The Restoration of VIN# 1564 – 2014

My DMC-12 carpet where faded, stained, and had that ‘old car’ smell caused by the old foam padding which tends to hold moisture. While I had the car’s interior striped out, replacing the carpet was easy.

The different DeLorean carpet colours that were used during the car’s production are; cars with black interior have a grey or charcoal colour, grey interior cars have a light grey colour carpet, and cars with both grey and black interior also have a light grey carpet.

Replacement carpet sets are available from DMC (http://store.delorean.com/c-318-8-7-2-carpets.aspx), although it didn’t make sense for me to purchase the sections available and have them sent from U.S.A, only then to have them professionally fitted. Instead I had a local upholster colour match and install new carpets as per the original at a cheaper cost; carpet beneath the seats with no sun fading is the best areas to have match.

I ensured that the driver’s side floor carpet retained the original looking moulded rubber footpad under the pedals as well as the one to the right of the accelerator pedal on the centre tunnel.

The new carpets revitalize the interior to the car’s original look and smell.

The DeLorean headliners are more complicated than your average car, they are made up of four pieces: one for each door, a “T” piece for along the windshield and the centre of the roof between the doors, and a fourth long, wide piece along the top of the back window. The factory original backing material itself is a pressed fabric/cardboard combination that holds moisture and contributes to the “old car” smell found in many old cars. The original headliner material itself is a foam backed fabric and the foam will deteriorate, eventually separating and sagging. One long term fix is to remove the headliners, clean off the old foam/fabric and recover. By now, many of these have been recovered at least once before and the backing material itself may need replacement, as well.

The “original” headliners in my DeLorean were passed the point of recovering, they had been removed by the previous owner due to the old foam/fabric separating and descending onto the seats while the doors were being shut. The original fabric/cardboard backing material itself was very brittle and not worth repairing. Recovered headliners with improved fibreglass backing boards are readily available from DMC and generally regarded as worth the cost. The more approved headliners come in either light or dark grey, and either you can purchase each piece singularly or as a full kit. At $450 USD a kit, this would have to be my most expensive purchase from DMC Texas, but most necessary for improvement. I purchased the light grey kit of headliners to match my original two tone interior (http://store.delorean.com/p-10242-headliner-set-light-grey.aspx). A kit comes with everything you need to install the new headliners, including a removing tool and fitting instructions; this job should be able to be undertaken by most.

While replacing the headliners it is also good measure to ensure all roofs lining electrical wiring is functionally as it should. I also replaced the old plastic faded interior lights with two new replacements lights from DMC http://store.delorean.com/p-10545-lamp-assyfrt-rear-int-aftermarket.aspx, while it is still possible to purchase the original lights, at half the price I went with DMC aftermarket one’s.

The finish result really finishes off the cars ceiling with a clean lighter colour fabric, this is one job that will eventually be required to be replaced one way or another by most DeLorean owners with the car being the age it is.