De Lorean EuroTec

Hi all,

Thought I'd make a thread in my search for a Delorean, I'm new to all of this and any advice from you guys is really appreciated. Hopefully you can steer me away from any bad ideas

I've been speaking to a couple of dealers in the US/UK. Thought I'd share any ones that I find in this thread.

Here's the first one I've found, priced at $34,000. Stage 2 engine. Needs some cosmetic work doing that I might attempt myself (they want another $6k to finish) but would love to hear your thoughts.
























Cheers!

Max

Hi Max, welcome to the club. Apart from the binnacle and dash board issues, it look quite a tidy car. There are quite a few pictures showing different views and angles, and first impressions I would say it's been loved. Unfortunately, with regards to the cockpit, they do crack if exposed to the sun for long periods on end. but there are plenty of members in the club who could point you in the right direction for this issues to be corrected, who have used reputable upholsterers in the past, I believe there is a chap in Kent who is quite good. hopefully someone else might post on this thread who knows his name . If you are prepared to get your hands dirty and remove the parts yourself that need refurbing, this could save you a few pounds as well. Good Luck!!!

Chassis looks in great condition!

Have they provided a list with what has already been changed? e.g. fuel lines, brake lines, coolant hoses, radiator etc? Obivously it's a runner, does the A/C work? Do both driver and passenger side electric windows work?

Front suspension lower control arms look to be stock, would recommend beefing those up with the reinforced versions at a minimum, or the milled ally arms if you want the best of the best. Upgrading the front anti roll bar with the poly bush kit from DPNW.
Rear end, change the trailing arm bushes and trailing arm bolts (would recommend the Inconel TABs, fit and forget - I think the club has some of these, but they are not currently listed on the club store, Arran?)

Being a stage II it's got dual cats on the exhaust, but those could be chopped out as we have no requirement for them in the UK on cars manufactured before 1991.

Interior wise, looks like it needs dash, binnacle, steering wheel, and passenger kneepad recovering. All of which can be taken care of be Lee Pattison, his work is second to none and speaks for itself. Have a look here for examples of his work: viewtopic.php?f=22&t=5593
Seats depends on your level of OCD if you'd want to get those recovered. Lee Pattison is the man for that if you decide they need redoing.
What's the rest of the interior like? Roof centre/rear headlinings for example?

Door cards from what I can see look flat, but that's normal on any car you are likely to find for sale, it's an easy enough DIY job to refoam them. Multiple examples in this thread here: viewtopic.php?f=22&t=5313

Centre console can be tidied up by replacing those switches:
Dummy switches
Window switches
Rear defrost switch

MikeWard wrote:.......and trailing arm bolts (would recommend the Inconel TABs, fit and forget.......

Yes - https://www.deloreango.com/uk/inconel-t ... bolts.html

If that's the car I think it is I saw it in the flesh a couple of weeks ago and apart from interior it looked like a nice tidy car

Your already on the right road Max having received a sensible reply from Jason! Consider yourself fortunate !!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

You guys are too helpful! Thanks so much.

I'm quite excited about this one but unfortunately it's a bit of a waiting game right now, they said someone else in the States is interested in it and they'll let me know next week if it's still available. Trying not to get my hopes up.

*hopefully* it's still available and I can start bombarding them with more questions. Fingers crossed.

Update!

Spoke to DMC and agreed a price of $33k and they'll hold it until next weekend for me. I think I'm going to fly out to Florida and see it.. Feeling super nervous about the whole thing now. What do you guys think? Girlfriend is not happy with me!!

He also mentioned that the door struts have been reinforced with a plate to the chassis. Something like the bolt may have broken at some point or something? I asked him 4 or 5 times "is that a good thing that's been done?" before he finally gave me some kind of answer that it was? I wasn't entirely convinced.

There's an exhaust leak he mentioned it needed an exhaust manifold gasket? Don't quote me on that though, sounds too simple of a fix but Googling around has me thinking this could be a pretty big problem. Radiator has a leak but not sure what the exact cause is. Any major problems for concern here?

Asked for service history but he said they didn't have anything apart from the previous invoice in 2009 where it had lots of work done, $18k including stage 2 upgrade, Eibach spring set, etc.

Door strut plate seems to be a common issue that's cropping up more and more, the plate they are referring to is most likely similar to the version seen here, made by Darren Collins: viewtopic.php?f=13&t=5655

Re the exhaust leak, depends if you get lucky when removing it, if you get snapped studs then it's a little more involved. Darren has again come up trumps with a method of removing snapped studs without having to remove the engine to do it. Have a read through of this thread here: viewtopic.php?f=13&t=2383

Rad is simple enough to swap out if needed.

$18k of work? ouch Still - at least it's got Steve Wynne's signature in the engine bay

"Stage 2 upgrade" presumably includes a new exhaust system, so getting it apart again shouldn't be a problem. Looks like it could do with new fans and rad anyway - that won't cost you $6k

You'd have to say it was better with a strut reinforcement plate than without..... until the other side goes

Good luck - even with the crappy exchange rate, VAT and shipping, that's better value than the current offering over here.