Yo.

Guess it's about time I posted something here heh.

Long time laserist since the early 90's when I built my first HeNe PSU from a kit. Owned a bunch of Ar-ion's over the years and a few large frame HeNe's, as well as smaller HeNe's.

Currently selling off the last of my gas lasers as I get systems up and running again as I get back in the hobby once more. Diodes, while not having as nice of a beam quality in general as gas lasers, are a heck of a lot easier to deal with from a size and efficiency standpoint. And since i'm primarily interested in projection and beam effects, beam quality isn't as critical as in other areas of experimentation.

Also a DeLorean owner( under restoration.. I always end up buying stuff for my OTHER hobbies instead of saving for suspension parts. :undecided heh

And a flight sim enthusiast. (sim pit under construction as well.. Anybody have three short throw XGA projectors to donate? )

On top of this I play bass in a band as well

And these are just the hobbies I chose to stay in. More than a few that I decided I didn't have the time/money/interest to continue pursuing.

Oh yeah, and my main line of employment is computer/electronics/tv repair, though i'm currently, (and have been for a while ) working through the process of the steps it takes to get accession numbers for products to sell *complete* laser systems (namely, projectors) legally in the US, without fear of the FDA looming over my head. (The fear of lawyers is enough already without the government as well.)

Welcome, and here's a deal, Qume. I'll let you fly for a while, if we can dress in lab coats and drive around in your DMC. Deal?

Lol. Deal. Going to be a while though. Unless I figure out a way to quit buying other stuff to save the $3k I need to at least get the DMC back to a rolling chassis. After then it should go back together fairly quickly. Most of the other serious stuff I need I can fabricate.

I got a flux capacitor kickin' around somewhere- a trip back to the 60s might be neat? :crackup:

Dave

Giface said:

I got a flux capacitor kickin' around somewhere- a trip back to the 60s might be neat? :crackup:

Dave

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You'd have to head to Hollywood for that. Mine's just a car.

qumefox said:

You'd have to head to Hollywood for that. Mine's just a car.

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Yes. But one that does evoke the 80s nonetheless. You should forbid anything produced after at least 1990 to be played, music-wise in that car. And nothing before 1979, either.

Huey Lewis and Cyndi Lauper -- and EARLY Madonna, that'd work. But not Culture Club. That just doesn't work in a DeLorean.

qumefox said:

You'd have to head to Hollywood for that. Mine's just a car.

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I would love to see that delorean sometime.

What's it like? Built good like they say?

Welcome to l.p.f. !!!!!

aryntha said:

Yes. But one that does evoke the 80s nonetheless. You should forbid anything produced after at least 1990 to be played, music-wise in that car. And nothing before 1979, either.

Huey Lewis and Cyndi Lauper -- and EARLY Madonna, that'd work. But not Culture Club. That just doesn't work in a DeLorean.

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:crackup:

Crazy Jay said:

I would love to see that delorean sometime.

What's it like? Built good like they say?

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Um. They had their fair share of issues. Mostly electrical related but there were a few mechanical design flaws too. The modifications or updated parts required to permanantly fix most of these are easy to find. If your really interested, head over to DMCTalk.com forums - A DeLorean Community . As far as build quality of the original cars, the general consensus is that the very early cars, and the very last have the worst quality. The best quality cars were the ones produced in the latter half of the first long production run before the shut downs and financial troubles started.

The primary complaint most people have though is that they're under powered. Which mostly comes from them being compared to modern vehicles.. Most seem to easily forget these cars are almost 30 years old now. I was only 5 when the one I own was made. lol. The stock 130hp isn't a lot but with a vehicle weight of 2300lbs, the car had a better power to weight ratio than a lot of other vehicles made in the early 80's but people expected them to be Porsche's, even though the car was never even intended to compete in that market. It is more of a gran tourer than a sports car. It was made to 'get you there in style', instead of 'get you there in a hurry'.

Welcome to the forum!

Dude, that's a sweet ride!

You're a busy hobbyist, and you play bass too!
What kind of stuff do you play? what bass are you using?

qumefox said:

...The stock 130hp isn't a lot but with a vehicle weight of 2300lbs, the car had a better power to weight ratio than a lot of other vehicles made in the early 80's but people expected them to be Porsche's....

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I used to own a Pontiac Fiero, and that little critter only had a 6-cyl. but boy did it ever have torque! Loved the g-force during acceleration.:eg:

Robert

Well its just to bad that John Delorean died before finishing the design of the Second delorean

Crazy Jay said:

Well its just to bad that John Delorean died before finishing the design of the Second delorean

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Actually he had several designs. However, generally you only get one shot at such grand endeavors as starting your own car company. Between the first company failing(and thusly the creditors losing lots of capitol) and the whole drug indictment thing (the fact that he was aquitted because it was entrapment is meaningless, all people remember is the accusation) meant he was hard pressed to raise enough funds to try again, which was the case. He did try several times but never could get financial backers.

roddenberry said:

Welcome to the forum!

Dude, that's a sweet ride!

You're a busy hobbyist, and you play bass too!
What kind of stuff do you play? what bass are you using?



I used to own a Pontiac Fiero, and that little critter only had a 6-cyl. but boy did it ever have torque! Loved the g-force during acceleration.:eg:

Robert

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But unfortunately a busy hobbyist is a broke hobbyist. :cryyy:

The delorean and the flightsim are both on hold at the moment due to both being at the point of needing large dollar purchases to continue. (projectors for the flightsim, suspension parts for the delorean)

None of the basses I have are anything special. my 'good' bass is a JB Player 5 string stingray clone. I also have another cheap 5 string, and a cheap 4 string fretless as well. Also have a fender rumble 75 to practice with here at the house, though I use an ampeg svt-400t and a 4x10 cab to 'gig' with.

And it's kind of funny though. other than the bass stuff.. which doesn't take any more investment now other than time, lasers are my cheapest hobby!

What year and body style fiero did you have? Always wanted an '88 fastback... but.. I have both too many vehicles, and too many projects, as it is. I have a couple of trans-am's I need to get rid of.

For boscoj from the air cooled thread;

Those were some nice pics, but here's a few angles you probably don't get to see as often. :evil:

WHOA SWEET !!! . . . I had no idea the chassis looked like that . . . kinda scary . . . wow

It's a Volkswagen with independent front suspension !

Nice work.

Reminds me of when we "detailed" one back in the day, boss said to use Comet so we did. Came out looking like a chrome bumper . . . strangely enough the owner loved it . . . I think I would have been pissed . . .

boscoj said:

WHOA SWEET !!! . . . I had no idea the chassis looked like that . . . kinda scary . . . wow

Nice work.

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Not that scary heh. Anyone who's ever seen an 80's lotus esprit chassis would recognize it immediately, because the delorean is pretty much the lotus that wasn't. JZD came up with a idea and features he wanted, Giorgetto Giugiaro, who also did a lot of styling work for lotus, styled the car to JZD's vision, and lotus was hired to do all the engineering and design work. Porsche was initially contacted to do the engineering but they said it'd take four years. JZD didn't really like that time frame so he used his contacts at lotus and they ended up getting the job done in 17 months if I remember the history correctly. I think most delorean owners wish they'd taken a bit longer though. Especially on the front suspension heh. It's not really a bad design. It could just stand to be a bit sturdier, and actually buying the newer upgraded suspension parts is what's keeping me from putting mine back together. I need about $3k in shocks, springs, bushings, and misc other stuff to get it back to a rolling chassis.

Here's a video of how the stock front suspension behaves during hard braking, etc. the flexing of the LCA is most noticable during the hard braking between 2:05 and 2:30.

Dailymotion - delorean front arm - une vidéo Auto et Moto

And here's one after the appropriate upgrades are fitted. Notice virtually all the front/rear flexing is gone.