Imported project car in Kent

[Guinney1971]

MikeWard Wrote:

SteveyP Wrote:Who knows for sure? I do remember him on Watchdog having bought a dodgy Rolex on ebay. He thought he had bagged himself a bargain, but ended up with a Turkish fake and no refund. Very sad he was too :lol:

I wonder if he quipped the 'we're not, talking quality here, far from it.' line about the watch too :wink:

lol, I love the way he takes the moral high ground, yet if I remember right, he got done a few years ago for
clocking cars and selling them on (allegedly your 'onor)

[MikeWard]

I found an electronic copy of an article Dave Howarth told me about some years ago, I think this is the Mirror article? I love the way people who jump on the QW bandwagon conveniently forget about the likes of British Leyland. And the £60mil that was given to Jaguar the year after DMC was shut down for development of a new engine that came of nothing. :roll:

Quote:Quentin Willson's Motoring Column: Utter carbage; DE LOREAN'S DE-LOUSY.

SPENT a couple of days with a De Lorean DMC 12 - you remember, John De Lorean's "ethical" sports car from the Eighties.

I can exclusively reveal that it's a complete crock of c**p.

I couldn't believe how badly-made, slow and generally uncomfortable it was. I know cars have got better in the years since, but this thing must have been a crushing disappointment from day one. The Belfast-based operation managed to chew through more than pounds 80 million of British taxpayers' money and promised to be one of the greatest employers in Northern Ireland.

The whole enterprise lasted just a few years, and when the receiver was called in the assets amounted to a big fat zero.

The longest period De Lorean ever spent in Belfast was three days, preferring his plush New York penthouse office.

Originally billed as a $12,000 car, when it hit showroom carpets the DMC 12's sticker price had ballooned to $26,000, pitting it against established titans such as the Porsche 911 and Mercedes Sports, next to which it was comprehensively hopeless.

Alcatraz

And it didn't have any of the great innovations De Lorean promised. No airbags, no plastic monocoque and no serious performance.

Instead of a dedicated De Lorean engine, it borrowed the asthmatic 2.8 V6 out of the Renault 30. De Lorean made much of being the consumer's friend and lambasted General Motors for being cynical. Look round the DMC and you'll spot scores of little cost-cutting tricks.

Those celebrated gull-wing doors should have had two gas struts instead of one. That's one of the reasons why they never work properly.

The alternator's too small to power all the electrics, especially the air conditioning.

And, instead of having door windows that roll all the way down, there's just a little pillar-box slot which makes the cabin feel like Alcatraz with carpets.

In my two-day tenure, the thing overheated three times, the battery went flat overnight and those miserable doors locked me in for 30 minutes.

Victims

De Lorean's path is littered with casualties. Apart from the British Government, dealers lost a fortune, as did owners and suppliers.

Sammy Davis Jnr kissed goodbye to half a million dollars and Johnny Carson lost $1.5 million. But the greatest victims of all were the 2,000 Irish workers who did their best and tried their hardest.

So if you've ever considered investing your money in a classic De Lorean, forget it.

Owners' clubs try to whistle up prices and there are fond fools who've given as much as pounds 15,000 for their De Loreans, an investment they haven't got a cat's chance of recouping.

No, if you want a classic, buy an MGB, an Austin-Healey, an E-Type, a Jag Mk II - but never, ever, buy a De Lorean.

[Chris Williams]

Yes that's the one, I have the original paper with it in, but other than his picture in a DeLorean it does not add much. I can try to scan it if any one wants?
Chris

[SteveyP]

One I can't own an MGB as I don't have a beard. Two my doors appear to work fine - up and down. And three I have read many reviews of the DeLorean from back in the day, and they all praise it for its levels of comfort.

Plus those rather iffy 'pillar-box slot' windows have just shown up on the latest VW X-1 (below). So they can't be that daft can they?

What a twonk!

[Chris P]

Speaking of dear old Quentin….Barrie Wills cornered him at the NEC on Friday, in front of his fan club …and gave him both barrels ! (not literally unfortunately )

[tonydrivertraining]

Well sadly I haven't met Mr Q Wilson, so can't really say much about him, but anyway, here are a few things I have been doing with the car.
Everything has stalled a bit really. I have moved the car to my folks place which I feel is quite nicely more secure than the old location. I have got pretty much all the interior out now and just want to get the top off the car and the welding done on the frame as I don't want to do much before that is sorted.
In the downtime I have been restoring a few bits of the interior and looking at which mods I want to do to the interior too.
Here are a couple of pics of my attempts to sort out the door panels, I will let you decide on what you think of it. I am trying to do this project on a budget or it'll never finish so I decided that as the door panels were discoloured, and the foam underneath had perished, I could replace the foam baking and re-colour the original vinyl as in itself it wasn't in too bad nick.
I did this by removing the vinyl from the panel and washing it as well as I could to remove all the dust caused by the old foam. Then I was going to cover the panel with foam, then put on the vinyl and re-colour, however you would end up with a flat panel and some stitching, it would look much better if there was a 3-D effect like the original, so I took another look and inserted cut-out pieces of foam not the gap between the original foam backing and vinyl. It all sounds complicated, but I will attach some pictures which may help. I then glued this all together, glued that onto the original panel, then coloured the whole lot like the earlier quarter panels.

[tonydrivertraining]

And here is the final result. It doesn't look amazing, but I think its much better than before!

[Chris P]

Sorry we hijacked your thread……hows the car coming along. Was the chassis bad?

[tonydrivertraining]

Well sadly there's no movement with the chassis yet but things are in motion to get it up on a ramp, so for the moment I am just tinkering with the interior parts, and I think I will soon go onto the stereo install. I want to fit a double DIN stereo that is just a plain black screen so it doesn't look too out of place in the car, but it'll need quite a bit of work on the dash, and probably re-routing of the air vents to a different position so that I can fit everything in. Basically I am just trying to find stuff I can do in my flat!

[Chris P]

I know how it is sometimes….my current car sat untouched for over 18 months as we moved house last time. Other priorities come along. But you've still got your car and as long as its not deteriorating , it will be waiting for you when circumstances allow you to get stuck in.

Im sure many club members would like to have their own "fixer upper" waiting for their attention. Better than money in the bank!

[tonydrivertraining]

Well it has been quite some time since the last post but a few bits have been done. Partly getting some of the most stubborn bolts and screws removed, but finally I have the shell removed from the chassis.
Due to funding restraints I have to do as much as possible on a budget. Cue me and my father with a pair of Halfords trolley jacks and a big pile of breeze blocks and you get a good idea on what we have been up to. All that is left of this part of the project is to get the large cross struts in place and we can wheel out the frame and get it all sent off for rebuilding.
Wish me luck!
Tone.

[Chris P]

I really admire your determination, it must be extra tricky working in a small space, (but better than working out side)

Have you reunited it again ? its not clear when the photo's were taken. Its difficult not to go the whole hog and a complete rebuild when you have them separated, but i'd be inclined to do the minimum, get it back together again and use it for a while. Did you get it running before you stripped it down? This is often easier than you might think. Then at least you know what you are dealing with.

[tonydrivertraining]

Hi Chris,
Sadly the frame is in really bad shape, and with the mouse chewed interior and all the wiring ruined I have had to go for a full rebuild.
I didn't attempt to get it running beforehand. The engine hasn't run since the 80's I believe, fuel tank is full of sediment, mainly the fuel pump that is so corroded it has disintegrated into the 30 year old fuel. I wanted to see about getting it running but an engine rebuild is the most sensible really as there is just so much that needs doing.
I just need to find a local place that can come and get the chassis along with the running gear, get them apart and get the frame sorted.
I may have the larger garage next-door to this one in a few months, but now the car is apart I think the shell is staying where it is for a few months!

[Chris P]

It makes me realise how fortunate I have been with the non-runners I have bought. Nothing on this scale.

I still think that unless the engine has actually been flooded, it could still be worth seeing if it could be got running before you go for a full engine strip down. But I guess that would now slow things down.

Regarding the chassis, i'd get it dip stripped and de-rusted and take it from there. Welding, Galvanising? and then grey powder coating? Several folk have already been down that road. Take plenty of photo's to help with the rebuild…you can never have too many.

Goog luck.

[tonydrivertraining]

Well, after taking the shell off the other day I got the exhaust off and borrowed a breaker bar from a neighbour. The car was in neutral and there was no movement on the crank at all. We both put quite a bit of effort in trying to get it to move but no luck at all, totally seized.

The main backbone of the car is pretty good, but the front left is is an even worse state than I thought, holes all over the chassis.