October 21, 2015 - Back to the Future Day

I drove the DeLorean to work for the first time in years on 10/21/15 since it was the day that was featured in Back to the Future II. There was an impromptu photo shoot in our office parking lot and several people had a ball getting their picture taken or just being around the car on that day.

Unfortunately, a heavier set fellow I work with broke the driver's side bolster when he went to sit in the car. It doesn't look too terribly difficult to fix, but it's a bummer that I have to repair anything because I let people sit in it. I don't want to be a jerk and deny people a chance to sit in it, but it just plain sucks this happened.

I didn't take any pics, but was sent several pictures that others took.

 

We also had family come over that night to snap some pics near the car. I ended the night by falling asleep watching BTTF II. It was a memorable day, for sure.

 

Back to the Future event

I was invited to bring my car to a "Back to the Future" themed bike ride recently: http://antelopebymoonlight.com/ It is a family event and riders are encouraged to dress up in costume for the bike ride. My car was near the registration canopy for bike riders to have their picture taken next to the car. I had SIX "Look, but don't touch" signs on various places on the car, including on each door sill. I also had several DeLorean hot wheels on each seat, thinking that these would be enough to prevent someone from touching the car, let alone sit in it. Boy, was I wrong! At car shows, I think people generally understand that the cars are there for visual enjoyment only and people tend to be respectful and not put their claws all over other people's cars.

With the car being all by itself and not at an official car show, some people treated it like a free for all. I sat behind the car in my lawn chair, like an old man watching his lawn, and was very surprised at some of the behavior of grown adults. Throughout the entire event, people posing next to the car would touch it by putting their hand on the top of the door or prop themselves by their hand as they posed. Those didn't bother me too terribly much. What killed me was when several different people sat on the front fender at different times and when others fully climbed into the car to sit down, going over the "do not touch" sign and nearly smashing all the hot wheels on display on the seats. I had to become "that guy" that had to yell to get off/out of the car. Of the 6 or 7 different people that I had to yell at, only one came back to apologize for what they did.

For all of my time and for driving my car out to the event, I got a free t-shirt. Totally not worth it and I would only consider doing something like that again if the event organizer were to agree to rope off the car to prevent attendees from getting too close. I should have known that it wasn't going to be a pleasant experience the moment I pulled up to the traffic usher and he tried making me pull into a field and park where all the attendees were going to park instead of by the registration tent. Doing so would have required me to drive the car through a mini ravine, which would have required driving talents that I don't possess to not scrape the underside of the car.

The one bright spot of the event was seeing some really good BTTF costumes. Here's a pic of my favorite group:

Media interviews

While at the Ogden 25th St Car Show in early June 2015, I was asked to be interviewed by local television personalities. They recently sent me a link to the video. I have several different segments in the video starting at about 17 minutes in:

At the end of the interview, the lady asked if I would be willing to help promote this year's "Antelope by Moonlight Bike Ride" that is a 24 mile bike ride starting at 10 PM during a full moon in the summer time at Antelope Island State Park. This year's theme is "Back to the Future," which is why they wanted my help.

I agreed to help and two weeks later, we met near Antelope Island and my car was used as a backdrop to create several segments for TV:

I'll also show up for the event on July 3rd and let participants take pictures of the car. I thought this would all be fun as I am only getting a free t-shirt out of the whole deal. Luckily this bike ride event is no more than a 10 minute drive from my house.

Some things that I need to address on the car:

• Air conditioning stopped working since I converted to R134a and charged the system two years ago.
• Driver side door doesn't always open. Need to do a "lock & latch" procedure to adjust
• Driver side front suspension making squeaking noise. Suspect sway bar bushings on lower control arm. May buy and install poly bushing kit.
• Interior lights do not come on when doors are opened. Not a big deal, but would be nice for when there's less daylight.
• Want to refinish the rear louvre as it appears faded
• Still need to get an alignment as the steering wheel has been cockeyed to the left since I bought it over four years ago. When I went to get it aligned a couple of years ago, they discovered I needed a new ball joint before they could do the alignment. I replaced the ball joint over two years ago and haven't gotten back to get the alignment yet.
• Replace the carpet pad-looking insulation on the rear parcel shelf as it's likely the source of the old DeLorean smell.
• Replace old coolant with fresh coolant. It's overdue. 
• Figure out why the engine compartment light has never worked. Very low priority

I'm sure there's more, but those are the obvious things that I remembered. The to-do list has definitely gotten shorter over the years.

Car Show 2015

Besides the occasional drive now and then, I haven't done much with the DeLorean in 2015. I decided to take it to my favorite car show of the year at the annual 25th Street Car Show in Ogden, UT. I really like this show because of the huge number of people and I love how they shut down several city blocks specifically for the car show.

I washed it prior to the show to take off the layer of dust that had developed while sitting for several weeks. Here's a couple of shots at the show:

With a 21 month old and another one coming in a couple of months, I don’t plan on doing any other shows this year. I usually don’t like just sitting there for hours on end while people look at the car, but I really enjoy the atmosphere at this show with the music, scenery, and I see a lot of people that I know.

To top it off, my DeLorean won an award. It was picked by one of the sponsors and I won a free night at a new Courtyard Marriott that was recently gutted and remodeled. Sweet!

John DeLorean's Grave

I go to Detroit several times a year for business and I blocked off enough time on my recent trip to visit the White Chapel Cemetery in Troy, MI. This is where John Z. DeLorean is buried. I found plenty of pictures of his headstone on the internet, but I had a very hard time finding information on where to find his grave. This cemetery is massive!

The cemetery is located at 621 W Long Lake Rd, Troy, MI 48098. The cemetery offices were closed as I arrived late in the afternoon, but I knew that his grave was located in section G2. I was able to find that info online. After wandering around and looking for about 15 minutes, I stumbled upon his headstone and I was able to pay my respects.

 To make it easy for others to find it in the future, I have a couple of Google Map screenshots of where it is. First, I have highlighted the section of the cemetery that his grave is located in:

Zoomed in on only that section, the arrow points to what I recall to be his headstone:

I also took a panoramic picture of the surrounding area standing at his grave:

If you are in the Detroit area, hopefully this will help you quickly find his resting place. It's about a 45 minute drive from the Detroit airport to the cemetery.

DeLorean Oil Change

The weather has been unusually warm this year for it being December. I have been able to drive the DeLorean a lot later in the year than I anticipated. I decided that I would change the DeLorean's oil. It had been around 21 months since I last changed it, but in that time, I have only driven it around 700 miles.

It is very easy to change the oil on a DeLorean. I use ramps that I back onto to lift the rear of the car.

I have a square socket that I use to loosen the oil plug. I take a gallon milk jug and cut it so that it will help catch the oil as it comes out without getting on the frame or anywhere else. It works beautifully. I use the same milk jug under the oil filter so that all of the oil drips cleanly into the oil collector and not on the car.

I let the oil drain for a long time since I am usually not in a rush. Quite a bit more oil comes out after I remove the oil filter, so don't put the plug back in without first having removed the old filter.

In the picture above, you can see the black on the engine block where oil from past oil changes has been. I am able to avoid that by using the milk jug under the filer as I remove it. After replacing the filter, I then reinstall the plug using a new copper washer that comes with the filters I purchase from any of the DeLorean vendors. I buy a pack of 6 filters at a time to reduce the per filter price.

New oil is poured in on the left side of the engine. I use a long funnel to help eliminate splashing or dripping, like in the picture below:

I have used 10w40 and 10w30 conventional in my car with great results. This last time I went with 10w30 because I won't hesitate to drive it when it's really cold outside as long as there isn't any snow or salt on the roads. My car also seems to take a bit more oil to get it to the full line on the dipstick. Others seem to put 7 quarts of oil, but mine takes closer to 8 quarts. Not sure what would cause mine to be different.

Clean up is really easy. I simply trash the milk jug and the empty oil filter. I take the oil to my local auto parts store for disposal/recycling and wipe everything down. Simple as that!

Non-DeLorean Eventful Year

Since my son was born last September, I have done little to nothing with my DeLorean. Priorities change very quickly when kids arrive as there always seems to be something to do. We haven't been in any parades and we only have participated in one car show this year in my home town. Here's my adorable son sitting in the car at the show:

Unfortunately, during that one show, the canopy that I had set up for shade got ripped off of the ground by an out-of-nowhere gust of wind and blew it into the 1941 Ford parked next to me and put two small dings on it.

I felt so horrible, but at the same time, was grateful that the canopy didn't damage my car, even though it did hit both of our cars. I snapped a pic of the two cars as the show was about to end:

 

My auto insurance, both daily driver and collector car, wouldn't cover the damage to his car because none of my cars caused the damage. The cost to repair the damage was $1,200 because the trunk and rear quarter needed to be removed, repaired, then painted in addition to the pin striping being redone on his trunk. 

The guy's insurance ended up covering the damage and he asked me to pay his deductible, which was $500. That was one expensive car show!

I have rarely driven the DeLorean since 2013 as it is only a two seater and my family now consists of more than two people. In addition to the new member of our family, we also moved into our newly built house in 2013 and this year we finally did our own landscaping, sprinkling system, curbing, and grass. That was a multi-month project that didn't allow for any car time.

I have also been traveling much more frequently for work than in years past. I have seen some pretty neat things in my travels:

Milwaukee:

Las Vegas multiple times:

Dallas multiple times:

 

Houston:

San Antonio:

Honolulu: 

Austin multiple times:

Detroit multiple times:

And many other places that weren't interesting enough to take even one picture. Travel should be slowing down this fall, so I may have time to spend with the DeLorean. After all, it is just a car and not my #1 priority.  Hopefully more to come soon.