Vin #4454

[Chris Williams]

I do know someone but unlikely to be any less than what you have had a price on, if you get stuck though let me know.
Chris

[Guinney1971]

I towed #2292 (on Chris Parnhams's mahoosive old trailer) with my dads 1.6 Scenic, it made it (just), but the clutch wasn't too happy after a 70 mile trip from Tilbury to Stevenage, and I think we struggled to get above 40mph.

[Chris P]

Yes and Martin used it to bring one back from the continent using his Citroen Xantia!

(sadly I don't have it any more) Indeed I could have done with it next week!

[Guinney1971]

Yes, remember Martin brought 'Tinny' back from Europe with it, he dropped it off at my old house in Stevenage, then
I drove it up to your house having just picked Flopsy up from Tilbury the same day.
That was a lot of driving, I was knackered at the end of it!!

[Reinsch]

My baby is now home for about a week.

photo1

She is in better condition then I expected. New DMC pump, all new gas struts and new (discharged) battery that I managed to rescue.
I started from removing all loose parts from car and I found all the missing bits, so car is 100% complete.
Quick look under bonnet and I know why clutch goes to floor so easy... clutch fluid tank has a hole in bottom...
I slowly started servicing engine to confirm what is wrong with it. When I removed air filter I saw a date on it 11.80. Looks exactly like the one that DMC Huston is offering (NOS). I think it might be still factory one. Totally blocked and oily.
Oil filter looks really old as well, however oil has gold colour. Clock shows 25k miles, so not sure if that is factory filter as well ?

have a look on my gallery and let me know what you think:

CLICK HERE FOR GALLERY

Currently in process of taking apart intake and injection fuel system to give it a good clean. 
If I manage to bring this engine to life, I will possibly cancel my engine swap (or rather store engine for later  )

[Guinney1971]

wow!!! those photos!!! I thought my car had a rough interior when I got it, but jeez!!!!

Looks like an amazing project, I'm sure Eddie would love photos and write up for the magazine (editor@deloreans.co.uk).

[Stuart Rees]

Great Photos! Good find too, nice history if it were bought New on Hollywood Boulevard   wonder who the first owner was?? Delorean museum might have that information...
Best of luck with the restoration

[Chris P]

It looks remarkably original and non-messed about with. You might get away with just a new tank belly plate Personally I'd have changed the oil and filter and tried to get it running. 25K miles looks about right to me.

Good luck with it.

[Reinsch]

Delorean museum in Texas had no record of the car in VIN list. They thought that car with such VIN never existed. They asked me for photos of vin plate, which I sent to them. Car will be added to register.

Engine requires some work, so I started to strip it down. I'm adding photos to my album, so you can follow my progress.

My valley of death was a home to squirrel at some point, and I found lot of powder on thermostat - I guess dried coolant.
I'm now removing water pump and cooling circuits to confirm condition. I will possibly remove engine for better investigation.

[Reinsch]

Update time!

Yesterday I managed to commit a divorce. Body now sits outside on wooden frame and wheels. Frame is in the garage.
I'm glad I decided to go for full nut and bolt restoration as every single bolt in this car is loose! Really, no exception : chassis bolts, seatbelt bolts, suspension bolts... Just terrible. I also found rear swing arm bolt missing so it nearly fell off!
Chassis is looking really good. I hope to get epoxy off and find healthy steel. I will get it deep galvanized and painted. It should last 50 years even when driving in bad weather condition.
Engine has all water channels blocked and needs total rebuild, so as planned on beginning of project I'm putting L7X 3.0 V6 24V 210HP engine from Laguna that is waiting in front of D. Stock engine will be rebuild at some point and available for those interested in perfectly restored stock unit.
Here are some photos from progress :

[Guinney1971]

that's amazing, what method did you use to take the body off the car?

Any pics of the donor car ?

[Reinsch]

Hello again,

I guess you can separate it in few ways, but I decided to have frame on wheels on the ground and lift off the body. I used two jacks (one motorcycle platform jack and one 3TON car jack with jacking beam). I jacked it on both sides simultaneously. Once I reached limit of jack height, I used jack stands on each body corner to put body down. Once on stands I put some timber on top of jacks to be able to raise body higher. I had to repeat this operation few times to get to point when I could roll out chassis backwards to my garage and leave body outside. However before that I had to remove jacks and stands from body corners as they were in the way. To do that I slided 2.4m timber over axis so they would stick out on sides and lowered the body on stands again.

Few issues I found :
1) make sure to find balance on the beginning when jacking body up using 2 jacks (they were platform/beam ones so they support body on distance of over 0.5-1m each side). Otherwise it will be really dangerous!! I would not try it with 2 normal car jacks for sure. Make sure you do it on hard surface.
2) you need to raise body up by approx 0.5m
3) remove your shifter stick as it will be highest point on chassis and you will have to raise body even higher then 0.5m.
4) do it really slowly as you might forgot about disconnecting something
5) don't do it alone

Yesterday night I also removed engine with transmission. Bad news is that the gearbox has a hole (picture below). Basically nut went through casing... I drained oil (what was left), but it is maybe 0.3-0.5 L. I know the reason now that the car was out of commission from 1990... It is not engine that was dead, but gearbox... but now engine is also trashed due to coolant corrosion. Can't win...







I will open gearbox this weekend to check if it can be saved (it turns on every gear ok). I stay positive that I need only new cover, but I'm also prepared mentally that bearings are gone and I need total rebuild or new gearbox. Time will show. Bearings are quite expensive when looking on Delorean websites, but I will get UN1 service manual (bearings sizes) and check prices at bearing shop. Maybe I will get lucky...

Plan now:

1. Gearbox - split and decision what next with it
2. L7X engine out of Laguna
3. Adapter for UN1 gearbox
4. Fabrication of new engine mounts once L7X connected with UN1 and dry fit to frame
5. Frame - once modified with new engine mount brackets -> sandblasting and galvanizing.
6. Reassemble of frame (brakes, fuel system, suspension etc - all overhauled or upgraded in meantime).
7. Powertrain fitment.
8. Body back on chassis.
9. Wiring
10. New interior

[Guinney1971]

hopefully your gearbox is saveable, as UN1's are serious money, we know a guy in Sussex with one (Paul Cunningham on Renault Owners Club), but its a lot of money.
We've seen an Espace for sale in Germany with the UN1 for €250 EUR.... its just fetching it lol, but it would yield lots of spares for my 1995 Espace at the same time.
By the way your cracking on, you'll have yours finished before we even start on my car lol

[Reinsch]

I have little delay as one of gears is stuck on shaft and I can't remove it, so can't split the transmission in half. Heat gun arriving tomorrow, so hopefully it will solve the issue. So far the gear wheels look OK. Deposit in oil might be mainly from gear rubbing on housing as it is mainly non-ferrous metal deposit - even drain plug with magnet is not picking it up. If "properly blended", should not cause that much damage to bearings. That gear however doesn't look that bad, so finger crossed.

I'm thinking about applying aviation/racing solution for securing this nut to shaft - drill nut and shaft and apply pin/wire to secure it once for all (if you can drill it). I got dynamometers and glue, but I guess they also had it in manufacturing plant and it went wrong anyway. Unless they improved the nut since that time.

[Chris Williams]

Quote:I'm thinking about applying aviation/racing solution for securing this nut to shaft - drill nut and shaft and apply pin/wire to secure it once for all

Sounds like a good plan to me, are you getting the casing welded up?
Chris