The weekend of 4-6 October saw the third DeLorean Eurotec meet of the year. This follows the event in March at Caley Hall, and the gang joining the Delorean Revival event in Belfast instead of the usual summer meet. It's been an eventful year and this meet turned more into a social, and a DeLorean Revival revival with attendance from Northern Ireland as well. Although being more of a social, work did get done on our cars including 16606.
In advance I had arranged to have a preventative roof box repair done, having seen this performed at a previous meet (possibly October 2023). DeLoreanGo.com sells the roof box repair kit - KSP10123. Within the club we are fortunate to have two roof box repair geniuses in the form of Dan Stacey and Mike Cole (Mec) of YouTube's Mec-Tec who graciously agreed to undertake the preventative work on my car. This is one of those jobs where I didn't trust myself to do it due to the steps involved. I ordered the kit and headed to the meet. The following post includes this job as it happened.
Friday 4th October
Some, with far too much time on their hands, arrived at the hotel a day early on Thursday, however I set off from London at noon on Friday and made my way. The journey is 100 miles and should take almost exactly two hours. It was going well until the outskirts of Ely. Usually I would expect to travel along a very bumpy Queen Adelaide Way to pick up the A10 to Kings' Lynn, however before I got there I was diverted up an earlier road, Northfield Rd, and on to a village called Prickwillow, before taking Mildenhall Way to the A10. Never Again! From the start, all roads prior to Mildenhall Way were the worst I had ever encountered, with subsidence, pot holes, canyons in the road which scared the hell out of me since many dips could hardly be seen before you crash into them. I manoeuvred the best I could all over the road at a snail's pace, but I still hit and scraped the underside of the car numerous times. It was painful to experience and to hear. Even when back on the usual poor roads that I knew it took a while to summon up the courage to pick up speed.
I arrived at the hotel on time despite the diversion two hours after setting off. I was just grateful for the work done the previous Saturday to replace my lower control arms and fit support brackets.
Even before I got out of the car Miles of Woolfclassics.com came over and identified an issue with the engine not sounding right. Whilst it idles fine at 950 rpm it occasionally surges and goes up to about 1100 rpm before settling back. A few theories were proposed which would be investigated the next day. Also I mentioned how my temperature gauge was not working - I had read on the forum that others also had similar issues and resolved it by nudging the needle with a straightened paperclip through the trip reset shaft hole when the car is hot. However Miles wasn't convinced and thought it more likely to be a loose connection on the binnacle circuit. He reached up from underneath to the printed circuit board and as he located the connection, the gauge needle started to rise. All this diagnosed and I had only just arrived at the hotel! Needless to say I would later order a new PCB since I knew mine was on its last legs from when I upgraded the binnacle to LEDs previously.
After this initial tech session I checked in to the hotel and then returned to the car park to meet those who had already arrived.
In typical fashion there was a mix of chatting and catching up, working on cars and general observing going on. Shortly after I joined the crowd Carl Hammond pulled up with his hood release not working. He had tried unsuccessfully to gain access to the frunk earlier in the week and even earlier that day. He arrived on fumes and immediately several members rolled up their sleeves to try and release the hood. After several methods and the bending out of shape of a dipstick, Miles, assisted by Nick and John, did his magic and effected the release. The release mechanism was fixed and a Heath Robinson back-up was installed to prevent future such situations occurring.
Before we knew it, it was 7pm and it was time for dinner. Taxi minibuses had been organised and all 33 of us were off for an all you can eat Chinese dinner.
Following probably far too much food, the taxi minibuses returned to ferry us back to the hotel bar.
Saturday 5th October
After a hearty english breakfast, despite the blow-out meal of the prior evening, I went to the car to get it ready for the roof box repair. A short while later Dan and Mec arrived ready to get stuck in.
The kit was laid out ready.
Firstly the finisher needed to be removed which was where problems first arose. The screws were either stripped or just turned but wouldn't reverse out.
That step was left for the time being and the job of removing the headliner began. This started with the inner door seal being lifted and the lining material being prised away from the tub.
With the lining pared back, next the headliner had its fixing screws removed from inside, above the parcel shelf.
The headliner could then be removed to expose the underside of the tub's roof.
Now back to the job of removing the finisher where the screws were not playing ball. First attempt was to drill out the screw.
In attempting this the head broke off.
As the other screws were drilled out their heads came off also which allowed for the old finisher to be removed and taken care of.
With the finisher removed further drilling out of what was left of the screws could be performed later.
The next step was to separate the outer door seal from the frame to allow for the T-Panel to be removed.
It was decided it would be easier to remove the louvre so this was done next, starting with detaching the gas struts.
The T-Panel could now be released and removed.
The job of installing the bolts to secure the roof box could now begin. Firstly tape was applied to enable marking the location of the bolts in order to drill the holes.
Then the washers were accurately positioned to help with marking the drill points.
The tape was then scored with the point of a small drill bit through the washer.
The holes for the bolts where then drilled, firstly with a smaller than required bit, and secondly with the correct size for the bolt.
As the drilling began quite a crowd had gathered.
And here are the roof box gurus, Dan (L) and Mec (R).
In preparation for the bolts the washers were then fixed in place with sealant.
With the washers in place additional sealant was placed in the hole to ensure a tight seal around the bolts when inserted.
The bolts were then inserted.
and the washers and nuts affixed from the underside.
The nuts were then tightened which re-aligned the roof box that had slightly lifted.
More sealant was then placed around the tightened bolts.
Taking all precautions to prevent accidents occurring from the sparks the bolts were then cut to size to enable the headliner to be refitted.
Now the main task had been completed it was time to return to drilling out of those pesky screws that held the finisher in place so that a new black stainless steel one could be fitted. These were firstly cut back and then drilled out.
Those old and stripped screws also played hard ball on the louvre brackets.
My teacup also came in useful.
Now the T-panel could be refitted. The access panel to the wiring loom was simply duct taped on since the panel cover itself needed a ton of rust to be removed - a job for another day.
Once the T-panel was refitted the new finisher could be installed.
This was now a great job done. Three hours, start to finish, and bang on time for lunch at Arbuckles in Downham Market.
After lunch, most likely because everyone was so full, little work was done on the cars, the afternoon turned more into a general conversation session, catching up, chewing the fat over various issues and as is part and parcel of these meets, joking around. There was however time for Miles to continue the diagnostics from yesterday. After investigation and various poking around in the engine bay doing stuff way beyond my knowledge, he mentioned that it appears the thermal vacuum switch has seized. Since this is located in the valley and it was getting late this would be a job also for another session. Miles ensured the car was fit to run before I tidied up from the days work.
Before long it was 7pm and everyone gradually relocated to the bar for the rest of the evening.
Sunday 6th October
I was up early on Sunday so I could get home in good time and still have a good portion of the day to do other things. After breakfast I loaded luggage into the car and set off at 8am. This time I did not go back through Prickwillow, I drove over Ely on the A10 and joined the A14 briefly before getting on the M11 to take me all the way back to London. This route at that time actually gave me a record 1hr 50m journey time.
I would like to give a big shout out to Dan, Mec and Miles for all their help during this event. We are so fortunate to have such great people that are so willing to help out. A huge thank you to you all.
Roll on the next Eurotec meet planned for March 2025.
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