Two Spray Cans and a Microphone

I have started some projects that are cash hungry and have left little  in terms ofDelorean Dollars. Wanting to make some progress, I decided to troll the message boards for solutions to updating my facias and trim. They were in terrible condition as you’ll see in the photos. I told my children for father’s day that they could get me a few cans of SEM Trim paint and I’ld be happy. So got some wet sand paper, painter’s tape, and a shit ton of newspapers and got to work.

Now know this; I am a comedian for a living; an entertainer. I don’t know what I’m doing as far as exterior finishes on a car. Sure, I’ve done some projects here and there, but this to me, was a huge undertaking. So I taped everything off, and started sanding. it’s not perfect, but it’s a hell of a lot better than what it was, and it ALL cost me less than $100. I painted the vents, louvers, facias, bumpers, and window trim. Like I said it’s not a $900 job from the shop. I did it in an afternoon in my garage listening to shitty FM 70’s rock . It was great, take a look!

Window trim before….

 

 

 

 

 

 

Window trim after.

Rear window Louvers Before…….

Rear Window Louvers after.

Front Facia before…..

Here is the front Facia after………

Here I did the rear facia and license plate bezel as well.

Like I said, it doesn’t look that great, and there is some corrections I’ll have to make, but I did it all for under $100. That’s a good feeling when dealing with a vehicle that nothing rarely is under $300 to fix.

 

Back in Time

So as it stands, we have really have been lucky to have such a non running car to start with. We have replaced all the fluids, and necessary parts to get it running. Now it was time to get it legal. 

See? It’s starting to come together.

Chasing down the electrical gremlins have been a chore. I replaced all the headlights, and all the turn signals only to find that there some connectivity issues with the tail light boards. so I yanked those out cleaned them up, and reinforced the solder connection points. When we first lifted the rear hood WAAAAAY BACK when we first got it, most know it was covered in mud dauber and yellow jacket nests. When I pulled the light boards I found more…like Pompei.

But the surprise is when I went to replace the headliner. It started with me wanting to replace the bulb in the cabin light. As I started to remove it, I wanted a little slack on the wires, and began to lightly tug on them. This is what cam falling down attached to the cords:

 

Three big ass mud daubers nests. Well that’s all for this one. I’ll post another from when we removed the headliner and exposed the “Caveman Drawings”. 

 

The Moment of Truth…..

So now the fuel system is back in our hands and going in. The brakes have a new master cylinder and new lines. The tank is clean and has all new components in it. We have new fuel lines. We have a new fuel accumulator, annnnnnddd a new Fuel Filter…..this bitch done got herself a new fuel system!

We also installed new vacuum lines, spark plugs, cap and rotor. Of course all the fluids were swapped and a new battery found it’s way behind the seat. So now that everything was done it was time to see if the old hag would awaken after her 13 year slumber of death. 

So I climbed in the seat, with the enthusiasm of a 16 year old boy with hopes of seeing a boob. I turned the key over, and the console light came on, the radio came on. I gave it a heave and it turned over, and over, and over and over, and over….but it wouldn’t catch. For hours and hours we agonized over this. We did everything right. 

I log in to DMCTalk…it’s an online community for delorean owners, and I mentioned the sequence of events. Several people suggested that the cap was not on correctly. Dewayne….is a master mechanic; this cat knows his shit. He said his help put it on right, and he even checked it himself. I said “Dewayne, all the guys online, say that it could be just a hair off and we wouldn’t know it, we may want to check it.” He said he would check it. With a Delorean in order to get to the Distributor cap you really need to slide the air flow meter or manifold forward. It’s a task. 

It worked. She fired right up, one turn and was off and running. Since Dewayne doubted me I am including the picture of his big ass trying to get the cap back on correctly. 

 

Time for a Brake……system.

Well, with a little downtime waiting on Fuel Distributor and being so concerned about it going, we now have to make it stop. So Dewayne Oliver at Apple Transmission in Reno Texas, my newly appointed Delorean Specialist, was now taking the “shoes” off so we could get to the brakes. The 20 year old brand new dry rotted tires came down and we started looking at the rusted up brakes.

The consensus is we will need to replace the master cylinder and the lines to the calipers. Sure, the calipers could stand to be replaced, sure the rotors could stand to be replaced…..but we’s on a “D-List” Comic’s budget. Can we make them work for a while? sure we can. And we do! Now I have to find some extra “one nighted” gigs to pay for the repair. Texarkana, here we come! My XM / Sirius Checks are not like they used to be, and we couldn’t use one to buy a rotor. That’s ok the new CD comes out in June, and then we can afford Calipers!

GOOD NEWS! The Fuel distributor is in! See the next installment. 

Tank You Very Much…..

While Hervey had the Fuel Distributor and it was being rebuilt, we now had to drop the Tank. To make it light, we pump out the shit load of varnish, once gasoline in 1999, into a pump. Everything was corroded. Nothing of course would be salvageable. So we start by yanking the old pump, and it’s components. Here’s a pic of such crap happening….

So here is a better shot of the fuel pump…or varnish pump…..

We’ll just buff that right out…

So now we drop the tank, clean it up and out it back in, with all new fuel lines, and pump, accumulator, and fuel filter. As soon as we get the distributor and air flow meter back from John Hervey than we are off and running. 

Here we go……

So I bring it home and stick it in the garage. It hasn’t been driven in 13 years but has seen sunlight the ENTIRE 13 years. The following things would need to be done before I could even determine that the engine would be good:

• Drop, drain, and clean the fuel tank.
• swap all fluids
• rebuild and replace the fuel system

 

If you look closely at the pic above you can see the mud dobber wasp nest; one of many I was to find.

Really sounded simple. It wasn’t. I was told by John Hervey at Special-T Automotive that is a Delorean Specialist, to remove the fuel distributor and send it to him. Again, sounded really simple. It wasn’t for the comedian.

When a car sits for 15 years and has parts that are 30 years old they all somehow fuse together. Fortunately I had Dewayne Oliver at Apple Transmission to help out with the things I could not. He and I worked out a trade on labor, and we were in business.

Dewayne and his staff had the fuel distributor and all the injectors off for me to send to Hervey to be reconditioned.

Fuel distributor-less if that’s a word.

After crawling over under this thing and pulling the fiberglass panels off from the underside, we realized we had a barn find. The oil and engine was pristine. The coolant was clean. Everything was there and unmolested.

The Fortune

I have wanted one most of my life. I have enjoyed BMW’s, Corvettes, Hummers, Classic Trucks and cars, power boats, you name it. But for some dumb reason I have always wanted a Delorean and a Porsche 928. I knew it was something I likely couldn’t do unless the right car for the right deal came by…….I seem to be blessed and curse with this ability.

I searched high and low for a Delorean that I could get into….not physically; although most who have head the pleasure of meeting me in person knows that like my corvettes this is a car I’ll “put on” and not get in. I found one less than 5 miles from me that had been sitting for 12-13 years. The owner and I struck up a relationship, and I kept it on the “down low” keeping other like minded buyers away from it. After months of talking and even negotiations, I thought I would go ahead and buy it.

I agonized for weeks on whether to drop the coin on this car. Could I afford the repairs and restoration? How bad would it be? I am not a mechanic, nor am I ignorant however I was indecisive. Then one night at dinner at a horrible shitty chinese buffet, I told my wife, with sadness in my heart and eyes, that I was going to pass on the Delorean. Wait till I had more money and could get a better car. Then I opened a fortune cookie and this fell out:

After opening and reading the Jesus like message, I nearly shit myself!  I changed my mind, and went to the owner’s office the next day and we hammered out a deal to bring it home. What’s the luck? I have always been rather fortunate in life, and have had some challenges here and there and most were because I didn’t act fast enough on something or too soon. There was no doubt this time……it was coming home. For now.

His big concern was getting it off his driveway. He was the original owner but hadn’t touched it in 12 years, and his wife had had enough of it. So with four dryrotted tires, and 1/2 tank of once gasoline now varnish, a sun burnt and ruined interior. We flat bedded it to my garage so it could sit there just a little longer. But not for too long.

Here she is “moving” for the first time in 12 years.