Is it true? Door leaks

[Senatorpack@xxxx]

The answer is a small yes and a big no.

The DeLorean car venture problems reminds me of Alejandro DeTomaso - 
founder of DeTomaso Automobili S.p.A. 

DeTomaso had an agreement with Ford Motor to develop a European sports 
car to sell in existing American car retail dealerships. The car was the 
Pantera. The Pantera although fast & after extensive modifications a good 
car, needed extensive reworking when new. Even though DeTomaso had an 
agreement & money from Ford, the Panteras were rough and lacked fit & finish 
detail. The cars leaked.


The very first DeLorean cars assembled needed a lot of love by the first 
owners and the dealer technicians. The cars as a whole were just as good, if 
not better, that the current offerings from any of the car 
manufactures...especially the POS American cars from 1981.

The very first cars delivered to the United States, needed hours of 
"quality assurance evaluation." The early cars were partially disassembled 
and reassembled to correct the poor workmanship from the Irish factory 
workforce & engineering miscalculations from DMC & Lotus.

The workmanship issues and miscalculations were small, detail oriented, 
fit & finish miscalculations, not major structural defects or poor 
engineering planning. 

One of the first examples of an engineering miscalculation was water 
dripping into the interior by the headliner material in the first hundred 
DeLorean cars. 

The Headliner material consists of four parts. Two door areas and fore 
aft areas. The gullwing headliner areas are flawless as was the aft area. The 
area that gave the DeLorean owner grievance was the fore area of the 
headliner. 

The material in that area was tucked under the gigantic gullwing door 
weather seal in the door water channel areas. [Bricklin cars didn't have a 
water channel or in some cases, weather seals causing a deluge of water to 
enter the interior] The material that was tucked under the seal, absorbed 
water accumulating enough water to eventually drip into the interior. A small 
drip, not a deluge of water.

This small detail oriented mistake was corrected buy a pair of 
scissors...to cut the headliner material out of the water channel, and away 
from the door weather seal. Problem solved. The miscalculation wasn't in one 
of the 14 pieces of weather seals, it was a small piece of headliner material.


Best Wishes,
Michael Pack