My wife and I purchased a 1981 De Lorean DMC-12 (VIN 6820 with a November 1981 build date) in the Spring of 1999. When we bought it, it had only 3500 miles on it. (Update: 20,000 as of October 3rd, 2003). It was, and is, a great original condition car. Contrary to what most people seem to believe, a DeLorean in very good condition can be purchased for less than $25,000.00. A car needing some repair can commonly be picked up for around $15,000 or even less depending on the condition. Ours only needed some very minor repairs such as new struts for the luggage compartment and rear engine louver, and a new radio antenna, and repair of a minor crack in the rear window louver.

There were only about 8500 to 10,000 DeLoreans built between 1981 and 1983. All of them came from the factory in Stainless Steel only. Any painted DeLoreans were done later by the vehicle owner or by the dealer. For more facts on the DeLorean visit the links at the bottom of the page. Knut Grimsrud has written an excellent FAQ that is available on the DMC-News site.

To show that these cars are pretty darned reliable, even after 20 years or more since production, here is a list of everything I've done to ours:

1999

• Oil change and other routine maintenance after purchase
• Had the A/C charged up. It had leaked out over the years.
• New tires. The original Goodyear NCTs were fine, but my wife was worried about 20 year old tires. So I bought a set of Yokohama AVS Intermediates. Great tires!
• Did the relay update and cleaned all the fuses.
• New struts for the engine and luggage compartment
• New fuel pump after I managed to run the car out of gas and burned out the old one.
• Installed a new Kenwood KRC-3006 stereo and Infinity Kappa front speakers. Also added a CD changer since the Kenwood head unit had CD controls built-in. The KRC-3006 head unit was the last Kenwood with the shaft style controls (like the original DeLorean stereo) that included CD controls. It has since been discontinued. I was very happy to get one of these at it closely resembles the original stereo, but has much better sound and CD.

2000

• Routine maintenance
• Tried to repair the crack in the louver, but hurried the job and it cracked 6 months later
• Installed a new fuel accumulator. The classic warm start problem.

2001

• Installed a K&N air filter using Marty Maier's adapter kit
• Installed an aluminum brace over the crack in the louver at the beginning of the season and just painted over the top without fully repairing it. Wanted to see how it held up first.
• Routine maintenance

2002

• New rear tires. The Yokos are great, but don't last a lot of miles.
• Had the A/C charged up a bit while the car was in for inspections.
• Self-bleeder kit for the cooling system and an overflow bottle.
• Routine maintenance

Winter 2002/2003

Now we're getting into some heavy stuff. I decided that the car was old enough that it needed some things done to it as preventative maintenance. It still had only 17,000 miles on it at the end of the 2002 season, but combine that with the age of the car and it's time to do some preemptive work. This stuff was done between November of 2002 and March 2003 in time for the 2003 driving season.

• Repaired the louver once and for all. Also installed a 3rd brake light in it.
• Added lube to the steering rack and replaced the tie-rod ends. The steering had felt a little stiff and I decided to fix it.
• Installed a rebuilt clutch master cylinder. The old one was leaking into the car.
• All new brakes. Or at least rebuilds. I installed a rebuilt master cylinder from AutoZone, and Raybestos rebuilt calipers w/new pads all around from a local parts house. New rotors from PJ Grady (www.brakewarehouse.com is cheaper I have found out since). New stainless steel braided hoses bought from Marty Maier. I also had the vacuum booster rebuilt by a place in California for $125. The power brakes hadn't worked right in quite a while. I suspect that the rubber diaphragm in the booster had dried out and gone bad. The rotors were all a little glazed and the pads needed to be changed. Since the odds were good that all the hydraulic cylinders had probably gotten moisture in them over the years, and were probably rusted, I decided that a whole new system was in order.
• New oil idiot-light sensor. It had been leaking slowly for a while, so time to fix it. Also a new oil gauge sending unit that will be more accurate and a new oil drain plug that uses a regular wrench rather than a pipe plug wrench.
• Fuel filter, and a new fuel pump cover boot. While I was in there I installed Hervey's baffle and pickup assembly which should end all problems in the tank for a while.
• And of course an oil change so I had fresh oil in the car for spring.
• New battery

Winter 2003/2004

Well, I didn't get everything done last year. Part of it was money, part was just a bit of depression over being out of work (which aggravated the money problem and had me working slower than usual). So some of the stuff planned for last year gets moved to this winter, and part gets put on hold until I have more money.

• I'll be installing new trailing arm bolts. I bought a set of the "Toby-TABs".
• Install a new slave cylinder, stainless steel braided clutch hose, new clutch, pressure plate, throw-out bearing, pilot bearing, and rear main seal. I replaced the leaking clutch master last year. But, the clutch pedal was and is very stiff. A stiff clutch on these cars is usually just lack of, or dried out, lubricant on the 20-year old parts, and if I'm going to split the tranny off from the motor to fix this, then the clutch gets replaced while I'm in there.
• Change out the bulkhead steering bushing which has started to squeak slightly.
• Whole new cooling system. I had some minor overheating problems in the summer of 2002 after moving to Utah. I found that most of it was caused by not bleeding the system properly so I added a self-bleeder. But, I got to thinking about the 110 deg plus temps in the desert out here and decided that 20 year old hoses were a bad thing. I also don't really like plastic tanks on radiators, at least not ones this old. So, I'm installing a new all metal radiator with increased capacity, all new hoses, new water pump since I'll be in there anyway to change hoses, a new otterstat switch, and a new thermostat. I'll also be changing out the plastic expansion tank for a metal one.
• Tune-up. While I have the intake off for the cooling system work, I may as well put a new cap and rotor in, as well as wires and plugs. Also a new Accel coil and a new O2 sensor.

Well, the stuff for the past 2 years sounds like a lot, and it is, but most of it is just replacing parts that wear normally and/or go bad with age. I'm just doing a big batch of it all at once. None of it left me sit. I'm just changing most of it as a preventative.

If the job situation works itself out, then next year comes the good part: New variable rate springs from Marty Maier all the way around, and new shocks too. I had hoped to be installing a New Old Stock BAE turbocharger kit I had located, but had to sell it due to the lack of a job. Oh well, now I'm thinking about an Eaton M62 Supercharger setup with Tec3 engine management. 

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Last modified: November 6, 2003

Please note that I spelled De Lorean with and without the space in various places above. This was done so that search engines would pick up both spellings. With a space is correct, but most people don't use it.

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