose.

[Kitsunechild]

Personally, I wouldn't do this to my car. (When I get it.) Like people mentioned before, it's definitely something that you prefer on your own vehicle. I've done a lot of crazy mods on previous vehicles that people flat out didn't like, but it was something that I was proud of. So more power to you for the work you've done, because it really does look amazing! The custom work you've put into it looks professional and really makes it stand out in a crowd! It's your DeLorean, do with it as you want, and screw anyone who dumps on it! I wouldn't say it's "ricey", just customized a little bit. Now, "ricey" would be you putting a body kit on it, aluminum wing, larger "ricey" wheels, a fart can, and neons underneath the car. This just looks like a subtle touch you've put into the engine bay. Far from being ricey.

[Michael]

Personally, I wouldn't do this to my car. (When I get it.) Like people mentioned before, it's definitely something that you prefer on your own vehicle. I've done a lot of crazy mods on previous vehicles that people flat out didn't like, but it was something that I was proud of. So more power to you for the work you've done, because it really does look amazing! The custom work you've put into it looks professional and really makes it stand out in a crowd! It's your DeLorean, do with it as you want, and screw anyone who dumps on it! I wouldn't say it's "ricey", just customized a little bit. Now, "ricey" would be you putting a body kit on it, aluminum wing, larger "ricey" wheels, a fart can, and neons underneath the car. This just looks like a subtle touch you've put into the engine bay. Far from being ricey.

Thank you

Modifications have to be thought out before going to town with your car. I am very aware that resale value is killed(or at the very least, subjects your car to a much smaller market). when mods go too extreme, even if the level of craftsmanship is high. That's why my mods are completely reversable in a very short amount of time. Of course most people mod their car because they do not intend on selling it, and if they were worried about what others think, they wouldn't buy a DeLorean in the first place. Keep in mind that my car is far from stock(Stage II engine, halogen lights, machine finished wheels, Complete Alpine/Genisis aftermarket stereo and amp/speakers, PJ Grady boards, Digital shift computer and lock module, door launchers, lock actuators, the list goes on) so if I were to be techinical, it would take a LOT to bring my car to a stock level and I like to joke that it would take about 10k to bring a Concours winning DeLorean up to my standards:tongue_stick:. When I first got my air cleaner, I didn't care for the clear view...let alone illumination! Since then my tastes have not really changed. I still liked my old bay, I just thought I would try something different for the cruise-in night scene this year and since I had just about all the components I needed just laying around, Why not? If I grow tired of it, I can change it back, or change it to something else.