How to maintain your Delorean for less than $500 a year and put 10,000 miles on it

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Originally Posted by DMCMW Dave

If the radiator is only a year old, and not grossly dented/bent, take it out and find an old-time radiator shop (they are pretty scarce but they are out there - usually in a crummy part of town). Assuming the one you have is brass, you can probably get it fixed for less than $100 and it will be a much better radiator than a used one. They will solder it up and leak-test it in a tank.

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I got this one from you about a year ago. Were you guys selling NOS radiators back then or new ones? I don't have an invoice to check since my insurance company paid for the radiator. I tapped on the sides of the radiator and they seem to be metal.

I'm playing hookie from church today and am working on removing it right now.

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Originally Posted by stevedmc

Bi weekly or monthly shouldn't be a problem since stuff doesn't break daily anyway.

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Really? ..... Lucky fucker....

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Originally Posted by David T

What is missing from this experiment is the initial conditions. If the car is a P-O-S and was never properly taken care of you can EXPECT things to happen. If the car was well maintained (and a lot of money was spent) you can expect the car will need a LOT less to be spent on it. Also a lot depends on how picky you are and how well you expect everything on the car to work. Maybe the doors don't close right, some bulbs are burnt out, the A/C doesn't work well, the wipers blades streak, etc. There are years I don't spend ANY money on maintenance on my car but that is because a LOT was spent when I first got it. Then again I don't drive it 10,000 miles in a year. In the time I have owned it (around 15 years) I put 9,000 miles on it. Everything works and works perfectly on the car though. Not very many 30 year old cars can make that claim.
David Teitelbaum

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100% accurate. My DeLorean will likely be a great car THIS YEAR because I probably spent $4000 on it (parts alone) last year getting it all up to snuff!

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Originally Posted by stevedmc

I got this one from you about a year ago. Were you guys selling NOS radiators back then or new ones? I don't have an invoice to check since my insurance company paid for the radiator. .

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Took me a minute to find it - the shop bought it. It's all aluminum. That will be a bit tougher to repair, which is why radiator shops are fading away. . .

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Originally Posted by DMCMW Dave

Took me a minute to find it - the shop bought it. It's all aluminum. That will be a bit tougher to repair, which is why radiator shops are fading away. . .

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Awesome! Thank you so much for the info. I did a google search and did manage to find a few radiator repair shops in Baton Rouge. A few of them even have websites boasting of same day repairs.

Why not simply post every penny you spend on the D? As long as you itemize, people can easily compare/adjust accordingly...(ie You may do work yourself or overpay on labor etc, etc.)

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Originally Posted by Ron

Why not simply post every penny you spend on the D? As long as you itemize, people can easily compare/adjust accordingly...(ie You may do work yourself or overpay on labor etc, etc.)

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That's what I plan on doing, minus insurance, yearly inspection, and fuel.

I have an excel sheet, that gives me the date the parts and the cost including shipping on my D.

I believe its feasable for 500$ (not including oil change, gaz and axes insurance) If it's maintenance.

Skipping the updates and upgrades.... If I remove all the updates and upgrades I'm prety sure I was below 1000$ for each of the 2 years I had the car.

Here are some pictures of my radiator. I plan on testing it later today. I'm going to seal off all the connections but one, put air on one connection from a shop vac, drop it in the tub and see where the bubbles come out.

This sucks. I drained the ramen noodles out of the bath tub, filled it up with water and did my little test. I sealed off two barbs on the radiator and connected the reverse end of my shop vac to the radiator. I let the thing sit in the tub for a few minutes with the shop van running (from the exhaust end) and I didn't see any bubbles leave the radiator!

I'm going to go driving around tomorrow looking for a radiator shop that can test it for me. I'm guessing I would need something more powerful like an air compressor to do this sort of test.