DeLorean steering rack removal, restoration, and installation

While doing some work on the front end of the DeLorean, I discovered that the steering rack boot on the passenger side was leaking. I also found a lot of evidence of leaking in the area where the steering shaft meets the steering rack. 

 

 

I was just going to replace the boots and potentially replace some seals and other wearable parts myself, I followed the advice of several DeLorean owners and shipped it off to PJ Grady for a professional rebuild. He was quick to start working on it and it was on its way back to me about a week after it arrived.

But before I could ship it out to Grady, I had to get the rack out of my car, which is pretty straightforward.

I followed these steps:

1. Disconnect the tie rod ends from both driver and passenger side knuckles
2. Disconnect the steering shaft from the rack 
3. Remove the four bolts from the bottom of the frame that hold the brackets. Once the brackets are loose, you then fish out the rubber bushings that go inside the brackets and fish them out of the frame

One of the brackets snapped off when I went to remove the bolts, so I had to get a replacement. I also got new bushings so that everything would be refreshed after 40+ years. Once I got the steering rack back from PJ Grady, I went to install it right away. What I discovered was that it did not go together easily at all. It was a fight getting the new bushings correctly positioned in the brackets and the brackets in the right place. It took several hours to get it all lined up and tightened down. It's not a job that I would voluntarily do again. It sure looks good all cleaned up and refreshed:

DeLorean A/C unit & heater box removal and restoration

As part of the rabbit hole that I kept going deeper into when it came to getting my interior overhauled, I decided that since I had the dashboard out to get a new radio head unit installed, I might as well go all the way and remove the A/C unit and see what I could do to freshen it up. My heater always smelled a little ripe when I had it running, so it was always on my to-do list to look into it, so what better time than now?

I also knew that I wanted to replace my 40+ year old A/C lines, and the A/C system would need to be disconnected to get the A/C unit out of the car, so I ordered a new set of lines from DeLorean Industries in preparation for this project. 

 I followed the workshop manual instructions to take the unit out from under the dash. There are several online write ups that I found useful, so I won't recreate all of the steps here. Here are a couple of things I'd like to point out that were good things to remember:

1. Getting the accumulator/dryer removed from the lines coming off the evaporator were impossible to do on my car. I figured that I would be replacing the evaporator as the condition and age were uncertain, so I whipped out the Sawzall and cut off the connection on the dryer. 
2. You'll definitely want to lay down something, like a towel, on the passenger side floor when you go to pull out the A/C unit as coolant from the heater core will spill out, and you don't want to deal with that mess on your carpet.

 I had the early style dryer where the A/C line from the compressor connected on the bottom. I knew that I would be replacing this, so I had no reservations to cut off the connection to the evaporator when the connection wouldn't come loose:

After getting everything disconnected, I was ready to start pulling it out. Note the towels on the floor to catch the coolant:

 

 

You have to pull out the unit in a way for the lines going to the dryer to feed through the firewall:

 

Here is after I got it out from under the dash:

  

  

This is looking into the fresh air intake behind the firewall as I wanted to see how this area looked. Mine wasn't too dirty, so I left it alone:

I took several pictures of the unit after I got it out of the car and knowing that I'd want several reference points when it came time to put it all back together.

  

 

The door flaps were a bit crusty and had little to no original foam remaining. I knew I had to go further and disassemble the unit and get everything refreshed. 

 

Here's my first look at the evaporator. Come to find out, this was not the original evaporator. I have no records of this being replaced, but it's completely different and smaller than the original. 

 

 

 

 

  

 

Another weird thing I discovered was that the old evaporator didn't have an orifice tube. I don't know how the system ever worked without one, so that's more to the mystery. Looking into the tube, this is where I expected to find it:

 

 

Here's a side by side view of the new and old evaporator, as well as the new and original heater core:

 

 

 

 

The teardown continued and I decided to tear it completely down so I could sandblast, paint, and install new foam on all the flaps:

 

 

 

 

I replaced the foam with some thin foam I picked up at Michael's craft store. I cut them to size and used contact cement to adhere the foam to the flaps. For more guidance on which materials to use, I followed this write up: https://dmctalk.org/showthread.php?5860-Heater-and-Evaporator-Replacement-with-Heater-Box-Restore. It all came back together nicely and I am super happy with the actuation with all of the flaps having the rust removed and the pieces lubed up.

I sealed up the gap around the evaporator with A/C foam:

 

I went to put the heater hose cover back on and realized how difficult it is to get this piece back on. I fought with this thing for probably a good hour before I was satisfied that it was back on correctly.

 

 

I found that the only way to get the angles right, I had to work on it from below the car. I had the car on jack stands and the passenger tire was out of the way. I don't think it's possible to get this back into position if only working on this from above. Here is is finally back on:

Back on the A/C unit box, I made sure to install all new foam on all the connections before everything was put back together.

I got everything put back into the car and test fit the new dashboard. I'll see how everything works and smalls after I get the rest of the interior assembled and the car is back on the road.

DeLorean electical tray and fuse box area restoration

I had the much of the interior torn removed while working on some other parts of the interior and decided to tackle something that had long been on my to-do list: the metal mounting tray for the electrical area was in need of restoration. I could see several rust spots when I looked at the fuse box area. A replacement and restoration of the rear interior quarter panel quickly turned into a big project:

 

To remove the tray, it's a fairly straightforward job with disconnecting several wires, but leaving all of the fuses and relays in place, but removing the bolts that attach them to the tray. I took a lot of pictures so I could make sure I got everything hooked back up correctly. Here are several "before" photos:

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

I discovered that he tray was in much worse shape than I thought once I got it out and started chipping off the flaking paint.

                             

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

The two bolts that hold the mounting tray to the body were also stripped and stuck in the rivnuts. I cleaned up the area under the mounting tray and drilled out the old rivnuts before putting in new ones.

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

I sandblasted the mounting tray to see if I could salvage the tray instead of dropping a lot of money on a stainless steel reproduction. It looked pretty good with the exception of one edge that had rotted pretty good. I decided that since I'll be the only one that ever sees this part, I'd be okay with restoring it.

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

After sandblasting, I applied a couple of coats of POR-15 over a couple of days, then a coat of Rustoleum black before installing the brackets and putting it back in the car. 

 

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Everything looks nice and clean and I'll find out when I get the car back together if I introduced any new electrical gremlins.