Brandon Fayette’s 3D Model DeLorean Parts
Brandon Fayette has taken the time to create these 3D models of DeLorean parts that are hard to find, or are no longer available.
Get “En-light-ened”
by Chris Miles, VIN: 16409 As I’ve been helping more and more DeLorean owners with their cars, I’ve been hearing reports of their cars just dying. They’re either driving on the road and lose power, or they’re unable to re-start the car after a short stop. The first thing people tend to think is that they have a bad battery or alternator, but that isn’t always the case. As a pretty technically-skilled DeLorean owner, I’ve made myself intimately familiar with the instrument cluster and related electrical components. Unlike modern cars, the DeLorean has a finite number of warning lights. The two most important warning lights are the oil pressure light and battery light. The oil pressure light comes on when the engine is running and has low oil pressure – which means you should pull over immediately and shut the car off right away. The battery light is just as important as the oil pressure light. However, many owners never pay attention to whether the battery bulb lights up at all. The bulb is supposed to illuminate – and stay on – when you switch the ignition to position 2, but it will then turn off when you start the engine. (NOTE: if you have a DMC Houston alternator, the light may just flash in position 2.) If the battery light remains on after starting, that indicates you have a charging issue. However, if your battery light does not illuminate at all in ignition position 2, you’re probably going to have an issue with the charging circuit – or – the battery bulb is simply burnt out. I’ve helped a few owners diagnose their battery issues, so I want to stress that you should check your battery light the next time you start your DeLorean. So, what if you don’t see the battery light illuminate in ignition position 2? That means the alternator will not charge the battery. Eventually, the lights and engine will completely drain the battery. Sometimes this happens while you’re driving and there’s not enough power to spark the spark plugs and your engine will just die – but most often, there’s just not enough amps to start the car again. Again, it could just be that your battery bulb is burnt out (or, when you upgraded the binnacle lights to LEDs, you replaced the incandescent bulb with an LED instead of a new incandescent, and that’s bad – keep reading.) But, it could mean that you need to check your alternator wiring. Most DeLoreans now have a Motorola or some type of GM alternator. Both have a single wire that connects to the battery bulb circuit. The DeLorean battery light wire that connects to the alternator is brown with a yellow stripe. If you have a solid brown wire connected to your alternator, you’ll probably have an issue with charging the battery. The original Ducellier alternators used both the brown and brown/yellow stripe wires. The modern GM style alternators use a Dorman 85854 or 85118 oval connector – in which only one wire connects to the brown/yellow striped wire on DeLorean wiring harness. (see photo for my installation.). Having a functional battery light is also important, because it’s a warning that your water pump may not be spinning, since the alternator belt turns the water pump too. So, if you lose that belt, the alternator quits spinning and the battery light will illuminate – which also means you should immediately pull over and turn the car off, because you may end up overheating. And finally, a note on upgrading the light bulbs in the binnacle to LED. It’s fairly well known that the “battery” bulb must remain incandescent. The battery light circuit is designed to check for the resistance of an incandescent bulb. LED bulbs have less resistance than normal bulbs, so the circuit won’t work properly, and the bulb will not illuminate – which also means you will likely have charging issues. So, when upgrading your binnacle lights to LEDs, DO replace the original battery light bulb with a NEW incandescent bulb. Now you should be “en-light-ened” about this quirk of the DeLorean.
Don’t Be A Lug-Nut
by Chris Miles, VIN: 16409 Some DeLorean owners might be frustrated with the state of their lug nuts. Have you noticed after visiting a tire shop your lug nuts appear to be chewed up, or even worse, the caps are loose or have fallen off? Not everyone knows that the original lug nuts are not solid – they’re ugly nuts that have pretty caps covering them. Over time, those caps become loose and sometimes fall off while driving. Many owners don’t even notice for some time that one or more caps are gone. Some members of the DeLorean community have been looking for alternatives to the original capped lug nuts. Most wheel lug nuts on the market are usually too long and stick out too far, especially for the front wheels of the DeLorean. The DeLorean community has come up with two solid lug nut candidates, also called ‘acorn’ style nuts. Since all DeLorean owners can’t read every message on DMCTalk.org or the numerous DeLorean Facebook groups, I thought I’d share my findings and some details. The Original Equipment (OE) lug nuts are metric 12 (with a 1.5mm pitch), and measure 29mm tall. The reproductions are 30mm tall. The first lug nut replacement option is the Dorman #611-310. It’s almost identical in height to the OE nut, measuring 27 millimeters tall – just a couple millimeters shorter. This lug nut can be used for all four wheels and they look great. Because the front wheels have a shallow depth for the lug nut wells, they appear to fit perfectly, with no noticeable difference from the OE nuts. But, when putting these short nuts on the rear wheels, they seem too short, and seem to disappear into the darkness of the lug nut well. The second lug nut is the Dorman #611-221. This nut is, again, just a couple of millimeters different than the OE nut, measuring 31 millimeters. This taller lug nut can also be used for all four wheels, but sits more flush in the face of the front wheel, making the shiny nuts stand out more than I like. You may not like this look if you prefer the front lug nuts being ‘countersunk’ a little. On the rear wheels, they work great and don’t get ”lost” in the deep lug nut wells. My recommendation is to use eight Dorman #611-310 lug nuts in the front and eight Dorman #611-221 lug nuts in the rear. This offers the perfect visual balance. Both size Dorman lug nuts are available on RockAuto.com, or you can get them at most O’Reilly Auto Parts stores. Check out the DeLorean crossover-parts list for more details, or use the links below:
Stirling Moss road tests the DeLorean sports car
Before the first production models of the long-awaited DeLorean sports car were readied for export, Popular Mechanics sent British race-car driver Stirling Moss to John Z. DeLorean’s plant in Northern Ireland to drive the gull-wing two-seater. Shortly after, Auto Editor Tony Assenza visited the Dunmurry facility for a firsthand look at the plant, the car, and the former GM executive who wants to put an all-new sports car on American roads. Here’s their report. Moss: The DeLorean is certainly a striking-looking car – long, low and extremely sleek. Like the old Mercedes 300SL of the ’50s, it has gullwing doors, a design it shares only with the Lamborghini Countach. They make access and exit easier, but once you’re sitting in the low and very comfortable seats, you find you need the arms of an ape to reach up to close the doors behind you. The controls are nicely arranged for driving quickly, with the gearshift lever falling easily to hand for grabbing gears. It’s a five-speed unit, with fifth being an overdrive. I found fifth quite useful for cruising at moderate highway speeds, but it needs to be downshifted to a lower gear for acceleration. The engine doesn’t produce enough torque to overcome the gear ratio. Getting into reverse isn’t as much of a chore as it is on so many other so-called sports cars. There are electric windows, though they only open a few inches. I suppose the only time you might need them is to ask someone the way or pay a toll, since the car is fully airconditioned, with vents in the doors as well as the center of the dash. Assenza: The car’s styling was done by the now-legendary design studio, Ital Design headed by Giorgetto Giugiaro. His design credits encompass a variety of vehicles, including the Mangusta, VW Rabbit, Audi 5000, Alfasud, and even the non-exotic, but thoroughly practical, little Rat Panda. At first sight, the DeLorean reminds you of the Lancia Monte Carlo due to the cut of the roof line and sloping rear panels. But that’s as deep as the resemblance to any other car goes. It has a character and a styling all its own. Moss: There are only two seats, of course, separated by a fairly high center console that houses control switches for the windows, lights and so on. The console is quite handy actually, because under really severe cornering it helps to keep you put. Not that you really need it, because the seats are well bolstered. Behind the seats there’s an elastic net over a small luggage compartment – a good idea, since it keeps small items of luggage in place when you’re driving quickly. There’s also a little luggage compartment in the front end of the car that holds very small items of baggage. Visibility from the driver’s seat is good in front, but poor out the back. Rear vision is aided by a pair of rear-view mirrors, but you sit so low in the car that you can’t really see the front and sides of the car. This makes passing or maneuvering difficult in confined space. But of course, the DeLorean is a car intended for the open road. Here, I must admit, that I found the performance didn’t quite match up to the car’s looks or pedigree. However, it handles very nicely, with good transient response and fairly neutral cornering attitudes. It has a good, firm suspension, independent at all four corners; nice, light and very direct steering response, and very powerful Lucas-Girling disc brakes all around, good for 60 to 0 mph in 135 feet. DMC DeLorean pictured in front of C.R. “Dick” Brown’s DeLorean offices in Irvine, CA. (https://goo.gl/maps/gmg9uU5MfDC4Y35d9) At speed, the noise level Is low and the engine is well damped. You’re not conscious of a power unit churning away Just a few feet behind your head as you would be, let’s say, in a Maserati or a Lotus. I found wind noise to be more obvious, mainly due to the gull-wing doors. Assenza: Unlike the vast majority of cars running on the road, the DeLorean doesn’t have a unitized body. Also, unlike some of the exotics, it doesn’t use the race-car derived monocoque tub. Instead, It uses a separate chassis and body combination. The chassis Itself looks like two Ys Joined at the base. This central backbone Is the platform upon which the body and the suspension Is attached. It’s not surprising that this wishbone configuration is somewhat similar to that used in Lotus cars, since Lotus engineers were consultants in the design and development of the DeLorean. The engine Is placed at the rear of the car. Just behind the rear axle. So this is a true rear-engine car, rather than the more common mid-engine cars which fit the engine just in front of the rear axle. Front and rear suspension is coil-over shock with upper and lower A-arms – It could be called a classic racing suspension. The plastic fuel tank is at the front of the car, nestled between the two arms of the Y. This seems to be a very safe place to store it, since it would be almost impervious to rupture, even in the most severe crash. The powerplant is the jointly developed Peugeot, Renault, Volvo V6 displacing 2.85 liters. It is fitted with Bosch K-Jetronic fuel injection and runs on a fairly low 8.8:2 compression ratio. Moss: I suspect the performance is a consequence of the car’s main market. The version I drove was modified to meet the stringent U.S. emissions regulations, which must have knocked the heart right out of the engine. Still, this is a problem all other sports-car manufacturers must face if they want to sell cars in the United States, and the DeLorean seems to have done as good a job with the engine as most of the others. You’ll get 0 to 60 mph in about 9 seconds. At speeds over 100 mph, the car seems very stable
John DeLorean
John Zachary DeLorean was born January 6, 1925 in Detroit, MI, and passed away on March 19, 2005 in Summit, NJ. He was born to immigrant parents, and served in the United States Army. JZD had a long career in the automotive industry, starting with Packard. He later joined Pontiac and rose in the ranks to become head of General Motors‘ North American Car & Truck Division. He brought with him many accomplishments in both vehicle engineering, as well as marketing, and even influencing car culture as it influenced himself and his work. After leaving General Motors, he went on to found DeLorean Motor Company to produce the DeLorean sports car. What happened to the DeLorean? In the autumn of 1982, DMC went out of business. While John DeLorean was arrested, and soon acquitted of all drug trafficking charges, the company still folded. This included DMC, and its corporate subsidies, such as DeLorean Motorcars of America (DMCA) which was responsible for the distribution of the DeLorean automobile, and DeLorean Motor Cars, Ltd. (DMCL) of Dunmurry, Northern Ireland, which manufactured them. A push to increase production in the summer of 1981 exhausted credit lines with parts suppliers and resulted in large debts, but also created the massive stockpile of original parts which the community uses to this day.
The Exchange of One
“I don’t have any regrets,” Bill Yacobozzi says. “It was time.” Still, the former lawyer turned real-estate agent admits it was a little discomforting after Prototype 1 left his home. For twenty years, two months and five days, Bill had upheld a daily tradition. He would walk to his garage and acknowledge the rarest DeLorean in the world. But on January 30, 2005, he paused and was forced to gaze at an empty space. For months it has remained empty – as if nothing else except the Prototype could ever belong there. On January 11, Yacobozzi told me he had put the car on ebay to see what might happen. “Good luck,” I said. “You’re about to be flooded with emails.” The auction opened with little hurrah. Within a day, however, phone calls were made, internet chatrooms buzzed and the auction counter quickly registered thousands of hits. The price jumped sporadically, and Yacobozzi’s office was barraged with questions… and accusations. Among the skeptics was Tony lerardi. He had the frequent habit of checking ebay for DeLorean-related items. And there it was: Prototype 1 for sale, complete with pictures from the 2004 summer issue of dw magazine. “I remembered the pictures from the magazine,” lerardi says, “and thought wait a minute. The seller has zero feedback and scanned the pictures.” It’s a scam, lerardi thought and immediately emailed the seller to say he knew it was fake. Yacobozzi received many emails from angry DeLorean lovers. The auction is phony. You’re a liar, ebay will be informed of this fraud. A mock auction for “Prototype 2” started on ebay, showing a picture of a snow-covered car with a “DMC” plate. But while enthusiasts lost themselves in the growing, negative propaganda, lerardi started digging deeper for information. “I called Ed Bernstein,” lerardi says, “and, as usual, Ed gave me the right phone number and information.” I received a call shortly after. “The next thing I find out,” lerardi says, “Yes, this is indeed for real.” From here, he faced a hard decision. How much would or could he afford for this car. How much to restore it? Could he allow the Prototype to fall into the hands of a private collector – allow to it disappear for another 20 years? For much of his life, lerardi held a deep connection to the DeLorean automobile. He already owned VIN 6041 – a beautiful Concours winning car. Years ago he had sold it – the car he and his father had bought together. It was a heartfelt mistake he later realized after his father died, and lerardi desperately sought the new owner to buy it back. He had misplaced the information; somehow it had gotten lost over the years. But Bernstein at DeLorean One led him to the new owner, and lerardi got his car back. Now, Prototype 1 was for sale and the auction was ticking. The bid surpassed $75,000. lerardi remembered the car from the videos in the late 70s. He had always wondered where it was now – how great it would be to own. This was his chance. Now. Jay Leno had read the article in dw magazine and called Yacobozzi. He was curious and talkative but not really interested in buying the Prototype. With the auction coming to a close and the bid still rising, Yacobozzi spoke at length with lerardi. Several other parties had expressed serious interest, most notably an executive from Dell Computers. But for Yacobozzi, it wasn’t so much about the money as it was about the car’s future home. In the end, he took the advice from his sources. He told lerardi, “I’ve heard from people that you’re a man of your word. If you say you want to buy this car, I’ll take your word and end the auction.” lerardi committed. Yacobozzi ended the auction early, with a high bid of $96,000 and the reserve not met. The final selling price remained private. When the transport arrived on January 29, 2005, Yacobozzi felt ready. He knew the Prototype would leave him that day. The transaction was finished. It was time to say goodbye. After a two-decade slumber, the car would be brought back to the public eye. And there was something comforting about that. “I felt good because I knew it wouldn’t be sitting in some executive’s garage,” Yacobozzi says. “I knew Tony would display it for his business.” The business would become DMC Florida in March 2005. With lerardi rampant with preparations to open the DeLorean repair facility, he still found time to feel anxious about his new purchase as it spent a week crossing the states. Even John DeLorean had heard about lerardi’s plans and his acquisition of Prototype 1. He was impressed and expressed interest in meeting the young man. The transport finally arrived a week later, and lerardi waited impatiently. When the cargo door went up, he was nervous. As the car rolled off the back of the transport, lerardi felt a little overwhelmed. His mind raced back to the images of the past, and it dawned on him. This is it. The first and only surviving prototype’. The one they paraded around America in the 70s. The one Johnny Carson sat in. This was the car that was filled with John DeLorean’s vision in 1976. The console was full of gauges, including a tire-pressure warning light that would not be fully-realized for 30 years. “The airbag light, that got me,” Jerardi says. “That got a lump in my throat.” With his car DeLorean had envisioned dual airbags and side-impact door beams. He had worked hard to implement his dream for an affordable and safety-conscious sports car. But with the politics, the bureaucracy, the successes and failures of his car company, not everything had made it to the final product. Over time, people might become skeptical of what John DeLorean had tried to do. “They’d say, ‘What airbags? That was just a story,’” lerardi says. “But no this is the
Why does the fake DMC in Texas think they own OUR DeLorean logo?
The DeLorean Motor Company went out of business in 1982. In 1997, Stephen Wynne spent less than a million to purchase the original remaining DeLorean parts from Sol Shenk. Since then, the fake DMC has claimed ownership of just about everything DeLorean, except our actual cars. But they seem to think they own those too. There are a number of stories from DeLorean owners who have tried to get floor mats, hats, shirts, etc. customized with the DMC logo from the door frame, or the DeLorean emblem from the hood and bumper, just to be told ‘Sorry, we can’t do that. We’ve been told by (the fake) DMC in Texas that we’d have to pay them a license fee to put your logo on this item.’ So, the fake DMC is bullying us, and companies we want to use to make items for us. And no, that’s not an exaggeration. The fake DMC is doing their best to take ownership of everything they DIDN’T create. Why? Only they know for sure, but it’s a pretty good guess that it’s a strategy to make themselves worth more when they sell the business. Yes, that’s the likely plan – to sell the business to some bigger company with deep pockets. Basically, to cash out. The fake DMC knows that there’s not enough money to be made from DeLorean owners. Owners have gotten smarter over the years, and haven’t been as willing to pay the exorbitant prices for the many inferior products the fake DMC sells. And with about 5,000 DeLoreans still in existence, that’s a very small number of customers to make any significant money from. So the likely plan is to sell. And when you want to sell something, you try to make it look as good as possible. Which means, gobble up all of our logos and recognizable emblems for our cars and stop people from making cool stuff. That is, unless you pay the fake DMC for the privilege. In a recent trademark search, the fake DMC somehow took ownership of the hood emblem and bumper logo – “DeLorean” – for their own use, and profit. Which means they get paid when an owner wants a set of embroidered floor mats, or a jacket with the logo to go with your car. It turns out, the fake DMC decided they owned the logo back in 2008. And there’s little to nothing DeLorean owners can do about that now. Except – spread the word. Make sure that other owners know that the fake DMC is systematically trying to take ownership of our cars, simply because they have deep pockets. So the next time you need parts for your DeLorean, support the independent shops – the shops who are there to make money, but who ALSO care about the DeLorean community – check out www.DeLoreanDirectory.com/service for parts and repairs, and www.DeLoreanDirectory.com/parts for an ever-growing list of crossover parts you can buy online and locally that work as well (or better) than what the fake DMC is selling… and often for much less.
DeLorean Dealer List
The original DeLorean Dealer List, from the brochure in the glove box of every DeLorean sold. See where the DeLorean dealership was in your town by clicking the map, or searching the list below. If you have more details, or know of other information you’re willing to share with the DeLorean community, contact us. And, check out the gallery of photos of DeLorean dealerships.
John DeLorean’s New Jersey mansion
John DeLorean’s New Jersey estate, on Lamington Road in Bedminster Township, NJ, was originally called Lamington Farm. It was DeLorean’s home away from New York and California. He owned the property from 1981 to 2000, when he had to turn it over to cover expenses from the sham drug trial. In 2002, Donald Trump bought the property and turned it into the Trump National Golf Club Bedminster.
DeLorean in Coventry, UK
by Enda Mullen-BPCoventry Live – November 29, 2019 Look: Coventry connection with Back to the Future iconic sports car by Steve ChiltonCoventry Live – October 21, 2015 It is the world’s most famous time machine with its trademark gullwing doors atop a stainless steel-clad body. The DeLorean DMC-12 sports car is instantly recognisable to even the most clueless car enthusiast after becoming the iconic star of the Back to the Future movie trilogy. And now its creators are gearing up to celebrate a milestone anniversary for one of the best loved cars of all time – which is one of Coventry’s lesser known motoring success stories. This year will marks the 35th anniversary of the construction and first public showing of the production version of the vehicle in 1980 – the ‘Visioneering Show Car’. But what many people don’t realise is that the star of the science fiction comedy which transported Marty McFly back to 1955 life in the fictional California town Hill Valley has strong Coventry connections. The Belfast company’s British headquarters and procurement office was based in Christchurch House in Coventry city centre from 1979 to 1982. Staff were hired to set up new supply deals in the UK and the DeLorean even underwent endurance testing at the city’s head office. And next year the remarkable creation of John Zachary DeLorean will be celebrated with a reunion of former employees based in Northern Ireland and Coventry. Organised by the firm’s previous director of purchasing, Barrie Wills and financial controller David Adams, the reunion has been arranged for next year’s May Bank Holiday weekend at The Culloden Hotel at Cultra, near Holywood, County Down. Mr Wills said: “We are hoping that staff and shopfloor workers alike from Dunmurry, Coventry and the Adelaide Industrial Estate plant of CP Trim will attend the reunion. “We have also arranged a conducted tour on Tuesday 5 May of part of the former Dunmurry plant, now utilised by the French automotive foundry group, Montupet.” The story of the iconic car started in April 1973 when John left General Motors where he was vice president of car and truck production, to follow his dream of creating his own company and building a car that GM would never make. With help from Italian designer Giorgetto Giugiaro, who worked on the new car’s styling, and Lotus Cars, which undertook the engineering of the car, the first running prototype was quickly completed. Its groundbreaking technology took the media by storm and the company set up a greenfield production site in Dunmurry, near Belfast, before John then focused on the UK and opened the Coventry headquarters. When the DeLorean rolled off production lines it received promising reviews but when the recession hit, the expected sales failed to materialise and unsold vehicles started to mount up. In February 1982, the receivers were called in and a rescue bid was devised. However when the FBI arrested John in a Los Angeles hotel room for ‘narcotics violations’ the DeLorean dream ended. Despite its brief time in the city, the two former company executives believe the anniversary is a good reason for a long-overdue reunion of its former employees. Those interested in attending the reunion should contact barriewills42@gmail.com for more information.