CHRONICLES OF A MAD SCIENTIST

Drilling Into Stainless Steel....

Tue, 23 Mar 2010 18:28:28 -0400

So, the big question to many DeLorean owners is “What the hell were you thinking DRILLING into your Stainless Steel?”, and at this point in time, I kinda sorta agree!

Here is my reasoning, for some pieces, YES absolutely, there is NO other REASONABLE way to secure the part to your car WITHOUT drilling into the Stainless. Take for example, the top flux boxes that are on the roof of the DeLorean.

This is DEFINITELY a part of the car that you dont want flying off when your driving 88 MPH on the Highway! Its a big chunk of death waiting to happen, especially with the drag of the aerodynamics of the DeLorean smacking right up against this as your driving.

SO! That being said, I GENTLY put two 3/16” thick bolts through each Flux Box on the roof and drilled into the Stainless T - Panel. Replacement cost of a T-Panel = $486.89 USD at the time of writing this entry (http://www.delorean.com/store/p-9317-roof-panel-wpad.aspx)

BUT... other parts on the car that can be drilled into such things as fibreglass, which can be filled and repainted... I have comes to terms with and will do this, with extreme care and enough measurements to drive an OCD person insane.

Now, as for the front Flux Boxes ... each of these have a big black Mole Richardson cable that runs alongside the Stainless panels of the DeLorean, from the front of the car, under the door, and up into the rear engine deck area. On the Hero car from the film, these are secured with a 3/16” bolt through a metal clamp, with rubber edging. This kills me. So call me chicken, yellah’ .... whatever ... but I just can’t justify killing a virtually non-replaceable front driver quarter panel, and popping holes in it!

SO..as you seen in the front Flux Box Blog post, I used the pre-existing side marker light holes. Worked out wonderfully! But what to do about those black cables .... well I decided for the time being to work with 3M adhesive (VHB grade so it sticks to anything ... securely) zip tie mounting pads.

They look like this , and stick well to the Stainless in this pleasant weather we have been having in Toronto. A zip tie slides through the top or side mounting portion and holds the wire well to the car. We will see what the hot humid days of summer serve up , but in the meantime ... so far, so good!

I stuck these in the positions as the mounting points on the Hero car, and am even able to cover them up , almost entirely, with the same metal/rubber lined cable clamp like they used in the film. I am using a large rivet to close the clamp up, and gives the appearance of being bolted into place.

Please excuse the blood in the last picture ... it takes a little to mix with the sweat and tears .... right?

Rear Flux Bands

Sun, 21 Mar 2010 12:58:21 -0400

Artwork, is how Oliver of www.ToTheFuture.org put it and its SO fitting! This is a piece of artwork that we are building here and a very integral expression point are these S flux band bends. The tricky part is to get the bends, curves and angles JUUUST right so that it conforms to the contours of the DeLorean and is secured with the Flux Band Brackets!

This is a re-iteration of my first attempt that did not turn out so well ....

The problem is simply that I am being stubborn... I am trying to make the flux bands out of 1 continuos piece of hollow 3/4” Aluminum tube. This is complicated because the Aluminium is very unforgiving, and once you bend it ... your pretty much left with that bend and there aint no re-bending it back. Instead you get a very frustrating creek and crack follow by the Aluminium splitting into 2 pieces.

Some have worked this problem out through variations of the material used, the SCREEN USED car uses 3/4” SOLID Aluminium Rods, which is easier to bend with a table top pipe bender similar to this model :

12 Ton Hydraulic Pipe Bender
from Harbour Freight Tools

Others have filled the hollow tubing with sand, capped off both ends and bend to prevent breaks and crushing. Another method is similar to the sand, but requires a cold climate, water, freeze and the ice makes the tube act like a rod. Lastly, others have pieced together their flux bands in sections, leaving 1 bend per section.

This sounds like the easiest method, but most of the frustration is in the bends themselves, so if your gonna do it, why not do it as i continuous piece right? I mean, thats how they did it for the film!

However, like I mentioned, I was stubborn... and insisted on making my hollow pipe work.

The tool that I used was this :
1/2” Tubing Bender from Princess Auto

This Tubing Bender does a good job to effortlessly bend the hollow tubing without kinking, creasing or crushing the material. However, it is hard to work with and VERY inaccurate. But after you get the hang of it, its not impossible to use.

To secure the Flux Boxes to the front of the car, I used the pre-existing side market light holes to bolt a piece of L bar to the fender, and self tapping screws to secure the L-bar to the flux boxes.

For the top Flux Boxes, I removed the T-Panel from the DeLorean and drilled 4 small holes through the stainless (ouch I know right!?) but better safe than sorry. Ran a 3” long machine screw through the flux box, with washer, and secured it with a nut and washer under the t-panel.

With the Flux Boxes in place, and the flux band tubing bend, and run, I secured the tubing into the flux boxes with 2” long bolts.

Now the flux band mesh, its a simple offset aluminium pattern, that I simply cut into strips with a jig-saw.

The mesh is then secured to the flux bands with some 1/2” pipe brackets that I picked up at Home Depot for $1.50 per 8 pieces. I had to re-bend them to work around the flux bands, but this was easily done with some Vice Grips. Not totally screen accurate, but these will be replaced with the correct clamps once I find a source.

Using rivets, I riveted the mesh to the pipe brackets and wrapped the pipe brackets around the 3/4” aluminium tubing.

DIY Hoverboard

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 16:16:14 -0500

So who wants to make their own Hoverboard?

I did about 8 years ago ... and drew up this scalable image in Corel Draw . Here is a PDF that you can print off at a local Kinkos print shop, stick on a piece of wood or foam from Home Depot and presto! Your very own Homemade Hoverboard!
There are extra embellishments you can put on it, like metal plates from IKEA or Stove Element Covers from Wal Mart etc... to make Hover Plates.

There are also some really screen accurate replicas available on eBay, specifically from a seller that goes by the name of BTTF123.

Turbine Nozzle Aquired

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 16:37:53 -0400

Well 99% of the parts used for the DeLorean Time Machine are 1960’s era Aircraft Parts. That being said, most are found at vintage surplus stores that carry this type of stuff!

USUALLY I will find the wrong part after EXHAUSTING searchs, to simply TRIP over the right part when I am not looking for it. The Turbine Nozzle is part of a GE Jet Engine, and was one of the more difficult parts to find, since there are so many variations and sizes of this part.

I found lots of the WRONG size ones with my brother on one of our trips out to Apex in California...

But FINALLY I was able to come across the real deal which is located in this bad boy right here

This is a GE Turbine Engine. There are many variations of this engine, and thus many variations of the turbine nozzle.

Here is a more detailed shot showing a turbine nozzle still inside of the engine.

At long last! The right, REAL turbine nozzle!

Rear Flux Bands

Sat, 6 Jun 2009 16:11:18 -0400

Well the flux bands that go along the front of the car are relatively easy to bend and get into place ... RELATIVELY ... but the rear ones ... WOW!

The Flux Bands consist of 3/4” Aluminum Pipe that is bent to follow the contours of the car. The principal of the flux bands is that they will encapsulate the DeLorean for time travel through the wormhole created from the wormhole emitter located on the top of the vehicle.
I need an electrician’s help to get these things bent perfectly!
And if a picture is worth a 1000 words, well you will feel my pain with the FAILED attempt below ....

re-visiting this project shortly!

I hope!

Red and Blue Capacitors

Sun, 31 May 2009 14:19:55 -0400

The Red and Blue Capactiros are actually made from found parts. They are MALLORY large capacitors. I found mine locally at a surplus electronics store for $20 each.

The Blue ones were found just as is in the “wild” and the red ones were made from painting some silver ones with a translucent RED spray-paint.

The 3 red capacitors are mounted to a 1/8” gauge square aluminum plate per capacitor that is affixed to the fibreglass pontoon on the DeLorean. The capacitor is attached to the aluminum plate with a long self tapping screw from underneath.

The Blue Capacitors are mounted the same way as the red ones, but are mounted on 1 large 1/8” gauge aluminum plate rather than individual ones.

Front Flux Bands

Tue, 26 May 2009 16:22:59 -0400

Got the front Flux Boxes mounted to the car without drilling into the stainless steel .... the process was quite simple and involved putting a plate on the back of the Flux Box that would simply bolt up to the existing holes in the fender for the side marker lights.

The Flux Bands are then re-enforced and secured to the DeLorean through Flux Band Brackets which are the black jobbies seen in this picture. The Flux Band Brakets are simply secured to my bumper with some epoxy adhesive.

The real Time Machine at Universal Studios Hollywood has some big ‘ol screws holding most of this stuff on. YIKES!

Still need to get the mesh overlay on my flux bands.

Ready to Pounce

Thu, 1 May 2008 17:51:52 -0400

VIN 6851 is out of her winter hibernation and back on the snow free roads of Ontario.

With a brand new pair of DMCH (DeLorean Houston) Eibach springs and struts, and of course her brand new pair of vents (still being tweaked) she is looking “heavy”

Ahhhh ... UnScathed Aluminum!

Wed, 4 Apr 2007 15:19:07 -0400

Well the first step of any conversion is always the VENTS! After fitting up some wood templates to make sure everything matched up ....

... and then it was off to the machine shop to chop, fit, weld, and well cut up my fingers!
I couldn’t help but to put some of the rough unfinished parts on to see how the “future” will come together.

Most of vents are welded, however, there were some spots that required a technique called Aluminum Brazing. This is basically heating up the aluminum with a torch until it is hot enough to touch a brazing rod to it, and the brazing rod liquifies. You can then adhere another piece of aluminum to the liquid braze and once cooled, creates a bond stronger than the aluminum itself!

I have put a video online of the brazing technique I used for the vent louvres specifically

Decision to Start Fresh

Tue, 6 Feb 2007 16:02:19 -0500

So after learning that my first attempt of the Time Machine conversion was VERY close, but not close enough ... I considered the conversion wrong. This resulted in my decision to tear it all down and start over.

First all of the rear panel was removed and this got the motivation going again to start on the new rear vents.

Funny how it takes a couple steps backwards to make leaps forward.