T panel

[abatt10347@xxxx]

Fellow DMCer's,
First thanks to Dave, Brandon, and Scott, for their input on how to complete 
this task. Second after a very long day my t-panel is now again down in the 
middle rear. The cause was as a couple of people had said, the body part ( no 
part #) that the torsion bar ret plate (part # 105006) attaches to had moved 
up in the middle, ( no doubt due to the amount of force on it from the 
torsion bars) This part is glued to the body. After 18+ years the glue had 
started to give out. Yes as I was told the t-panel doesn't have to come off 
to fix this problem, but with it off I was able to find a new way to fix this 
problem. The old way is to take the torsion bars (both) out and then force 
the part ( no # again) down, ( using a 3" socket extention) then put in 4 #12 
(1") sheet metal screws to hold it into place. ( this is all covered in the 
tech section of the DML). With the T-panel off I was able to to put weight ( 
standing on it and having wife insert screws) on the part and force it down 
(without removing the torsion bars) and then apply the screws. A small note 
of warning, the t-panel is in there real good, and it does cut you from the 
bottom side. The longest part of all this was making the wooden jig ( see 
old issues of Delorean World) to undo the torsion bars and waiting for my 
friend to come and help. After waiting two hours, I looked at the situation 
and thought there has to be a better way. The up side is I now have the 
wooden jig if I ever need to adjust my doors. I also used enough of the black 
glue that my t-panel will never come off again with out a long drawn out 
fight! Thanks again for those who made this job a lot easier with some info 
and phone calls answering my questions. This whole eperience has again taught 
me that the owners of Deloreans are a very special bunch of people. You are 
never alone in you search for help!!! Sorry for length but I'm glad this one 
is fixed.
Bruce Battles
Vin# 06569