Vin 12181 Resto

[Chris P]

Keep at it David, you'll get it all sorted one day!

[airfireman1]

After a visit from Chris Nicholson my car is looking amazing. He massaged out a few dents and re grained the body. What a difference!. Chris did an amazing job and is an amazing man. I have nothing but praise for is workmanship.
Now another thing ticked off the list.
I took it to a car show/cruise on the weekend and had so many people come over and talk to me and ask questions about the car. I felt very proud and honoured to own this rare beast

[Guinney1971]

I've been following Chris's Antipodean exploits on Facebook, you guys have certainly kept him busy 'down under'!!

[Chris P]

What would we all do without him?

[Dan Willis]

Well, we sort are without him - I certainly can't nail him down for any work (any time soon!).

[Chris P]

Yes is main problem is that he has only got one pair of hands. He needs a talented apprentice and assistant.

I'll never forget the first time he turned up at Gaydon in his own car, in about 2002,  that he had been restoring on his own for a number of years. He had re-brushed it in a finer grade of finish…..not quite 'mirror finish' but much brighter than the normal 60 grit. It was shortly after this he gave up his 'day job' working for a stainless steel fabricator (I think) and started working full time on DeLoreans.

[Dan Willis]

You have that right Chris - I remember those days too; he's extremely talented, just a bugger to get hold of.

[airfireman1]

A bit more work completed on the car, front brakes, rotors skimmed and new pads. It is now stopping much better than when it had 35 year old pads. Its running quite well now after replacing a loose vacuum line and finding out the throttle (idle) adjusting screw had wound itself out a few tuns. Took me a while to figure out the hunt at idle.
Just ordered new silicon outer door seals as the ones I bought from DMC in Houston have only lasted two years before they started to crack.
I took it to a "Comicon" convention in Perth for a display. Had the honour of Christopher Lloyd and Tom Wilson "Biff" use the car for some photoshoots. Christopher signed my sun visor for me and both posed for a photo with me and the car.

[Chris P]

Sounds like the good work is continuing David, one day you will think you have got on top of everything...then you will be reminded that it is 35 year old car and little things will keep cropping up! 

 Great to have met Christopher Lloyd and Biff...I've not managed that yet...Its on my list of things to do. Keep up the good work.

If you have any nice photo's, and detailed history, it would be good if you could let me have them,  as Book 2 will happen and the RHD's will feature a lot this time.

[airfireman1]

Thanks for the great comments Chris, I have quite a lot of documents that came with the car. I have records that go back to when Maurice Brockwell purchased the car from "Deon Autos" including the original purchase receipt. my understanding is that 2 right hand drives were brought into Australia by Lloyds shipping for promotional purposes. Maurice and his friend Sir Robert Holmes a Court ,then purchased them.I believe that the other one returned to England after being purchased.
My car made a return trip to the UK for a Delorean convention and was then shipped back to Australia. I spoke to Maurices daughter on the weekend and she remembers being taken to school in the car many times. The car was looked after by a small workshop here in Perth but unfortunately many repairs were just stop gap and poorly done.
I have several photos of Them when they were here in the early days and also several photos of when it was back in England. I can get them copied and will be glad to send them and any other information to you.
My email address is dparody@bigpond.net.au If you could send me your postal address I will get it sorted.

[Chris P]

Hi David, I will email you. You probably remember I bought the other RHD from back from Australia , Vin 510. Its still in the UK along with all the other Wooler-Hodec cars......apart from yours! Being all very early cars they were a bit rough around the edges, that is why they were deemed 'not fit to sell' and sent to Wooler-Hodec in the first place. Some to be scrapped and some to be converted to RHD, for the factory managers as staff cars, before being scrapped.   It was only the factory going bust that enabled their survival...as they could then sold by the Receiver to raise money for the creditors...Its all in the book!   I didn't realise that Maurice Brockwell and Robert Holmes-A-Court knew each other.

[airfireman1]

Well after many hours of fault finding, Changing all the vacuum hoses except the three that disappear under the intake manifold ( must be a manifold off job to change those) the car was still behaving badly with an unstable idle. Thought I might change the O2 sensor as I had no idea how old it was. I found that the wire from the sensor had worn through and was grounding on the chassis. I replaced the sensor with a new one anyway, the idle is more stable but I still have no buzz from the frequency valve. Little bit by little bit I am sorting things out.
I am going to refit the door lock solenoids now that I have a full working set. When I bought the car the Module was disconnected, the reason being there was only one solenoid fitted and so it was not sending the right signal to the lock module. While I am in there I am going to re adjust the door handle linkages as the drivers door opens very well from the inside but not so from the outside.
The best thing is I have purchased a 2 post car hoist and had it installed in my garage. It is just bliss not having to crawl under my cars any more.

[airfireman1]

Well the new O2 sensor has made a difference but I still have idle issues, now it hunts before it gets up to temp, hunted and ran very rich (black smoke from the exhaust). Gave it a few revs and it settled down to a reasonably stable idle. Still don't hear the buzzing from the idle speed motor. I have a new WUR so I may change that and see if that helps. By the time I have finished i will have replaced almost all the fuel system parts.
Several other problems are appearing, one is a clutch shudder on take off, I suspect that it will need a replacement soon. I also noticed that the rear main seal is weeping so that will need doing when the gearbox is out. Also while the gearbox is out I am going to replace all the gear linkage bushes to hopefully get a more positive gear change patten, at the moment its like stirring porridge.
The other annoying problem is the drivers door had become quite hard to open. Further investigation Removing the interior trim revealed that some of the linkages were very loose but the main reason is the rear right hand door latch has a large crack in the plastic part. I think that is causing the latch not to unlock properly. 
Parts have been ordered but I am not looking forward to diving into the door to replace it and re setting all the linkages.

[Chris P]

David,
It's a great pity you don't have a 'Richard Hutchinson' living near you!

I have been a similar position so many times before and Richard has always sorted things out.  Mostly they can be traced back to a fault developing some time in the 'dim and distant past' and folk inadvertently 'correcting' it by changing / adjusting something else. Then you have two...or more faults ..thats the big problem.

Richard always follows a systematic approach, inspecting and eliminating things as he goes along...he's never failed me in at least 6 cars!  I'm hopeless as such technical stuff!   Keep at, you will sort it. Did you post the info to me?

Incidentally, the door locks/ mirror adjusters etc are often problematical on these RHD's because they were basically a 'bodge up' from factory spec.

[airfireman1]

Chris I have not posted the stuff yet but I will get it sorted and on it way by the end of the week. Rain is forecast for the next 6 days so I will be inside and sort it.
Maybe Richard would like a working holiday in Australia?
Cheers