[DML] Re: Advice and opinions for a new buyer

["ryanpwright" <yahoo1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Welcome, Josh.

--- In dmcnews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "leningradmonkey"
<leningradmonkey@xxxx> wrote:
>  
> the major problem I find with the exterior of the car is that as you 
> can see yourself, in the 15th picture down from the top, that the 
> hood of the DMC-12 looks as if its poped up a bit in the upper area 
> near the windshield. almost as if its not fully latched down. this 
> is the only DMC-12 that ive seen that has had this problem, is there 
> a fix to this or a cause to the problem that you can think of?

There is a fix to everything. My guess is the hood just needs some
minor adjustments on the latching mechanism. I wouldn't consider this
a "major" problem (unless the hood is somehow warped from an accident
or something). Very minor in the grand scheme of things. It's also
possible the owner didn't latch the hood all the way while taking
pictures for the purpose of opening it back up easily - you should ask
him. 

> oh yes, what would be your opinions about a DeLorean that has never 
> had any upgrades or work done to the engine, transmission and fuel 
> systems but reportedly doesnt ahve any problems with any of the 3? 

Heh, sounds like every DeLorean I've ever seen for sale. ;)

First, I think you're smart by looking at a car with a few miles on
it. I bought my '81 with ~48k miles on it and no upgrades, but it had
been maintained reasonably well. The cars with only a couple thousand
miles seem to require an awful lot of work to bring to daily driver
status, of course this depends on their maintenance.

Anyway, if you want a daily driver plan on spending an additional
$3,000 - $5,000 within the first few months, assuming you do your own
work. There are plenty of things you'll need to fix. Things that will
work fine when driven occasionally, but will quickly fail when a car
is returned to daily driver status. Here are some examples of things I
had to do to my own car:

1. You'll need to replace all of your coolant lines. The hoses are 21
years old on that car and they will fail, and your engine will
overheat. This is a bad thing.

2. The car probably needs new brakes, or will need them soon.
Hopefully the owner has flushed & refilled the brake system regularly,
with the proper fluid. I lucked out in that my car came with new brake
pads, all I had to do was install them and replace the brake fluid. It
was old and dirty and had likely never been replaced, but no leaks
have occured and the brakes are working great. I would have expected
to replace more.

3. Same thing with the clutch. Hopefully the previous owners have
flushed & refilled the fluid regularly. If not, you're in for
problems. You'll need to replace the plastic clutch line with a
stainless steel braided one. If the clutch hydraulics have not been
regularly maintained, they will likely fail shortly after the line is
replaced. I would plan on replacing, at a minimum, the master & slave
cylinders and the clutch line. I bet you'll need a new clutch within 6
months to a year, too.

4. Lots of misc electrical stuff to check. Door locks are a big one.
If your door lock controller is working now, it won't be later. I
recommend Toby Peterson's door actuator upgrade. $100 will replace the
solenoids in both doors and transfer switching current to outboard
relays, which should prevent your lock module from dying. Lots of
benefits here, contact Toby (www.delorean-parts.com) for more info on
this very inexpensive upgrade.

This is just off the top of my head. There are a lot of other things
you'll need to check and replace, but these are some of the bigger ones. 

Welcome to the world of DeLorean ownership! Once you solve some of the
pesky bugs - most of which have to do simply with the age of the
components - you should have a trouble free and reliable daily driver. 

-Ryan








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