Originally intended to document my experience of DeLorean ownership, focus is often radical and strange, boring and obtuse.

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

DeLorean Winter Storage

Taking pictures in the dark sucks.

Like a dopey, fat, tired grizzly, the DeLorean crawled into its cave on the weekend, fully prepared to doze the winter away.

November is a sad month. Not only is the sky bleak and trees bare, but it's the month I put my DeLorean away. The process is simple, and quite the opposite of how bears hibernate. Where the bear stuffs his belly with cute things like dimple-faced fishies, brown-eyed squirrels and pink-nosed bunnies, the DeLorean's fuel tank must be emptied almost entirely.

Emptying the tank on Sunday was easy enough. Suz and I hopped in and took the D for a spin. Against my own anal rules for taking the car out, we drove on a cloudy day, which turned to dusk, and then to darkness. Except for the three separate groups of cerebrally-challenged teenagers who walked across the street directly in front of us, the drive was mostly uneventful. Odin did appear in the sky for a few minutes to whip lightning bolts down at us, but he was no match for the handling prowess of the DeLorean.

When we returned home, I poured the STP fuel stabilizer into the tank, and following the instructions on the bottle, ran the engine for exactly five minutes. Martini Fact: I pronounce engine as "injin".

The bottle has two measuring lines on it, one for 5 mL, and one for 10 mL. The bottle doesn't say how much to use, so I always use 10 mL. It's probably too much. Overkill is cool.

DeLoreans and their fuel system components are very vulnerable to the ravages of fuel gone bad. It's extremely common for DeLorean owners to have replaced some, if not all, of their fuel system. I don't like to take any chances with my baby since I replaced my fuel injectors, so every year I follow the same procedure.

Bears don't. They eat what they catch. One year it might be baby bunnies and the next, it might be some campers. If the bear is really old and slow, coolers full of beans and beer might be his only meal - which is not all bad. After all, beer makes big beer guts. And the more "insulation" you've got, the warmer you are in the cold.

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6 Comments:

Blogger Monogram Queen said...

Ahhh the rituals of Fall ....
rest well sweet Delorean. See you in the Spring!

1:12:00 PM

 
Blogger Rainypete said...

So stuffing the D full of campers and bunnies is not a good idea, unlike a bear?

11:36:00 PM

 
Blogger Vengelyne said...

You can't drive the Delorean during winter? How come? Sorry, I thought all cars can work during winters. >.< I get tropical sun all year long, so I dunno. =P

2:41:00 AM

 
Blogger mmat said...

i needs to get me a summer-time-only car. i think i either want an Olds 442, or a late-50s Olds Sedan.

9:11:00 AM

 
Blogger Martini said...

Venge - I could drive the DeLorean in the winter if I wanted, but it's a collector car, and it would just kill me to get it dirty, wet, salty and risk having someone slide into me. The previous owners have taken such good care of it that the only time it has ever seen rain is when it sat in Toronto overnight before being shipped to my house.

mmat - totally cool rocket type taillights, but I'd prefer the 442 over those styles of cars. Of course, I happen to be a huge fan of the 442 and am partial to Olds in general. I wish you luck in your classic/muscle car quest!

12:50:00 PM

 
Blogger honkeie said...

I dont have the luxury of having a seasonal car, but if I did mine would be the one from Mad Max.....The V8 Intercepter! VROOOM VROOOMM!

10:32:00 AM

 

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