First road trip since repair

After the panel was reinstalled, I then did everything that I needed to get the car titled and registered in my name. The same day that I reinstalled the panel, I took the DeLorean to a local lube place and had the safety and emissions inspections completed. The employees that were there were so excited to have the opportunity to inspect it. They got it done quickly and it passed with flying colors. The employees were taking pictures of it and were loving every minute of it.

The following week, I went to the DMV and paid the tax and registration fees, which was just over $1,000 and they gave me my plates right then and there. I was going to get vanity plates, but I was told that since the title was from another state, I had to wait until I got the Utah title in the mail before I could submit an application for new plates. Now that I have the regular plates on the car, I'm not as motivated to get vanity plates. I have since received the new title in the mail and the car is 100% legal to drive and legally mine.

Since registering it, we have driven it every weekend. It's unfortunate that it's already to late in the year though because the cold weather is already coming and the DeLorean won't be driven during the winter. My wife and I celebrated our third anniversary in the middle of October and we decided to get away for the weekend. We decided to spend the weekend up in Park City, UT and we also decided to take the DeLorean. It was a beautiful time of year up there with the leaves changing colors. It was the same city we went to when we first got married, so we'll probably return many times in the future. Here's a picture of my wife and the beautiful leaves on the trees:
 

I still haven't posted any pictures of the repaired panel on the DeLorean since I installed it, but I snapped a couple of photos of the car outside our hotel. I can't see any evidence of the repair in the photos:


 

It was a fun weekend and the DeLorean performed beautifully the entire time. We drove around 200 miles during the trip too. It's still fun to see people's reactions when they realize what kind of car they are seeing. For the most part, we don't get too many reactions. I'm very pleased with how everything is going with the car. My wife just bought new floor mats for me for Christmas, so that will help the interior be more visually appealing. 

DeLorean Panel Repair Completed

It took about 6 weeks, but I finally heard from the DMC dealer that had my panel and he informed me that he was finally able to spend some quality time on the repair of my quarter panel. He informed me that the damage was repaired to nearly 80%, and that with another hour of work, he can get it to 90%+. He said that 90% means is that a person won't readily see any evidence of the repair without having it pointed out. Below are some photos of the repair in process when it was at the 80% mark:






 
I thought that it looked fantastic compared to how bent it was when I sent it in. After another hour of work, he sent me additional pictures of the "final product." Those photos are attached below:





I was blown away with the quality of the repair job. The only area that he was having trouble with was the lip of the wheel arch along the aft edge, as shown in the photo above. The edge retained a little more roundness instead of a more crisp edge. He worked on it until he sensed that it was just going to get worse instead of better since stainless steel has a tendency to "work harden." This causes it to get more and more resistant to shaping as the material is massaged.

Since the panel was repaired to my satisfaction, he shipped the panel back to me and I got it over two weeks ago. The next day was a Saturday and I spent the morning putting it back on the car. The repair isn't perfect, but it's a night and day difference from what it looked like before. I have since gotten the car inspected, paid taxes and registration fees, and got it licensed in my state. It's nice to have it street legal. I have been enjoying it so much that I haven't even taken time to take a picture of what it looks like installed back on the DeLorean. I'll do that in the coming weeks. It's great to have it back on the road!

Waiting and waiting

Nothing new has occurred since the rear quarter panel arrived at DMCNW back in August. The panel has been there for over five weeks and nobody has attempted a repair yet. I feel that I should have just gotten a new one instead. It has gotten to the point that they don't respond to my emails anymore.

Since the car is in driving condition, minus the rear quarter panel, I took it out for a drive around my neighborhood. It was good to get it back on the road for the first time since June's mishap. I snapped a few photos in the garage when I got back:






Hopefully I can either get my repaired panel back soon, or a new one shipped to me. It's coming up on four months since I've been able to drive it like I want to.

The Road to Recovery

Time for an update. The damaged rear quarter arrived at DMCNW last week after I shipped it off via FedEx Freight. Here's a picture of the huge box that it barely fit into before I shipped it off:


I also purchased four new tires and found them in matching tread, which was harder than it sounds. It's really easy to find tires for each tire size, but super hard to find the same tread pattern on the different tire sizes. I decided to purchase Cooper Cobra Radial GT tires since I could have the same tread pattern on the front and rear. The front tires are no longer manufactured, but I found a brand new pair on ebay. The rears were available from Discount Tire Direct.

I had my old tires removed from the wheels and had a local guy sandblast and powder coat the wheels before I put the new tires on. When I first saw the color that he used, I thought that it was too light, but after putting them on the car, I am very pleased with how great they look. Here's what they used to look like when the original powder coating was flaking off:
 

Now here's what they look like after the restoration job with the new tires:
 

So things are progressing well now. The car is finally back on its own weight with all four tires on the ground. The panel will hopefully be repaired this week and sent back to me quickly and without damage during transit. 

Slowly but Surely

It has now been nearly two months since disaster struck. Progress is coming along nicely. I have already received and installed all the new components for the rear suspension and brakes. The car would be ready to drive right now if the panel were installed. Here is what the car now looks like:


Here is  a nice close-up of the new brake and suspension hardware:


I determined that the bearing was also shot when the wheel fell off, so I replaced it as well. I went to a local shop to have the bearing pressed into the hub carrier assembly. It looked great except for one small detail: they pressed in the outboard shaft backwards! The guy felt like an idiot after I explained it to him, but he also destroyed the bearing while trying to press the shaft out again. So I ordered a new bearing and he gladly pressed the bearing in correctly for free.

I have been super busy with getting everything put back together properly and with doing an all-around inspection of the car. I don't trust any of the work done by the previous owner because of my experience. I have since removed all four stub axle nuts, replaced the rear ones with new ones, and used loads of loctite while torquing them to spec.

One very big problem I've had to figure out is how to ship the rear quarter panel to DMCNW to get repaired. Because of its size, it was super difficult to find a box big enough to fit the panel inside. I finally located a box from an auto body shop that had a GM door shipped to them. It's a tight fit, and I hope that it doesn't get damaged in shipping, but it's the best I can do. I'm still waiting on some final quotes before it is shipped out, but I hope to have that taken care of in the next week.

I also discovered that while the DeLorean was sitting in my garage that it has a drain on the battery coming from somewhere because the battery was dead after sitting for about a month. Luckily the previous owner installed a battery cut-off switch, so that has come in handy after I recharged the battery.

I have decided to keep a list of things that I want to fix. Here's the most recent list:
Fix bent rear quarter panel
Sand blast & powder coat the wheels
Replace tires
Fix or replace radio antenna
New floor mats
Fix the A/C
Replace dashboard
Replace lights in binnacle with LEDs

Disaster Strikes

Last week, on my way home from showing my car to a bunch of friends and my sister, I was on the interstate going around 70 MPH. About 22 miles from home, the rear driver-side of the car just collapsed. All I remember is there being a lot of smoke and sparks, but somehow I managed to cross the carpool lane and get into the asphalt median without getting hit or hitting anyone else. It was the scariest driving moment to date.

It felt like the rear driver-side of the car just collapsed, and the car was super hard to control. I thought the lug nuts had come loose and that the rim and tire would be lodged in someone’s windshield. After I came to a stop in the median, I opened the door to find the tire lodged between the asphalt and car, still in the wheel arch, but at about a 45 degree angle. I immediately called my insurance’s roadside assistance number so I could get a tow home. I did this before I even got out of the car to see what the problem was. I could see when I opened the door that the lug nuts were still on tight, and upon further inspection, I saw the splines and threads from the outboard shaft, which meant that the hub nut on the stub axle had come completely loose.

I immediately remembered that the previous owner told me that he recently replaced all four hub assemblies, but I have no idea how long ago that was. He must not have tightened the nut enough for it to have worked loose like that. I also noticed that there was now a bit of a tweak to the stainless quarter panel, so my flawless stainless body was no more. It took the tow truck over an hour to get there. As he started to drag it onto the tow bed, it was raised enough to finally fit a jack under the frame. I then did my best to put the tire back on the hub so it didn’t have to be dragged all the way up the ramp. The tire about came off again on the way home since there wasn’t anything holding it on there.

The car must have fallen on the tire so quickly and the brake lines combined must have held the tire under the car. Today I was able to get the car into the garage and see the extent of the damage. Here is where the car was dragging along the interstate:

This is what it looked like after I took the tire off. The nut and washer were inside the rim:



This is what the tire looked like after I took it off:


My poor quarter panel! It's not terrible, but it's no longer perfect:


This is what happened to the caliper and hub carrier. Both of them snapped:


It really could have ended up much worse than it did. The tow truck driver was amazed that the car didn't have more damage... especially after he saw the grooves in the interstate behind the car that I had made.

Here's a list of things that I need to replace so far:
Rear Hub Carrier
Lower link, washers & pivot nut
Rear shock
Brake caliper
Rear brake line
Parking brake pads
Driver side tire
Fix or replace driver side rear quarter panel

I don't know what the condition of the actual hub bearing is. The outer drive shaft's threads are a little damaged, but I may get by.

When I removed the tire, I noticed that the hub nut threads were caked in grease by the previous owner. I'm wondering if the grease contributed to the fact that the nut came off the threads. I guess I'll never know for sure.  I'm glad this didn't have to be a post where I announced that I had destroyed my DeLorean.

The Car's New Home

My wife and I are fortunate enough to live in a home with a large two-car garage. Attached to the garage is a work shop, but two big hinged doors can be opened up to make them into one large room. Before we bought the DeLorean, we realized that we didn’t want any of our cars to be outside in the elements. The hot sun and freezing snow are not gentle on cars. I decided to clean out the shop enough to be able to fit another car in there. So now we technically have a three car garage with a two car garage opening. In order to get the DeLorean in and out, we simply pull the Jeep out of the way, and we can squeeze in and out. This works out fine for how little we have been driving the D. Here are a couple of pics to show you its new home: