Units 20-21 White Road
Charfleets Industrial Estate
Canvey Island
Essex
SS8 OPQ
Tel: 07731 545857
DMC Florida 2005
Back in 2005, DMC Florida contacted us to work on the sheet metal of Proto 1.
This car is perhaps the rarest and most valuable Delorean in existence, and working on the sheet metal for this car was pressure, each panel is a one off, and mistakes cannot be made!
Tony Ierardi, the owner of DMC Florida restored the car back to her former glory, during and after our visit. His attention to detail was impressive as lots of time was spent studying parts of the car to make sure what we were about to do was correct.
The stainless steel finish we ended up going for was a hand finish; this was to match up on the car where the wing mirror attaches
Work began on the left front fender. Because this car is a prototype and the only known one of its kind, time had to be spent first dissembling certain parts of the car.
Take our word for it, when compared to a stock Delorean, this car may well as be from another manufacturer!
the differences between 'Proto 1 and a stock Delorean are countless.
1970's grain!
left front fender complete
Hood ready for regrain
Half the hood with custom grain
One of the problems on working with stainless steel on this car, was deciding which imperfections were correct, or which were damage done over time. proto always had a good body, but like any Delorean, there is not a perfect car out there.
As with all stainless steel restorations performed by us, the owner has the ultimate say in what should be removed or what should stay. Thankfully, Tony was ever present throughout the stainless work, and was adamant that the car must be exactly as it once was.
Crease dent zero access to underside!
Close up shot of imprefections
Many ripples
Panel removed
Never before seen underside of a prototype panel
After repairing a crease dent on the hood, as seen in the above picture, we were able to finish up on the hood.
We next worked on the right front fender, which had lots of small imperfections throughout the panel. It was decided to remove the panel so access to the top side damage could be repaired easier.
After reinstalling the panel, and finishing up on the hood and fender, it was time to move onto the roof sections. The stainless work was going to get much more involved and time consuming.
Ripples throughout the top of the door
Finished driver's door
Finished roof section
As can be seen in the above picture, a large ripple/imperfection was noticeable on the front part of the driver’s door- and ripples extended all the way back. Faced with little choice, we pushed forward and tackled all the imperfections one at a time.
Working down through the door was fairly straightforward; the best part of the restoration was discovering the original grain located under the driver’s door mirror (See top of this page)
The passenger door was worse condition that the driver’s door, but after tweaking here and there we got it very close to perfect, although the lower half of the door had its fair share of ripples.
With the passenger door completed, it was time to move onto the rear quarter panel. This panel had stainless corrosion as can be seen in the picture. It was very deep, nowhere else was it present on the car, which is strange as in most cases corrosion can be found in many places rather than just one place.
With the final repair completed we were done. After seeing how well DMC Florida handled the rest of the restoration it was nice to see the car again at DCS 2014 where the car looks stunning.
Stainless steel corrosion
