When I decided to purchase the car, I needed to find a way to get it 200 miles from Ohio to home. I talked to a friend and he agreed to come with me to pick it up and follow me back home. This was the second time for me driving a stick, as I had only learned a few days before driving a relatives truck. The DeLorean handled much differently, and it was an interesting drive.

expand

Since it was my first time actually driving a DeLorean (I had been a passenger in a DeLorean twice before, the weekend I was looking at car's for sale) I wasn't sure what to expect. We had stopped several times along the way to look over the car, make sure it was running OK and cool, and that the tires looked fine (as they were 1982 originals).

expand

The car had some electrical troubles that needed to be worked on, and therefore the entire instrument cluster with the exception of the speedometer was not working. I had no temp gauge, tachometer, gas gauge, etc. That was some of the reason for several stops, to make sure the car was topped off with gas. However, within 20 miles of home we hit traffic at a toll barrier, and after sitting for about 5 minutes, I heard the horn blaring behind me. My friend was yelling that the car was overheating.

expand

I turned the car off, and we, along with the help of a toll worker, pushed the car through the plaza and off to the side of the road. Let the car cool and looked over it, everything seemed to be fine. It was then that we realized the radiator fans must not have been kicking in. We had already phoned a tow truck, but I also called a DeLorean parts vendor looking for help. We tried a few things but could not get the fans to kick in. The tow truck arrived and loaded us up.

expand

Halfway home (now 10 miles left!) the tow truck's breaking and power steering system failed, right as we were on a thruway off ramp. He coasted the truck into a parking lot and unloaded us. We had to phone our second tow truck. This is now going on 3 hours since the car originally overheated. The total trip home should have only been this long.

expand

The second tow truck showed up, loaded us up and took us the remaining distance home. Within 10 minutes of it dropping us off, we had replaced all the fuses and relays (an electrical update kit I had at home waiting to install) and all of the problems were fixed, including the cooling fans and gauges. The car was home.

PAGE 1 - OVERVIEW
PAGE 2 - THE CAR'S STORY/PRE-PURCHASE
PAGE 3 - TRANSPORTING THE CAR HOME
PAGE 4 - BEGINNING REPAIRS
PAGE 5 - THE FIRST REVEAL

Want to find out more about this car? Check out the weblog at www.deloreanreborn.com!