NEW MANUAL! Now is the time for all good owners...

[deloreanernst@xxxx]

In a message dated 3/24/01 6:14:36 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
jhuckins@xxxx writes:

<< Here's what I'm getting at, I would very much like to have known that I
shouldn't have lifted up one corner of the car with a floor jack before
I did it. I also wish I had known that those screws in the tail light
assemblies were not Philips before I messed up the heads a little.. >>

I appreciate Les' efforts... go for it! :) I've been working behind the 
scenes along that same line, and more. As some of you are aware, I've been 
working on revising and uprading the entire DMC manual series. I've had a 
chance to bounce various ideas off of a few of you, either by e-mail or in 
person at Ken's show last spring. It's not my day job, but I try to work on 
it a little each day. 

Not being an original owner, a certified mechanic (or an egomaniac), I know 
that I will need input from many D people with more knowledge and experience 
than I have. I've had a lot of homework to do before I felt ready to roll out 
the personal input part of the project. Including scouring the planet for 
original DMC manuals with good clean artwork suitable for reproduction. 
(Seems more practical to own than borrow. You'd be surprised at what I've 
been able to reel in. Even a service manual from the factory in Belfast.) 
As you know, the clarity of some of the illustrations in the widely 
circulated copies of copies of copies is really pretty poor.

I've also secured the support of the DML Moderators and all the major D 
vendors but one. Rob, Joe, Stephen and Don all agree that the existing 
manuals contain inaccuracies and are a bit lacking in certain areas. New 
manuals could be very useful, if not to them, then at least to the "rank and 
file" owner. All four have agreed to look over materials I send them for 
additions and corrections as they have time. (That sounds pretty tepid... 
actually there's a bit more enthusiasm for the project than I make it sound 
here!) I haven't asked them to write new material per se. If they had time 
to do that, I wouldn't need to be doing this! I had some reservations about 
contacting Ed. Not because of what I read on the DML but from my own 
experience with him, and his extreme and irrational hostility toward our 
group. Nevertheless, he is an established D vendor whom many owners rely on 
and endorse, and he's hung in there with the DeLorean while many other 
DeLorean suppliers and servicers have closed down their D operations. I have 
to respect that. So I asked him, and he declined. Ed says I "have too much 
time on my hands" and he's too busy to help. He compares my project to 
rewriting the Bible! Actually, one of the later original DMC bulletins I 
have remarks that the parts manuals were never fully revised. I guess Ed 
never read that one. :) That quote coming from Leif Montin, the DMC 
National Parts Director. (I guess that makes him the "Moses" of parts!) 
Well, I felt I should be openminded and ask Ed, so I did. The icing on the 
cake: Leif himself is supportive and willing to help. 

At last I'm ready to move forward with phase two. Much as I feel the great 
need for a "Newbie Corner," as Les suggests, and of course a new service 
manual, I'll be starting with the Parts Identification & Assembly Manual, 
since that must be foundational as a reference for the other manuals, and it 
will be a lot easier to manage as a startup. An accurate, user friendly P & A 
Manual with additional illustrations, close ups, tutorial material, full 
parts supercessions, recall parts and Parts Bulletins combined. I've even 
got a surprising amount of out of print original materials and illustrations, 
from the preliminary parts manual featuring '81 features, for instance, that 
didn't make it into the later, widely copied '82 manual. The new manual would 
not just save time when you call up your favorite supplier to order a part. 
It would actually help owners better understand their cars and its systems in 
a way it can't do now. I'm pretty excited about it! There's quite a lot of 
stuff that will be added. You're going to be surprised what all can be done 
with a lowly parts manual!

Before I tell you what I need the assistance of my fellow DML'ers with, here 
are my observations and presumptions: 
* the parts and service manuals were never designed for the owner, but rather 
for DeLorean trained mechanics. Some additional explanatory material would 
be a great benefit, especially to new owners
*had the company survived, a revised parts manual would have included and 
superceded all the applicable parts bulletins... but that never had time to 
happen... until now
* Originality and Concours standards were not in view in the parts manual, 
rather the lastest current data. I can include some '81 illustrations that 
had been essentially lost.
* some owners, especially of early D's, have parts that don't look original, 
but really are
* some illustrations lack useful details (the illustration of the speedo 
drive doesn't show the speedo drive hub "dustcover," for instance, it's on 
the page with the suspension.)
* some illustrations need larger illustrations, like the fuel baffle assembly
* some parts have indistinct names, like the above mentioned "dustcover," 
which is more usefully described as a speedo drive hub in the service manual.
* nomenclature in the manual is often unclear or even conflicting.
* as we get further and further from the technology of the DMC-12, an 
accurate comprehensive parts manual with some tutorial information would be 
very useful in helping interested owners/ hobbyists learn to understand the 
workings of their cars, and determining if they have the correct parts, not 
just "make-it-fit" substitutes put on by prior mechanics in a pinch... or in 
ignorance.

Can we fix all that? Address all these issues? Oh, yeah!

What do I need from you, my fellow owners? Well, I want your input. If you 
have familiarity with the guts of your D, and would like to join the D 
experts in looking over the first drafts of the illustrations, page by page 
to offer your comments, please contact me privately. The eventual manual will 
come out this fall, in print form, like a nice Chilton manual. A CD format 
has been suggested, but I can still easily access the info in the twenty year 
old manuals... my twenty year old floppies are useless. It will be carefully 
edited and printed, and though I can't pay anything for submissions, I will 
include a list of contributors, if you'd like your name included, in the 
acknowledgements. (Can't footnote everything... I'd go crazy!) It will be 
copyrighted, because though I don't expect to give up my day job, I need to 
recoup printing costs. Hopefully the main D suppliers will carry it. I'd 
rather do it thru them than just peddle them over the internet. 
Big job. Can you help me make it a reality? Drop me a line!
Thanks in advance. 

-Wayne A. Ernst
vin 11174
The New DeLorean Manuals Project