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

[stevedmc]

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.

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.

[thirdmanj]

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

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

[DeLorean]

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

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!

[DMCMW Dave]

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. .

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. . .

[stevedmc]

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. . .

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.

[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.)

[stevedmc]

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.)

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

[MartyP]

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.

[stevedmc]

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.

[stevedmc]

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.