Review of various DeLorean Industries Products and Service

[deloreandmcxii]

The Basics
• On May 18th of 2021, I contacted DeLorean Industries about either buying the SPEC Coilover set up or having DeLorean Industries install it for me.
• Josh Bengston and I emailed back and forth discussing my options for the car and logistics for the work.
• On the 29th I drove 3 hours down to his shop and dropped off the car.
• Over the next month we continued to communicate via email about progress on the car, additional things he discovered, additional work I decided to tack on to the project while it was at his shop, and logistics for pick up.
• Work performed:
◦ Suspension overhaul
▪ Coilovers, Front upper and lower control arms, adjustable rear lower links, bushings, joints, hardware, etc.
◦ Steering rebuild
◦ Front Frame Extension Restoration
◦ Radiator Fans/Shroud
◦ Clutch Hydraulics
◦ Stainless Fuel Lines and Injector Seals
• I picked up the car on July 5th (It would have been a little sooner but we decided to delay a week to wait out the recent storms).
• I have put about 400-500 miles on the car since and am very satisfied.

More Details
I have wanted an overhaul to my suspension for many years. It was never quite the priority. Given some recent projects I finally tackled myself and some work done by Bauerle Automotive, it was finally time!

I researched the major vendors’ products by scouring their sites and all the DMC forums I could find. I watched YouTube videos, and called around to some DeLorean buddies (including another owner of DeLorean Industries' SPEC Suspension).

I was leaning toward DeLorean Industries’s SPEC kit and figured who better to install the kit than the creator. I was skeptical of Josh and DeLorean Industries at first, but his products looked like the best money can buy. I did not like the complaints I saw about him and his business, but I saw not one poor review of the products themselves. Most of the complaints seemed to be about his response time or willingness to do business with some folks. Indeed, Josh did come off pretty high-and-mighty in some posts, but in every personal interaction he was polite, professional, well-informed, and thorough.

Josh always responded quickly and thoroughly (I was still skeptical – things have a way changing once money changes hands). I had learned enough to make a 3 hour drive and, based on what I saw, decide whether to leave the car and a downpayment. I did initially find it concerning that he required a sizable downpayment – but then it occurred to me that if I bought the parts for installation locally, I would not have thought twice about paying entirely upfront.

At the DeLorean Industries facility, I was sold. When I dropped off the car there were around 10 DeLoreans in the shop. Some were off their frames, others seemed like they were ready to drive away. There was opportunity to closely inspect Josh's suspensions, stainless frames, and much more.
Meeting Josh was great - he and I are about the same age and we seemed to get along well - chatting about his business and our history with this strange car we love.
Josh's facility was clean and organized. Seeing the SS frame in person is what really sold me on his business. To me, it seems that no one willing and capable of executing on such an awesome product could possibly be up to anything too nefarious. Seeing this professional shop made it hard to imagine the bad experiences I'd read about.

I'm not discounting anyone else's experience with DeLorean Industries and Josh. Many of us are very emotionally invested our cars: and sometimes that makes conducting business more difficult. I wasn't present for anyone else's experience – for all I know Josh was a horrible jerk. But with me, he was professional and honest. Assuming his work doesn't crumble to dust in more miles of driving, I will do business with him again, for certain.

I found Josh to have a good balance between recommending additional work and respecting my budget.
Josh recommended about 15% additional work (In terms of dollars), which made sense to do given the other work going on. He was never pushy and DID take no for an answer (and was gracious when I waffled back and forth on some choices). Everything was discussed, explained (why it made sense or was cost effective to do now while we have this part of the car apart anyway), and approved. Josh did take the liberty of replacing various minor hardware without getting my explicit approval. It was less that 4% of the total price and was far better than reinstalling rusted old nuts, brackets, and bolts. While I fully support this, I could see some customers not appreciating this the way I do.
Perhaps to make this aspect perfect Josh could place on his quotes a few hundred dollars of spare budget to account of this sort of extra and prevent the unnecessary back and forth of getting approval for a few dozen of $5-10 parts.
DeLorean Industries also went over and above (and didn't nickle-and-dime for) cleaning, restoring, painting, plating, or etc just about everything that they had to remove and reinstall.

Products
From the look and feel of each product – you can tell how over-engineered DeLorean Industries' products are. Will DMCH's or DeLoreanGo's suspension do the job? I bet they will. Am I crazy for spending this much more money for adjustibility IÂ’ll rarely use and more robustness than I'll need in 3 DeLorean lifetimes? Yes, for certain.
Nobody NEEDS Josh's products to be as good as they are (Nobody needs a DeLorean). But I know some of you are like me and saw the SPEC kit or the Stainless Frame, and just WANT it. It's freaking cool, and I want a cool thing. If you want something less expensive that will likely serve you very well, that's awesome too.
I love the diversity of product options we have for our cars. Having a good-enough option AND a luxury option isn't a benefit all orphan car owners have. With as few DMCs as exist, we're damn lucky to have had DeLorean Industries AND DMC Houston, DeLoreanGo, DeLorean Parts Northwest, PJ Grady, and a bunch of other folks supporting us and our hobby.
From my initial impressions, Joshs products ARE all they're cracked up to be. If you want to spend the extra to have a very well-constructed and crazy cool improvement for your DeLorean - you will not be disappointed. If you want factory-correctness or if you just want your car on the road for the lowest price, DeLorean Industries may not be for you. There are certainly some parts for my DeLorean that I'm fine with New-Old-Stock or "good-enough". I will always shop out any DeLorean part/service between vendors and pick based on my needs and wants for that thing.

Having now driven 500 miles, done some spirited cornering, and tweaked the ride height and firmness myself - I'm very pleased with the suspension and steering. The steering is lighter and more precise. The suspension has just about entirely elimated nose dive and body roll. The car goes straight and true. At speed, the suspension is quiet and smooth. When moving slower over rough roads, it is a little bit clunky sounding – but certainly no worse than my old factory suspension. Is it super easy to adjust the ride height and firmness. I'm still experimenting to find exactly where I like it, but I'm getting close to DeLorean stance nirvana!

The other componants (clutch, cooling fans, fuel lines) of course have far less impact on the driving experience. All the components look great, and are functioning as expected. The cooling fans' noise takes some getting used to. It's not bad, just very different from factory: higher pitched. My volts never dive below 13 like they used to, and my temp never climbs above around 215 (a needleswidth below the 220 mark) (even on my drive back from OH, in 95+ degrees)

Regarding the front frame extension work - it looks wonderful and turned my front frame from not-the-WORST-but-somewhat-of-a-patchy/rusty-mess into a clean and solid piece. Josh mentioned this isn't the sort of work he usually would want to tackle (prefering, of course, to install his SS frame. Which IÂ’ll do as soon as my lotto check clears). My understanding was since I was having him replace just about every component bolted to the front frame, it made sense he tackle restoring it as well.

Constructive Feedback
The one piece of constructive feedback I had for Josh (I told him this personally when I picked up the car), was "Underpromise, over deliver". Josh always responded quickly to his emails (the longest he might have taken was 3-4 days, over a weekend). However, two or three times I asked for something (revised numbers, info, or pictures on something), and he'd say something like "I'll have that to you later today" and then it wasn't for a day or two after that that he delivered it. That day or two would have a perfectly reasonable time to wait, but the fact he said it would be later that same day made the experience a little worse.

The End
Overall, I spent way too much money and am very pleased with the results
I do not hesitate one bit to recommend DeLorean Industries - but they're not for everyone.
So far everything is what I expected it to be. If anything changes as I drive more, I'll update this thread.

[deloreandmcxii]

Some pics

[Helirich]

Good review. One thing I learned when I was in business was "you can't please everyone" and "the customer is not always right". I'm not saying Delorean Industry's is perfect, but they (and Josh) have been good to me.

I also lust after the SS frame. Can't really justify it right now, but you never know.