I'm turning my car into a Delorean!! BTTF (COMPLETE)

Re: I'm turning my car into a Delorean

Keep up the great work man, great to see you still going. The plasti-dip was a great touch. Go! Go! Go!

—Mixael
 
Re: I'm turning my car into a Delorean

I'm almost done with the flux boxes.

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The two different magnets for each side are different sizes so the smaller needed to be raised up a tiny bit. This solution made cents...

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The glue is drying now so there will be more pictures when I get home tonight:)
 
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Re: I'm turning my car into a Delorean

This is awesome. I can't wait to see how this turns out.
 
Re: I'm turning my car into a Delorean

Sorry for the lack of an update last night. We accidently watched a few episodes of Gotham, and couldn't stop :$ Pretty sweet show. While watching I did make some sweet progress on my Nike bag. I'll post it when I get a chance. Here are the flux boxes. and DMC logo. I'm pretty happy with how the flux boxes came out. Sadly the DMC logo doesn't look as cool as it did a while ago, as the paint job got messed up when I was attaching the ties to the backside. I wasn't able to get it back to pristine without giving it a complete overhaul, so I cut my losses. Hopefully it still works.

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Most of all I hope these things stay attached to the car. I'll do some tests and might upgrade the magnets eventually. Hopefully I won't have to.
 
Re: I'm turning my car into a Delorean

Loving this sooooo much! I keep constantly checking back for updates. Cant wait to see more!
 
Re: I'm turning my car into a Delorean

Thanks for all the kinds words everyone! :$ I really appreciate the encouragement.

So, the update as of now: I'm done with the rear vents, finally. I ended up riveting them together with some small angle irons for added support.

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Both are attached to the board and are looking nice, though not perfect, but hey it adds character. It was a bit tricky to get them screwed on tightly, it took a bit of pre drilling and various sizes of screwdrivers to reach inside the vents to attach them but it worked out fine in the end. Mr Fusion is also finished and attached as well. I'll send pics as soon as I take them haha, I was on a roll last week and over the weekend. I'll try to be more on top of posting photos and updates. The flux bands are still giving me trouble. I'll explain when I get around to posting the pics. Man those bands are bugging me, but I have an idea that I think will work. The blue EL wire I ordered came in the mail last week as well :)

I started decorating the rear board with various hardware, PVC parts, wires, and other trinkets that I've collected over the years. It's been tons of fun getting into the detail work rather than just construction. A couple years ago I grabbed a bunch of cool looking gizmos from an army surplus store, those are definitely going on on this thing.
 
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Re: I'm turning my car into a Delorean

Almost there!

Much of the detail work is done on the rear vents and gizmos. Still a little more to add but you can get an idea of what I have been doing lately. I repurposed my old flux capacitor box as I decided to order a diamond selects replica to save me some work. I screwed it to the base after gorilla gluing down a bunch of miscellaneous stuff I had hanging around. Definitely not screen accurate haha but I figured using a Buick Regal instead of a Delorean was the first offense so I might as well embrace it. :)

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This is the dashboard gauges, still a work in progress. Again, these are parts from my old army surplus collection set into some leftover MDF board from the reactor vents. I'm still looking for a more boxy gauge for the plutonium meter.

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And finally made some decent progress on the flux bands! These have been the evasive problem on this project for some reason. I did end up gong with the rain gutter guard from Home Depot, only about $7 for 6 feet of the stuff. All the pieces are cut out and the vinyl edging removed. After sanding a little and zip tying them together I put on a coat of primer. (I spent forever figuring out ways to do the angles. I tried heating them and bending, but the angles were too steep for that and I ended up wasting most of one strip. I tried cutting them and using JB weld to seal them together, that didn't really work to my liking either. So zip ties seem to be working fantastic and are fairly low profile compared to what I was expecting.)

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I still need to make the rooftop part of the flux bands. Eventually they will be painted to be a more shiny chrome silver look. Once that is all dried I will re-attach the magnets and bolt on some brackets to hold the clear vinyl tubing. Things are coming along nicely. These things were a thorn in my side trying to figure out and make them look half decent, but now they're behind me I can pick up my momentum again. Why is it sometimes the seemingly easy stuff that sneaks up and clubs the creative process in the head? Beats me. Glad that's over haha.
 
Re: I'm turning my car into a Delorean

The plan is to use my iPad with the Flux Capacitor app as my time circuits. I'll just mount it to my dash and it should be fantastic. I'd love to build some sweet time circuits some day, but I figure if I'm going to spend the effort and money to make some I might as well pull out all the stops. For now the app is a great alternative until I have the time to build it the right way instead of "close enough." In order to keep the thing charged I ordered a cheap charging cable and wrapped it in wires. I'll just leave it in the car as decoration and undercover functionality.

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Look what came in the mail yesterday! There were some screws and one of the spikes jingling around inside when I opened it. I'm not sure if it was due to shipping or manufacturing. Looks like I have some emailing to do.

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I picked up some miscellaneous PVC parts on the way home yesterday to make the time circuits control switch. It took a bit of dremel and the heat gun to get the pieces to fit together. After some sanding and paint it won't look too bad.

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Here's a picture of some of some spare wires I've collected over the years, originally intended for my flux capacitor that remained unfinished (and is now attached to the reactor vents). These will be strung about inside the car. I also have a crate of old more miscellaneous cables and wires in the trunk of my car that will be used as well. Once all the big pieces are done I will move on to the interior of the car.

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I finished shaping the flux bands last night with my skill saw and heat gun. I left those to dry with the shiny paint overnight. Tonight I will be attaching the tubing and EL wire. I still need a way to get the wiring to end up inside the car so the power and buttons will be accessible. I'll probably have to splice in an extension. Any ideas of where to send the wires inside? Probably not best to have them getting smashed in the door all the time. Maybe theres a space in the trunk that would go through. I'll keep plugging along. Thanks everyone!:)
 
Re: I'm turning my car into a Delorean

An update on the slightly damaged flux capacitor:
I just got off the phone and everything is sorted out. I decided to go for a partial refund as I can fix it myself fairly easily, and I don't want to hassle with shipping it back and not getting a new one in time for Oct 21st. I'm happy with how it all wrapped up, though had it been any more than some minor damage I would have been more upset. Luckily it wasn't too bad and all is good in the end.
 
Re: I'm turning my car into a Delorean

Sometimes cars have vent intakes just below the windshield, and you could sneak the wires through the vents inside. Not sure if your Buick has that, but that is one route.

You're doing spectacular work. This is the best project I've ever seen. Keep rockin' it!
 
Re: I'm turning my car into a Delorean

oops, sorry for the duplicate post. i edited it to show this instead of a duplicate:facepalm
 
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Re: I'm turning my car into a Delorean

Sometimes cars have vent intakes just below the windshield, and you could sneak the wires through the vents inside. Not sure if your Buick has that, but that is one route.

Sweet thanks for the idea! I'll look into that.

You're doing spectacular work. This is the best project I've ever seen. Keep rockin' it!
Oh wow thanks! :)

Here are some old computer cables that I've altered to be the "mole richardson" plug that goes into the flux boxes. I pulled out the pins and bracket with some pliers. I glued some plastic into the end to give something to attach to the plates I previously made. This pic was right before I painted them.

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And here are the flux bands painted shiny with the EL wire mostly attached. They look even cooler outside with natural light!

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It proved to be tricky to get the EL wire inside the tubing. My solution was to thread through some of the extra dollar store rope first. I had to unwind the strands to make it smaller, there were 3 strands, 2 color and one white. Once that was done I taped a nail with the head ground off to the end and pull it through with one of my strong magnets. My roommate helped feed the string on one end to keep it from catching while i coaxed the nail along the length of the tube with magnets. Kinda like a bullet train haha. We did two tubes yesterday, and when the rest of the EL wire arrives in the mail we will thread the last two tubes and attach them to the bands. I am really happy with how the bands came out. Quite surprised actually. I was to the point where I was expecting them to be the ugly eye sore of the project. Luckily that isn't looking to be the case :D
 
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Re: I'm turning my car into a Delorean

I strapped the reactor vents to the trunk yesterday and took it for a quick test drive. Everything seems pretty stable, but I will keep testing the limits and strengthen it if needed. I drove to work this morning with the vents attached:) It is a bit tricky to see out of the rear view mirror but not too bad, so I may upgrade the mirror or perhaps a camera.
 
Re: I'm turning my car into a Delorean

Here are some old computer cables that I've altered to be the "mole richardson" plug that goes into the flux boxes. I pulled out the pins and bracket with some pliers. I glued some plastic into the end to give something to attach to the plates I previously made. This pic was right before I painted them.

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Great idea! I might borrow that concept for my lil DeLorean.
 
Re: I'm turning my car into a Delorean

Another wiring route from the outside to the inside of a car is along side the radio antenna channel. Those channels tend to be narrow though, so grease the wire, and get something long and flexible to pull it with.
 
Re: I'm turning my car into a Delorean

There's usually a spot at the back end of the engine port called the firewall, and there's space to drill a hole (or one ready-made) to run wires through the engine area to the pedal area on the inside. People use this for adding speaker wires, etc. to run power from the battery to the amp for speakers
 
Re: I'm turning my car into a Delorean

Cool thanks for the tips guys!

I took my car to a friends wedding yesterday, and thankfully it survived 2 hours on the freeway. There were plenty of smiles and thumbs up along the way haha. I'm getting so close to finishing, I'm exited :)
 
Re: I'm turning my car into a Delorean

This is amazing, brilliant work.
Such an interesting and cool idea, I'm really looking forward to seeing the finished car.
 
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