Wednesday, May 25, 2022

More DeLorean cosmetic fixes

My car is not cosmetically perfect, but I'll be darned if it isn't getting closer with ever small fix I make. I make lists of things that I find that could/should be replaced at some point in the future, then work on them as time allows after the parts are delivered by my vendor of choice that week.

While working on the car recently, I found a few more places that had quite a bit of corrosion on nuts and bolts and other things and decided to replace them. First, the nut cap on the windshield wiper was faded to a gray color, which you only see when the front trunk is open.


The new cap is a small detail, but it looks much, much better. The old one pulled right out when I gripped it with some pliers, and the new one popped right back in its place.

Next, for an even smaller detail, I noticed the screws holding the cowl screen on beneath the windshield had some corrosion as well, which made them also appear gray instead of black.

After taking them out, I found that they were even more corroded in the threads. The new one is shown on the left in the pic below. The new ones threaded right in without any problems.



When I put my car back together recently after pulling the motor, I discovered a lot of corrosion on all of the screws holding the rear fascia along the top side. I replaced all of those with new screws and they look much better now:




Fixed DeLorean engine compartment light

There are a few things that have never worked on my DeLorean since I bought it in 2011. One was the interior dome lights that wouldn't come on when the doors opened, which I recently fixed, and another was no functioning engine compartment light. My car hasn't even had a bulb in the light housing since I bought the car. 

I bought a correct light, installed it in the housing, but it wouldn't turn on. I then noticed that the switch had separated, so I took it all the way apart, cleaned the contacts on the inside, then glued it back together to keep it from separating again. I was then pleasantly surprised that the light came on for the first time ever, but it only works if the switch is wiggled just right, indicating that the switch will need to be replaced. It was a pretty easy diagnosis and repair, but never one that was high on my priority list.