[DML] Re:Stainless Frame was auto lift

["Dave Swingle" <swingle@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Sorry about that - I keep meaning to write it up, and now Ken's after 
me to put it in the magazing. Here's the short version written on a 
snowy Friday night...

The owner of the car is an older gentleman in my area (IL) who does 
not have email (i.e. is not on the list). He did not make it to 
Pigeon Forge (he went to the WWII Veteran's Memorial dedication in DC 
instead, it meant a lot more to him and I can't disagree). I'd expect 
to see him at Pheasant run since it's only about 45 minutes away.

This car was a perfect example of a Stainless Frame conversion 
candidate. He's  owned it since new, and drove it year around for the 
first 5 years he had it. The speedometer currently shows about 70,000 
miles. The Chicago salt took its toll on the frame and it was getting 
unsafe. When it was new, he had a garage and worked at a place with 
indoor parking, so the car was always parked inside. While that 
didn't help the frame, the interior and facias look great. This car 
looked absolutely perfect as long as you didn't look underneath it. 

The original plan was that I separated the car into the two parts, he 
spent the winter swapping everything over, and I would put it back 
together. He ran into some medical difficulties near the end of the 
winter (fine now) so I agreed to finish it off. He'd done most of the 
work, but I ended up pulling the engine and trans out again to change 
the rear main seal. I also had to finish up some of the plumbing. He 
had essentially just moved everything over, doing some minor painting 
and cleaning here and there but his intent was not a concours level 
restoration (I hesitate to say Concours on an SS frame car, but you 
get the idea). His intent was to make a car that was a reliable 
driver year around. At his age, keeping it in the garage half the 
year is not a good option. 

I did get the car back together in a couple of weekends and he drove 
it home. There were only two latent problems afterwards - I had told 
him that the rack was pretty sloppy and he decided to wait on it, and 
there was a leak in the trans that had been there as long as he owned 
the car, and I couldn't find it either. It has since been fixed by 
a "factory trained" DeLorean mechanic in our area - sometimes you 
just give up and pay someone!

The only other big complication was that I had to replace the air 
conditioning evaporator and bottle, which were leaking and rusted in 
place. That, to me, was the worst part of the whole project! 

If I had to hazard a guess it would be about $15K. I don't know what 
it really cost him, but keep in mind that he replaced the frame, and 
used all the nice Pearce control arms (upper, lower, and rear) along 
with new ball joints and bushings. I think the price of all that 
stuff is on Pearce's web site. The only other major improvements that 
he did were to replace the fuel lines with completely stainless lines 
and install the Marty Maier suspension. It turns out that the SS line 
vendor to the hot rod market (whose name escapes me) has, in their 
CAD system, the specs on the DeLorean fuel lines (thanks to Marty!). 
Perhaps Marty will jump in and remind me who that is. 

My first impression driving it was amazement at how much more "solid" 
the car felt than others I'd driven. Pearce was right - the frame is 
much more stiff than the stock one. 

More details and photos in "DeLorean Car Show Magazine" --- someday 
(Ken I promise - but I'll probably re-use some of these words). 

Dave S



--- In dmcnews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "joecellularjoe" 
<joecellularjoe@xxxx> wrote:
> 
> 
> Dave,
> 
> Now that you mention it, how did the stainless steel frame 
automatic 
> turn out? I haven't seen any updates to that section.
> 
> Did that car make it to Pigeon Forge?
> 
> Any estimates on cost for that job?
>> 
> Joe








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