Body work

Phase 2 kicks off with some body work.

To get things started, the panels are removed from the car. Those that are damaged will be repaired or replaced.

Any issues with the underbody will be addressed and the whole thing will be cleaned and painted where appropriate.

Another common problem with the DeLorean is roof structure separation. The glue that holds the metal roof structure to the fiberglass gets old and stops working. A permanent solution is to bolt it down.

All riv-nuts that are anywhere close to bad will be replaced with plated steel pieces.

And rusty fasteners will be replaced with stainless steel variants.

Since the original door lift brackets are fairly weak (and these were bent!), they'll get replaced with these reinforced pieces. This won't be seen at all from the outside, but it'll make sure that there are no issues with the bracket going forward.

As previously shown, the right fender had a few dents and an antenna sticking out of it. It will be completely replaced with a antenna-less (and dent free) fender. The replacement fender is dent free, but was previously painted, so it has significant cross scratches on the surface, as shown in this photo. These will be removed using the modern version of the same tooling that the factory used.

Just to show you just how much can be removed, here's a panel that was sanded (purposefully) using 60-grit abrasive on an orbital sander. Yikes!

And after a few minutes with the sanding wheel, it's just like new!

Here's the wheel at work on the new fender.

Now all of the grain is once again going in the proper direction.

This fender looks great. No dents and no antenna hole!

Here's the car going back together - most of the panels are back on and the rub strips are being removed.

It was more cost-effective to have the right quarter panel repaired rather than replaced, so it was shipped to DMC (Texas) in Houston to have the dent removed. Here it is now, back on the car and looking as good as new.

And here's the replacement right fender on the car. The bulky fender antenna ruins the sleek look of the DeLorean, so having that gone is a real improvement.

This VIN also has the old style two-key locks. These not only look ugly, but don't work very well and require you to have two keys on your keychain. They'll be replaced with the late style one-key locks. The old mechanisms leave marks like this on the metal when they're removed. New locks have a much slimmer profile, so these marks must be removed.

A quick hit with the sanding wheel will take that right out!

The door-to-panel alignment is also fine tuned.

Here's what the late style locks look like. MUCH better!

The original key that came with this car was in horrible shape. So in addition to the locks this car is getting two new first-generation (cut with the factory equipment) keys, cut to this car's ignition code. Now everything works as it should!

Up front, the rusty headlight brackets are refurbished. These won't be seen at all, but they won't be a rusty mess anymore. Also, every screw that hold the panels onto the fiberglass (most of which were rusty) have been replaced with stainless steel screws.