Hello everyone, I've been looking for a DeLorean to acquire for some time, finally decided to purchase a right-hand drive conversion (& restoration) from P J Grady.
Just sent the initial deposit, completion expected around next Easter. Hope to join the club once I'm an owner. Any suggestions as to things to fix while the car is being rebuilt? e.g. I heard that the original power window mechanism is unreliable and should be replaced.
Congrats on taking the plunge, I'd love to say you won't regret it .....
Any reason for getting the RHD conversion done?
Manxmann Wrote:Congrats on taking the plunge, I'd love to say you won't regret it....
Heh thanks, I've wanted one for some time but I just don't have the time these days to do much garage work, much less attempt a complete rebuild. Buying a professionally restored one seemed the only practical option. Although I'm under no illusions about it being trouble free.
Manxmann Wrote:Any reason for getting the RHD conversion done?
Concerned about visibility on long trips. My wife had an LHD car until recently and it was miserable to drive on motorways in any kind of traffic.
Looks like various people on this forum got good results replacing the rear cluster and aux lighting with LEDs, might be worth doing that while the car is in pieces.
I'm sure ChrisN will go through the car and do anything that needs to be done, Led's in the doors and cluster are a good idea.
Welcome to the forum, I'm sure you will be pleased with your car (although a way off yet!) If you wish to know any more about the club then please drop me a PM or Email.
Chris
Starglider Wrote:Concerned about visibility on long trips. My wife had an LHD car until recently and it was miserable to drive on motorways in any kind of traffic.
Visibility on the motorways isn't really too much of a problem, its all the gawkers who pull up along side/in front/behind of you to take pictures, some are just plain suicidal!
Quote:its all the gawkers who pull up along side/in front/behind of you to take pictures, some are just plain suicidal!
could not agree more
Chris
Chris Williams Wrote:Quote:its all the gawkers who pull up along side/in front/behind of you to take pictures, some are just plain suicidal!
could not agree more
Chris
+1
Welcome to the forum btw Starglider - and why wait to join the Club and access the benefits? Join up now, and immerse
yourself in back issues and future issues of the magazine - plus you will probably get ideas of things you'll want done to your
new car whilst its with Chris at PJ Grady :wink:
Guinney1971 Wrote:Welcome to the forum btw Starglider - and why wait to join the Club and access the benefits? Join up now, and immerse yourself in back issues and future issues of the magazine - plus you will probably get ideas of things you'll want done to your
new car whilst its with Chris at PJ Grady :wink:
Thanks - to be honest though I'm just crazy busy at the moment, don't even have time for much in the way of recreational reading. I used to have time to mess about with cars but if I bought a fixer upper now it would just sit in the garage and never make progress : will be doing well to just take the car out a couple of weekends a month.
Ordered several electrical parts for Chris : bulb-replacement LEDs and also HID headlights, a decent alternator (in case I eventually fit the vehicle with an uprated sound system), lower current fans and a heavy duty fuse block - the later due to the rants I've seen online about fan failures and fuse blocks melting!
The wife has thrown a slight spanner into the works in that she asked if we can use this car to tow her Zodiac (inflatable boat with outboard) down to the south coast for day trips (she is a SCUBA diving instructor). AFAIK it is theoretically possible to fit a towbar to a DeLorean - there's that guy in the US with the trailer built out of spare DMC-12 parts - but don't know what the mounting solution was or what kind of load it can take. I have asked Chris to give it his best shot - if anyone can make a suitable bracket he can - and if not can honestly tell the wife that I did everything possible.
there is a guy in Washington State with a tow bar and DeLorean trailer, like you say
made out of the front end/rear fascia of a spare DMC.
I'm not sure what the UK regs are on tow bars, especially new ones, but I'm sure
Chris can look into this.
And yes, I'll concur about melting fuse holders and fuses....... :evil:
I'm sure you know but just to clarify for anyone reading, for HID's to be legal in the UK the car must have self leveling headlights and automatic washers
A tow bar is only legal if the car it's on was designed to have one. HIDs are also tightly controlled because lenses designed for them are quite different from standard bulbs.
The modern lights with new lenses make for a very good light spread - in fact my DeLorean had the best headlights of any car I've owned. They need to be properly aligned though.
Manxmann Wrote:I'm sure you know but just to clarify for anyone reading, for HID's to be legal in the UK the car must have self leveling headlights and automatic washers
The new 2012 requirements only apply for an output of over 2000 lumens - not widely publicised for some reason. I fitted HIDs to my Allroad a couple of years back - which fortunately does have levelling and washers, so passed its MOT this year with no problems (same garage who reset the beam pattern after install). I found this to be a significant improvement thus the motivation to put them on the DeLorean, but I have gone for a slightly lower powered configuration (vs the Audi) to stay under the limit. That said this is something I'll probably try out post-delivery and compare with the stock lamps (have to leave a few things for me to fiddle with).
stunned_monkey Wrote:A tow bar is only legal if the car it's on was designed to have one.
The type approval requirement only applies to vehicles sold after 1998. This is why you can get away with (or specifically, our rally enthusiast neighbours can get away with) dubious welded-on brackets on 90s bangers but not a new Mini. AFAIK there is no restriction to imports from outside the EU regardless of model year. The only MOT check for towbars is for obvious structural flaws (corrosion, missing bolts). Of course in this case I trust Chris to make a structural assessment and if he thinks it can't be done safely (or at a reasonable price) then that's that.
Starglider Wrote:The wife has thrown a slight spanner into the works in that she asked if we can use this car to tow her Zodiac (inflatable boat with outboard) down to the south coast for day trips (she is a SCUBA diving instructor). AFAIK it is theoretically possible to fit a towbar to a DeLorean - there's that guy in the US with the trailer built out of spare DMC-12 parts - but don't know what the mounting solution was or what kind of load it can take. I have asked Chris to give it his best shot - if anyone can make a suitable bracket he can - and if not can honestly tell the wife that I did everything possible.
'Willinot' on delorean.ie has a towbar fitted to his.
I wouldnt fancy towing anything with a Delorean but give him a shout and he will get you more details.
Ah now thats very interesting, just exercised my Google foo and have found various references to the 'changes' regarding HID's.
I'll have to get in contact with the local gov import testers here as I know they do fail cars with aftermarket HID kits regardless of beam pattern if no self leveling/washing is fitted. So given the new regs the instances of UK legal cars failing the Manx import test is likely to rise.
dmc4087 Wrote:Starglider Wrote:The wife has thrown a slight spanner into the works in that she asked if we can use this car to tow her Zodiac (inflatable boat with outboard) down to the south coast for day trips (she is a SCUBA diving instructor). AFAIK it is theoretically possible to fit a towbar to a DeLorean - there's that guy in the US with the trailer built out of spare DMC-12 parts - but don't know what the mounting solution was or what kind of load it can take. I have asked Chris to give it his best shot - if anyone can make a suitable bracket he can - and if not can honestly tell the wife that I did everything possible.
'Willinot' on delorean.ie has a towbar fitted to his.
I wouldnt fancy towing anything with a Delorean but give him a shout and he will get you more details.
Oh I didnt know Paul had done that, I'll message him on Facebook and see if he can give me some info