www.delorean.com (DMC Houston) www.pjgrady.com www.specialtauto.com www.delorean-parts.com
Under hood/front:My early car simply has a piece of carpet. Later cars have the carpet bonded to a piece of fibreboard. I will be mounting mine to a piece of ply when I can be bothered.
Carpet starting to droop in two sections ( what is a good choice for contact cement?)
No - the original horn sounds bloody awful. Check you have BOTH horns working, currently one of mine works all the time and the other one works when it feels like it. Needless to say, when only one tone sounds, you'd be better off opening the window and shouting "BEEP!"
The horn is weak sounding. Can these be repaired with a little tinkering?
Buy the manual.
How can I tell if the recalls have been done?
Apparently the spring in the latch was replaced later in production. It can also be adjusted. Mine doesn't "pung" either.
The hood does not have any real pop-up action when the release is pulled. What am I missing here?
Front or back? IIRC (at least over here) one of them is readily and cheaply available, the other not-so.
Brakes:
Brake rotors need to be turned, or alternatively, is there an inexpensive aftermarket rotor available?
What type of adhesive sealant holds in the rear quarter windows? Is this a tough job?No. Just done them on #2727. Made a delightful mess, but when you're working with stainless and glass, your choices of clean-up solvents is greatly increased :-) Used black stuff bought form a local motor factors. Windscreen sealant is ideal.
I bet you a beer it's the rear bulb/board (winner claims beer in Memphis :-). It is equally likely to be a bad ground or bad supply, but the culprit is most likely to be the tail light board.
Electrical:
The right hand turn signal occasionally goes double-speed, which indicates to me that a bulb is intermittent, or it has a bad ground. Any experience with this?
As-big-as-will-fit-in-the-hole. The original was an AC Delco. Get the best one you can that will fit, and with the best cold-crank rating. Do you still have the original screw-terminals?
What is the proper battery size?
It's in one of the back-issues of the 'Zine (see www.dmcnews.com)
The fuse box has been replaced, I assume because of the original's propensity to melt. Who has a diagram of the '81 relays?
The PO "rigged" the ones on this car.Which ones? Some are common-as-muck standard relays. Others (eg lambda) are more unusual. Others (fan-fail) are badly made and the subject of a recall (see manual which you'll have bought by now, won't you?)
How can I tell if the relays have been upgraded?
A relay on the far right of the car above the battery has been jumpered. Fuel pump?Far left, as you have your head over it? That's the fan-fail module by-pass and was the factory correction for the daftest piece of electrical engineering I've ever seen. (Fan fail module, designed to alert the driver to a fan failing was in itself the single greatest cause of the fan(s) failing!)
If you find out, let me know! Mine's missing. It's just a cheap pot, but a funny shape. Mine just has the wires connected so the lights are on full.
Can the rheostat for the dash lights be rebuilt/repaired?
One part of the clock is - you need to buy/get the wiring diagram.
The Cig lighter and clock don't work. I assume that they are on the same circuit.
Ah. There's me seeing the future. Didn't someone just post to the DML how? Anyway you can get it here (but it's BIG)
How can I get my hands on an electrical diagram.
With the wiring diagram you can work out what wires do what, and using jumper wires you can manually check if the motors still work. I have done this to set my offside mirror while I wait for Dave Howarth to track down the switch he has. NB you can destroy your switch trying to get the bugger out - it is the likely culprit, but is also (together with most other non-functioning switches) likely to be fixable with a squirt of Servisol10 (switch cleaner/lubricant). Sadly, I never got the chance.
The right-side mirror has no up/down adjustment. Any likely culprit or testing procedure?
Maybe, maybe not. How this thing assembles makes you wonder whether the person who designed it had six toes on each foot, buck teeth and a pronounced hunch. There are relatively few components, and if you do as I did and stare at it for long enough with a pair of narrow-nosed pliers in your hand, you might be able to work out how to reassemble it. When taking it apart, it does fall into several pieces which rattle around in it. Or you can buy a new (as in properly designed) one from Houston.
Defogger switch is trashed.
Dunno. Got all six of mine from PJ Grady. Lovely.
Doors:
Gas struts are pretty well hosed. Who has the best-priced replacements?
$250 each from http://www.delorean-parts.com/ Sorry, but the whole assembly is crap. If you replace the gear, the elbow will go. If you fix the elbow, the rod will strip.
My window registers (lifts) are toast. The motors are good. Who sells replacement gearing? I can't pay $300 per side for new motors...
Available from Houston with a metal bracket. You may need to adjust the linkage to stop the same happening again.Interior: I need a shift boot, as it is cut from engaging reverse.
James RG found some at the NEC show, and conveniently "forgot" which stand they came from (grrr). I don't know, is the short answer. They're called "fir-trees" BTW.
Are the interior door panel retaining barbs and clips universal-fit?
Try Servisol10 first, but it'll be delaying the inevitable. You do realise it has two positions, don't you? (sorry, granny and eggs and all that).
The headlight switch takes a few presses to convince it to stay engaged. Can this me repaired, or should I just shut up and pay the $48 for the switch?
Plenty of people over here (England) if you don't mind it not being "original". Mine's worse than yours, and I'm sorely tempted to go with re-covering the whole lot in leather, but with the work done by the original suppler in Belfast. It'll probably end up cheaper than original vinyl! Try Houston for replacements. You haven't stated what colour your interior is. Some pieces are only available in one colour.
Need the elastic cord replaced for the cargo net.
The dash "pod" is showing some age, but might be re-coatable, somehow. Also, the dash has a crack on the right, through the speaker, and the glove box door has a chip in the corner. Who does that kind of stuff?
The ignition switch and door key are different. The door key is the big-head, shorter lighted key, and the ignition is smaller-headed, but longer. Can either the door or ignition locks be disassembled and re-worked to operate the car with one key?AAARGH - thank your lucky stars you still have a working two-key system! Do as I'm going to do and install remote central locking (NB I trust my door-lock module which I've re-engineered).
The inner door seal is available over here. It's not ab-so-lu-te-ly identical, but you have to look hard to spot the difference. I paid £25 for enough to do both doors. Again at the NEC. Haven't found replacements for the outer bits yet, but in all honesty, there's nothing really wrong with the old ones except that they were falling off.
I need all the door seals and gaskets. Is the profile of any of these available at JC Whitney or another (<$300/side) source?
Ber? It's black leather. Any trimming place should be able to do it.
Is there a steering wheel recovering kit available?
It's strait out of just about every large 90-95 Ford over here. A trip to the local scrapyard got me mine for £5. I don't know when I'll have a chance to visit one next though.
Please tell me about interior rear view mirror replacement options. This one is in bad shape.
Under dash / dash:It'll mean a light on your dash doesn't come on to tell you to replace your lambda sensor. Potentially you've passed this point and the PO didn't know how to re-set the box. What's the mileage on your car?
A whitish box at the base of the column appears to house the lambda-
counter. The electrical has been bypassed, I assume from someone's having kicked it loose. Is this a big deal?
The column base "gudgeon" is loose against the firewall. I have seen these somewhere in an improved model... Is this a difficult fix?What's a "gudgeon"? If you mean the bush in the metal plate through the firewall, I have to do mine too. It involves removing the solumn. Now you remember I mentioned the manuals.....
Engine bay:Take the rear fascia off and come back with any more questions once you've seen how it assembles. pic here
The car may have once been bumped dead center in the rear, as the engine cover hatch takes some oomph to close, and the latch/release has been removed. Also, there is an obvious void of an inch behind the bumper skin. Is the bumper skin easy to remove so that the steel portion may be pulled back out?
No problem
I am very glad YOU got to the bottom of this page. Thanks for your thoughts and time.
Martin #1458
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