1982 Frame Off Restoration

[SupercoolBill]

The wife and I spent five hours or so working on the car yesterday. The wife unhooked the parking brake cables, unbolted the seats and took them out (well I took the first one out) while I worked on getting the AC evaporator separated.
The more I thought about it I decided the best thing to do is to cut the lines for now. I can't find a kit that has the size of crows foots, (crows feet??) That I need and this is holding up the entire project. The accumulator and rubber lines are getting replaced anyways so I just cut them out.

Then hopefully after the body is lifted off the frame I can more easily get at the connection on the evap to be able to get them apart. If not then I'll be replacing the evaporator also.20220108_115937.jpg20220108_120443.jpg

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[SupercoolBill]

The evaporator side of the accumulator was a lot harder to cut. I have all kinds of different cut off tools but the only thing that would really fit in there was a Sawzall with a long fine tooth blade bent at a 30 degree-ish angle. There was no good way to keep downward pressure on the blade. This wasn't to much of a problem for the first 1/2" or so but then as I got deeper the blade wasn't cutting and if I pushed downward the blade just jammed and bent. So I ended up putting leather gloves on, kind of acting as a guide and downward pressure for the blade. It took a long time but eventually the aluminum was thin enough that I could wiggle the accumulator back and forth until the remaining aluminum at the cut fatigued and broke.20220108_121330.jpg20220108_130409.jpg

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[SupercoolBill]

The shifter knob needed to be removed but it seemed to be stuck. I have pretty good grip strength and I could not get the thing to budge...to the point that I was worried that I was going to damage the shifting linkages. I put a post on the FB DeLorean restoration page asking if all DeLorean shift knows were threaded and if I was a trick to getting it off (heat?)
The wife also started looking online and found someone's post where they said to use a pipe wrench with a rag. I had tried a flat faced pipe wrench before and it just slipped. So I grabbed a rag and a pipe wrench. I gave it a yank and "Crack!" just like that the knob was loose but.....the wrench put some marks in the knob. I guess I should have used a tougher rag or as someone mentioned on the FB page,..a rubber jar opener. That's a pretty good idea. Hopefully the knob can be repaired or maybe OEM replacements are still available for not a million dollars. Or I keep it as is and always remember how hard the thing was stuck on there.
Some people said that the DeLorean shift knob had a jam nut under that needed to be loosened. Mine didn't have a jam not and if it did I am not sure how I would even be able to get to it to loosen it because it is recessed in there. (see pic of underside of knob).20220108_134028.jpg20220108_134211.jpg20220108_134443.jpg20220108_134448.jpg

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[Bitsyncmaster]

The jamb nut is just to be able to set where the knob holds tight so your lettering is pointed correct. As you said you would not be able to get loose even if it had one.

You can run with jamb nut but probably would want a washer to prevent the boot from twisting. You may need to make some shims for that washer to get it to stay with the lettering pointed as you like.

[SupercoolBill]

The jamb nut is just to be able to set where the knob holds tight so your lettering is pointed correct. As you said you would not be able to get loose even if it had one.

You can run with jamb nut but probably would want a washer to prevent the boot from twisting. You may need to make some shims for that washer to get it to stay with the lettering pointed as you like.

It will be a long time before it gets reassembled but my thought was RTV on the threads. That should keep it facing the way I want but allow it to be screwed off if needed.

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[DMC-Ron]

The shifter knob needed to be removed but it seemed to be stuck. I have pretty good grip strength and I could not get the thing to budge...to the point that I was worried that I was going to damage the shifting linkages. I put a post on the FB DeLorean restoration page asking if all DeLorean shift knows were threaded and if I was a trick to getting it off (heat?)
The wife also started looking online and found someone's post where they said to use a pipe wrench with a rag. I had tried a flat faced pipe wrench before and it just slipped. So I grabbed a rag and a pipe wrench. I gave it a yank and "Crack!" just like that the knob was loose but.....the wrench put some marks in the knob. I guess I should have used a tougher rag or as someone mentioned on the FB page,..a rubber jar opener. That's a pretty good idea. Hopefully the knob can be repaired or maybe OEM replacements are still available for not a million dollars. Or I keep it as is and always remember how hard the thing was stuck on there.

Just for future reference, a plumbers strap wrench works to loosen things without marring. I have two sizes and use them to hold and loosen all kinds of things where I don't want to leave channel-lock teeth marks.
strap wrench.JPG

Ron

[SupercoolBill]

Just for future reference, a plumbers strap wrench works to loosen things without marring. I have two sizes and use them to hold and loosen all kinds of things where I don't want to leave channel-lock teeth marks.
strap wrench.JPG

Ron

I actually have a set like that and the metal type with a nylon strap. Could have tried that. Although it was stuck so hard that I think it may have just slipped or if it had teeth (like the one in the picture) it would have still left its mark. Maybe not though. I'll have to try it on the next manual transmission shift knob that is stuck on.

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[SupercoolBill]

Last night I cleaned up the area around the car, put tools away, bagged, boxed, tagged parts.20220109_184926.jpg20220110_130751.jpg20220110_130736.jpg

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[SupercoolBill]

I can't believe that I am even asking this but, has anyone ever used the fake yellow plating spray paint? I have seen it before online somewhere. Basically it is supposed to make you part look like it has been plated with zinc yellow chromate.

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[82DMC12]

I can't believe that I am even asking this but, has anyone ever used the fake yellow plating spray paint? I have seen it before online somewhere. Basically it is supposed to make you part look like it has been plated with zinc yellow chromate.

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Last week I used VHT Engine Metallic in Gold Flake (Advance Auto has it) for a test spray on my idle microswitch bracket to see how close it would match my water pump pulley. It's very close, close enough. Looks fantastic. Here's a pic but it's not zoomed in on that part. You're supposed to bake the painted part at 200F for an hour to ensure it is will be chemical-resistant when you're done.

Compare it to the two S-brackets for the mixture unit support and the Q-clip for the water hose in front of the compressor - both of those are plate (either zinc or cadmium, not sure)

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