Although there were not typical "yearly"
updates to the De Lorean, there were several changes that were made to
the DeLorean during production. The most visible of these
changes related to the hood style. Click on a thumbnail below
for a bigger image.
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Hood Styling |
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The original hood of the De Lorean had groves running down
both sides. It also included a gas-flap to ease in the
opening to ease in fuel filling. The gas flap was added
so that the trunk could be added to the total cargo area of
the De Lorean. These cars also typically had a
locking gas cap to prevent siphoning. |
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Sometime in 1981 the hood flap was removed from the hood of
the cars (although the hood creases stayed). This style
was kept throughout the end of 1981 and well into 1982.
Based on production numbers for all three years, this hood
style is probably the most prevalent. After the supply of
locking gas caps was exhausted, the company switched to a non
locking version (My car, VIN 3472, does not have the gas flap,
but does have a locking gas cap). |
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The final styling for the hood included the addition of a De
Lorean logo (shown below) and the removal of the groves,
resulting in a completely flat hood. |
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The addition of the De Lorean logo to the hood of the 83
models was a nice addition. I have heard of a few owners
adding these logos to their "grooved-hood" cars. |
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Pull Straps |
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John
DeLorean is well over six feet in height, and he designed the
car to comfortably fit someone of his height. What happens
when someone of shorter stature gets in and tries to close the
door? Oops, if you can't reach the handle, you can't close
the door! The addition of a pull strap helped to make this
less of a problem.. |
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Later Style "Built In" pull strap |
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Side Bolster |
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There is nice bolstering (or whatever you call it) in the
DeLorean. Not only does it give you a place to rest your
arm while driving, but lives not just on the door, but also next
to the seats. Unfortunately, in early models, this
bolstering was bolted on and had a tendency to pull away from
the rest of the interior. (Have an earlier car with
this problem? E-Mail me for some tips) |
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Later cars were changed such that the bolstering and the
interior trip were now one piece. Problem solved! |
| Foot Rest |
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The early pedal confguration . . . |
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As an addition to later cars, a foot rest (in the form of an
unusable pedal) was added to the cars to help prevent fatigue
while driving. |
| Side Mirrors |
| coming soon . . . |
There was a slight change in the outside side mirrors on the
DeLorean - basically in the thickness of the part that mounts to
the car - not sure which came first, here is the mirror on my
car |
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Anyone have a picture of the other style I can use here?
E-Mail me if you
do! |
| Wheels |
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There was a change in the wheels on the DeLorean. The
look stayed the same, but the coating and coloring of the wheels
changed (with these changes also came color changes to the wheel
caps). Early cars had gray wheels with gray center caps. |
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Later cars had silver wheels with black center caps (the
black center caps have the DMC logo done in white). |
| Sun Visor |
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At some point in the De Lorean's life, the sun visors were "flipped."
In early cars the vinyl part shows when the visor is up |
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My car has the vinyl part next to the roof (when up). |
| Console Clock |
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The De Lorean came stocked in 1981 with a Craig. Since
the Craig did not have a built in clock, there was one installed
in front of the gear shift. |
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Later De Lorean's switched to an ASI stereo, and
due to the ASI Having a built in clock, the DMC clock was removed. |
| Antenna |
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What good is an AM/FM radio without a good antenna. As
many early DeLorean owners found out, not much. Early 81's
had a windshield mounted antenna....and from what I hear, it
wasn't much good. |
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The next antenna was a front fender mounted antenna.
Not bad for reception, but many people thought that it detracted
from the DeLorean's beauty. Many people have retrofitted their early
cars to the final antenna: |
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Finally a rear mounted power antenna. When
retracted, you wouldn't even know it ever existed (unless you knew where
to look). |
| Door Guides |
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he DeLorean doors usually close great (while the car is
level), but had some problems early on when the car was parked
on an incline. To help guide the doors down to the striker
pins, Door latch guides were added as the result of a service
bulletin. These are simply plastic pieces with a wedge shaped
groove in them to guide the door down into the proper position. |
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later metal guides were added as well |
