'59 MM Landau Panorama

[Scary Guy]

"...but it is the kind of work that requires a lot of talent or a lot of practice."

...and therefore a lot of money as well.

I'm not saying it will be cheap I'm just saying it can be done and is easier than a complete restoration of the interior. If push really came to shove though you could even refab the panels if you really had to.

[Dickey]

I think you misunderstood the scope of my disagreement. I only intended to point out that your assessment, "DeLorians? Most of that stuff is just bolt on, some bondo and paint and you're all good." was wrong. I figured it was because you didn't know their body panels were not painted from the factory and was using the opportunity to educate.

I took your original statement to also imply that you thought such a repair could be done cheap and easily which is why I described the process that is employed. I gather from your most recent post that you expect some bondo and paint to be a fairly expensive proposition for automotive repair. That is my bad for making the assumption from your text. Though I concede that I'm not sure why you brought up the interior.


For reference; A complete DMC interior costs about 3 grand last I checked (seat covers, carpets, binnacle, dash, and steering wheel are the common bits). The last time a driver's side front fender was sold on ebay it went for a little over two grand and an early style pleated hood like the movie car usually nets $2500-3000 in decent condition. The other panels can be purchased much cheaper because they are still available from DMC of Houston. Some years back, one of the guys on the DMC board had their driver's fender repaired and had their whole car regrained to look new. He flew the guy from England that does this work specifically for DeLoreans over to the States to have the work done. I'm not sure if anyone in the states ever took up making such repairs or not since that event.

[Scary Guy]

Oh, I wasn't thinking DeLorian, I was thinking '59.

Also regarding the DeLorians, I forgot that they're factory stainless and lets be honest only an idiots would paint it (although if covering up holes that might actually not be a bad idea doing the whole car in a metalic paint).

Always wanted one of those too, but just a bit out of my price range and I have other things to get first.

[sgath92]

There were actually a few painted DeLoreans from the factory, which was a huge blunder & why you never see any.

IDK if its still around, but there was a local businessman in my area who had two painted DeLoreans, IIRC a white one and a red one, that he had sitting in storage after acquiring them when they were imported to the country. No mileage or use on either of them. I wouldn't be surprised if, even inside away from the weather, the paint still managed to come off.

Apple Computers had a similar problem with painted titanium computers about ten years ago. Paint had no adherence, and then they would try to avoid fixing them under warranty by claiming the users were not being delicate enough with their machines.

[Dickey]

There were three painted DeLoreans at the factory in Dunmurry. They were all test mules and destroyed after they were no longer needed. Dealers painted some because they were unable to move them otherwise though. That's often where the confusion comes from. Usually they are painted after they get wrecked but sometimes an owner just decides they'd like it to be a different color. I personally think a dark burgundy exterior looks best with the gray interior but I'm keeping mine bare just the same. Might see about getting a saddle colored interior done when I decide to put some real money into it but that's about it for dramatic appearance mods for me. Part of why I bought the car and tolerate its quirks is due to my affinity for metals.

fwiw; Paint seems to stick to them just fine as there are a number of owners in the DOA that have painted cars and there was even a DMCTalk thread on one owner who bought a red one and stripped it to bare stainless again. It took him quite a bit of effort to get all of the paint off but he documented all of the work and had an impressive result when he was done.

[Scary Guy]

Also don't forget the 24k gold ones

[Dickey]

I think those have the prettiest interiors ever done for the car. The gold plating sucks though. It comes off the panels just by touching it.

[Scary Guy]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/10/gold-poop-pills-tobias-wong_n_2272605.html

So your interior can be pretty too (had to)

Anyway that's a shame about the plating. But i suppose if you had one you wouldn't want to drive it around anyway.

[Dickey]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/1...n_2272605.html

So your interior can be pretty too (had to)

Anyway that's a shame about the plating. But i suppose if you had one you wouldn't want to drive it around anyway.

hehe

I honestly don't know that you could drive one for very long; there are only three gold DeLoreans in existence and I'm fairly certain there would be pitchforks involved if the DMC faithful caught wind of someone daring to put miles on one of them. A lot of these crazy bastards actually use expressions like "stewardship" and "living the dream" to describe owning one of the regular stainless variety.

[cadfan1959]

59

This 59 was owned by a couple in CA. about 5 years ago. We thought it was 124,000 miles not 24,000. The front seat had been redone and the top of the door panels were worn, but still a very nice car.

http://stjohnmotorcars.com/1959hearse.php

[spastic_chicken]

I get ghostbusters comments about every single one of my coaches - especially my '94. People are just stupid. That is all.

[spastic_chicken]

I worked on a Delorean once. They are very slow. They use a shitty volvo drivetrain.

[Scary Guy]

I worked on a Delorean once. They are very slow. They use a shitty volvo drivetrain.

Only because no one else would work with DMC, the big three saw to that.

[hearseboy]

Also don't forget the 24k gold ones

Thank you for mentioning the gold ones!! I was at the Petersen Automotive Museum of Los Angeles, and when I walked up to it there was no mention of why it was gold!... this drove me nuts till I could go look it up