1982 Frame Off Restoration

[SupercoolBill]

Amazon parts showed up and we order parts from DMCH. Took the plunge and ordered a new left front fender. I wish I would have ordered one when they were cheaper.
Also ordered a radio mount/console for a knob type radio because Tam wants to use the original Craig radio. The radio turns on but I've never heard any sound come out of the speakers and I've never tried putting a cassette tape in it. So I'm not sure if it is usable or not. I may just send it out to be tested, cleaned, and serviced. A new belt of course.

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[SupercoolBill]

Correction, we don't have the Craig head unit. We have the ASI unit.
I have reached out to some people restore these units. I am learning that the ASI units are a real pain to restore. Mostly because it is so difficult to get to the belt(s).
The one guy that seems to be the best option in the Delorean community said he has ASI units fully restored with the recommended upgrades for like $1200.00
He said he could give me $200 as a core for our unit.
Or I send him our unit, have him do a $90 diagnostic and go from there.
One thing that I didn't notice before is that the plastic on the front is warped upwards for some reason.
I outlined the warping in white. Also I was told that this is the wrong faceplate.


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[SupercoolBill]

The ASI is a hard sell for me. Its an expensive option and not that great of a unit as far as I'm concerned.
I can buy nice NOS period correct tape deck head units for $250 to $500 all day on Ebay.
I will have to discuss this one with the wife for sure.


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[Rich]

Don?t know of any better options for restoring your sad-looking ASI unit.

Looks like a PO put a Craig faceplate on your. In case you do need the correct ASI faceplate it?s PN 110699 it?s at Classic DMC for $11.
And they have replacement nosepiece that might fix the warpage for ~$60. PN110691.

Looking forward to seeing the repro left fender on your car.

[Mark D]

It looks like that's a Craig face plate on an ASI radio.

If you want to try and fix the ASI you can still get the correct face plates for cheap:
https://store.delorean.com/110699-as...faceplate.html

It would be hard to justify the cost of repairing and upgrading it though at $1200. Not sure what's going on with that waviness around the cassette door either. Those are available NOS as well.
https://store.delorean.com/110691-as...ose-piece.html

I have always liked the look of the Craig radios better with the light up display. Those come up for sale occasionally but also tend to be expensive. This one on ebay is $900 even with issues playing cassettes

https://www.ebay.com/itm/28599950704...Bk9SR76arozWZQ

[mike123]

This one on ebay is $900 even with issues playing cassettes

https://www.ebay.com/itm/28599950704...Bk9SR76arozWZQ

One of my pet peeves about eBay is that its fee structure doesn't really offer any incentive to put a reasonable "buy it now" price. In fact it mostly incentivises putting an outrageous "buy it now" price. If this was going to sell for $900, it would have already. In reality, it's going to sell for "make an offer" and in my opinion the "buy it now" price is totally irrelevant and you shouldn't even think about it when considering what you might pay for this.

(this isn't directed at you Mark, I am sure you've come across this issue with BTTF parts, just me jumping off your link and yelling at clouds)

[Mark D]

One of my pet peeves about eBay is that its fee structure doesn't really offer any incentive to put a reasonable "buy it now" price. In fact it mostly incentivises putting an outrageous "buy it now" price. If this was going to sell for $900, it would have already. In reality, it's going to sell for "make an offer" and in my opinion the "buy it now" price is totally irrelevant and you shouldn't even think about it when considering what you might pay for this.

(this isn't directed at you Mark, I am sure you've come across this issue with BTTF parts, just me jumping off your link and yelling at clouds)

I hear you on the eBay rant. BIN prices are kind of a joke now and at the same time eBay also killed all incentives to run a listing as an auction. They want to be like Amazon and push sellers into higher volume / low margin sales. Not exactly friendly to small time sellers of unique items anymore.

A lot of sellers I've dealt with do exactly as you've described. Put a silly price on BIN and wait out the listing for months for that one person who needs it immediately to click the button. When buying stuff I always make an offer if it's enabled, or a lot of times sellers have auto-offers set up where it sends out an email with 5-10% off the BIN price as soon as you add the item to your watched list.

From a seller's perspective I understand it though. I used to sell lots of used BMW parts on ebay, but the platform just keeps getting worse with fees and ways for scammers to game the system. There is a lot of abuse from buyers using Item Not as Described / buyer protections and eBay's automated resolution center is set up to side with buyers by default. As a seller, it's hard to get an actual person on the phone anymore to settle disputes and obvious scams. eBay tells sellers that it's just the cost of doing business to get burned by a scammer once in a while. I've largely quit selling stuff there because it's just not worth the effort and frustration.

[SupercoolBill]

Well my wife mounted a good defense. She thinks it's really important to have "The original" stereo in the car. I showed her the 1 DIN head units and she immediately said "Those weren't out in the early 80s!"
I have to admit she's right.
If we are going "period correct" then it needs to be a 2 knob-style head unit.
At the same time that all of this was happening I was messaging Eric Woltkamp asking him about his restored ASI units.

Long story long, we decided to just bite the bullet and buy a restored & modded out ASI unit from Eric.
It's expensive but that's the only way that we both get what we want. Tam gets an "Original" head unit that plays cassette tapes and I get Bluetooth and RCA preamp outputs.
This is the picture Eric sent of the one he has that we would be getting. He also sent video of one that he had done the Bluetooth set up on. Pretty neat.



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[SupercoolBill]

I hear you on the eBay rant. BIN prices are kind of a joke now and at the same time eBay also killed all incentives to run a listing as an auction. They want to be like Amazon and push sellers into higher volume / low margin sales. Not exactly friendly to small time sellers of unique items anymore.

A lot of sellers I've dealt with do exactly as you've described. Put a silly price on BIN and wait out the listing for months for that one person who needs it immediately to click the button. When buying stuff I always make an offer if it's enabled, or a lot of times sellers have auto-offers set up where it sends out an email with 5-10% off the BIN price as soon as you add the item to your watched list.

From a seller's perspective I understand it though. I used to sell lots of used BMW parts on ebay, but the platform just keeps getting worse with fees and ways for scammers to game the system. There is a lot of abuse from buyers using Item Not as Described / buyer protections and eBay's automated resolution center is set up to side with buyers by default. As a seller, it's hard to get an actual person on the phone anymore to settle disputes and obvious scams. eBay tells sellers that it's just the cost of doing business to get burned by a scammer once in a while. I've largely quit selling stuff there because it's just not worth the effort and frustration.

Yeah I also used to sell a lot of used stuff on ebay before they changed everything. Now it's is all about the Buy it now.

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[mike123]

It's the worst but every once in awhile that old alarm clock from Grandma's house happens to be a Bulova and they can get a ridiculous Buy it now price :-)

Congrats on the radio Bill, it's expensive but it sounds like it's what you wanted!